<p>"Greater Atlanta Christian cornerback Meko McCray has accepted an offer to play football for Princeton, turning down Harvard and Yale. He said one of the main factors came down to the engineering department."</p>
<p>"That's not something you hear very often this time of year. Typically college football decisions are more apt to come down to offensive schemes, football atmosphere or the coaching staff. A prospect?s parent might bring up academics.</p>
<p>"But for McCray, a 4.1 GPA student who got a 1950 out of a possible 2400 on the new SAT, it was important to feel good about the engineering program. He thinks he might like to pursue a career in it.</p>
<p>"The Tigers are coming off their first Ivy League Championship in 11 years. It was a bonus for McCray that the much of the Princeton coaching staff has been together for a while under head coach Roger Hughes, who took over at Princeton in 2000. </p>
<p>"There's a sense of unity," McCray said.</p>
<p>"Ivy League schools don't have athletic scholarships but they offer financial aid packages, which McCray said in his case would cover almost all of the $42,000 in tuition."</p>
<p>IMO i think princeton is doing this person a disservice by admitting him. Clearly he has marketable skills as a football player which he can better develop at a state school that also have good engineering programs- but he will be demolished at Princeton with it's grade deflation--- not to mention Princeton's tougher engineering curriculum. How does princeton expect someone with a 1950/2400 to compete with the echelon of kids admitted to the Ivy league, and Princeton, no less? Agree/disagree?</p>
<p>Normally I would disagree with you arguing that SAT scores are no indication. However, in this case I would say that he will have a much more difficult time at Princeton than others especially since he is doing engineering. I mean sure it is doable with those scores but it really is a shame how far recruitment goes.</p>
<p>The guy has a 4.1 GPA for heaven's sake. Obviously he's a pretty diligent student. Chill out. The SAT really doesn't mean as much as many people would like it to.</p>
<p>Also the kid comes from a lower income home as he is receiving full aid.
Perhaps there weren't resourses available to cover SAT tutoring.
Admissions can assess whether or not the skills are there to handle the work load at Princeton. There are plenty of athlete-scholars who have attented that have done well academically.</p>
<p>That may be true-- but a couple of years ago a meaningful portion of Princeton's basketball team were ineligible to play based on poor academic performance. Also... all this emphasis put on SAT tutoring--- not a single one of my friends have had it- we just use one/two books and practice over and over and all of us have done tremendously well. Maybe it's cause we're asian? But who knows.</p>
<p>FWIW. Two of the guys from the football team in my era, maybe not the academic peers of some of the others in my class, are kicking butt in their careers, wildly successful and doing what they love. SATs - within a range - aren't everything. Even scientists recognize different forms of intelligence guys:).</p>
<p>truazn8948532, congratulations again on being accepted to Columbia ED. I am sure Columbia has accepted athletes with comparable stats, and it is a very competitve school. I agree that SAT's aren't always a great measure of future success. Also, truanzn, my son did the same thing you did. He didn't take a review course for the SAT. However, most of his Asian friends (since you mentioned it) were studying for the SAT for a few years now. Everybody is different though.</p>
<p>Meko is awesome. Leave him alone. He is toughing it out fine. He has heart. Something that a lot of Asians lack! (I am not racist or anything. I am just saying) It is better for him to know what he wants to do (engineering) and focusing on it than to do something that his parents told him to do. If you are motivated, nothing can deter you from your dream.</p>
<p>truazn: I have several friends (recruited athletes, generally) with sub-2000 SATs who are planning on doing engineering and are turning out fine in their introductory courses, at least. SATs aren't everything, and that really shows once you actually get to university.</p>