How does athletic recruiting work for college admissions?

RRecruitment for a sport is one of the most powerful advantages an applicant to a selective college can have, and readers in Stanford's admissions office treated it like any other blue-chip strength. When a college admits a student who will help a team win, it adds energy and life to the whole campus, and that contribution is unusual enough to outweigh a great deal.

Families tend to assume recruitment is reserved for the next professional star, so students with real but not extraordinary talent never find out what a coach might have done for them. That assumption is often wrong, and the window for testing it closes earlier than most families expect. How support actually works varies by division, conference and sport.