Coaches have told two distinct parents that 25 slotted kids did not get in. Unless parents are lying, then at least one of those must be true. I agree that we don’t know which one. But we shouldn’t pretend there is not an issue with either coaches or the school as it regards recruiting. Yes slotted kids get denied at other NESCAC schools. Not 25 of them at one school in one year.
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Wesleyan has 28 or so varsity sports teams. Although I myself have no context for the 25, I assume it’s heavy if the coach mentioned it to the parents. With that said, if there is attrition every year, as we’ve agreed there is, then 25 is less than one per sport.
What strikes me here is not (necessarily) the 25, but rather the qualifications of the students who were deferred (not rejected). Until we know more, that’s as far as I can go. That is why my list of questions would include, as I wrote, whether their applications were weaker in some way than others who were admitted with slots.
This happens every year, and it’s why I’ve said consistently that the NESCAC should go to Likely Letters (even though I am personally aware of a few people who’ve been burned by that process as well).
Elite D3 recruiting is murky and I’ve always said as much. There may well be a communication problem here with the coach and admissions. IDK. More information is necessary to draw conclusions.
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Again, 25 slotted recruit denials at a single NESCAC school in a single year does not happen all the time. I am not an expert in NESCAC recruiting, but if someone can point out an example of anything close to that ever happening, it would be interesting to know.
I would love there to be a letter. But even without a letter, there is no reason a school should mislead 17 year old kids to this degree. It is wrong. With that many denials, the burden of proof is on the school to justify its dishonesty, not on us to prove it.
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For what it’s worth, 2 family members were strongly recruited by different coaches at Wes and applied ED1. Both were pushed to ED2 and were subsequently admitted. They had positive pre-reads, but they weren’t slam dunk pre-reads, and they were told not to submit scores unless they improved, which they didn’t. Coaches told kids to hang in, that ED2 would work out, and it did. But it was nail-biting time for both of them.
I honestly think Wes is a bit torn on athletic recruiting. Really respect the school on several fronts, but more than a few of its teams are mediocre relative to its peers.
Time for NESCACs to move to Likely Letters?
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I would once again caution against putting much stock in the 25 number for a variety of reasons. Why would an admissions officer (only potential accurate source for a total number) put that out there. It doesn’t help anyone (but the coach) and hurts the reputation of the institution.
I still suspect the coach is covering his posterior having not communicated properly. It is a guess but just makes more sense than an admissions department telling coaches that 25 Pre read athletes have not gotten accepted.
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And, again, I have no context for the 25 denials other than the coach’s mentioning of it, and based on the bolded part of your post, it doesn’t seem you do either. So what are we arguing about here? Based on the tone of your posts in this thread, I had, in fact, assumed you to be an expert or at least “in the know.” Now you’re telling me you’re not while at the same time pounding your fist on the table using words like “dishonesty” and “mislead”. I don’t think those comments are helpful at all, particularly since you seem to be where the rest of us are: in speculation mode.
There’s enough here to justify further inquiry; but flying off the handle and drawing the very worst conclusions possible while admitting that you don’t really know the lay of the land is befuddling to me.
Bottom line: coaches at every single NESCAC (and beyond) school are disappointed every year with admissions attrition they didn’t expect. Not one single coach with whom we dealt failed to make that statement, and every one of them seemed wary of admissions and thus were always careful with their comments. And D2 was often the top priority recruit, thus meaning all the coach’s political capital was going to be used for her. And, still, they wavered when talk of probabilities came up.
Let’s let the facts roll in shall we?
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I couldn’t say about the school’s view on the matter, but Wes’ overall performance in athletics has improved dramatically over the last decade. Even the women’s soccer team, who have struggled for years, made the Final Four this year.
Thank you for adding your experience. I think some perspective on this is sorely needed in this thread.
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As do I. And in this instance, I wonder if the coach was confident because of the stats his recruits were presenting and that the issue lies buried in there somewhere. Still, there is ED2 so let’s see what happens.
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Congrats!
I agree with cquin85. I would call coach and have CC call admissions ASAP.
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Either the school denied 25 slotted students, or the coaches are lying about the school denying 25 slotted students. It’s pretty simple. It doesn’t take an expert to know that if the parent posters are being honest, then either the school or the coaches are not being honest.
Hopefully we find out which one. I think it would be a great topic for the school newspaper to investigate. I look forward to reading about it in much greater detail.
You’re mixing up the point, which isn’t quite that simple. All three parties could be honest and probably are. The issue is whether it matters. You are here worked up about the number 25, but also admit you don’t know what you’re talking about. 25! 25! What if the average number is 18? 22? I don’t know, and neither, it seems, do you. Again, 28 varsity teams, 25 would be less than one per sport.
I have talked with the women’s soccer coaches at all but one NESCAC school, UofChicago, what’s left of the seven sisters, Oberlin, Pomona-Pitzer, Kenyon, Brandeis, Vassar, Skidmore, W&L, Carleton, St. Olaf, Whitman and more. I’ve covered half that list again in another sport. This absolutely happens everywhere every year. They don’t put them on the list unless they expect to get them, and yet the unpleasant surprises persist. The question is whether 25 is unusual at Wesleyan. A related question is whether slotted athletes with the kinds of stats being discussed in this thread are risks in the ED1 pool at Wesleyan and should have been told that more clearly, or if this is indeed an usually “tough year” because of last year’s class and perhaps communication broke down somewhere in the chain.
But, honestly, why don’t you wait and see before maligning people you don’t know armed with limited facts? This has never been a straight-forward transactional process and I’ve not met or spoken to a single person who says otherwise.
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Well, to be balanced here, athletic admissions is a more formalized “thing” than balancing the talented musician and accomplished community organizer. Until Wesleyan says otherwise, there is reasonable expectation out there that “slotted” athletes are still dealt a signficant advantage in admissions.
I think the worst possible outcome here is that Wesleyan has gone rogue from NESCAC and is pursuing athletic admissions the way Vassar does, which is a very clear “don’t count on anything.” In that context, your example would be more likely. If they have done that, they need to say something publicly. But I doubt it.
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Yes. 25 is extremely unusual. Each sport only gets 2 slots, except football which gets 14. Keep trying though. Some naive recruit for next year might believe you. Others will know better. Best of luck.
I don’t know if you’re still in contact with the coach, but if you are, you might push to get an even more precise answer than “recruited”. I’d want to know if the 25 were slotted or tipped or both. But what really matters is whether your D was slotted or tipped. There’s a difference.
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I went back through the thread and, unless I missed it, I didn’t read where either parent wrote that they were told that it was 25 “slotted” athletes that were deferred. I’ve only read you using the term “slotted”. I read “25 recruited athletes”. As @Mwfan1921 has aptly described, tipped athletes are part of the recruiting process, and a kid with strong stats and a tip has a leg up in admissions. It’s not a slotted leg up, but it’s a leg up.
I’m not “trying” to do anything, though you seem to be.
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I know several recruited athletes that got in ED1 to Wesleyan as hoped, including my son. He has not heard of any other members of his recruit “class” being rejected after going through the pre-read process.
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This is exactly right. According to my sources, “the 25 recruited athletes” figure is an inflated number that could very well include athletes with any level of contact with the athletic department and that there is very often a “fine line” between who is considered a recruited athlete and who isn’t. It almost certainly was not solely "slotted’ candidates.
Moreover, it is the belief of this source that in every case, there was a reason for the deferral. Possible scenarios include,
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A couple of Bs when previously the applicant was a “straight A” student.
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A rushed, last minute essay.
Personally, I found the last bullet point the most interesting. Apparently, many recruits - particularly the most highly sought - often wait until the last moment to commit to Wesleyan and sometimes it results in a rushed application. The adcoms take that stuff very seriously regardless of what might get communicated by the coach.
Most importantly, my source emphasized that deferral means just that - the adcom is delaying a decision pending more information. They expect the candidate to “step up” and fill in the holes. If it’s a matter of grades - submit something that indicates they are doing better. If it was the essay - submit a writing sample. That sort of thing. Wesleyan did not suddenly change its priorities; the academics part has always been a high bar to meet.
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I have confirmed with both the Coach and Admissions that my D was indeed a “Top Recruit”.
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