situation: my son is targeting Ivy for football. I believe he has a good chance of being recruited if his AI puts him in highest band; below that I can see his chances diminishing as his height is not ideal for his position.
He has been taking rigorous schedule first 2 years - 4 honors each year. For upcoming Junior year he will be taking Calc BC, AP Physics plus 2 more honors. He plans to be an engineering major. In researching A.I. we’ve discovered it utilizes unweighted GPA. leading to my question:
Is there a counter-argument to backing off on rigor of classes for a student in his situation going into Junior year? I have read on a few threads that a C on your transcript can be a deal breaker at some Ivies unless you are a top athlete in recruiting class.
My logic tells me to let him drop honors English to avoid a notoriously hard grader, and help him perform a little better in his sports (he would regularly operate on 6 to 6.5 hours of sleep a night last year which is not healthy or sustainable imho). But, it does go against everything we have been doing as parents and frankly just feels wrong to tell a driven, high-performing student it is OK to back off on rigor. My argument is that we didn’t make the rules and at this point in his high school career getting on an Ivy coach’s list increases his chances of getting in by order of magnitude over the general applicant population.
Quite honestly, I would not adjust your son’s academic load going into his junior year of high school on the if come that he might or might not be recruited by an Ivy school in a couple of years. First, and this is just my opinion, but unless your son is planning on a professional career, academics should never take a back seat to athletics. I think I agree that telling a driven kid who wants to learn to back off rings false. I would tend to trust my instincts on that point honestly.
Second, and speaking as a parent of a football playing STEM major at Princeton whose best friend came in as an engineer, if your son is worrying about work load now, whoa nellie, things are going to get much harder from here, both academically and athletically. So if things are getting on top of him now, I would think long and hard about whether playing Ivy football and getting an engineering degree is the right move. No offense, but there were a number of kids in my son’s recruiting class who came in as STEM majors/engineers. At this point, heading into senior year, there are only a handful who have remained in those majors, and very, very few are engineers. Third, you are building this all on two “if comes”, that your son is or will be recruitable in the Ivy and that a single C will somehow change that. I don’t know your son’s skill set, but I will say that the talent level in the Ivy is pretty high, and I don’t think that academics is as much of a leveler as people think. Even the fourth band kids are going to be very, very good athletes. Additionally, I doubt that a C on a transcript, especially with a rigorous course load, is going to make any difference at all. A D or F probably a much bigger deal. But a C in an AP class where the kid is taking several such classes a year? I can’t believe that matters.
Thanks for your reply. Right now I’m not worried about him handling workload once he is in. Suffice it to say we are aware of effort involved and are comfortable he has what it takes - and if not, it is not the end of the world.
We have always pushed academics first. In this instance if the goal is to get into an ivy, maintaining unadjusted GPA, and getting a little more sleep all year to help athletic performance would seem to be better strategy. But I hear you about starting to make decisions based on athletics rather than academics.
BC Calc junior year is pushing it to the max, which is admirable. But if your son fears getting a C, then it may be worth taking it a bit easier - like taking AB Calc. If your son is solid recruit, no one will care. As OhioDad mentions, college will be hard enough. A bit more sleep may yield better academic and athletic dividends in the long run.