<p>ya but do you think you are born w/ #4 rankings??
i know it may be hard to believe for some of you, but to be a good athlete you have to work hard at it</p>
<p>i know someone where a school like UCR and UCSC would have been a slight reach and yet he got into one of the top UC's because of D1 sports. no scholarship though</p>
<p>I have gotten an interesting vibe on CC that a lot of people think that athletes are just innately good at their sport or that athletic talent is some unexplainable anomaly. I go to a very athletically competitive school, which already has had 3 students receive Ivy likely letters (harvard, brown, and princeton) a several more actively recruited students from Yale, Georgetown, ad Notre Dame. This is the result of hard work and countless time spent devoted to their sport. The dedication that comes with being a varsity athlete will only increase as they enter college. 5:00 morning practices combined with a Ivy course load is by no means easy, but student-athletes are prepared for that challenge. Being a recruited athlete is not just a ticket into top schools but a commitment that you will consistently preform at a very high level - a lot of pressure. I am a 3 sport varsity athlete who opted out of a chance to go to Georgetown through lacrosse because I wanted to devote my college experience to my academics. If that means my chances are greatly reduced that is ok because I am realistic about the focus that college demands.
I would be happy to answer any questions about the process. It is a very common thing at my school.</p>
<p>thank you hec2008
FINALLY some one that understands</p>
<p>Yeah. As someone who knows numerous recruited athletes, and plays as a walk-on on a team with many of them, I know what the recruitment process is like, especially at very good schools.</p>
<p>You all act like high-level athletics are just some kind of innate talent that kids have, develop for an hour a week like some fun little club, and use to get a slack ride. That's absolutely untrue. In most sports, to be at a level eligible for D1 recruitment, it takes an absurd amount of work, effort, concentration and yes, talent.</p>
<p>Once at university, the life of an athlete is very, very busy, but not without its rewards. The camaraderie is great, and assuming you like your sport it can be a lot of fun. But it's certainly not easy. None of my non-athlete friends have anything close to as busy a schedule as I have, between engineering classes and athletics. Nowhere close to as busy. And it's similar even without the tough classes. Maybe not quite as busy, but any good athlete is going to be very, very busy.</p>
<p>i would think D1 recruits have a lot lower stats especially for football and basketball...the average D1 football/basketball player never took any AP classes and has an SAT score below 1000...i think it is dependent upon the sport</p>
<p>To the person above me, I think it is true that the money-sport athletes do have lower academic standards, but did you just pull that fact out of your butt? I would love to see a statistic that says most Ivy League/Top 10 univeresity whatever basketball/football players have not taken an AP class or have over 1000 on their SAT. It seems very unlikely to me, please cite your sources instead of completely making something up based on a stereotype.</p>
<p>EDIT: Just realized you said average D1, not Top 10 university, my bad.</p>
<p>It may be true that the standards for athletes at some schools are abysmal, but definitely not at the ones my friends and I are being recruited for.
One of my friends is a very talented water polo player. He has played varsity all four years, while also competing for regional and club teams. He also swam on our 3 (in a row) CIF champion swim team.
He is also the president of our National Honors Society, in the 10% of our class, in a challenging AP course load and genuinely works very hard when it comes to academics.<br>
While he is very talented, it is true that he my not have stood out in a normal Ivy pool. However, he is Harvard's number one athletic recruit this year and the first person to have assured acceptance into the class of 2012. I know that many people here see this as blatantly unfair, and while I understand their frustrations it is an unjustified sense of jealousy. One, he by all means is academically prepared for Harvard and was subject to intense scrutiny before his likely letter was sent. Two, through his high school career he is poured himself into water polo, sacrificing a lot to be an incredible student athlete. Three, Harvard needs athletes. Like ever institution like it, and this process is not going to change. Be happy that the stereotype of dumb jocks does not always reign true at top schools. Even below the Ivies, schools are not going to jeopardize their standings. However, the process that Chamilitary describes may happen at less prestigious schools, but for the places where every inch is dissected you have to be both academically successful and athletically superior.</p>
<p>Its pretty stressfull. A friend of mine played softball for UPENN and maintained a 4.0. I think its all about time management. She had a social life and really bonded with her team. Basically, you take all your work on the road with you.</p>
<p>Being a recruited athlete makes the admissions process MORE difficult/stressful in my opinion. True, the athlete does not need to typically have as high grades/scores, but they have to juggle apps as well as talking to coaches and playing a sport at a high level. I guess the process is much easier if an athlete commits early on and then must just apply ED, but for athletes who would like the leave their options open, the process is incredibly stressful.</p>
<p>WOO for athletes that understand!!</p>
<p>hahah i gotcha poloruler ;)</p>
<p>For a few sports (football, men's and women's basketball, hockey, lacrosse), there do seem to be relatively lower standards for admission than the student body at large. This is every bit as true at the most competitive schools though the numbers differentials are usually not as stark as at many lower ranked colleges. However, outside of those sports, unless the college is a national title contender, the admission standards generally hew to the level of the overall university or college. In fact, I think many non-athletes underrate the academic talent of these students and how much benefit these student-athletes get in the admissions process. In fact, it may be closer to the truth to claim that the student-athletes in the non-revenue sports have a higher level of academic achievement than the rest of the student body.</p>
<p>As for the life of a Division I athlete, I think most folks have no idea just how difficult this actually is and especially so when competing in the major conferences (Ivy League does not count). It truly takes an enormous amount of talent and hard work to become a Division I athlete and compete on the national stage. Even minor sports like swimming or golf can take up incredible amounts of time and the undergraduate experience of the athlete is often quite different (and sometime much more demanding) than his/her student peers. Practices, weight training sessions, team meals, vacation practices, general travel, etc-it all adds up and is certainly not a casual life for the Division I athlete. Still, most of these student-athletes, if they weren't marginal participants when they arrived, stick with their sport and generally enjoy their membership on these teams. They usually love their sport and the thrill that they get from competing. And academically, they usually end up graduating at about the same or better rate as the rest of their class. </p>
<p>Finally, many employers love having athletes as employees and greatly appreciate the necessary work ethic, commitment and talent that is necessary to achieve at a high level in athletics. These and other athletically-learned traits translate well to the work world and to adult life in general.</p>
<p>Probably...very...athletic?</p>