<p>You guys are totally missing the point! I don’t think that even half of you know what USAMO is (you’re throwing around math olympiad as if it’s really easy to qualify for). USAMO is the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad that only the top 500 out of 500,000 initial competitors qualify for (these initial competitors are chosen from a pool of all high school students). That puts the acceptance rate for USAMO at 1/1000 or 0.1% of the BEST math students in the country. </p>
<p>Now if you are comparing such prestigious math competitors to average high school football players you are insane. There are well over 20,000 high schools in the country and several hundreds of thousands (maybe even millions) of high school athletes. How can you compare the two?!? Most USAMO qualifiers end up at HYPSM, do most high school athletes end up at HYPSM? </p>
<p>Furthermore, these students do contribute to colleges, most engage in highly profitable research and win impressive academic accolades for the universities they attend.</p>
<p>Now before someone says something ludicrous and ignorant like “no one cares about math olympians” please read through my post thoroughly.</p>