Swarthmore & Vassar

interesteddad
Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:19:38 +0000

he didn’t get the greatest vibe from either coach there.



That’s possibly because athletic recruiting will target different mixes of athletes depending on the school.

Most LACs give the athletic department 65 or so “tips” – basically slots to choose impact players for the teams subject to admissions department veto power.

The variability comes from:

a) How are these tips allocated among the teams? Schools using tips on football and ice hockey have fewer to spread around to the other mens and womens teams.

b) How low will they go? Every school will bend their academic qualifications to get an impact player, but they vary in how low they will go and the mix of academic qualifications in the pool of tipped athletes. This is further complicated by the fact that some athletic departments won’t “waste” a tip on an applicant who might get admitted without the boost from the athletic department, prefering to use the tips for impact athletes who would have no prayer of admission on academic qualifications alone.

**c) How good are the athetes they can get? **For example, a sports powerhouse like Williams attracts nationally ranked athletes in many sports. Those are going to squeeze out coach’s tip interest in an athlete who might well be considered “impact” at another school.