<p>and for those highly qualified athletes in your school, how many schools across the nation do you think are missing varsity athletes for hightly recruited sports who have competitive grades, schedules, and SATs, as well as good performance on the field/court? and of those athletes that are so blessed, how many of them are willing to put in the commitment to keep playing in college? hell, i’m not even talking only division I here. </p>
<p>the acceptance process for colleges is based on admitting people who will fill a certain niche, add a certain something to the class. Let’s say you’re an admissions person for a highly selective engineering college that has ncaa athletics. You see two applicants. a football player with alright statistics who is planning on continuing playing in college, and a successful competitor in math olympiads. looking at no other factors, you may be tempted to pick the athlete because he probably has something more to offer to the school. now, if this person has things like really dry essays, demonstrates minimal personality, etc, whereas the math person is some quirky, entertaining, interesting uber-nerd who can add dimension and diversity and fun to your school, you’d prolly pick the math guy. it depends on what they have to offer to your school. i’d say that playing football or basketball (sports where you often stand out in the team if you can count as high as your jersey number, i know this from experience) and have excelled in school with a rigourous schedule and in athletics, i’d say you have more going for you than a mathlete if you just looked at those two aspects. one gets you more than the other. i don’t think there’s anything wrong with that because in many schools, athletics bring more to the school than excellence in math competition (although in many schools, such academic competition is a bigger thing). Moreover, if you’re a top school, you probably have alot more in the way of mathletes applying than committed and skilled athletes. </p>
<p>what does a person have to offer? i’d say that good stats and good athletics are a bigger advantage than great stats and excellence in academic competition. but if those things are the only thing either applicant has to offer, they’re both going to get rejected.</p>