<p>Hopefully someone will be able to help me, but bare with me as this is my first post on cc! </p>
<p>With July 1st passing, I started receiving calls from coaches, which was very exciting. The only negative was my top school called to say that they won't be keeping a spot for me and that i'm free to apply on my own and walk on, but they won't be giving me support. (I'd name the sport but I don't want to reveal my identity :) )</p>
<p>At first I was just not going to have anything to do with the program, I'd received very good offers from two other top twenty schools in my sport, but my top school is just where I want to be. That leaves me to apply on my own, the only catch; they have a less than 10% acceptance rate. </p>
<p>So here's where my question comes into play: even though I'm not going to have a coach-endorsed application, will the fact that I have excelled in a sport help my application?</p>
<p>I have a 4.2 GPA, ranked 1 out of 500 in a public school, student body president (class president the rest of the years), ACT at 33, SAT 1350 (my test scores are low, but I was hoping the coach would endorse my application and help me!), have over 150 hours of community service, and have lettered in 3 varsity sports. The sport that I'm playing I'm an all-american (my sport only selects 50 all-americans), two time all-state (hopefully 3-time by the time I graduate), and have been selected to play in the national championship (represent my region in the US) for the past two years.</p>
<p>Will the all-american status give me an edge, or is it just going to have the impact of taking up a line on my resume, since everyone that applies to these schools is a top student?</p>
<p>Without the coach supporting your application, I think your sport will probably have the same weight as an estra-curricular - one in which you are very accomplished.</p>
<p>Your test scores aren’t low at all. Why would you even send in your SAT with a 33 ACT? I wouldn’t even think twice…no way I’m sending in that SAT score.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Is that the correct SAT score (out of 2400, not 1600?) Is the ACT that much different than the SAT that one can score so much higher on it? I am just wondering about this for when it is time for my son to take these tests.</p></li>
<li><p>If the coach is already not supporting your app. why not? Is it an academic or athletic thing? I understand you have a high gpa, but we don’t know what kind of school you went to (a highly rigorous school or one with inflated grades) and what type of courses you took. Obviously the gpa is weighted as well. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>It sounds like you are trying to go to either an Ivy, SM, or one of the service academies. Did you play your sport at the club level and did you send the coach tapes, stats, etc? Did you just start the process too late? You say it is after July 1 so you have started receiving calls; I guess that makes you a rising senior. DI’s generally start seriously looking (they can’t call, but you should be making lots of contacts and getting all your stuff in) the year before that. Maybe the coach had already pretty much filled his spots earlier. You could ask and guage your walk-on chances based on that. However, it is generally not easy to walk-on once you are there; most schools have what are called “recruited walk-ons” and they do support those apps. Ask the coach why he can’t support you as a walk-on. These are hard questions, but you need an answer so you can plan what to do next. </p>
<p>I guess high school All American doesn’t necessarily count for too much if yours is a club sport and you aren’t playing at a high club level as well. </p>
<p>Remember, unless you are one of the best in the country (world, I guess for many sports) at your particular sport, based on high level club play, you can’t necessarily pick your school. You might just have to broaden your horizons. With your academic stats and propensity for your sport, I am sure there are many other great schools (as you said you already have two offers from school which are top 20 in your sport).</p>
<p>What level is the dream school (D1, D2, D3 or NAIA?). If D3, then the question in my mind is why didn’t they want to support your application. </p>
<p>Did they say we aren’t that interested or was it because they felt you were a slam dunk for admissions and therefore didn’t need to support the application (they only get so many tips). </p>
<p>Normally a school wouldn’t call a student on July 1 if all they were going to say was thanks for your interest we hope you walk on. That kind of phone call is normally much later in the process - not on the first day of recruiting.</p>
My SAT Score was out of 1600, my sections were CR 670, M 680, W 680, so the 2400 score would have been 2030. I only took the SAT once, but I took the ACT twice and got a 33 both times (ironically I scored completely different in the sections when I retook the ACT… If they let you take your best scores I’d have a 35). In the ACT i’m in the 99th percentile while i’m in the 92nd on the SAT… My school curriculum seems to be catered to the ACT over the SAT so it’s not unusual for students at my school to do better on the ACT
Schoolwise I take an all ap, all enriched course track in a school that US News gave a ‘silver medal’. The weight comes from the AP classes as enriched classes aren’t weighted at my school. I have a 3.99 unweighted (a B+ in a semester of english… grr)</p>
<p>This one goes to scualum too:
I had been in the coaches radar since my sophomore year and have visited the school along with had private meetings with the coaching staff. When they called they said I was in their top ten recruits, but they would only be endorsing their top 6… I talked to the coach about this and he said I get in on my own, they will take me as a preferred walk-on, but my application will not be endorsed. I think that the fact that they did call on July 1st is what frustrated me the most; it showed they are interested, but what they said showed that they weren’t interested enough!</p>
<p>My sport doesn’t have a strong club system; mostly just recruiting showcases that I do attend, and the Olympic Development Unit (the program that selects teams for the national championship).</p>
<p>I really appreciate you’re honesty in my situation; I think I’ll probably end up at one of the other schools. I loved their teams, the schools just aren’t nearly as competitive as my Dream School academic wise.</p>
<p>Your stats are strong enough to get you in…maybe the admissions committee will still consider the athletic piece of it. Even without the “endorsement” I wonder if the adcoms can still know that you are a recruited (i.e. preferred) walk-on. Speak with the coaches again and ask if you would get playing time or just be a bench-sitter. If you still love the school enough to be on the team but not get much playing time, then go for it and accept a spot if you get admitted.</p>
<p>I don’t think the fact that you excelled in a sport will help you with chances for admission. At the best schools almost all applicants will have excelled in something extra-curriculiar wise. Are your “offers” from the other top 20 schools scholarship offers? If so cost must play into your decision. Have you thought of possibly going to undergrad at a school whose coaching staff definitely thinks you can play & then attending your “dream school” for grad school?</p>
<p>“I don’t think the fact that you excelled in a sport will help you with chances for admission. At the best schools almost all applicants will have excelled in something extra-curriculiar wise.”</p>
<p>Wouldn’t that make OP’s app just as good as theirs? It sounds like you want the school academically. Why not apply, if you might go without money or playing at the varsity level? Would you be willing to play club or intramural? That might be a crazy question… you must be really good.</p>
<p>It’s possible that the coach thinks your application is strong enough that you can get in on your own, and he doesn’t want to “waste” one of his limited tips on supporting your application. Maybe he needs those tips to boost less qualified applicants, and maybe they work better for his program (positions he really needs to fill, etc.). </p>
<p>If that’s the case, it creates a dilemma for you. There’s reason to hope you could get into the college on your own merits, but applying there would probably alienate coaches of other programs, who may be insisting that you apply early to their colleges. What this means, I think, is that you have to decide whether your college strategy will be driven by your desire to be recruited for your sport, or to attend the college that feels like the best fit for you. </p>
<p>You didn’t actually say why your #1 is your #1 - whether it’s because that’s the best place to play your sport, or it’s better academically/socially. If the answer is that the sport is your paramount interest, then it would definitely be smart to pursue schools that will recruit you. You have basically strong qualifications, and I do think a sport pursued at a very high level is a great EC, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll make the 10% of lucky admits.</p>
<p>If you have time, I recommend reading “Playing the Game - Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League” by Chris Lincoln. It’s maybe a bit dated, but has lots of info that will help you assess the recruiting situation.</p>
<p>Is the school you want to go to stanford? I’m just assuming this from a few clues I picked up in your post but if so its kind of a crap shoot either way. You have very strong stats but stanford you just never really know. But being as good as you obviously are at a sport will help no matter what, a lot of people excel at a lot of things but you can say you are one of the top 50 in the country and no matter what it is being in the top 50 is an amazing feat. I think you should definitely still apply and hope for the best, and coaches if they really want you will wait, at least for a small time, and besides you can always verbal one place and back out, as long as you don’t sign.</p>
<p>For those who haven’t figured it out, his top choice is either Harvard or Yale, as those are the only two schools with acceptance rates under 10% this last year.
While I don’t know what sport you do, I can’t understand why either of those schools wouldn’t be willing to support the app of an All-American whose also top in their class. While you certainly do have the stats to be at least competitive for admissions at those schools, there are many, many, others competing who also have great grades/scores/EC’s. I would say that if the coach is unwilling to support your app, you’d be better off going with another school that can guarantee you admission and maybe even give you some money. Admissions to that top tier of schools is more or less a crapshoot (as many people are surely telling you); you can only be certain if you’ve got the coach pulling for you.</p>