Recruited athlete

Answered

Being targeted by a university as a recruited athlete adds a big plus to your admissions chances.

In many cases, the recruitment may start as early as 10th grade if you are a star Varsity Player that has a State Title. But most recruited athletes know whether they are going to sign with the school far in advance of submitting their Early Decision or Early Action Admissions application. For instance, if you have been approached by the Stanford tennis coach in 11th grade and flew down to Palo Alto to play tennis and be evaluated and the coach wants you on the team and has expressed keen interest, then when you submit your SCREA application on Nov.1, your application chances may improve 2X or 5X depending on how badly they need you on the team. The caveat would be if you are applying to Ivy school where their D1 team isn't very strong or you are not going to be a starter. You might have better chances of getting into that school but you still have fierce competition. Nothing is a sure thing in light of the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal.

Hope that helps.