SITUATION

Matt’s blond hair had a greenish tint and, via Zoom, we could almost smell the chlorine permeating the room. He was a lifelong competitive swimmer for the Long Island Express Swim Team and while he had no dreams of swimming in the Olympics, he did wish to leverage his swim times to earn admission to the most selective university possible.

A breaststroker with a 58.53 100-yard breast time and a 2:06.68 200-yard breast time, Matt knew that his times were fast in his two best events but he wasn’t sure where he would stand in the eyes of college swim coaches, particularly given that his freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and individual medley times were not particularly competitive.

CHALLENGES

At Ivy Coach, we never rely on a sport in the elite college admissions process. After all, what if Matt hurt his knee and could no longer swim a sub :59 100-yard breast? What if mid-junior year, Matt got burned out from swimming twice a day, including the three times a week 5 AM workouts?

We also never rely on a sport because we prohibit our students from writing about sports in their college admissions essays since it’s the single most cliche topic one could select. As such, beyond swimming, Matt needed a story through his extracurricular activities and admissions essays, which we helped him zero in on and convey throughout his applications (it happened to relate to mechanical engineering).

HOW IVY COACH HELPED

First, we gave Matt a sense of where he stood with his breaststroke times in the eyes of swim coaches. After all, unlike basketball or baseball, one’s prowess in the sport of swimming can be objectively measured. One doesn’t need to guess how a college coach perceives the student’s ability in the sport. The answer is right there in the heat sheets.

We went through the top ten all-time records in the 100 and 200-yard breast at all of the highly selective schools with Matt. At Harvard, for instance, the tenth fastest 100-breast ever swam by a Harvard men’s swimmer stood at 54.33. But one not be a near program record holder to attract the attention of a college coach. Were his times competitive compared to the current roster? The answer was that they were not. Most Harvard breaststrokers were swimming below :57 in the event. Matt’s 2:09 200-yard breast time also wouldn’t have scored Harvard points. As such, and because Matt’s three other strokes weren’t nearly as competitive as his breaststroke, it became obvious that the Harvard coach wouldn’t be all that interested in recruiting him.

We performed similar analyses with Matt across all elite universities. Through that analysis, we determined that Dartmouth’s swim coach might have some interest in his breaststroke times. After all, while his times were not within the top ten all-time for Dartmouth’s men’s swim team, they were similar to the school’s top breaststroke times on its roster at the time. Additionally, the two top breaststrokers were both graduating seniors. As such, it became obvious that Dartmouth had a need for some incoming breaststrokers.

COLLEGE RESULTS

Matt applied Early Decision to Dartmouth as a swimming recruit. He got in. And while he loved swimming for Dartmouth, we couldn’t help but notice that his high school times in both breaststroke events were faster than his college times. While he swam all four years in Hanover, we surmise that he must have found other pursuits beyond the pool that he found enjoyable.