I know basketball and football players can get into elite college with mediocre stats but what about track athletes, specifically sprinters.
If you are the top 50 fastest sprinters in the nation, can you get into a college like UCLA with a 2.8? I’ve took all the honors courses and AP courses offered at my HS, but I’m not sure if they use a holistic admission process or solely use GPA for athletes?
I plan on going to a UCLA track camp in July to hopefully get recruited.
Btw I’m a junior at the moment and male.
@TomSrOfBoston
It’s the big reason for my low GPA. My school has 4 AP’s and 8 Honors classes total which I have all taken or am taking right now.
@TrackField99
the point that they’re trying to make is that it’s actually “taken” and not “took” haha. And the 2.8 let’s say it’s raised to a 3.3 and maybe a 1700 on the ACT then yes a big public but good school : UCLA/ Berkeley/Michigan/North Carolina/Virginia/Ohio State would probably accept you if they have big track and field programs, the Coach actually recruits you, and you’re in the Top 50.
How do you calculate GPA for athletes exactly? I have a 2.8 GPA if you count only academic classes. I have a 3.4 GPA if you count P.E and other electives.
Yeah, well, they’ll drill down and find that and it won’t look too good. You’ve got to talk to the coaches. If they are interested, they will know if there’s any hope and what can be done about it.
Which GPA do they look?
Weighted GPA? UW GPA? UC GPA? Core GPA? I’m so confused on what they chose.
My school says I have a 3.5 Weighted GPA and 3.4 UW GPA which all includes all those P.E classes I took for the easy “A”.
But take out all those electives and P.E classes I took and I get a 2.8 unweighted Core Academic GPA if I’m calculating it right.
No college counts PE classes. /they will count core classes and probably some electives like art and psych.
For UC you have to calculate the UC weighted gpa according to directions on their website and you must have 3.0 minimum for instate or 3.4 for OOS. /roughly this is sophomore and Jr classes only, and the classes that fill A to G requirements. No PE. Maybe some electives yes, that fill a to g. Then approved honors (instate only) and AP get weighted. /they will also review your UW and fully weighted gpa but the UC gpa is the cutoff for everyone, it is not different for athletes to my knowledge. Other schools may have more exceptions.
See
http://collegetools.berkeley.edu/documents/cat_113-128/Calculating_GPA.pdf
I’m glad that the UC’s look at only soph and Jr classes. So I actually have a 3.6 UC GPA which is just good enough for OOS. 
It’s just all those C’s that I had freshmen year that killed my GPA. However I’m still not positive about going to a UC, especially if the coach ends up making me be a walk-on and pay OOS.
Other colleges that I want to go to is USC and Stanford and they all count freshmen year…
What GPA do those colleges look at for athletes? Weighted or unweighted?
Did a little research on USC about GPA cutoff and here’s what I found
"There is no minimum requirement or absolute “cutoff” for grades, class rank or test scores. "
So theoretically an athlete with even a 1.4 GPA could get in? 
Yeah try contacting the USC coach and explain your situation. They won’t let in a 1.4 gpa athlete, but they dont want to detract people from applying because the lower the acceptance rate, the better it is for the rankings. They will let in a 2.0 guy but he would have to be a football/basketball star. And Stanford does seem out of reach for you, but try USC, and the UCS if you want California.
@TrackField99 you need to look at NCAA Eligibility Clearing House http://web1.ncaa.org/ECWR2/NCAA_EMS/NCAA.jsp
you register and they have a sliding scale showing which courses from your high school are used to calculate core GPA and what test scores are needed for D1 or D2. Then each school may have their own requirements.
Oh yeah forgot about the Eligibility Clearing House.
Okay, so lets say you meet the bare minimum for that. You can still get recruited right? What I’m trying to ask is will College Coaches not recruit if you barely just make the minimum in terms of grades/scores?
You have to be admitted by the Office of Admissions at the particular college. The coach and Athletic Department may be able to help. Ask them directly. Your admission comes from the Office of Admissions. If the Office of Admissions tells the coach, the student has to have certain GPA and test scores, then the coach is limited to recruiting those who meet the admission standards.
@Hippobirdy
So lets say I have a 3.5 UC Weighted GPA which normally won’t cut it for UCLA. If I’m recruited to run track for UCLA will I get admitted? Do they solely just look at GPA or do they look at rigor of classes, like basically a normal admission process?
This is a conversation you will need to have with the coach. It may depend on many factors, including what other athletes he has in the pipeline. Remember, no coach wants to babysit a poor student all year long, and possibly have to deal with an ineligible player on his roster.
However, the bar for athletes (including track) at many schools can be quite low.
@couplemoreweeks, are you a recruited athlete?
To the OP, your best course of action is to talk to the coaches of the schools you are interested in. They can give you an idea of what bar you need to clear to get in. Possibly HS coaches who have sent athletes on to colleges as well.
I will talk to the coach this summer when I go to a track camp at UCLA or USC, but I can’t right now since I live OOS.
It’s just that I can’t wait that long since I have to select classes for next year really soon.
Should I take the easy non-honors classes for the A to boost my GPA? Or should i take the honors classes and risk getting a B? Keep in mind i’m OOS and honors courses don’t give any weight. There are also no more AP classes at my HS I can take.
How serious are you about playing your sport in college above all else? If you are 100% certain that your goal is to be recruited, probably your grades are more important than the classes you have taken. Please keep in mind, however, that should you get injured or decide to apply to colleges as a non-athlete for whatever reason, the rigor of your course load will be important in the application process.
@prospect1
I’m really serious on running track at the college level. I’m the top runner at my school and I’ll admit that I had to sacrifice my grades for the past 3 years, which will be a foolish mistake of mine if I don’t get recruited. I’m kind of mad that they put such importance on GPA rather than consider course rigor for athletes. If I hadn’t taken all those AP/IB and honors courses I would have a 4.0 easy.