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It is the fat tail that bothers me. According to Karabel's The Chosen (I am checking many of the references now) athletes in the most prominent sports often had avg SAT scores between 150 to 180 points below that of the rest of the class.
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There are a couple of problems with this. Even if the athletes are 150-180 points below the average, they are still scoring in the mid 1300s (old SAT), which is probably pretty good considering the time they spend on their sport. </p>
<p>If you only admit students based on test scores, you end up with a very one dimensional set of hot-house flowers. My son was accepted at Harvey Mudd, Rice, U Chicago and other great schools, but we really encouraged him to attend Dartmouth based on the student body. He doesn't need to be around more people just like him -- he'll probably end up with a graduate degree in physics or math, and will spend his entire working life with right brain people. Even the athletic admits at schools like Dartmouth are there for the academics -- otherwise they'd look for a Big 10 school.</p>
<p>If you knew me, you'd laugh at the thought of my defending athletic admits! I come from a family of academic types, and am certainly married to one. But I think there's benefit to diversity, including academic diversity. If you have graduates of Ivy's running the country's businesses, government and academic institutions, I think it's in our best interest to have them be a little more open to other points of view.</p>