Wharton freshman Mike Klein had virtually secured an acceptance to Penn before many of his peers had even sent in their applications.
Though he applied regular decision, Klein -- a soccer recruit -- received a letter around Christmas informing him that he would "likely" have the opportunity to join the class of 2009.
But Penn wasn't the only university interested in Klein, and other prospective schools had something extra to offer: athletic scholarships, which Ivy League regulations prohibit.
And when spring rolled around, Klein, along with athletic recruits across the country, had to choose between scholarship money and the chance to receive an Ivy League education.
Ivy League Standards
Unlike many Division I schools, Ivy League institutions cannot give athletic scholarships.
In 1945, the Ancient Eight signed the first "Ivy Group Agreement," eliminating athletic scholarships for football players. The idea was to establish a standard by which academics would prevail over athletics.
Nine years later, the group expanded the ban to all intercollegiate sports. The eight schools had set themselves apart, forming the only conference that didn't offer money to exceptional athletes.
But it soon became evident that recruiting and maintaining strong athletic teams would be an ongoing challenge for the schools in the division. Penn's top-ten football team fell from the rankings in the years following the decision.
But any fears of a total athletic collapse proved unfounded. Penn's teams continued to compete effectively, and not only within the Ivy League. The men's basketball team, for instance, culminated a stellar run in the '70s with a trip to the Final Four of the 1979 NCAA Tournament.
The men's basketball and football teams are routinely near the top of the Ivy League, and programs such as fencing, squash and wrestling are among the best in the country.
And, maybe more than any other cause, the University owes its athletic prowess to its methods of convincing top high-school athletes to attend the University.
The Recruiting Process
At Penn, officials say, academics is one of the first factors that go into considering whether to recruit an athlete or not.
High University academic standards "cancel out a lot of potential players right off the bat," men's soccer coach Rudy Fuller said. "But it's also a pro because a lot of our work is done for us."
Lee Stetson, Penn's Dean of Admissions, feels that the student athletes are held to the same standards as other applicants.
Athletics administrators argue that a well-rounded and diverse undergraduate body is needed, and athletes are just one component of that.
"Ivy League admissions offices look for a wide variety of personal experiences and qualities, including success in athletic extracurricular activities," Jeff Orleans, executive director of the Ivy League, said.
The process can officially begin as early as the July before an athlete's senior year of high school. At that time, coaches may begin corresponding with recruits once a week -- except during designated "quiet periods" -- by phone, letters, e-mail or even text messages.
Some high school athletes, like College freshman Sam Monk -- now a member of the fencing team -- take recruitment into their own hands.
"I initiated it by sending e-mails to coaches at schools that had fencing programs," Monk said. "I would update coaches on how I was doing academically and athletically."
Following contact between coaches and high school athletes, official recruitment visits are allowed in the fall of the senior year. During these, the University will pay for a recruit to come to campus and meet the coaches and team.
College freshman Sara Aiello, a swimmer who was also recruited by Columbia and Emory universities, said her recruitment trip convinced her that Penn was her ideal school.
"I just loved the team and the coach," Aiello said. "I also met other recruits who knew that they definitely wanted to be here."
But even after athletes express interest in Penn through communicating with coaches and visiting the school, they must still submit an application and receive acceptance under the usual protocol.
And applying early decision has become increasingly popular among recruits.
"Since I thought Penn was a great fit, [the] coach encouraged me to apply early," Aiello said.
Early application can take stress off athletes and coaches because both can find out earlier exactly who will be on the team next year.
"It's a good situation," Stetson said. "It shows they want us and we want them."
Athletes' applications are reviewed along with those of the rest of the applicant pool, though coaches can express interest in students wanted for teams, effectively increasing those applicants' chances.
As Klein did around Christmas of his senior year, athletes may receive "likely" letters stating that there is a good chance that they will be accepted. This is one way Penn can assure an athlete that it is very interested in him or her.
And officials think the extra attention and effort is worth it. "The value of athletics is multi-faceted," Stetson said. "One way is how it breeds school spirit."
Indeed, with more than 1,100 student-athletes, according to Penn's Web site, and 33 intercollegiate teams, the University clearly has a lot invested in athletics. And to get the high-school athletes it wants, the University is ready to go the extra mile.
To Catch a Quaker
Because Penn and other Ivy League institutions cannot rely on scholarships to recruit athletes, they must find other incentives -- and these are often academic in nature.
"Coaches do their best to garner prospective student-athletes' academic interests and promote academic programs that align with those interests," Penn Athletics spokeswoman Alanna Wren said.
Monk turned down a full scholarship to Drew University because, among other reasons, he liked the strength of the International Relations program at Penn.
The opportunity to study at the Wharton School is another incentive that Penn can offer prospective athletes.
"I always knew I wanted to go into business," Klein said. "I hope attending Wharton will help me get a good job when I graduate."
About half of the 2005 football team is enrolled in Wharton.
Mary DiStanislao, Penn's assistant athletic director, doesn't find it surprising that many athletes wind up in Wharton.
"It's their competitive personality type that mirrors the type of personality a Wharton student needs to succeed," DiStanislao said.
Stetson said that a high enrollment of football players in Wharton has been a "tradition" for a number of years.
Football players "tell others about their experience and encourage them to also apply," Stetson said.
Most of Penn's other sports teams, however, have about 20-30 percent of athletes enrolled in Wharton, which is consistent with the overall percentage of undergraduates in the business school.
As the level of competition within the Division I schools continues to rise each year, Penn and other Ivies may struggle to bring in a strong recruiting class.
"I am concerned that there is an increasing focus in some sports nationally on athletic success for its own sake rather than on athletics as part of a student's overall educational experience," Orleans said.
But Fuller thinks that Penn's location within a large city and academic resources will keep attracting talented athletes.
An additional challenge stems from the fact that Ivy League schools often recruit many of the same players. Princeton, Harvard and Yale have the largest endowments of the Ivies and therefore maybe be able to give athletes better financial aid packages, to some degree restoring the problem that led to the elimination of scholarships in the first place.
"We try to ask these delicate questions [about a student's finances] early on so we're not surprised by a decision" to attend another school, Fuller said.
Still, the decision to form the Ivy League and eliminate scholarships seems worth it to many. "Penn's reputation as a University highly geared towards academics would have slipped" otherwise, said University Archivist Mark Frasier Lloyd.
The decision was "extremely wise in the long-run," Lloyd added.
