<p>I've been a long-time member, but this is my first post. </p>
<p>Could someone clarify for me how the Academic Index is used for non-football Ivy teams in recruiting athletes? Must all non-football team averages fall within one standard deviation of all (admitted/matriculated?) students? Same for boys and girls? If your ACT score is higher than your SAT Subject Test scores (say you have a 33 ACT score, equal to a 730-730-730 SAT, can you use the "73" twice (146) if your SAT Subject tests top out at 680 and 720? Is the reverse also true, whereby you could use SAT Subject test scores of 750-740 (149) to offset a 33 ACT (146)? Can you "mix and match," maybe take a 34 ACT English/Writing (780 equivalent, or "78") and combine it with a 750 Subject test score (75) to arrive at a score of 153 for the 2/3 "test-score" component of the Academic Index?</p>
<p>Finally, why do "Converted Rank Scores" not take into account the rigor of the curriculum? If you have a 3.2 average with three APs, that's equal only to a CRS of 64-68, depending on which tables a school is using (and where can one find these tables?). If someone has a 4.0 average from a large public high school with huge grade inflation, that's a CRS of 80, which could offset less-than-stellar test scores.</p>
<p>Good questions - if you’ve been a longtime member you know the AI formula is 1/3 SAT CR+M, 1/3 rank or GPA and 1/3 SATII subject tests. How much each athletic department will play around with the numbers is anyone’s guess. We were told a different AI than the one that we arrived at using the AI calculator. We had a coach tell D she had an AI of X, and followed it by saying, “and I’m being conservative”. When reporting SATii scores, another coach said, “thats great but your ACT trumps everything.” So, yes, there is wiggle room in the calculation. I don’t know if it’s so flexible as to allow substituting ACT for SATii scores - I kind of doubt it.</p>
<p>As for AI taking into account the rigor of the curriculum, some people have been told there is a 5 point bump in rankings for particularly difficult curricula. I’m not completely convinced of that because if that were the case, the top possible AI would be 245 which we know isn’t the case.</p>
<p>The coaches for D’s Ivy used her ACT and SAt IIs, to get the highest AI possible. I doubt if they would mix ACT partial scores with SAT I partials. </p>
<p>As for question 2–yes, a lower GPA at the harder school can hurt, however if the school is one of the top preps in the country, I suspect they will consider that element.</p>
<p>I can answer a couple of your questions. Each school is given a quota of recruiting slots … and yes the majoirty of them are the first band (within one standard deviation of the typical admit). Each school can decide for itself how it distributes the recruiting slots across the sports … and some schools probably prioritize some sports over others … so there is no set distribution. I think it is pretty safe to say that the schools will only use the slots in the second or third band on higher impact athletes in their prioritized sports … so a star goalie for the hockey team is more likely to use a second band slot than the back-up field hockey goalie.</p>
<p>Also some schools with very difficult curricula–Bronx Science, Thomas Jefferson or a top prep school-- do have a “bump” of a few points of their AI–I have heard as much as five-- but this isn’t official. Also there is a distinction between "adjusted and non-adjusted GPAs. The particular student athlete isn’t the issue for the Ivies per se, but the over all AI of the team. Therefore a top flight athlete may get some slack where as a less than stellar athlete may be admitted to bump up the teams overall AI. Within each university the decision as to what AI will be acceptable for any given team is made–some schools will give crew a bigger push, other aquatic sports, others track & field. Of course football and basketball (hockey) are in a class by themselves as to the flexibility of the AI toward admission that, say, the squash team would never have…</p>