Happy April! Hope the showers here in Northern New England bring May flowers . . . and don't turn to snow!
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With Dartmouth spring practice slated to kick off Tuesday, Big Green football is wrapping up "mat drills." These photos from workouts in The Green House are courtesy of Twitter:
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Dartmouth has a press release about its admissions decisions noting, "The acceptance rate for the Dartmouth Class of 2026 was 6.2%, tying the mark set last year by the Class of ’25 as the most selective admission cycle in the College’s history." Also from the release (LINK):
• "Every state in the United States is represented in the admitted student pool, as is the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Marianas Islands, along with 73 other countries across all inhabited continents. A record high 57% reside in the southern and western United States, or overseas, with California continuing to lead all U.S. states in representation."
• "The United Kingdom, Canada, China, and India are the top international cohorts."
• "Among U.S. citizens or permanent residents, 53% are students of color. Seventeen percent are among the first generation in their families to apply to college, tying the record set with the Class of 2025."
• "Fifteen percent live in a rural community."
• "Sixty percent attend public high schools."
• "Sixty-three percent of those accepted, or more than 3 of every 5, applied for need-based financial aid, with accepted students receiving more than $50 million in Dartmouth scholarships based on preliminary statistics, with an average scholarship of more than $61,000, an all-time high."
Per the release, Dartmouth received applications from 28,836 students with 1,207 accepted in the regular admission round after 560 "had already been accepted in December via Dartmouth’s early decision plan and through the Questbridge National College Match program, a nonprofit organization that brings students from low-income backgrounds to the attention of leading institutions of higher education."
Decisions by the applicants about whether they will choose Dartmouth are due back by May 2.
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On the subject of admissions, in a March Zoom call Yale coach Tony Reno reported that given the number of his players returning for a fifth year because of the relaxation of eligibility rules due to COVID, he would have just 24 admissions slots this year. Roar Lions Roar, Jake Novak's reliable Columbia blog is listing just 21 recruits for Al Bagnoli's team so far, and BGA has uncovered just 22 heading this way so far.
Green Alert Take: The word on the street is that given the mess last year Dartmouth football, like Yale, did not have a full complement of football admission slots this year. That shouldn't be an issue this fall or while the roster features players taking advantage of their extra COVID year of eligibility. It may well be problematic by the time the incoming players are seniors, particularly if there is attrition in the class and the admission slots don't bump back up.
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I've had a number of people over the years ask if there's video of Cornell great Ed Marinaro on the web but haven't been able to dig up any. Someone on the Voy message board posted a link to a Penn-Cornell game that has at least has a few clips of the Big Red standout who finished second for the Heisman Trophy in 1971. He doesn't have any great runs on the video but it's at least worth checking out HERE.
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Dartmouth and the Ivy League have added a few Northeast Conference opponents to their football schedules over the past few years and the list of potential NEC opponents could continue to grow if Stonehill, currently a DII program in Easton, Mass., does indeed pursue a move up to Division I and the NEC as rumored HERE.
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EXTRA POINT
It wasn't April Fool's yesterday, but Mrs. BGA and I were. Fools, that is.
It wasn't April Fool's yesterday, but Mrs. BGA and I were. Fools, that is.
Hoping to see the movie CODA, winner of the best picture Oscar, we decided to take advantage of Mrs. BGA having a comp day off to both catch a matinee showing up in Burlington and take advantage of a 60-degree day at the city that bills itself as the "West Coast of New England."
Unfortunately, while we both read that there was a 12:45 p.m. showing, what we failed to notice is that it was for 12:45 FRIDAY. Yesterday, of course, was a Thursday.
That being the case, we could only laugh at ourselves and spend a little time strolling the Church Street Marketplace while we dodged raindrops, battled chilly winds off the lake and wondered where the 60-degree day went.
The good news is we had a nice, relaxing pizza lunch and found free charging for our Bolt EV while we ate. Kind of satisfying to make a 160-mile round trip drive and not use a drop of gasoline – even if we didn't get to see the flick ;-)
