Does an abundance of sports lead to lower selectivity?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>The toughest schools to get into (according to PRs 2005 ranking) in order are:</p>

<li>MIT</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Cal Tech</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
</ol>

2

<p>That list has very little to do with "selectivity".</p>

3

<p>Not at the ivies at least. Princeton has a higher percentage of recruited athletes than Yale or Harvard but did just fine on the list.</p>

4

<p>Stanford is a major national sports school, and it's pretty selective.</p>

5

<p>Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale all have more recruited athletes than Stanford.</p>

6

<p>Athletically speaking, those three schools are nowhere near Stanford's league. They are hardly on the same planet as Stanford:</p>

<p><a href="http://nacda.collegesports.com/sports/directorscup/spec-rel/062904aaa.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://nacda.collegesports.com/sports/directorscup/spec-rel/062904aaa.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

7

<p>Harvard has more NCAA teams than does any other college in the country.</p>

8

<p>I think MIT might have more NCAA teams (or maybe it was teams in more sports?) than any other school. They certainly have an "abundance of sports". Of course, they are Div III and they don't recruit athletes or put athletics ahead of academics, so I wouldn't say they emphasize high level competitive sports.</p>

9

<p>Actually, MIT is doing a little shy recruiting now; if you want to make sure all the facilities are used, and all the teams have enough players, you have to be a teeny-weeny bit pro-active.</p>

10

<p>As Byerly says, Harvard has the largest NCAA sports program in the country. MIT is a close second, but it's D3, not D1... D3 generally means lighter recruiting styles--no recruiting trips, fewer phone calls, etc. </p>

<p>I would expect that MIT has a hard time fielding strong teams in the way the Ivies do: Like the Ivy league, MIT (and all D3 schools) doesn't offer scholarships. The kind of student athletes MIT wants to attract might opt for an Ivy league school instead for the D1 experience.</p>

11

<p>The Ivy League IS the "D1 experience" in every sport save football, where the Ivy League is in Division IAA - ie, not offering athletic scholarships, and not participating in bowl games. Otherwise, the Ivies participate in a broader range of NCAA Division 1 sports and post-season tournaments than any other conference.</p>

12

<p>Byerly, you misread my post--I said "for" not "of". I'm saying that talented athletes who cut the mustard academically for MIT are likely to prefer the Ivy League, since it's D1.</p>

<p>I completely agree that the Ivies are the full D1 experience: I was recruited and have committed to run track for Harvard next year. So, of course, I agree with you.</p>

13

<p>Byerly-I don't think you understand sunglasses. She's saying that MIT might have a hard time recruiting because people want the Ivy league experience. Nowhere does she say the Ivy league isn't D1.</p>