<p>Are the Ivy Leagues still within reach as an athletic recruit (soccer) with these grades in high school or should my son focus more on other colleges in his GPA range? </p>
<p>Freshmen year: 3 As, 3 Bs
Sophomore year: 2~3A, 2~3 Bs</p>
<p>All honors classes (Weighted GPA 4.1; takes highest level classes offered). SAT scores around 1750~1800. ECs include Yale Model Congress, Latin Club, and volunteering at the local hospital.</p>
<p>I’m no expert, but your concern is “his GPA range”-- and a lot of how that is “counted” in Admissions is effected by rigor of courses and rigor of his high school. Is/will he take APs as most Ivy League candidates do? Most AOs will recalculate his GPA anyway – to I’d estimate a 3.5ish, so the 4.1 weight doesn’t play in as much as you think as weighting factors vary greatly by high school and the field must be leveled. So then to account for this, rigor is factored in separately – which is good in your son’s case if he takes “the most challenging courses available to him” throughout HS. He sounds like a solid student but, actually I think, given these few stats, that his SAT range is something to more be concerned about than GPA in terms of the Ivies. If I’m not wrong, those – a cleaner number to evaluate & for colleges to in turn be USNWR “rated on” – are mainly above 2100 or 2200 on average at the Ivies these uber competitive days.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply! Yes, he definitely needs to work on his SATs. Hopefully he can get a 2100+ by the end of junior year. A 3.5 GPA doesn’t sound too good but I’m guessing that’s what his unweighted GPA is, which is a downer since most Ivy League bound students have unweighted GPAs of 3.7+.</p>
<p>Do you think it’s still possible to get into a school like Yale or Harvard with scores like these though or should be turn his head toward schools like Tufts or NYU? Keep in mind that he’s a pretty solid soccer player; he’s not nationally ranked or anything but he plays for a good club team and leads his high school team in goals. </p>
<p>Another question. Do ECs play a large factor for athletes? Would college coaches want student athletes to be focused on their sport rather than volunteering for 200 hours?</p>
<p>An UW 3.5 is probably a stretch at the top schools. As for test scores, I believe the SAT and SAT II threshold for HYP is 700 per section.</p>
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Coaches want the athlete half of student/athlete, and adcoms want the student half.</p>
<p>If they both get what they want, then other ECs aren’t necessary.</p>
<p>Just my opinion.</p>
<p>The ECs ~ sports catch22: therein lies the risk/rub. For in order to be at the top of your sport and “recruitable” , many hours of practice are needed throughout high school. And in my sport, all with the hopes that you will get your personal time to defined level that is what college coaches want. So with all this practice, there is no time for other extracurriculars (on top of maintaining a desirable GPA). yet if one doesn;t get their time to where the college coaches want to see it by end of junior year, then it is a shame admissions-wise that some of that practice time wasn;t used for in-depth involvement in other ECs the AOs like to see. Because if you end up not recruitable for your sport and have spent ALL your time on it, then you have little else EC-wise to dazzle or hookin the AOs with, sadly. Which is why one should LOVE their sport and not be doing it just for that slim slim chance it will boost their college admissions!</p>
<p>^^^Good advice on the ECs.
OP- You are right to be concerned about the 3.5 UW GPA. There are so many great soccer players out there with great academics, it will be a tough recruiting process. </p>
<p>Rather than focussing on the Ivies now, your son needs to put all his energy into raising the grades and SAT I, and prepping for the SAT IIs he will need. (As explained above, he needs all of them in the 700s for the coaches to know he has a chance with admisisons.)</p>
<p>I beg to disagree. My nephew had scores in the 600s, modest gpa and was recruited by a number of ivies before finishing at Penn. Certainly, it is better to have scores in the 700s but if the athlete is good enough ivy soccer coaches do reach lower.</p>
<p>By now people probably know that I was recruited without scores close to that of the typical ivy league applicant. </p>
<p>2180 SATs
4.3/3.2 (I forget exactly but I get pretty much all B’s and 2 A’s per year)
8 APs/“most rigorous class schedule”
650+ on 3 SATIIs</p>
<p>Obviously the higher your stats the better you are, but don’t think that with those grades he is unable to be recruited. I do think that if you have a lower GPA, you should have a pretty impressive SAT score to balance it out. Also, It’s very important that he contact the coach early and make a good impression so he stands out amongst the other athletes vying for his position (or Likely Letter). On my visits, EC’s were only talked about casually, so I don’t think tons of volunteer hours are necessary–or even possible.</p>
<p>Academics are really important to the Ivy coaches. It does depend on which Ivy we are talking about, and which Ivy would be the best fit for your son, academically as well as athletically. </p>
<p>I think he needs to do a really good SAT prep, possibly 6-8 sessions with a private tutor to focus on his strengths and weaknesses and strategize how to get the best scores. And he also needs to focus on his grades and get that unweighted GPA up as high as possible, while still taking a challenging load.</p>
<p>I don’t think the ECs are a big requirement here … he’s showing a strong pattern of involvement and achievement in his primary EC. </p>
<p>I’m a parent of a Ivy graduate, who was a recruited athlete. While my son had the attention of several of the Ivy coaches, there was only one Ivy that was a match for his academic interests.</p>