Let's Level the Playing Field: Rethinking Athletic Recruitment at Yale
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Student-athletes at Yale don’t have it easy. They have to balance a full course load while attending practices and games that often require rising at the crack of dawn. We admire them and have no doubt they’re exceptional in much the same way as their peers — which is why we are unconvinced that Yale should maintain specialized recruitment for student-athletes.
Despite sharing so much in common with their peers, student-athletes regularly gain admission through a distinct recruitment process. No other extracurricular is afforded this same privilege. So, that begs the question: what’s so special about athletics? In our opinion, nothing. We worry, then, that specialized recruitment is not only unjustified, but worse, it pigeon-holes student-athletes and erodes the integrity of Yale’s holistic admissions process.
Make no mistake: we do not seek a Yale free of sports or athletes. We, too, enjoy attending the occasional football game and are glad to celebrate athletic excellence among our peers. We just do not believe that the elimination of the specialized recruitment process would render Yale athletics obsolete. As it stands, most athletes are not selecting Yale because of its athletics. If this were their top priority, the most skilled student-athletes would set their sights on a state school with a stronger sports program that improves their chances of going pro. They choose Yale for the same reason we do—the quality of education. This fact is irrespective of any recruitment process.
And it's not that high-quality athletes wouldn’t get in. Their hard-earned awards in football or crew would still be taken into consideration, but the weight of input would shift from a recruitment coach to an admissions officer. We believe Yale student-athletes when they speak of the sheer effort and dedication they pour into their craft and the recruitment process. It is in recognizing the hard work of student-athletes, in understanding that Yale’s admissions process specifically selects for talent and drive, that we are assured an end to recruitment would not herald an end to Yale athletics.
To assume otherwise is to demean student-athletes and diminish their accomplishments. If we doubt the ability of top-level athletes to stand the test of holistic review without recruitment, we implicitly buy into conceptions of athletes as simple in character and lacking substance beyond their sport. It is those who affirm recruitment that effectively cast student-athletes as one-dimensional and undeserving of their spot at Yale save for their athletic prowess. Were the most skilled athletes subject to the same traditional admissions cycle as their peers, it seems plausible that this reductive view of athletes would lose force. People would have to regard athletes with the same deference as students of every other extracurricular leaning, which we worry is not the case already because the specialized recruitment process allows their peers to write them off.
We understand that our proposal would likely result in a weakening of sports to some degree. While talent would be retained for the most part, it’s conceivable that a few athletes would be lost in a shift away from selective recruitment. But we think Yale—like the Ivy League at large—has become less athletics-focused and more intellectually driven across the centuries. Our campus culture only echoes this point. The average Yale sporting event sees mostly empty bleachers, peppered with the occasional sports fanatic: compare that to Yale Symphony Orchestra concerts. Even at Harvard-Yale, the University’s most popular and lucrative sporting event, most people don’t attend to watch any particular athlete. The Game is really just an outlet for our school pride.
Even if the success of sports at Yale were to falter with recruitment gone, we expect campus morale to remain plenty high. Sure, we might lose some ticket sales, and we might alienate some alumni. But, such factors should not hold our admissions process hostage.
It’s time to rethink Yale’s specialized athletic process, not out of disdain for sports, but out of genuine respect for our student-athletes and the values Yale upholds. By eliminating this outdated practice, we would be affirming that athletic talent, like any other exceptional skill our student body possesses, deserves recognition through a holistic admissions process. Let’s let the scoreboard reflect excellence, not special treatment.
This editorial was published with the approval of at least two-thirds of the group’s members. They can be reached at publiusatyale@gmail.com.
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