<p>I will admit that I stopped reading many of the replies to this post because they just became so petty and “woe is me”! Top schools are not simply admitting students - they are selecting a class! Perhaps the athlete mentioned will add alot (aside from his baseball ability) to his class at Stanford! Many of you, original poster in particular, need to grow up! You do not know everything about a particular applicants credentials. What gives you the right to diminish athletic talent? There are many positive charateristics that athletes bring to a situation such as leadership,discipline, and tenacity - just to name a few.</p>
<p>^few people would disagree that Stanford tries to admit a class and that athletic talent has many positive characteristics.
the debate is whether athletic talent does and/or should supercede academic records.
(i tried to phrase this carefully because i think academic promise and academic records are quite different)</p>
<p>To quote from the viewbook my daughter received:
“If Stanford athletes had represented a single country in recent Olympic competitions, their medals would have placed it seventh in the world.”</p>
<p>Stanford recruits some of the best young athletes in America. Some of my child’s teammates are national champions, several have and will represent the USA in international youth competitions, some will likely be competing in the Olympics in Greece. In non-Olympic sports, Stanford athletes will go on to play in professional leagues. I don’t know why anyone thinks an ordinary high school varsity athlete could just walk-on at Stanford. There may be a few isolated examples, like the coxswain in crew, where this happens, but it just can’t be the norm.</p>
<p>I should add that “recruited” does not mean “getting an athletic scholarship.” I think people overestimate that aspect of Stanford’s sports program. Outside of the big sports like football, men’s basketball and baseball, and the sports where if you’re recruited you get a free ride (gymnastics), there just aren’t that many kids getting athletic money. And of those that do, the average amount is around $9000. My daughter only knows for sure of one freshman boy and one girl on her team who are getting athletic money, and they are the super superstars. She thinks, judging by high school accomplishments, that there are at least another freshman boy and girl who’d probably be getting money. The rest are on ordinary financial aid or are receiving nothing at all but the honor of attending one of the best academic universities in the world. There are plenty of parents who’d go into significant debt to give their kids the chance to be trained at Stanford.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Saying that I don’t know about it and then continuing with an empty statement (along with anecdotal evidence) doesn’t show anything, NJDS. And I didn’t deny the above statement, but qualified it with many additional factors, because I know it isn’t as simplistic as you try to make it seem.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Again, how is it that you know more about this than I do? Where is your source on that? (In my experience over the past few years, there are quite a lot of walk-ons. Anecdotal, yes, but equally valid to your “my hs had this many athletes admitted and then my high school had this many athletes admitted.”)</p>
<p>It depends on the sport. I have a friend who only started his recruiting process (men’s crew) after he was accepted academically at Stanford. The admissions department is really fluky, but they won’t accept anyone who can’t do the work, so the guy you know can’t be that dim. And frosty6, I think that the coach must have done something to anger the admissions department! there is no way that should happen :(</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Stanford</a> Football Announces 2011 Recruiting Class - Stanford University’s Official Athletic Site](<a href=“http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/020211aab.html]Stanford”>http://www.gostanford.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/020211aab.html)</p>
<p>More on Brains and Brawn in Stanford’s football team:</p>
<p>[Stanford</a> Football Recruits Corner the ‘Smart’ Market - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/6dscl5j]Stanford”>http://■■■■■■■.com/6dscl5j)</p>
<p>Aisling Cuffe, the nation’s top female cross country recruit, stated in an interview that one reason she chose Stanford was that during her official visits, it was the only school among her top choices where she saw team members actually doing homework.</p>
<p>Title IX, which has led every university to devote athletic resources to women in a proportion equal to their enrollment upends some of the common sense logic I’m reading here.</p>
<p>To the point being debated here, Stanford, in the sport I’m familiar with, has many scholarships available (twelve full for a roster of about twenty) The only IVY they compete with when recruiting national level athletes is Princeton.</p>
<p>Princeton, like some of their rich IVY cohorts (Harvard, Yale) only gives need based scholarships. If a recruit’s parents income is high ($120-$150K yr) they get little or
nothing from Princeton yet at Stanford can receive $100K+ over four years.</p>
<p>Having recently gone through the recruiting process with a child, I found it very fluid, with moving parts that included coaches coming and going, budgets changing, athletes perceived value fluctuating, and a musical chairs of recruitment slots based on commitments by other athletic recruits.</p>
<p>In the end, the advice given by my daughters HS coach was right. This is a business. So treat it like one.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Princeton and the like only say they don’t give out scholarships to athletes - and it’s true, they don’t officially, as per the Ivy League agreement - but they reputedly are very generous with highly-prized athletes. They call it “need-based aid,” which isn’t a complete fabrication: at the elite universities with deep pockets, the line between “need-based” and “merit” aid is blurred (e.g. at most schools, getting aid if you make $120k would be merit aid, but at schools like Stanford and Harvard, whose policies dictate that people with such incomes routinely get something, it’s considered need-based aid).</p>