Penn Athletic Soft Support

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
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What does athletic soft support mean at an ivy, Penn specifically? How much better of a chance does it really give you? I had to ED for soft support.

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Only the coach can answer this question
had you asked what proportion of student athletes they have previously given soft support to are ultimately accepted? If not, I wouldn’t ask that now. Did you have an academic pre-read? Are you applying for financial aid?

Good luck.

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I do not know how it works at Penn, but . . . . you might be interested in looking at this from Penn’s Student Records System: [SRS Admissions table elements]

At that website, you will find what is described as the “SRS UNDERGRAD ADMISSIONS Table - Data Element Index.” Since your question is about athletic “soft support,” look in the Table at Athletic_Rating, which says: “The student’s athletic rating established by intercollegiate athletics and undergraduate admissions. Non-athletes will have a rating of NULL. A rating greater than ‘2’ indicates that the students is considered a recruited athlete. Values: NULL; 1-6.”

My best guess (again, I don’t know), is that soft support means either a 1 or 2, “non-recruited athlete” rating. The unknown is whether these Athletic Rating points are funneled directly into the 1-9 Non-Academic_Rating. Since 18 is the highest combined Academic + Non-Academic Rating, picking up 1 or 2 extra Non-Academic points could be very valuable, if that is how it works. For comparison, look at the Alumni Affiliation values: 1 Grad/Prof Alum; 2 Undergrad Alum; 3 Alum of both. If “soft support” is worth as much as having a Parent who graduated from Penn, that is pretty valuable in ED.

Most of what I wrote above is speculation, but my suggestion is that “soft support” may have a significant impact.

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Thanks for the reply!! I never went through a preread, but the coach has all my academic information, transcript, and scores. He told me he had 8 spots for his “preferred walk on list,” and about 3-4 students get in. When I submitted my application, he told me he let admissions know I was on his list.

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Thank you! I’ll also definitely check that out.

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Hi, did you get into Penn? I was offered soft support so wanted to check how it went.

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Closing thread The OP has not been online since December. If she returns and wants to respond, she can PM me to reopen the thread.