Non-Nescac High Academic D3s that use slots

gointhruaphase
Wed, 03 Aug 2022 20:25:05 +0000

The short answer is that most D3 schools recruit athletes and provide at least some degree of coach support. The longer answer is that many of the schools listed above support but do not support in the same way as the NESCACs. Take for example Chicago. The good thing is that Chicago does issue likely letters. The bad thing is that the number is circumscribed. By way of example, a coach may submit a list of 20 recruits to admissions. Two get likely letters, and a couple more are chosen by admissions. We knew folks who were told “they were on the list” by a Chicago coach, but in reality there was a very low chance of admission. They were disappointed.

Similarly, the reports from MIT coaches is that they have little pull to support recruits. The “support” described by coaches is as 50%, which means that you can flip a coin on outcome (and you have to have top notch academics to get that 50% shot). Some are heartened by the increase in odds of admission from 5% to 50%, but this is much different than the NESCACs.

The Claremont Colleges also seemed to over-recruit. The Pomona coach sent out an email (this was a while ago) that listed the recruit-addressees. There were a lot (maybe 100). This by itself doesn’t mean that there was over-recruiting, but son was told he likely wouldn’t get into Pomona and was pushed to apply to Pitzer. My sense is that the coach gets two, but can’t go down in academics.

Carleton, Grinnell, Kenyon, Macalester, Vassar, Dickinson, Gettysburg, F & M, Muhlenberg, Swarthmore, Haverford and Washington & Lee all can and do support athletes. The level of certainty and the number that can be supported may vary, however. It is best to drill down with the coaches at each school. Incidentally, we had plenty of coaches who told us point blank that they had little to no influence with admissions. One told us if we were being recruited by a NESCAC school, we should take it.