Swarthmore Athletes?

interesteddad
Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:30:47 +0000

This may be an issue of semantics, but Swarthmore definitely has a set number of athletic tips, just like NESCAC schools. The tip system was put in place by the former admissions dean, Robin Mamlet, before she left to head Stanford’s admissions department. One of the big issues when Swarthmore dropped its football program was the high number of tips being consumed by the football program and how the other teams would benefit from spreading those tips around.

The tips are used to select “x” number impact athletes in each freshman class who would probably not get accepted without the athletic boost. I do think that the admissions office is more heavily involved in assessing “admissibility” of the tips than is the case at some of the NESCAC schools where the athletic recruiting system operates with a great deal of autonomy.

As a general rule, the coaches at all schools don’t use tips for students with average academic qualifications who already have a decent shot of getting accepted, unless we are talking about a major impact player.