I still don’t agree that recruited athletes just send in an application to their chosen UC and wait to hear if they’ve been accepted. Their sports are not just another EC, even if it says ‘Olympics gold medal winner’ or ‘played in the McDonald’s All American game’. The admissions office knows which athletes are being admitted and they don’t get rejected first and then admitted. Do their applications look just like all the others? Yes. Are their applications processed just like all the others? No.