She definitely embellished. I do think it’s directionally accurate as to the sport’s extremes. And frankly the author didn’t need to add those exaggerated details to make it any less compelling.
For example “ A top-25 squash player with a perfect SAT score who didn’t even get a reach-out from Amherst.” I know that is definitely wrong. Perhaps “reach out” is the key but a top 25 player would be recruited for the team.
There are parents I have heard of in CT that have built private squash courts and have hired former touring professionals to coach. Obviously though these are extreme outliers, and these are the kids getting recruited to the top few squash schools.
Princeton and Harvard are the strongest of the Ivy track programs.
Stanford is weaker than USC in short track events, but here are their walk on (not admissions preference and may not even be allowed to join the team) and scholarship standards. (Oops, can’t paste it in. The scholarship rimes listed are full scholarship. They have partial scholarships which are times between the two but they are scholarship limited. )
Men’s 800 1:49.5 scholarship; 1:53 walk on
Women’s 800. 2:05 scholarship 2:11 walk on
Men’s 1600(not 1500). 4:04. 4:11
Women’s 1600 (not 1500). 4:40. 4:53
Men’s 3200. 8:47. 9:07
Women’s 3200. 10:00. 10:30
Men’s 5,000. 14:28. 15:05.
As for XC, it’s pretty common for Stanford to take the winner of Foot Locker. And the state XC champions.
So you can see there is a huge gap. that shouldn’t be surprising. By the way, all these athletes are incredible. The Ivy’s are very very strong. However, they generally will not get the elite D1 athletes. And Stanford is just as competitive academically as Harvard or Princeton of course.
The Atlantic has actually issued a correction of many of the “facts” in the article, which was written by a free-lancer who was fired from The New Republic many years ago for plagiarism and other journalistic offenses. She apparently did not learn her lesson. Take the article with a grain of salt.
I think the author was writing about a sport she didn’t know much about (fencing). Big mistake when those who knew anything about fencing saw the mistakes immediately.
When I first read the Rolling Stone article about UVA rapes after it was posted here on CC (very, very early in process, as we on CC are always way ahead of the rest of the world), I thought “this makes no sense.” Everyone was calling for the fraternity to be shut down and the school did close the house, cancelled all Greek events, started the investigation, and I kept thinking the descriptions in the article just didn’t make sense. She described the rape scene were she was thrown on a glass coffee table that shattered and she was left lying in a pile of glass that was all over the floor. Her back was cut, but 7 guys raped her in that pile of glass with no one needing medical attention. It just didn’t make sense that that could physically happen, that they weren’t all cut up with the glass.
I think if 12 year old fencers where having their faces slashed all the time, we’d all have heard of that. The fact checkers need to actually check out the things that sound wrong and this just sounded wrong.
And you don’t have to make up the crazy amounts people pay for their kids to play sports. Do a little research. My daughter’s friend was on a travel lax team that cost about $8000, plus travel, and she wasn’t even a starter on her high school team. This kid also skied on a club team that probably cost another $10k (not counting the condo in Vail). Her brother was a ranked tennis player and I’m sure his fees exceeded $25k per year. This was not in NE.
The best discus guy in the country went to Harvard two years ago. My S was recruited by Stanford etc… and chose Princeton. I think the ivies have individual athletes who are better than anyone else in the country in certain t and f events. As someone pointed out the best Pole vault guy in NCAA goes to Princeton.
While Princeton has two amazing pole vaulters (brothers), Baylor has the current best pole vaulter in the NCAA. It is too bad that the Ivy League cancelled winter and spring sports, so those brothers won’t get to compete for the NCAA championship.
Not sure if anything has changed but the Ivy League issued this statement regarding Spring Sports last month
The Ivy League will not be conducting a conference spring season
Due to the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, and in order to maintain compliance both with campus travel, visitor and gathering policies and also with the state guidelines governing each institution, the Ivy League will not conduct conference seasons or conference postseason events in any spring sports.
Continuance of Ivy League athletics activities phases
Member institutions will continue with the league-wide phases for athletics activities already in place on all Ivy League campuses, subject to individual institutional policies. These phases govern athletics activities including training, practices, and other team and individual activities. While the league’s goal is to work toward local competition in Phase IV, it is currently not permitted on any Ivy League campus.
Potential opportunities for local spring competition
If public health conditions substantially improve and if permitted by an institution, local non-conference competition may be allowed to occur this spring. These competitions will be subject to league stipulations and must remain consistent with institutional policies for comparable co-curricular activities, including applicable travel restrictions for on-campus students and university visitor policies.
As noted above, the official word is that there is a possibility that nonconference meets may be held “if public health conditions substantially improve,” but Princeton hasn’t scheduled anything thus far, and given the restrictions currently in place on campus, I’d be pretty surprised to see the university participate in any meets.
What many of these parents need to understand is to be the best, the kid needs to be born with athletic prowess and the physical build if that kid trains hard they will be better than a kid that has money thrown at them. Classes, trainers and such, my kid ran a 12.5 in the 100 meters at 12 years old and now at 14 she’s running a 11.6 in the 100m. She’s 5’8 and strong as hell. A parent can’t pay someone to train that, I say find where your child does excel and cultivate that into a phenomenal person and they’re on the right track.