Reading this thread, I can’t but wonder how long it will take before all the tiger parents catch up and start pushing their kids into basketball and swimming instead of math contests and violin lessons 
This thread is an amazing synopsis of the problems with college apps.
One guy, from a private school background and a Harvard education has his daughter not get accepted, and the world has gone upside down? The athletes make up 13% of the Ivy League. it’s a minor blip on the admissions process. If we went entirely by scores and grades, the 13% he’s worried about would have been swallowed whole by 3X that number of Asian kids with perfect SAT’s. His daughter would still be in Scotland.
Meanwhile back on the CC boards, there are endless discussions about the other 99.7% of the kids going to college this year who will be just fine.
College sports are a racket. Today a football coach received a $7M / year contract for 7 years. For every kid who goes to a flagship school to join the tribe and attend a game, there are 3 who just want an education. They are borrowing money to do so. It’s not worth getting trapped into a “money generating” discussion, because for every Michigan football team there is are 5 Rutgers (not in the Big 10…nationally). Big time sports no longer align with the goals of most academic institutions. All of that said…nothing will happen, so why waste more time typing about it…?
@Ohiodad51 “I do not understand why you keep asserting that I and others are implying that the way athletic admissions occurs at ND, Vandy, Northwestern, Duke, etc is handled somehow means that admissions has no control over who is admitted as an athlete”
I have never asserted that anyone has implied that, at those schools, admissions has “no control”. So I have no idea where you are reading that. “Final say” and “no control” are two different things. I am simply saying I am not convinced of the accuracy of the claims re “final say” being with the coach at the schools in question because I’ve read that at least one of those schools says otherwise. That’s all I’m saying.
“…the way ND does it is wrong and the way the Ivy does it is right. No one has said that, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how you are reading that into these posts.”
Not right vs wrong, but the sense I was getting from your posts was one of moral superiority. On behalf of the ivy/Stanford because they have the “extra hurdle” (as I believe you called it) vs the schools at issue who allegedly “cede control” of final say to the athletic dept. If that’s not what you’re saying then, yes, perhaps I was misinterpreting the tone of your posts.
Here’s the admissions process for athletic recruits at Wisconsin, as described by university officials themselves. Quite clearly the admissions office makes the final call, and the coaches do not always know in advance whether a committed recruit who has signed a NLI will be admitted:
Coaches at Wisconsin are sufficiently frustrated by this system that they’re lobbying to change the process for appealing denials of admission, to give the final word on appeal to the individual college rather than the admissions office:
This is not at all like the process Ohiodad51 insists takes place everywhere but the Ivies.
And Gary Andersen’s frustration with the Wisconsin admissions office was not only about his inability to land JUCO transfers. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, at least six “players who committed to UW for the 2014 and '15 classes eventually went to other schools because they were not admitted to UW.” This included a number of highly regarded HS seniors. Andersen coached the Badgers through the 2014 regular season.
This post has really floated. The OP mentioned athletic boosts at elite universities. While ND and NW could be considered elite and obviously Stanford is, these are schools where athletes go to get a career playing their sport. It makes 100% sense to me why they get academic breaks in admissions.
I believe the article was expessing dissatisfaction in those institutions where it is much more unlikely that the athlete will go onto the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL or the Olympics. The Ivy League , or the elite LACs or the UAA.
These are schools that routinely reject perfect SAT scores and 4.0 UW GPA students because a coach convinced admissions to give a special consideration. In the article it was crew at Harvard and how the authors twin was rejected with almost identical stats because the twin wasn’t on the list.
The article doesn’t mention schools that are pre-NFL programs like ND or NW.
@BrianBoiler Point taken, the post has veered a bit. In a couple different conversations here.
For the record though, no doubt you’re right that some athletes at this playing level get academic breaks in admissions for obvious reasons. I think the point under contention is – outside of Stanford – who actually gets the final say on admission, the coach or the AO. (Not that the breaks are, in fact, given).
In DivIII absolutely admissions gets final say. Some coaches have a little influence but during our recruiting process it was always communicated to us that admissions makes the final call.
Dont you see any irony in
" Seventy-two UW players had an ACT score of less than 27, falling below the low end of the university’s proclaimed “typical score” mark. Of the 15 who only submitted the SAT, only one player fell into UW’s desired range, with a score of 1900.
On the ACT, 29 student-athletes came in below the national average of a 21 and 37 checked in behind the Wisconsin state average of 22. Nine student-athletes finished with ACT scores of 30 or higher, with the highest being 33 (one player)"
And:
“Tiedt said recruiting academically strong athletes makes coaches’ jobs easier.”
Nope. I see absolutely no irony. These kids are going to Wisconsin to play football. They want to become football players. Wisconsin wants to be in the business of making football players.
That doesn’t mean the rest of campus is hurt by it either. Wisconsin is a great big school that this very small percentage doesn’t even impact the university stats.
Seems you’re admitting they aren’t “recruiting academically strong athletes.” So are we circling bsck to the beginning of this thread?
Beginning of the thread has nothing to do with football players at Wisconsin.
“Dont you see any irony in
Seventy-two UW players had an ACT score of less than 27, falling below the low end of the university’s proclaimed “typical score” mark. Of the 15 who only submitted the SAT, only one player fell into UW’s desired range, with a score of 1900.”
With many athletes also being minority the scores are likely well within the center of the range for similar non-athlete minority students at UW. As of the last CDS 25% of all students scores a 27 or less. About 5% have an ACT of 3 or less. More than just athletes in that group.