Could use some advice in understanding if you can get an early indication of acceptance at Washington university for athletes. My child is a junior right now, with 4.5+ weighted gpa and 34 act. Has some top academic d1’s looking, but think wash u would be better fit. Don’t want to go all the way up to deadline only to get a deferral on Ed. Some other d3’s seem to have slots, so you have clarity early. How does Wash U work?
I cannot talk to Wash U specifically, but my son was a “recruited” athlete very similar to what I see in your son. He ended up sending inquiries via email to college coaches at DIII schools he was interested in academically.
His list included JHU, Washington & Lee, Bowdoin, Williams, and UChicago. Each coach responded back with interest. Now, my son is a track athlete and validated times are available on the internet. I’m not sure what sport your’s is, so you might have to do some other things, but in each case the coach emailed back that they were interested.
In that email, my son included a resume, a copy of his unofficial transcript, and copies of his test scores. In the summer between school years we personally visited the schools above and we were given the following direction. If we were to decide to apply ED, let the coach know. He would then go to admissions and get a pre-read with an admissions counselor. We received a Likely Letter from UChicago and he was later officially admitted in December.
It was kind of nerve racking, basically you apply to the one ED school you want to go to and if you don’t get the likely letter you scramble to find a new place. It worked out well for us. To be honest, if I would have read all the posts on CC about how hard it is to get into the UChicago, even as an athlete, we may have tried another school.
We would have looked at WashU as well, it was on the longer list, but distance from home in the Philly area and a couple other allergy issues pushed us away from St. Louis. Hope that was helpful and good luck to your son.
Those grades/stats would be viable for Ivy if OP’s son is interested in that level of school.
I would suggest contacting a coach ASAP with stats/times to get a pre-read, but an athlete with those grades should not run into issues with being admitted.
Coach at WashU in your sport can provide very good answers to these questions. They will not guarantee admission early, just like they won’t at an Ivy, but they can pre-screen you based and provide a high level of confidence that if you apply, and if they support your application, there is a high likelihood of admission, just like at an Ivy. That’s why athletes at Ivies don’t say they have committed, but rather say they say they have committed to the application process, which is code for they are applying and the coaches are going to support their applications. Coaches can’t support every application though so you need to be one of the limited apps they are willing to support and probably need to both commit to the process and then actually apply ED in order to ensure that you get that support.
As Prof. Moriarty says, it is like that at most highly selective DIIIs as well as the Ivies. As he laid out, it is how my son navigated the process at UChicago. It takes a little faith in that you get 1 ED, most schools of this caliber require you to use it there and then there is no guarantee that you will pass admissions. Chances are if the rest of your application is somewhat strong, they say they’ll advocate for you, you’ll get admitted. It’s not a layup though. At UChicago the pre-read was only on the stats, not the entire application. So if your stats are good, you apply to UChicago and put “I really want to go to WashU,” in your essay, you might just find yourself on the outside looking in.
Our D is a committed athlete to Wash U. Her coach ran her grades and test scores thru admissions in the spring to get an early read. So, yes, there is an early process for athletes.
She has a 35 ACT, 4.0/4.84 gpa, and likely national merit semifinals. And, plays at the highest level with her sport and was all state.