<p>
</p>
<p>I think the tip is bigger than that these days. It’s clear that athletic recruiting is nowhere the hook it is in the ivy league where admission is automatic with certain stats, but no one knows how much pull it has. We know that the Dean of Admissions, former rowing coxswain Stu Schmill, respects athletes and believes that the qualities which enable athletic success translate to other fields, even science. Also, it’s clear that MIT teams are really head-and-shoulders above where they were 15 years ago. There could be several reasons for this, but one of the obvious ones is that athletics is more of a hook than it used to be. However, even before it was a significant hook, 2/3 of the class had played at least one varsity sport in high school. So that’s a pool of 2500 people to potentially put on your athletic team.</p>