"… An investigation that I conducted on the Department of Athletics over the past three months shows that Princeton’s athletes generally come from wealthy backgrounds, meaning that recruitment acts as a form of affirmative action for the rich. They predominantly attended private schools and largely eschew the sciences from their studies. …
… To determine students’ concentrations, I paired team rosters from Princeton’s athletics website with statistics from Tigerbook and the internet. The data does not differentiate between recruits and walk-ons or include quitters. But given that relatively few people successfully walk on to most Princeton teams, the majority were presumably recruited.
Fifty-four percent of all athletes attended private schools, compared with 40 percent of the Class of 2022. The schools’ median annual cost is $29,275. Athletes account for 22 percent of all private school students at Princeton, while compprising only 17 percent of the undergraduate body." …
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2019/05/prep-schools-hit-a-homerun-in-athletics
For those, like me, who have not yet had a sufficient intake of coffee:
Definition of “eschew” = Deliberately avoid using; abstain from.
Synonyms for “eschew”: abstain from; refrain from; give up; forgo; shun; renounce; swear off; abjure; steer clear of; have nothing to do with;
Thank you for posting the link to this article.
Eye opening insight into both Ivy League athletics, assuming Princeton University is representative of the recruiting habits of this league, and into elite prep school athletics.
I know that there is a very strong pipeline of rowers / crew to Ivies as well as for squash players.
Would be interesting to know the top high schools & prep schools for Ivy League tennis teams.
Also, is there a pipeline to the Ivies for golfers ?
Also, what is the definition of “abjure”, a synonym for “eschew” ?
P.S. I would enjoy a similar article with respect to Duke University athletics as I do know of many very wealthy Duke athletes since Duke offers Ivy academics & prestige.
In other news, water is wet.
I’ll share three anecdotes that directly address the issue. Over the past decade the Princeton fencing coach successfuly recruited three athletes from the state where my kids attended HS. I know each of these kids and their families.
Fencing is widely assumed to be a “rich man’s sport”.
All three students mentioned above attended public schools and all three qualified for substantial need based aid.
I don’t dispute the data in the posted article. I’m simply sharing these anecdotes to remind people that there are exceptions to even the most widely held assumptions.
Squash is a niche sport. But going to a fancy private school doesn’t really help much. Reason is that in order to keep a high ranking, students need to play in tournaments. Many of the top squash players avoid playing on their high school teams because the level of competition is lower than what is found at the top tournaments.
The writer takes a simplistic view that private school = better sports. This is not necessarily the case. In many many sports, the level of competition outside of the private schools is much higher (soccer, football, etc).
This link regarding GPAs:
https://odoc.princeton.edu/sites/odoc/files/2018%20Grading%20Memo.pdf
was the most valuable piece of information I found in the article.
Wow, quite interesting. Looks like the grade deflation of years past is headed in the other direction. Marked increase in A/A- grades along with a decrease in B+/B- grades.
My son (BSE '16) was also a recruited athlete. It is true that many athletes come from the upper class, or at least the upper middle class. I believe this is because competitive athletics - at the high school level - comes with a significant time and fiscal price tag. Our son had the privilege of travelling and competing at international events prior to being recruited. He was also privileged to attend a modest private school which helped in his academic preparation.
Our experience was that private school did not mean better sports whatsoever. However, being able to accommodate academics while in competitiion was a distinct advantage. Prep schools may have an entirely different experience than the modest private school our son attended.