<p>Say one ranks 1st or 2nd in a giant national sports tournament, would that increase one's chances of getting into Harvard drastically?</p>
<p>What sport, and what tournament?</p>
<p>Since I'm an International Student from Denmark, it wouldn't be anything you would know, but the sport branch is distance biking.</p>
<p>A notable achievement, perhaps, but not what we call a "recruitable sport" - ie, no regular intercollegiate competition.</p>
<p>That's because in Denmark our sports clubs are decentralised from school, meaning, if you want to enter a sports club you don't do so through your college, high or secondary school, you do so 'outside' of school, while there, obviously, is no intercollegiate competition, there is still competition between the various distance biking clubs that exist in Denmark (since it is a national competition afterall).</p>
<p>The point is that most American colleges wouldn't "recruit" you as a cyclist because cycling is not an intercollegiate sport here.</p>
<p>How does Harvard justify 'recruiting' sportsmen?</p>
<p>i think it would definitely help (first or second nationally is certainly extraordinary) but i don't know if it would help "drastically."</p>
<p>i'm still smarting over joey cheek's rejection from harvard (even with a gold and silver medal from the olympics).</p>
<p>Congratulations on your achievement, it's definitely a big one. However it really wouldn't help too much at Harvard because there is no 'cycling' team. They can't recruit for a team they don't have.</p>
<p>i'm still smarting over joey cheek's rejection from harvard (even with a gold and silver medal from the olympics).</p>
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<p>if im not mistaken, he got rejected EA before the 2006 Olympics...</p>
<p>Harvard does have a 'cycling' team and they compete against other eastern and Ivy League schools. There is even an NCAA championship in cyclying. They don't recruit for it like Varsity Sports.</p>
<p>See: <a href="http://hcs.harvard.edu/huca/sponsors.html%5B/url%5D">http://hcs.harvard.edu/huca/sponsors.html</a></p>
<p>Of course Harvard recruits and yes, Harvard athletic recruits can have much lower GPAs and SAT/ACTs than regular applicants.</p>
<p>Read "Playing the Game" --a book that describes athletic recruitment in the Ivy League and other elite schools</p>