<p>hello,
I'm hoping to be recruited to run track and cross country in the ivy league (preferably yale, brown, or dartmouth) and i was curious to know how different the academic stats and overall "strength of application" of a runner(or athlete) is from a typical non-athlete who is accepted to an ivy. do track and cross country in particular have athletes with better academic stats?
thanks</p>
<p>track and xc athletes at Ivies have academic stats very close to the stats of the average admitted student at these schools.</p>
<p>My son was recruited as a rower at Dartmouth and he and his fellow recruits all had academic stats that were the same as those other admitted students. I assume this would be true of track and xc. (This is just a guess but maybe there is more leniency given for certain higher profile sports such as football.)</p>
<p>I’m going to take it a step farther momofrower, and guess there is more academic leniency to **Ivy revenue generating sports[b/] such as football, basketball, lacrosse and hockey overall. </p>
<p>Son is a baseball player and most of his Ivy teammates are also very close to strength of application for non-athletes. The admission challenge becomes weighing time and substance for student ECs vs time and substance for a student/athletes chosen sport. From where I sit, the time investment of an athlete will almost always be greater.</p>
<p>In any case, IVY league track coaches will offer likely letters to athletes with AIs lower than the average for the class. How much lower will also depend on how much the coach wants the athlete. As also stated above, the track teams will not be able to dip so low as the football and basketball teams.</p>
<p>Generally, coaches are able to fine great T&F athletes with good to great academic stats. There is much more grade/stat flexibility with the helmet sports.</p>
<p>More than one of my son’s HS teachers told me that they loved having distance runners in their classes, because they tended to be disciplined, strong students. One of the best runners in our state last year got a 2400 on the SAT. My son, a good distance runner, also had strong stats. I don’t think the Ivies have to lower standards at all for track/XC kids.</p>
<p>thanks for the input. Any other comments or insight on this topic is appreciated!</p>