Cornell fencer looks beyond her accomplishments

Courtesy Brianna Lee

Lee fences with her opponent at the Ivies championships

For most high school seniors, the college application process requires hours of essay writing and a constant race to maintain high grades and standardized test scores. But for college athletes like Class of ‘23 alumna Brianna Lee, the process is often much different.

For her part, Lee started contacting college coaches in her junior year. 

The hard work that began at age 9 paid off: The college freshman is a Division I fencer for Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Lee says that her only extracurricular activity during high school was fencing, and was committing up to 20 hours a week for practice and traveling.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires that student athletes only contact college coaches when they are in the summer of their junior year. Sometimes, exceptional athletes are contacted by coaches directly, but typically, athletes cherry pick their competition results and email it to coaches. After Lee won first place at the 2022 Summer Nationals in Minnesota, she decided to share her result with Ivy League coaches.

Though she reached out to coaches from Northwestern and Brown, Cornell’s fencing coach looked for Lee directly. After weighing her options, Lee chose to commit to Cornell, and is currently enrolled in the S.C. Johnson College of Business.

However, Lee’s journey wasn’t always smooth-sailing. She said it has been challenging to balance Ivy League academics and fencing, but it’s still worth the effort: Student athletes have a considerable advantage over regular applicants in early decisions, according to The Conversation. 

Top athletes have an almost guaranteed acceptance and roster placement if the applicant uses the school’s early decision process. For Division I athletes, the NCAA requires at least a 2.3 GPA for 10 out of the 16 required courses approved by the NCAA. For other divisions, colleges set their own GPA requirements. (Ivy League athletes, however, do not receive athletic scholarships as they do for many other conferences.)

A recent study by professors at Louisiana State University also noted  a growing trend where small liberal arts colleges, like Adrian College, have shifted their focus to the development of sports programs and facilities in attempts to maintain their enrollment rates. The study also found that for many small liberal arts colleges, collegiate athletes make up more than half of the student body. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the number of college athletes in liberal colleges increased by 45% between 2000 and 2020.

The almost “cheat-like” college athlete application process has also evolved into a side door for some. In a high-profile Operation Varsity Blues  case, Ruth Meridith, former soccer coach of Yale’s girls soccer team, was charged for his involvement in one of the country’s largest admissions scandals. Wealthy parents, including celebrities like Felicity Huffman of “Desperate Housewives,” paid heavy bribes to fake athletic records for their children to be accepted into schools such as Yale, USC and Stanford, despite the fact that many did not play the sport they were portrayed as playing

Coach Meridith’s crimes included accepting $450,000 for an applicant; she was eventually sentenced to five months in prison and one year of supervised release. In addition, Meridith was sentenced to a year of probation, fined $19,000 and ordered to forfeit more than $550,000, according to NBC news. 

Of course, only a small minority of applicants illegally get into an Ivy League through bribery. The vast majority, like Lee, have gotten in through their accomplishments, and beyond acceptances, their hard work teaches them valuable life lessons as well.

Through fencing, Lee has built a routine: learning how to accept losing, as well as setting a goal and analyzing what she needs to do.

“Were the 10 years of fencing really worth it? It’s super tiring and you can’t hang out with friends,” Lee said. “You lose a lot so the whole process is painful but worth it to learn from. Overall, I think the sacrifice is worth it.”