Athletic recruiting at MIT?

[IsaacM]

<p>Does MIT recruit athletes? If so on what basis? Do they only recruit top level athletes such as those who have made it to nationals or states? I am a swimmer, not extremely good or anything spectacular but I would be willing to swim on a college team. I would say I am pretty average at swimming, but I was wondering how this works MIT not being like a Big Ten athletic school.</p>

[molliebatmit]

<p>MIT coaches have contact with prospective athletes who are considering attending MIT, yes. But they do not recruit in the sense that division I schools do – there are no guaranteed slots for particular athletic teams in the freshman class, and athletes aren’t given a break academically. </p>

<p>I posted the text of an email I received from Matt McGann on the subject of athletic recruitment [url=<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063213526-post24.html]here[/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1063213526-post24.html]here[/url</a>].

@Matt McGann

Athletes at MIT do not face a “different admissions process.” There is no separate athletic admissions committee. Coaches do not get to sit with the Dean and present their students in a special meeting as at many schools. There is no policy that we admit all academically-qualified recruited athletes. Perhaps more importantly, there is no “slot” system. What is a slot system? In a major article on Division III athletics admissions in 2005, the New York Times wrote,

Broadly, Division III colleges are separated into those that use what is customarily called a slots system and those that do not. Slots are reserved for athletes in each freshman class, a specific number that typically represents 15 percent to 30 percent of those admitted. Colleges that do not have a slots system may admit more, or fewer, recruited athletes, but there is no set number.

That is to say – we don’t hold open admissions spaces for teams/coaches, we have no quota or even any target for athletes.</p>

<p>That being said, we do value extracurricular talent, including athletic talent, in our admissions process. Most of MIT’s full-time coaches do recruit (though this recruitment bears little resemblance to what Division I schools call recruiting). Because of stereotypes and preconceived notions, many talented student-athletes are not aware that MIT even has varsity sports, much less that we’re actually pretty good (for example, a classmate of mine, Jason Szuminski '00, went on to pitch for the San Diego Padres, after completing his Aero-Astro degree). The outreach work of our coaches complements the work done by many at MIT in identifying talented prospective MIT students.

So you are free to fill out the recruiting form on MIT’s website [url=<a href=“http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/varsity.html]here[/url”>http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/varsity.html]here[/url</a>], which will be sent to the coach of the team you’re interested in playing for. Being an athlete is helpful for an MIT application, but is not more helpful than other kinds of extracurriculars.</p>

[IsaacM]

<p>So if I was “recruited” that is I fill out the form online and a coach gets back to me and would have me swim on the team if I was admitted…This would not be worth anymore on MIT’s app than say after school choir for 4 years or any other EC? I am just asking because I am not 100% sure if I want to continue swimming at a college level…its a hard and time consuming sport.</p>

[EmpireAnts]

<p>I think they look at it more in terms of time, so if you have played a varsity sport like swimming which practices 5-6 days/week 2-3 hrs/day, this will clearly be “worth more” than after school choir which is, say, 2 days/week for 2 hrs/day. If you have had this sort of time restriction your whole life (and intend to continue it), that shows MIT that you have time management skills, loyalty, and persistence among other things. In this way, as sport can often be “worth more” than a simple, less time consuming after school activity.</p>