<p>I'm curious to find out if there is a minimum gpa for athletic recruits? Heard the cutoff for SAT is 600 per section. Does anyone have any info? Son is being recruited for soccer, has the SAT but gpa is lower than hoped for- 3.3 at a rigorous college prep school with just four AP's. Thanks for any info.</p>
<p>In general there is a “sliding scale” used by the NCAA that allows a higher core GPA to reduce the SAT score. </p>
<p>2.5 core GPA -> 820 SAT score
2.75 core GPA -> 720 SAT score
3.0 core GPA -> 620 SAT score </p>
<p>The Ivys are normally higher than this - but exceptions can be made.</p>
<p>Per Naviance Data at my son’s prep school…average admission GPA for Dartmouth is 3.2.
We had a couple of basketball players go to Harvard and MIT with 3.5GPA. My son’s advisor says both rigor of school is taken into consideration which makes a 3.3 not too shabby at all from some of the top preps, and the fact that your son is a recruited athlete also helps.</p>
<p>Floor index for Highly Recruited athlete admission is usually minimum 1100 SAT and GPA about 3.3-3.5 (prep schools generally have a different grading 6.0 system, so usually a 4.3-4.5 from prep is considered acceptable).</p>
<p>See the following:</p>
<p>[Calculating</a> the Ivy League Academic Index](<a href=“http://home.comcast.net/~charles517/ivyai.html]Calculating”>http://home.comcast.net/~charles517/ivyai.html)</p>
<p>Many prep schools use the 4.0 gpa as well and lower gpa’s are acceptable because a 3.0 from many of these schools is equitable to a 4.0 at many public schools. I can directly compare as my son attended both our local public and now boards at a top tier prep. He repeated his freshman year and what a difference in rigor and grading for the same courses.</p>
<p>If the coach knows your son’s stats and is still recruiting him, his stats are probably admissible. Coaches won’t waste their time with a kid they can’t have. </p>
<p>–mom of Ivy athlete</p>
<p>cnp55, I don’t think that is correct. I know a kid who was recruited by two Ivies, went on the Official Visits, was told he would have their support and then did not get in. </p>
<p>Coaches cast a wide net and recruit far more kids than they can take. Who they finally land is a complicated process that depends in part on the AIs of their top recruits. To feel confident about gaining admission, if the athlete is not at the absolute top of the athletic heap, he or she should not be even near the bottom of the academic heap. In any case, my point is that being recruited does not mean an athlete is admissible. In the ballpark, maybe, but not admissible.</p>
<p>Admissible meaning that the stats are within the guidelines that admissions has given the coaches. Not admissible meaning that the kid’s a shoe-in. We all know kids that have not been admitted to various Ivies even after the coach assured them they were on the list.</p>
<p>I believe what I meant was that if the coach knows the kid’s stats and is still recruiting, the stats are in the ballpark for admission. Not that the kid is definitely admitted. Some schools, and coaches are better than others at the recruiting business.</p>
<p>My own experience is that my kid had the basic stats, had the coach’s support, had a green light from admissions in August, got a likely letter in November, and we didn’t relax until not only did we have the admission congrats online, but we had the hard copy of the letter in December <em>and</em> sent back the acceptance and had the canceled check. I still don’t really believe it – and he’s going to be a senior in the fall.</p>
<p>I’m chiming in to agree with cnp55. The likely letter seems to be a sure thing. Anything short of that holds no guarantees.</p>
<p>If he is flown out for a visit at school’s expense, he is a serious recruit. However, remember that all final decisions are made by admissions. How high are his SATS? High enough to balance the GPA, i.e., show that he can handle the academics?</p>
<p>And this is all going to vary by school and by sport and the seasonality of the sport.</p>
<p>My experience is that the recruits were verbally committed by August and the “official visits” were only for kids that had made their commitments. My son’s school had all their ducks in a row by the end of July, had all the preliminary apps run by admissions by the end of August, and the official visits took place in September.</p>
<p>My S’s experience was very different. He got calls from coaches in July and August, went on five official visits in September/early October, got offers of likely letters before the November 1 deadline, picked his school on October 31, got the letter faxed to us that day and we were done. He did not commit to anyone before any of his official visits. All this goes to show how much variability there is in the process, from sport to sport, school to school, coach to coach and athlete to athlete.</p>
<p>3xboys, our experience was identical to yours. D was a rising senior two years ago. She made several official visits in Sept and early Oct, and the paperwork was faxed in both directions. Very important to get the essays done now, along with the Common App, to ask for letters of rec from teachers ASAP, and to check that HS transcript and SAT/ACT scores are correct and ready to send. If you don’t have access to the transcripts and teachers until school starts, be ready for action when the doors swing open. Things will happen fast.</p>
<p>Remember, the OP is talking about a rigorous prep school. A 3.3 at most of the top preps is equitable to a 4.0 at many publics and the colleges are aware of this and take it into consideration when recalculating the gpa (so says my son’s advisor…at a prep that sends many athletes to Ivies).</p>
<p>Best piece of advice I have: if your child has not committed early and is going the route of my S and riverrunner’s D, apply to all official visit schools that your child likes REGULAR DECISION. Do apps in September/early October. When it comes down to the pre-November 1 crunch time, tell your coach of choice that your child will change his or her app to EARLY DECISION/ACTION (where they have it)if you get a likely letter in hand before the November 1 deadline. It’s a pain to get all the apps in early - follow all riverrunner’s good advice above - but it is worth it to have the flexibility of making last minute choices and some leverage approaching that deadline. This way, you don’t commit to them until after they have committed to you. For H and P, which don’t have early decision, they can try and get likelies for you and should let you know before the Nov 1 deadline if you get it or not. I do know one CCer who was promised a likely from P but did not get it until about a week past the Nov 1 deadline - that was one unhappy week for the Mom but it all worked out in the end.</p>
<p>totally agree with most info in posts here. Few specific comments. In d’s sport, her class was done during junior year. The kids who committed were expected to apply early. you were not getting on coaches list unless you went early. those spots are too valuable for coach. In fact, she had completed application in by September 1 (her secondary school was great getting everything in). because of that, she had a likely letter by October.(cn55, I love your comment…I had my d hit reply to “attending” about 5 minutes after she received official notification of acceptance online. then printed copies of confirmation…kept thinking somehow school would change its mind !! felt like she just won the lottery)</p>
<p>I am sure some folks / some sports go later into application process. Some obviously do not.</p>
<p>In regard to GPA / SATs. Transcript was scrutinized by asst coach who dealt with admissions for ok. Good coaches absolutely know what is needed. All sections of SAT and SAT II needed to be in the 600s… Again, in unison, admissions still has final say. But, in d’s case, everything happened exactly as she was told.</p>
<p>while I am sure there are huge variations by school / sport, this is actual experience with one kid at one IVY. Training hard for the fall. has roommates, college, advisors, etc… still hard for her Dad to believe.</p>
<p>My D2’s experience was similar to everyone above. We did many unofficial visits from Spring of junior year through Fall of senior year. In D2’s sport, the D1 players are committed usually primarily during junior year. D3 and D1A have the luxury of being highly sought after during the summer and early fall.</p>
<p>The school where D2 is attending this Fall asked for all of her information (transcripts, test scores, video, supporting information) in early October. She had pursued this school for the prior year but hadn’t heard a word from them. All of a sudden they wanted her information. We faxed it all over and within a week they asked when she could visit. As it happened, we were heading back East to visit 2 other schools the following weekend and asked if she could visit on a Sunday. They were so accommodating! She met with the coach, assistant coach, and went out to lunch with the team. She was blown away by the school (which we had visited once before on a very rainy summer day after sophomore year). She hadn’t really considered this school for two reasons: 1- after many overtures on her part they hadn’t shown any interest and 2-her academic stats were excellent but getting into this school would be a major stretch for anyone. </p>
<p>After visiting the other 2 schools, we decided to extend our trip and visit this school one more time. Again, they were so wonderful when we abruptly asked to re-visit. She spent the day with team members, went to classes, went to a practice, saw the dorms, etc. By the end of that day, she had committed to the school.</p>
<p>Like CN55 and Nightsky, we waited until the official letter arrived in early December. It was a very very long 7 weeks. We felt that you never know what could go wrong with your admission to these ultra-elite schools. D2 stats were definitely in the range and we were told that admissions had reviewed her application and effectively gave her the thumbs up. But without a likely letter or other very early hard copy of admissions, we didn’t want to let our guard down.</p>
<p>The letter is still taped to the refrigerator door. Winning the lottery? Absolutely! I have no doubt that without her sport, D2 would not have been admitted to this school. </p>
<p>FYI - D2 had a 4.3 GPA, 33 superscored ACT, private prep school. She was not the top of her class, she did not have the highest SAT/ACT, she is not considered ultra-smart at her school. She did have extensive committment to both her sport and her main extra curricular.</p>
<p>^^How on earth did she end up with a 4.3 gpa at a private prep? None of the top preps in our area weight grades. Everything from the college-prep courses to the ap’s is worth a 4.0…and no one gets a 4.0 (but many go Ivy, athlete or not). No 4.0 grads in the past 3 years to be exact.</p>
<p>Curious as to what the top possible gpa is at your daughter’s school. Just to put it in perspective and see what gpa was acceptable to the Ivy with the athletic hook.</p>
<p>Keylyme - D2’s school has weighted grades for all Honors and APs. Highest possible GPA is 5.25. I think valedictorian had 4.97 (or some such otherworldly GPA). Top 20% cutoff (cum laude) was 4.61. But the school only has 110 students per grade. Generally 50% of the class has GPAs above 4.0. So D2 was in about the 75 percentile. But the students are very smart so GPA/rank at this school is not a very representative statistic. Most of the students coming from this school would do well at an ivy or ivy-type college…it’s just the ‘getting in’ that would keep them from attending.</p>