<p>My child is an athlete who is a reasonably good student (top 10% in class) and a 31 on the ACT. The coaches these Ivies have indicated that they will be able to get my child admitted. My questions are:
-will my child get through a school like Harvard/Yale/Princeton being a good student but not brilliant?
-will my child have any fun? will it be so stressful that it will not be much fun?
-if my child does not graduate from one of these schools with great grades, will my child have a difficult time getting a job post graduation?
-we are from the midwest - will my child have an easy time getting a job in the midwest or are the recruiters primarily for east coast jobs.</p>
<p>1)yes
2)Depends how much your child likes his sport and his teammates, because much of his social life will revolve around his team, but short answer, yes
3) I’ll tell you a “joke” that applies here that we were told at my med school orientation-“what do you call the student who graduates from med school with the lowest average?-Doctor!” Same with the diploma from HYP. It will open many doors. My H struggled thru MIT, graduated in 5 years, but still, got so many opportunities related to having the “brass rat”(MIT beaver class ring)
4)yes.Many of the recruiters are nationally based.</p>
<p>If your child visits the schools, likes them, and likes the team, plus playing his sport would be fun for him/her, go for it. Plus in the Ivies, he can quit his sport after the first year, and it makes no difference…Aid is need-based, and there is no “athletic scholarship”. People making $150,000 can qualify for aid.</p>
<p>I would never quit my sport if that was the primary way that cinched my acceptance - the coach’s help! Perhaps people shouldn’t overreach and put themselves in that stressful position but rather pick another wonderful school where they can more easily handle BOTh the academics (<first) and the sport that got them in! I would think that would be fairer, give them a better quality of life in college and allow them to not lose sleep over using the coach just to get in! Plus this really screws the just-passed-over, next-in-line athletic recruit who would have continued to play, but your kid who quits took one of the coach’s very few likely letters/spots. play fair.</p>
<p>Agreed that it is wrong to accept a likely letter knowing you do not intend to compete during your time at the college. But Ivy league student athletes are just that–student athletes. Academics is supposed to come first. They are not giving you money to play. It is perfectly reasonable in my view if during your time at the college you come to a reasoned view that athletics is no longer in your best interest.</p>
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<p>Yes, he’ll almost certainly get through. Grad rates at HYP are very high and admissions would not accept him if they felt he couldn’t hack it.
He’ll have fun at times, and he’ll feel completely overworked and overwhelmed at times. </p>
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<p>A lot of this is dependent on the concentration he chooses. If med school is in his sights he may feel a lot more pressure to keep a very high GPA. Humanities majors may disagree, but it seems the math / hard science track is tougher to keep a strong GPA. </p>
<p>As for jobs upon graduation, I can’t really speak to that yet. One thing that is different at HYP than State U, for the most part, the education isn’t really meant to be pre-professional training. For example, you won’t get a degree in business or finance or marketing - you’ll get one in economics. The education is more of a broad based liberal arts curriculum.</p>
<p>Warning note on the OP’s phrase: “The coaches …have indicated they will be able to get my child admitted.” </p>
<p>The coaches can promise support, can ask admissions for a Likely Letter for the athlete in October, but the final decision is always by admissions. Be careful to interpret the coaches’ words carefully.</p>
<p>As to the other ?s: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Be sure your child is highly self-motivated and disciplined to keep up academics in a competitive environment, and will not be distracted by the nightlife.</p></li>
<li><p>All the athletes have fun. The ones who maintain 3.8+ GPAs have less time for fun, obviously.</p></li>
<li><p>If your child is chasing the competitive I-banking and consulting jobs in NYC and other east coast cities, then, yes, a less than stellar GPA will hurt them. For other jobs, not so much. There is not much demand by H and P grads for the mid-west positions. </p></li>
<li><p>Companies from all over the US recruit at the Ivies.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>One caveat- athletes do not always have time for the internships and research positons that create a great resume for future jobs. Be sure your child uses summers for professional experience.</p>
<p>Fauve’s last point is well-taken- student-athletes spend 5+ hours a day, and untold weekend time during season on their sport. They also spent part or most of school vacations training. This takes away from time to do other things. In many students, this means less time for “vegging out”, socializing, or a campus jobs. My non-athlete son has a 10 hour a week research job that has already led to a summer job full-time. The athlete is either training or studying or attending classes. The athlete only had a week at home at Christmas-then off on a training trip, and no Feb break-training and meets.</p>
<p>I would never advocate that a student sign on as an athlete intending not to compete. But as trackpop says, if it comes to either sport or academics, you don’t have to worry about scholarship money going away.</p>
<p>OP, Harvard requires a lot of reading for freshman, a lot! So your athlete should be prepared for that.</p>
<p>Ivy coaches cannot guarantee admission & neither do they make the decision. They recruit like other colleges but have no control of decisions & there are no athletic scholarships. The ivies want brilliant students & well-rounded but the key is they want a well-rounded class. That means if 100 brilliant all-state cello players apply they are not going to accept 100 cello players just because each individual looks diverse. Ivies view diversity of class, legacy recruits, & potential future profs for their school plus future alumni donations. Ivies do diversify geographically. While most kids are problem from the east coast simply because of interest level & school standards, those from far away have accrued a point in their favor.</p>