which sports are recruited more?

Prep

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Jan 7, 2012
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Ive done a search on this and I cant find the answer. Sorry if it is already posted.

I am curious. Are some sports recruited more than others? For instance, will there be more tolerance for a low academic performing football player than a cross country runner? Will they take a 25 ACT score or 3.0 GPA for a water polo player but for a swimmer you would need a 29 ACT score or 3.8 GPA? Which are the most highly recruited sports and which ones are less recruited? Im sure there is no official stance on this -so more anecdotal answer will probably only be available.


(sorry for the double posting of this-I meant to post this under USNA)
 
Well, I don't have any super-secret-insider info from admissions committees, but speaking as a former mid, with some knowledge of academic capabilities and knowing a couple of guys from my high school who got NAPS spots in highly recruited sports . . . yeah, some sports definitely have more "pull" than others, both in the number of recruits they can get in and in the deviation from the mean academic stats for those recruits. The biggest pull seemed to be for the so-called "revenue" sports, basketball and football, and lacrosse at USNA has a pretty big historic role so they seemed to have some pretty good pull as well.

I don't think anybody can give you raw numbers to help you see how much pull "your" sport has if you are being recruited at USNA. If you're good enough, your best bet is to talk to the coach and see if the combination of your academic stats and athletic potential strike the coach as giving you a good chance for admission. Sometimes the sports functions as the "extra" factor that takes the great, regular-Joe candidate who might or might not have gotten in and puts them into the LOA/pretty-definitely-gonna-get-in pile. I know some rowers, swimmers and runners who might have fallen into that category (and I may have fallen into that category myself).
 
To be honest with you, you are not likely to get much definitive information on this topic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Admissions is not in the habit of releasing much info on their decision-making rationale in the first place, and certainly is not inclined to discuss their decisions re athletes. There is a strong push over the past few years to ensure a high graduation rate among their athletes, and there are tutors who travel with the varsity teams. Don't count on being cut too much slack for being a varsity jock; sometimes it backfires.
 
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