When asked why colleges put so much emphasis on athletics in general, and football in particular, legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant once famously responded “Well, it’s kind of hard to rally around a math class.” True enough. Yet those athletes who excel in the classroom as well as those “fields of friendly strife” can use athletics as an incredible hook to leverage entry into selective, and even super selective schools.
There is an interesting study which supports this notion. William G. Bowen, former President of Princeton University and President Emeritus of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, undertook a study into athletics and the college admissions process. It evaluated 28,000 freshman who entered 33 selective colleges and universities in 1995, including those in the Ivy League, as well as schools such as Amherst, Williams, Tufts, Wesleyan, Bryn Mawr, Smith, and Wellesley.
Although the study itself is now over a decade old, its general findings remain relevant today. Male recruited athletes were admitted at a rate more than four times greater than other applicants. For female athletes, the admissions advantage was even greater.
Anecdotal evidence suggests similar advantages remain today. Indeed, each college and conference may have their own academic standards and guidelines – the Academic Index for Ivy League schools; “tagging” and “bands” for NESCAC schools, for example – but the general laws still apply; if you are a recruited athlete, your chances at admission to one of your top choice schools is advantaged, and in many cases, significantly so. To be sure, the more selective the school, the more complicated the recruiting process becomes. But similar laws generally apply.
As independent college admissions consultants, we encourage students to fully develop their special “hook.” Hooks are characteristics a college deems desirable, above and beyond qualities it generally seeks. Your hook could be a special talent, such as being an accomplished writer, musician, entrepreneur, scientist, mathematician, etc. Or it could be athletics. You still need the right GPA, standardized test scores, etc., but a hook can distance your application from the rest of the pack. And with acceptance rates as low as they are today, they are incredibly powerful.
No matter what your special talent is, today’s competitive landscape requires you to fully develop your hooks, both inside the academic curriculum/extra curriculum, as well as outside it. If your talents lie within the realm of athletics, take comfort knowing you can leverage your skills in the college admissions process. You’ll need to make the commitment to fully develop your craft. Just don’t forget to pay heed to those strict academic requirements as well.
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Michael White is the Co-Director of Darien Academic Advisors (DAA), an educational consulting company founded in 2005. DAA provides advisory services to student-athletes on the dual process of athletic recruitment and college admissions. Michael can be reached at mwhite@darienacademicadvisors. For more information, visit www.darienacademicadvisors.com.
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