<p>Alright, I play a somewhat obscure sport that does exist at a number of top New England schools. Lets say I was ranked 30th or so in my state, (a very strong state for the sport), and had a 2300+ SAT, 800 SAT IIs, 3.9+ UW. Would schools want me to bring up academic averages of recruited athletes even if I wouldn't be a top athlete?</p>
<p>Not suite sure what you are asking but yes, coaches do want to know that you can be admitted on your academic stats alone but this will not necessarily get you on the team. If you have the grades to get into a school, you can try be a walk on. And remember, athletic scholarships are renewed yearly so if you may not stay on a team, merit scholarships are a better way to go</p>
<p>from my personal experience, academics have no bearing on being a sports recruit, especially at top schools. I have a 2300 SAT, perfect subject tests and AP scores, and a bunch of other stuff. I also play a sport and am good at it. From the coaches that have responded to my inquiries (ivies and the top of division III), they would much rather have the 1800 SAT student who is a real athletic standout than someone who has a 2300 and is just a pretty good athlete. After all, a lot of coaches at elite schools do not have academic backgrounds, and they do not appreciate academics as much as they do sports. I mean, if you aren’t recruited I’m sure you could walk on, the only difference is that recruits have a sense of security in terms of their spot in a college class.</p>
<p>I agree with AP Chemistry. You can be a standout athlete with 1800s on the SAT. You cannot be a “decent” athlete with 2300. You just get lumped in together with the 2300 pool and the athletic part gets dismissed.</p>
<p>I’m just disagreeing with everyone on this board lately.</p>
<p>The coaches at HYPS and like want top athletes and top academics, and they get it, that’s how high the bar is to be recruited and signed or LL’d at these schools. Granted I know a few outstanding athletes who got in with low stats but the majority have high stats and are the best athletes in the country in their sport.</p>
<p>You gotta be really good to be recruited and signed to these type schools, really good academically and athletically.</p>
<p>and here’s one junior team I know well to give you an idea of the competition.</p>
<p>2400, 4.0 Princeton (top 5% in her sport)
2300, 3.7 Stanford (#1 in the country in her sport)
2100, 4.0 Harvard (Top 10 in the world in her sport)
2350, 4.0 Harvard (same, top 10)</p>
<p>etc, etc, and year after year. that’s one junior team in one community in our country, the competition to be a recruited athlete at a top academic schools is tough!</p>
<p>You know, it depends on the sport, who else applies, and the whole D3 thing. It’s possible. </p>
<p>Say you are in an individual sport like pole vaulting. There aren’t many pole-vaulters with your scores, so you could end up getting recruited if no one else who can jump as high is in the applicant pool, and the other pole-vaulter is a senior. There aren’t enough “slots” to recruit an entire team, so the pole vaulting might give you that little extra boost to be admitted.</p>
<p>The key benefit that exceptional athletes and students like this receive is to be plucked out of the 30,000 to 35,000 applicant pools and become one of the 5% to 7% coveted admission slots.</p>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum are great athletes and good students, but perhaps lacking the near perfect credentials of admittees in the “booster” sports. For better or worse, these school have institutional priorities that lead them to give valuable admissions slots to athletes in football, hockey, basketball, etc.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Bowen noted in his book, “Reclaiming The Game”, noted in his research that these athletes are admitted with lesser credentials than Ivy students as whole. They do acceptable work while in school, but not quite up to the same level as non-athletes. They typically are more successful financially than their non-athlete peers. And, perhaps most telling as it relates to admission policies, give back financially to their alma maters at much higher rates.</p>
<p>Is it fair? No. But these schools make their own choices and act in their own interests. A young man at my son’s prep school was admitted to a 2nd tier Ivy with a GPA just short of 3.0 and SATs just below 1200. An AI in 180 range. And the school was delighted to have him and the coach worked diligently with admissions to get a LL issue in November after the student’s 1st semester mid term grades came in. At the end of four years of athletic competition and diligent work in the classroom, what will they call the athlete with these credentials - Ivy graduate.</p>
<p>It is wrong to take a narrow set of experience and cast it out as one size fits all for a wide variety of Ivy sports and circumstances. It is misleading to newcomers to the board, who haven’t seem this discussion as it has gone on over time.</p>
<p>Congratulations to the athletes that have attained the superior performance noted below and their parents for their children’s success. The regular participants on this board are very aware of their exceptional credentials and scores. Please step back and take a broad enough view of this process to recognize that their are many paths to the goal of an Ivy/High Academic College education and athletic career.</p>
<p>pacheight</p>
<p>Not sure what sport your kid involved with, but academic requirements for Ivies vary hugely dependent on the sport. </p>
<p>When taking my top academic soccer kid around for visits with the coaches at Princeton, Yale, Brown and Penn, from their mouths to my ear:
“If you are one of our top recruits, have decent grades, all you need is an 1800 on your SAT.” No mention of SAT II’s etc. They were way more focused on how good of a soccer player my kid was.</p>
<p>Quite a different story for squash, fencing or distance runners, they bring up the overall stats for athletes and need to be closer to the average Ivy student. But once again, if they are high level athletes, their stats don’t need to be as high as a typical student.</p>
<p>Contrast that with what the soccer coaches said at high academic LAC’s. Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Middlebury coaches all said that soccer players need to be close to the average student stats. If you are a high recruit, they will use a slot to get you in. No way an 1800 would cut it for a soccer recruit. Maybe good enough for football, men’s lacrosse or hockey.</p>
<p>^^I’m always talking about women’s sports. boys and academics, ya right, throw rocks at them.</p>
<p>But i bet your boy follows his own drummer which goes to my comment below about exceptional people.</p>
<p>bball, not quite sure what your points are, but I know one exceptional athlete and student who received “the key benefit” of being exceptional by being plucked by the best team in the country. Had that team been at a junior college she just might have gone there. For many high achievers it’s not about taking a coveted slot, it’s about pursuing their dreams, their passion. And that pursuit is why they are “plucked”</p>
<p>Some schools want exceptional athletes because they want students who get the idea of following their passion as opposed to doing what others expect them to do.</p>
<p>APChem, what you’re saying may well be true for team sports, but for anyone whose sport is more individual, particularly one not known for high grades, the high grades can make the difference.</p>
<p>@minaofrau, you may be right. I can really only speak about team sports since I play a team sport</p>
<p>Mino-that’s what I was trying to say with the “pole-vaulting” story-if only 5 or 6 people with your grades can do your sport, you now have a 20% CHANCE OF GETTING IN…Go ED and the coach will tell admissions s/he wants you, with the right appearance “on paper”, you now have an 80% chance of getting into a highly selective school.</p>
<p>My S competes in an individual sport. While not nationally ranked, I estimated less than 300 people in the entire country with his combination of grades, ACTs, and ability-Most of the better kids-let’s say the top 100-would go D1. So as I told him when he said he wasn’t good enough to be recruited-“You are the cream of D3” It’s a numbers game.</p>
<p>I suggest you train your self(or your bright child) up in a less popular sport played by the school of your choice. This is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but as I have noted many times, my older S is a genius-wait-listed everywhere. My second son was athletically able-recruited by several top schools competing for HIM. Genius white boys from the NE are a dime a dozen…</p>
<p>I don’t disagree with any of the above posts–all of us can be right. It just depends on the gender, the sport, the school, and who the coach has interested in coming to his college that particular year. Every Ivy/elite school wants all the top athletes in the country with the 2300+ SAT scores, but there simply aren’t enough of them to go around!</p>
<p>On D’s team, there are the tippy top athletes with SAT’s in the 1800 and 1900 range, and there are top athletes with tippy top scores in the 2300-2400 range. The coach will take both kinds of student, though he’d prefer more of the first group I’m sure. But admissions has a say, for one thing, and sometimes other factors come into play. D’s coach told one recruit that he took her because it was obvious she really, really wanted to come and he thought that her strong passion combined with decent talent might be a winning combination eventually. </p>
<p>Just go for it, desafinado! You won’t know who’s interested until you put feelers out.</p>
<p>OP, big bonus points for being from Alaska, by the way. You are under represented everywhere.</p>
<p>OOOOh…Alaska…Goooood! I seriously considered moving the family to Wyoming at one point…H wouldn’t go for it.</p>