<p>Stanford is a Div I school. Athletics could be the primary major (professional) and the academics the second major. </p>
<p>I have a niece at another Pac10 school. Swimming. The program is intense 12 month year, The students need the 5 year program to develop their athletic skills and to complete their academic program.</p>
<p>Many student athletes are taking summer courses so they can graduate in 4 years. It’s really up to the students. I know baseball players at Stanford and UC Santa Barbara are discouraged from taking classes held in the afternoon because it will interfere with practices and games. There are many limitations but what an opportunity though. They would have a very unique collegiate experience money can’t buy.</p>
<p>My D has a close friend who held a high jump record in HS. She went to Stanford, broke a few more records and graduated in 4 years. She is now in medical school. Stanford rejects tons of student athletes who don’t have the grades and ability to make it through.</p>
<p>Both my kids attended bay area high schools that send quite a few student athletes to Stanford every year and most of these student athletes can gain admissions to Stanford by virtue of their academic merits alone.</p>
<p>Toby Gerhart is truly amazing; of course I’ve read about him. In fact, Stanford fans on CC have gleefully pointed to him as a shining example of how smart and talented Stanford athletes are. I’m not saying they aren’t smart and talented, but most people just aren’t as exceptional as Gerhart and it would be a mistake to extapolate any conclusions about Stanford’s student athletes by looking at him.</p>
<p>The GFG,
Stanford LOVES it’s Scholar-Athletes! It uses them to claim to be BOTH the West Coast Ivy AS WELL AS the college that tries, and has succeeded many times in winning more athletic competitions than any other university in the US. BUT Being a RECRUITED athlete at a Div I team school such as Stanford means your D WILL be expected to devote her time and energy to her sport FIRST, just as she would at ANY OTHER Div I school in the Pac 10 league. So she should ignore that she is being recruited by STANFORD IF she is NOT prepared to devote herself to her team and her sport AHEAD of her education. Ivy schools such as HYP don’t emphasis sportS as MUCH as Stanford, which is why some scholar athletes choose east coast school over Stanford if they want to have a life while in college. The IVY’s don’t offer athletic scholarships, but Stanford does. That in itself should tell you that Stanford’s priorities as far as athletics are concerned are different than colleges like the Ivy’s.</p>
<p>Cbreeze had it right when saying this:
Both my kids attended bay area high schools that send quite a few student athletes to Stanford every year and most of these student athletes can gain admissions to Stanford by virtue of their academic merits alone.</p>
<p>D1 attended Stanford. Best friend was a hum bio major, athlete and graduated in four years. (Now at Harvard med school). Athletes do not live separately from the other students, at least not frosh year. They may choose to live with teammates later on, but there are no athlete dorms at Stanford.</p>
<p>“”…and most of these student athletes can gain admissions to Stanford by virtue of their academic merits alone."</p>
<p>Most? Well maybe, but not all. My nephew was a star miler in HS - state champ and national contender. He was heavily recruited by Stanford and gained admission. He was a bright, respectable academic student, maybe about a 3.6 UW GPA and similar SATs, but nothing that would have gotten him into Stanford on academic merits alone.</p>
<p>He ended up choosing another school, breaking my prestige-minded brother’s heart in the process, but that is another story.</p>
<p>
The only sports that I can think of in this case are field hockey and lax. Otherwise, I can’t think of any other in which Princeton would have a better team. Pac-10 don’t participate these sports (most other Pac-10 schools don’t have lax / FH) and therefore they should be the least you need to worry about. As others have pointed out, many Stanford athletes do graduate in 4 years, even in nationally ranked teams against teams from major conferences. There’s no free lunch here; the northeast teams are known to be serious about lax (don’t know much about FH). On the other hand, I seriously doubt Stanford lax team is as demanding as its tennis/swimming teams. I doubt Princeton lax / FH teams demand less time commitment from their athletes than their Stanford counterparts.</p>
<p>TheGFG, I remember the CC poster’s handle: ‘patient’. That’s her handle or login name. Anyway, patient’s son went to Stanford on an athletic scholarship (baseball) and graduated in 4 years. He did well according to the patient’s posts on this forum. Maybe she is still writing here, you could PM her.</p>
<p>FYI…Stanford does have Varsity women’s lacrosse. It is very competitive and very time consuming. </p>
<p>I am well aquainted with an east coast student who was recruited to Stanford for lacrosse. She was a very good student…might have been admitted otherwise…but was not in the top 5 students at her very competitive HS.</p>
<p>She found that she could not fill the committment the team required and her academic committments. She quit the team…fortunately, for her, did not need scholarship money. Was able to finish in 4 years with a couple of summer school courses.</p>
<p>One of the many reasons why it’s important for a recruited athlete to pick a school they’d be happy at, even if they aren’t able to participate in their sport.</p>
<p>RE: Toby Gerhart. He is exceptional. But you would be surprised to find that Stanford has an unusually high percentage of exceptional student athletes. They aren’t all exceptional…and it’s true that many will take 5 years to finish (see my prior post about the quarter system)…but for extremely competitive, disciplined athletes who want top academics – it’s quite a place to go to school.</p>
<p>Sam Lee–Princeton placed higher at nationals in girls cross country,</p>
<p>^Correct, but Stanford has won the women’s Div. 1 cross country national championship 4 times in the last 10 years, most recently in 2007. Princeton has never won it.</p>
<p>TheGFG,</p>
<p>I just checked the record and looks like Stanford is having a down year (probably disasterous by its standard). That’s not the “typical” Stanford team I’d known. Stanford won it all in 03, 05, 06, and 07.</p>
<p>oops…sorry, coureur, I deleted my post.</p>