(Welcome to Suburban Legends, an examination of the “truths” about college admission heard in the checkout line at the grocery store, in the stands at high school sporting events, and at any social gathering of parents with children about to apply to college. Unlike myths, Suburban Legends are plausible, and some may even be true. They are most likely to be believed by those who are educated and affluent, and they are always passed on by someone you trust but never happen to anyone you know.)
If you were in Davos, Switzerland last week for the World Economic Forum, you probably aren’t reading this (and it’s your loss). But you may have seen, whereas the rest of us had to listen to or read about, the remarkable speech given by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. In a rational, honest, and powerful address, Carney described what he termed a “rupturing” of the rules-based international order that has guided the world since World War 2. He called on countries that are “middle powers” to assert their autonomy by banding together in values-based alliances, making the point that “if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” If one chooses to interpret the speech through the metaphorical lens of Canada’s national sport, he was offering strategy on defending power plays.
Carney’s speech was in stark contrast to other presentations at the summit that were more hyped. His courage and honesty made Canadians proud and citizens of other countries jealous.
Listening to the Canadian leader’s words, one would be tempted to think that he had been educated at someplace like Harvard. And in fact he was. Carney graduated from Harvard in 1987, a third-string goalie on the ice hockey team.
It is that last factoid that leads into today’s Suburban Legend.
SUBURBAN LEGEND: There’s a hockey goalie in every Harvard freshman class.
The rumor that Harvard admits a hockey goalie every year has been around at least as long as I have been in the college counseling profession, which is closing in on a half century. That’s staying power (for the rumor, that is). It’s plausible for at least three reasons.
Ice hockey is a sport that Harvard takes seriously. It competes with three other Boston-area universities (Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern) in the Beanpot tournament held each February in the TD Garden (pronounced “Gahden”). Only eight other universities have made more NCAA tournament appearances than Harvard’s 26, and it won the NCAA national championship in 1989 before the tournament was rebranded as the “Frozen Four.”
There are only 60 colleges that compete in Division One ice hockey, one-sixth the number that have D1 basketball teams. Statistically, nearly five percent of high school hockey players go on to play in Division One, higher than for any other sport (for all sports it’s about two percent). It makes sense that colleges would recruit goalies at an even higher level, given the importance of the position and the specialized skills required.
For the conspiracy theorists, the most intriguing explanation for the hockey goalie Suburban Legend is that Bill Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s legendary Dean of Admissions, was a hockey goalie during his student days at Harvard. That leads to speculation that he must look out for the ice hockey program while sculpting (but not ice sculpting) each year’s freshman class.
Alas, it’s not the case that every Harvard freshman class includes an ice hockey goalie. What is accurate is that most Harvard classes contain a hockey goalie. If you look at the rosters for the men’s ice hockey team for the past 25 years, in approximately one-third of the years there are four goalies on the roster, but not necessarily one from each class. In nearly two-thirds of the years there are three goalies, and there were a couple of years (including the current one) in which there were only two goalies. The Harvard hockey program did not respond to a request for comment about their goalie recruiting strategy.
Even if not literally true, the hockey goalie Suburban Legend is truthful. It captures an important truth about the role that athletics plays in the college admissions process at most colleges and universities, including Harvard.
You may be surprised to learn that Harvard offers more varsity sports (42) than any other NCAA Division One college or university. A 2019 Washington Post story revealed that Harvard had more varsity athletes than athletic powerhouses like Stanford, Notre Dame, UCLA, Michigan, Texas, and UNC-Chapel Hill, and more than twice as many as the Universities of Georgia and Florida.
The athletes who populate those rosters don’t just show up; they are almost all coach-recruited. Being a recruited athlete may be the best of all admissions hooks. Author Jeff Selingo has suggested that while the admissions process for highly-selective colleges and universities is similar to a lottery, for athletes it is more a matching process. Discovery in the court case filed against Harvard by Students for Fair Admissions indicated that 86 percent of applicants with a top athletic rating are admitted. That’s substantially better than the overall 4 percent admit rate. It is estimated that close to a quarter of the students at the Ivies are recruited athletes. At the liberal arts colleges in the NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) it may be closer to a third.
If you are a coach-recruited hockey goalie applying to Harvard, you are not competing with every other applicant, just every other recruited hockey goalie. If you are the best goalie and also qualified academically, there is an 86% chance that there is a spot at Harvard waiting for you, while your high school classmates with stronger grades and scores but no hook have less than a 1% chance.
(Parents, if you are dying for your child to go to Harvard, don’t rush out and buy your child hockey skates and pads and sign him or her up for goalie lessons. That Zamboni has probably already left the arena.)
If being a recruited athlete can make the admissions process easier, it can also make it harder. Being an athletic recruit can seem a lot like trying to get a date to the prom. On one hand, there is your dream date, someone you would love to go with, but they have no interest in you. There are others you know would go with you in a second, but you are not sure you want to settle. You may see others being asked out even though you are better looking and more personable. And your biggest fear is that you end up with no date at all.
Athletic recruiting accelerates the admissions process. If you are fortunate enough to have an offer for a scholarship or a place on a team, you will probably have to decide whether to accept it without knowing what other opportunities might be out there. To return to the prom date metaphor, coaches’ jobs are dependent on their ability to find the right date, and if it’s not you, then they need to move on and find another date. Athletes at the Ivies and NESCAC are generally expected to apply through Early Decision, meaning you have to commit and close off other options by November 1. The system generally works well, but I have seen cases where a student commits by applying ED, ends interaction with other schools, and then is not admitted., leading to a last-minute scramble for another option.
The ultimate issue is that playing a sport should be a consideration in the college search, but not the only consideration. Are you okay with sitting on the bench or playing for a team that always loses? What happens if you get hurt and can no longer play? What happens if the coach who recruited you leaves for a better job or is fired? What happens if the college drops your sport? Is your college choice still the right fit? Be thoughtful about what’s important to you and take ownership of the recruiting process, with help from parents, coaches, and college counselors.
As a former Harvard hockey goalie has observed, if you’re not at the table, you’re probably on the menu. That’s good advice not only for “middle power” nations, but also for college applicants.