If this is really a big issue for you OP, attend a school that has no sports.
Very helpful reply @ErinsDad.
Students are competing within categories, full stop. While my DD could compete in the URM category and the female category, she could not compete in the First Gen or athletic or development categories. We just had to understand that 15% of the spots were just off the table for 1stG and another percentage for the other categories.
As far as stats, for certain girls (have close friends who were recruited, no idea about boys) team sports the average SAT/ACT of the team has to be within a certain number, lets say 2000. Also, there is usually a minimum number of 1800. So if a female squash player is recruited who is a 1810, she better be really amazing and the coach needs to find a couple of 2100s to get the aveage of the team to 2000. Players who are over a certain number, such as 2200 and are middle of the road for recruited athletes will often be told that since they have the stats to get in, that the coach will not waste his option on them since they can get in on their own but he wants them if they get in. This will result in sometimes strange situations where a kid could get in academically but does not because he is going through regular admissions, even though the coach would have been happy to have him on the team.
A 32 is a perfectly respectable ACT score, especially for someone who is bringing something else to the table.
@skieurope I know someone who went to UChicago in the 80s. She had no idea they even had varsity teams until after she graduated.
As for Amherst, I did not apply because they did not have the major I wanted but I was sad about it until I heard about the overabundance of athletes. We visited during vacation and that was not the sense I got.
Wow Bates, 70 people on a swim team. That is crazy. How do they practice.
It’s called recruiting! You have to REALLY lucky to be selected by an Ivy school
I’ve lost track of the number of times ignorant parents and students assume someone is a second-class student solely because they are also an athlete. You have to guess that they come from somewhere where they don’t have student athletes, or that they don’t get out much.