While rumors of tricked-out SUVs and fixed grades for recruited athletes plague other universities, Dartmouth officials insist that the high school athletes they court receive no special privileges and must pass the same rigorous academic standards as other applicants to the College.
Dartmouth coaches and administrators explained how the admissions system works for both student-athletes and those who must judge them.
Earning Attention, or Soliciting It
In close-knit national athletic communities, it is not difficult for extremely talented athletes to come to the attention of Dartmouth coaches. Fellow coach and alumni referrals help Dartmouth coaches single out potential athletes.
Coaches make visits to tournaments and games across the country where they can observe the performances of many athletes at once.
"This weekend I'll probably see 200 kids," said Mark Hudak, associate head coach of the women's varsity ice hockey team. Hudak said he has files on over 200 other potential Dartmouth play-ers for this year alone and has seen an estimated 90 percent of them play.
Team budgets allow coaches and students to travel to Dartmouth from all over the country. Also included in that budget are monies for meals and recruitment brochures.
While the talents of some athletes cannot escape the attention of traveling coaches like Hudak, others have to create their own fanfare.
"Some of them actually initiate a contact with us saying 'Hi, this is who I am, can you come watch me play,'" Hudak said. Often student contacts such as these also include videotape submissions of performances or are initiated by informational letters sent out in batches to schools.
Many athletes do not receive answers to these letters.
"A lot of those kids that have contacted us, we know right away -- no way -- so we don't even follow up with them," Hudak said.
Unless you're a highly publicized player, said varsity baseball pitcher and recruited athlete Patrick Pfeiffer '06, such self-starting moves are necessary with so many high-school students vying for so few berths on college sports teams.
Pfeiffer himself was brought to the attention of Dartmouth Baseball coach Bob Whalen by a professional scout.
Academics and Careful Phone Calls
The next step, said both coaches and athletes, is an all-important background check on the high-school student's academic record. Questionnaires regarding grade point averages, extracurricular activities and major future plans are sent to potential Dartmouth student-athletes.
If a student meets the academic and athletic standards set forth by the College, they are often invited on an "official visit" to Dartmouth's campus, during which they meet their potential teammates and discover more about the College and the athletic programs. Such visits, however, are hardly lavish. Prospective students make their overnight beds on the floors of their hosting athletes and eat DDS food.
While these visits are highly regulated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, it is fairly common knowledge that current athletes are charged with showing prospective athletes what life at Dartmouth would be like -- and this includes social activities.
NCAA regulations are stiff, however, and visiting high-school students are generally not allowed to remain on campus for more than 48 hours and are not permitted to go to restaurants with athletic coaches, according to some of the rules detailed on the Ivy League Sports website.
In addition, stringent and sometimes arcane rules exist on when coaches can contact high school athletes and in what manner.
According to NCAA regulations, coaches may not telephone potential recruits until after July 1 of their completed junior year of high school. Recruited Division I football and basketball athletes have more complicated telephone rules, with 48 hour windows and numbers of permissible calls specified by the NCAA.
The Early Decision Revolution
Essential to the athletic recruiting process is recruiters getting a commitment to Dartmouth from the recruited students.
Highly competitive high-school athletes are often sought after by many top collegiate programs, and this can turn the admissions process into a "nailbiting" one, according to Hudak.
"You're going, 'Oh God, are we going to get this kid in, are we going to get that kid in,' but when you look at it long-term, at the big picture, the process does work," he said.
A relatively recent innovation in the college admissions process -- the Early Decision option -- has rendered the process a bit less frenetic for coaches and students alike.
Almost 60 percent of recruited athletes at Dartmouth applied Early Decision last year, according to Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg. Once admitted on the Early Decision plan, it is expected students will matriculate at the College and withdraw their applications from other schools.
As a result, coaches have a good portion of their incoming class settled at the end of the Fall term. Students know they are committed to a school and coaches know they have assembled a full team of athletes early on.
"We try to get as many of our top recruits to apply Early Decision as we can. It's not only a way to focus our staff's time and energy, but it makes it more efficient in terms of resources," said Deputy Director of Athletics Bob Ceplikas.
While coaches encourage applying athletes to check the Early Decision option, Furstenberg does not believe that this places any extra pressure on athletes applying.
"Student athletes, particularly at the Division I level, are used to the way these decisions and commitments are made," he said.
The Early Decision option also allows coaches and the Admissions Department to gauge the extent of the student's interest and commitment to the College, he said.
First Priority for Final Decisions
Dartmouth coaches and admissions officers alike make no bones about it: if you cannot make the grade at Dartmouth, there is no point in applying.
"The final decisions are made over here," Furstenberg said.
Pfeiffer agreed. "All throughout the process, the coaches emphasized there was a certain standard I'd have to achieve in high school."
Each of the 34 athletic teams at the College submits a list of high-school athletes applying to Dartmouth whom they would like to see on their teams, but "there is no guarantee," said Hudak.
Though collegiate lore dictates that there are certain student-athletes whose applications sail through the admissions process so that Dartmouth can have that essential quarterback or ultimate offensive line, both the admissions and athletics department vehemently deny the myth.
"It would sure make our jobs easier," said Ceplikas. "But that's not the way it works. Our coaches and our administration do not have the final say. We do our best to focus on candidates who have the kind of strong credentials and characteristics that the administration seeks in the student body so we'll be successful, but the decisions are theirs and theirs alone."
"It's one of those things where you go, 'Yeah, I've got a lot of pull,' and the Admissions Department goes, 'Oh yeah? Want to make a bet?'," Hudak said, laughing.
"The coaches know our standards," Furstenberg said. In addition, a feedback process exists between the two departments throughout the year.
"They check back with us -- 'is this worth it? Is it worth recruiting this student?' -- before the formal application is made. They have a sense of how realistic a candidate is," said Furstenberg.
Coaches do their part by not making promises they can't keep to high-school athletes, Hudak said.
This way, both Furstenberg and coaches contacted by The Dartmouth said, there are few surprises.
Athletics Still a Factor
Despite the fact that academics are all-important in the Dartmouth admissions process, Furstenberg admits that athletics are an essential aspect of College life and that admissions decisions about prospective student-athletes are made with this in mind.
High-school athletes who could potentially fill specialized positions on teams are particularly taken into account.
"A goalie in lacrosse, it's not a position you can substitute other people into. If a goalie graduates and we need one, we have to look long and hard at that, but still -- the standards apply," said Furstenberg.
The admissions department consults each athletic team every year on which positions are being vacated by graduating seniors and Fursten-berg said that the department then does its best to accommodate these needs.
The needs of certain teams are sometimes given more attention than others, but Furstenberg emphasized that this is not an uncommon practice throughout the Ivy League.
"We want to have strong programs across the board. Obviously some teams at Dartmouth are more successful, more visible, we have a long tradition in them, obviously those are looked at more closely," he said.
However, he added, "We want to know what would we have in a community member if they decided not to play."
Financial Aid
Students in the Ivy League -- unlike at many public institutions -- are not subject to scholarship rules requiring athletic participation in exchange for tuition.
As a result, recruited athletes at Dartmouth who choose to quit their sports or are sidelined by injury are not faced with having to lose a college education in the same instant.
Coaches say that the fact that admissions officers are evaluating them as a whole candidate is one of the things they emphasize in their pitches to high-school athletes about Dartmouth.
"Kids look here, they see our hockey players, they walk all over this campus. They have other friends; it's not just hockey 24/7," said Hudak.
Though the tug-of-war between potential athletes and the College itself requires a delicate balance, coaches and admissions officers contacted by The Dartmouth say the process works.
"It's the nature of the work we do," said Furstenberg. "We try to balance all of this to put together a good class."
