<p>I'm just a little curious - a classmate (who is also a recruited athlete - LaCrosse) has begun telling everyone at school that he received a phone call this week (2nd week in January) from Harvard telling him "he's in!" He went on to say that the LaCrosse coach had been texting him to let him know but couldn't reach him.</p>
<p>Does this happen? I did not apply to Harvard, but have some other schools in common with this student. Are Ivy League athletes really given this type of preference over other qualified students? According to the Joint Statement on Admissions, all communications must be in writing, and only happens December 1 and April 1. Something about all of this doesn't sound right.</p>
<p>I've read lots of stories on this forum of a similar nature...I guess it must be one of those unwritten rules that they try to contact athletes earlier to possibly influence their decision more. It makes sense for Harvard to do this, because if they beat other top-notch schools to the punch, they have a great chance of getting the athlete. Good athletes probably do not come a dime a dozen like kids with great academics do.</p>
<p>Recruited athletes will often know before other applicants. I know Dartmouth, Brown, Princeton(probably most of other ivies) send out "Likely Letters" to their athletes. Dartmouth will also send out that letter to the top 25% applicants in Feb. Princeton is thinking of using likely letters for their top applicants next year when they no longer have EA. Many of those coaches are given a quota of athletes they could recruit. The atheletes do not need to go through the same admission process as regular applicants. Ivies do not give scholarship to athletes.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have a classmate who's a junior-in the top 400 nationalwide for lax recruits. John Hopkins scouts watched him play. His dad is pretty big in MD/Washington D.C-powerful Republican (whole page on Wikipedia). If it weren't for his gpa which is around 3.0, he would be an automatic in. Right now he's probably going to head to the Y (he's LDS) either to play football or lax.</p>
<p>The recruited athletes that I know at Harvard all say that they knew of their admissions months ahead of other applicants. As a rule, though, the coaches always spoke of their admissions in euphemistic terms and tried to keep it as much under wraps as possible.</p>