Will an athlete committing to a top school (Ivy League specifically) lessen my chances of acceptance? There are a few students in my grade who are getting recruited by these top schools, and I was just wondering if it would be harder to get in if they were to commit to one of them.
I don’t believe so.
Worry about you. That’s what impacts your chances. Not others.
Also, these athletes may (or may not) be better candidates to begin with.
There’s no way to truly know why someone gets in or doesn’t - so control what you can (you) and don’t worry about others.
Good luck.
No. Simply pressing the submit button lessens your chances.
The athlete is in a totally separate pool. The seats they are being recruited for were never available to you. If that athlete declined the seat, the seat will only be offered to another athlete
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So like, say Cornell recruited someone from my school. Would Cornell admissions know of the athlete? Would they be incentivized to not admit from our school and choose students from other schools to increase geographic diversity?
Unlikely but there’s no way to know.
You’ll never know why you get in or domt to a school.
If you want to attend Cornell, then apply.
No reason to get yourself worked up over something you cannot control.
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They had nearly 70k applicants last year. They had a lot of applicants from the same high school - I assure you. And I’m sure many high schools represented by more than one person.
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Of course
Incentivized is the wrong word
Geographic diversity is overrated IMO.
If you want to go to Cornell, put together the best application for you. Other applicants are not in your control.
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You’re overthinking. A school like Cornell is not going to discard a candidate because they would be the second admit from the same high school. They admit more than one student from the same high school all the time. They even more frequently admit zero students from a given high school. If you don’t get in, it won’t be because of a single recruited athlete from your school.
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If you go to a high school that is sending a pile of legacies and athletes to Harvard (for example) and you are unhooked, yes, you might need to be particularly spectacular to make them want yet another student from your school. But there are only a handful of schools that fit that description and all of them have amazing CC staff that could give you excellent advice on your situation.
In the vast majority of cases, no, it won’t matter.
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I agree with this and other posters - however I do think you may need to be mindful how you use ED/REA. Our counsellors have told us that if in a given year our prep school has a bunch of legacies/athletes/other hooked kids applying ED to Dart/Cornell, for example, it may behoove a strong applicant to apply regular and use ED/REA elsewhere. In general, though, and as others have said, if you are a strong applicant don’t dwell too much on where other classmates are applying.
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Yes, and @sportyprep, I believe your kid is at one of the handful of schools where there may indeed be a “pile” of hooked students applying to uber-selective schools and a totally on top of it CC who helps manage that “traffic”.
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