<p>note: This is somewhat of a repost, as i posted a similar thread in the university of pennsylvania section.</p>
<p>I am a high school junior and i am wondering whether athletes get any weight in the university of pennsylvania admissions. I am a varsity coxswain (rowing) and hope to row in college. Will i be given admissions preference if i apply ED? i am also a legacy (parent and grandparent). How much leeway do athletes get, if any? Do i need to be 'recruited' to gain such preferential treatment? Would being an athlete/legacy make up for a somewhat weak GPA (3.76 unweighted)? If i do not get officially put on the "list" will rowing still help me in admissions?
Further questions for anyone who might have some experience with college recruiting, or specifically penn rowing recruiting: what is the process like? is coxswain recruiting more/less competitive than rower recruitment? my team is based on the same river as the penn team is. will knowledge of the river as coxswain give me a leg up?</p>
<p>Storey,
I’m the parent of rower, but know a little bit about coxswain recruiting. First of all, you definitely need coach support to get the admissions boost. (The admissions committee will not do that for you per se.) You need to market yourself to the Penn coach based on which races your boats have won. Do you have a race tape? Which camps have you attended? Doesn’t Penn have a camp? Since you are local, can your coach reach out to the Penn coach? </p>
<p>On September 1 the Penn coach, and all others, can email you directly. But don’t expect them to do that out of the blue. You can email them now and let them know Penn is your first choice.</p>
<p>A student from my kids school was recruited as a coxswain this year…starts this fall.
The student had great grades, was a cox at Jr Nationals for years.</p>
<p>^I think I know him…he went to the Bolles School? I row on the women’s team and all the recruited coxswains have a lot of experience and really good records (races they have won). And also, if you get into Penn without being recruited, you can always just walk-on the team!</p>