I don’t think that the coded athletes get as much as a boost as many think. There is probably some ability to move the needle on two truly identical candidates when one is coded and another isn’t, but I think that edge is very small.
There are definitely some Williams coaches saving their two recruits for RD. As such, I’d suspect many coded athletes are also are in the RD applicant pool.
Maybe not, but the number of admitted coded athletes is high regardless their boost …60-90 in the Amherst document, and Williams is likely similar, as are all the NESCACs (and these coded athletes are in addition to the slotted athletes, which are roughly 14 for football, 2 for every other sport, give or take in any year). The vast majority of slotted and coded athletes go through ED. Some go through RD to be sure, but it’s relatively small and more targeted towards certain sports like track and field.
You can see if the Williams newspaper has published anything specific to Williams. The now defunct ephblog had published similar numbers five or so years ago.
I actually read the report from Amherst- it is indeed an interesting read! Thanks for sharing.
I thought two things were particularly striking. According to this report, Amherst says they generally had fewer than 20 walk-on athletes per class and most get very little playing time and don’t continue past their first year. This really shocked me, to be honest. Wow. I mean, I know I am old, but when I attended a NESCAC in the 90’s, none of us were “recruited” in the sense that it impacted admissions. We told the coaches we wanted to play sports the summer before we started and voila, a roster spot. I guess there were a few athletes who were treated differently in admissions, but it was rare back then! This report definitely indicates something very different is happening now.
I also think it is interesting in the Amherst report that they say that the “athletic factor” athletes look pretty different than the rest of the student body while the “coded athletes” were generally indistinguishable. I am surprised to hear that the difference is significant from Amherst. I have been told that Williams coaches must use their “slot” for very high stat athletes who are nearly identical to the rest of the student body to ensure that these players are granted admission. Athletes who do not achieve the highest ratings academically don’t make it through the pre-read process and are therefore dropped by coaches at that point in the process. Who knows, this might very from sport to sport also.
All interesting stuff. Who knew Amherst had 45 men rostered on the lacrosse team? Wowza. With only two “athletic factor” athletes per year, that is a lot of coded athletes!!
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IME that is not the case, certainly not consistent across all sports.
What is your experience? Genuinely curious as we are having a very different experience. IME slot used for valedictorian, UW 4.0, most rigorous program at prep school, etc. extensive leadership and EC’s.
How a coach uses his/ her slots vs “tips” will vary by coach, sport, school and situation. A coach is trying to maximize his/her roster. It would be in their interest to use their slots where there is a question on whether the recruit would get in with just a tip. They should get a strong clue during the pre-read process, however it could be that a recruit is so talented or is so needed for a specific position that the coach would use a slot for an academic 1. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that is opaque to us. I can safely say though that the recruits on my D’s NESCAC team clearly had significant variances in academic chops.
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I’m not sure what you are getting at. All recruited athletes, regardless their stats, receive coach support. It’s not unusual for a coach to use a slot/full coach support spots for a high stat athlete, but all slots/full support don’t go to only high stat athletes. It just depends on the athlete, the other athletes in the mix, what slots/bands the coach has available to offer.
Williams (and other NESCACs) vary as to the floor of stats for recruited athletes (this varies by sport within each school too). Williams’ stats floor will be higher than Conn College’s for example, and Williams football and hockey floors will be lower than golf.
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Interesting. You are all right- there is so much opaque. It is a little weird to think the same school might have different floors for different sports, but entirely possible… This might be what I am struggling to wrap my brain around.