Athletes have such an edge

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You haven’t figured out that our society values sports over education?

But you can get into a good school with amazing academics and zero athletics, but if you have amazing athletics you still need academics that are far above average.

It's higher EDUCATION...not higher athletics.

Then you don't understand EDUCATION.

I don't give a rats ass if my lawyer or my investment advisor or my doctor can catch a ball. I need their brains...period.

College athlete is still a great proxy for work ethic. There's a reason that they also have an edge when applying to jobs.

This. They can take feedback, work hard, be a teammate, and persevere through adversity. And they have great time management skills, because to get recruited to the best schools they need a strong academic transcript on top of the elite sports skill.

I think it's the time management. Its much easier to have a perfect academic transcript if you have a couple of clubs that take an hour or two a week, but you generally get home before 5:00 and have the entire evening to study and work vs. an athlete who can easily have practice four days a week ranging from an hour to several hours that may be a long drive from home and weekends packed with games and have the expectation of doing strength training, cardio, and skills training outside of practice.

I get that the athlete likes the sport and is good at it and has to manage their time to do it. I have one on that track.

But the kid that wants to use their free time in the pursuit of knowledge and learn to manage time doing that is the one I want for my employee, or advisor or surgeon, etc. But you do you.

I want the one who has experts coaching them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You haven’t figured out that our society values sports over education?

But you can get into a good school with amazing academics and zero athletics, but if you have amazing athletics you still need academics that are far above average.

It's higher EDUCATION...not higher athletics.

Then you don't understand EDUCATION.

I don't give a rats ass if my lawyer or my investment advisor or my doctor can catch a ball. I need their brains...period.

College athlete is still a great proxy for work ethic. There's a reason that they also have an edge when applying to jobs.

This. They can take feedback, work hard, be a teammate, and persevere through adversity. And they have great time management skills, because to get recruited to the best schools they need a strong academic transcript on top of the elite sports skill.

I think it's the time management. Its much easier to have a perfect academic transcript if you have a couple of clubs that take an hour or two a week, but you generally get home before 5:00 and have the entire evening to study and work vs. an athlete who can easily have practice four days a week ranging from an hour to several hours that may be a long drive from home and weekends packed with games and have the expectation of doing strength training, cardio, and skills training outside of practice.

I get that the athlete likes the sport and is good at it and has to manage their time to do it. I have one on that track.

But the kid that wants to use their free time in the pursuit of knowledge and learn to manage time doing that is the one I want for my employee, or advisor or surgeon, etc. But you do you.

One person's pursuit of knowledge is another's gaming. I have yet to see a kid was up at 4:00 am to pursue knowledge every weekday morning before school. I'll take the kid used to priritizing and producing under tight time constraints

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's especially frustrating in my NW DC community because a number of the kids I know who are exceptional athletes are just the one that had a ZILLION dollars poured into the in the form of private coaching from age 7/8/9. My kids play travel soccer and baseball
and have teammates who are now getting offers (we've known since they were young). are the ones in families. Many also had a dad who worked very little or not at all (inherited wealth). Their kid or kids athletic career
became their job. I can think of 10 kids in this scenario. These kids were not self-directed in as much as they were pliable (because I recognize that not all kids would agree to 20 hours a week of private lessons).

It's kind of crazy to observe--to be honest---you throw enough lessons/money at a kid for 15 years and you really can create a very high level player if your starting material is reasonably athletic. Watching this over the years I sort of laughed at it and wondered how it
would turn out. Turns out it actually works quite well.

****Lest I get jumped on*** this is not the case for a large percentage of college athletes (even college athletes from this area). Many are self motivated and/or naturally talented. But it is a phenomenon in pockets of NW DC and other very wealthy areas. Pour the money and time
into your kid and you can create an elite athlete. These kids are now the ones signing at UVA and Dartmouth and whatnot (over other kids who are far, far better students who are not and will not get in (again just observed in MY circle). There is definitely a feeling of "DAMN IT. The wealthy win again. Life is easy when you're born on third base".

I think you’re hugely underestimating the time and effort and work ethic it takes to become an elite athlete.

I am a kid who grew up poor, and my kids are not intensely athletic, so they won’t be getting any scholarships. But they do play some sports and I see how much time and energy some kids DO put into their sport. They give up time with friends, they give up other activities, they wake up early to practice or attend tournaments.

It’s not as if a wealthy parent, with an unmotivated, non-athletic kid can just throw money at the kid and turn him into an elite athlete. The kid needs to want it also. And the kid needs to work at it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend’s son has many offers from good schools - only one application submitted - and just committed to a school where he hadn’t applied.

They do - but if they are scholar-athletes (meaning decent grades and classes - not 14 APs and a 4.0) - don't you agree that their determination and grit is something that a college should want? They made it all the way to senior year balancing classes, social, and sports and did well. That seems to indicate that the child would be a good addition to the school.

[Anonymous]

Bunch of stupid idiots. It's all about $$$. Revenue sports bring to the school via sponsors, TV, ads...etc. Schools with good sports teams will get more apps (and up the ranking). Athletics can be dumb as doorknobs but they still bring $.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so easy why can't all the high SAT scorers also be world class athletes?

Stay on topic, please.

The topic is the edge, the schools want kids who are multi talented. Not singularly talented test takers.

If they accept kids who don’t even apply - no, they don’t. And before Dolty responds, I mean a real application. It just a meaningless paper trail.

They do apply. The email coaches, send film, do face to face interviews at camps and on the side lines of games. Their application is actually more in depth and intense.

Oh just Stop. I have a recruited athlete. They get an advantage in admission because they have athletic talent. Yes that have to go through the recruiting process but their application is not more in depth or intense than a kid that spent on their time on some other interst. like music or science reasearch or math fairs, etc.

It just is the way our system works. Their is nothing inherently more valuable about an athlete over other talents that take dedication and drive and hard work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are talking about all sport like lacrosse or crew or field hockey, these recruits statistically will presumptively be successful in their chosen careers.

So are the kids with higher stats who are rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bunch of stupid idiots. It's all about $$$. Revenue sports bring to the school via sponsors, TV, ads...etc. Schools with good sports teams will get more apps (and up the ranking). Athletics can be dumb as doorknobs but they still bring $.

That's only true for a small minority of programs. Even with revenue sports, most DI football teams lose money. NESAC schools probably have the highest concentration of student athletes (aside from service academies), and I challenge you to find any source of revenue associated with Bowdoin field hockey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are talking about all sport like lacrosse or crew or field hockey, these recruits statistically will presumptively be successful in their chosen careers.

So are the kids with higher stats who are rejected.

do you have a source for that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You haven’t figured out that our society values sports over education?

But you can get into a good school with amazing academics and zero athletics, but if you have amazing athletics you still need academics that are far above average.

It's higher EDUCATION...not higher athletics.

Then you don't understand EDUCATION.

I don't give a rats ass if my lawyer or my investment advisor or my doctor can catch a ball. I need their brains...period.

College athlete is still a great proxy for work ethic. There's a reason that they also have an edge when applying to jobs.

This. They can take feedback, work hard, be a teammate, and persevere through adversity. And they have great time management skills, because to get recruited to the best schools they need a strong academic transcript on top of the elite sports skill.

I think it's the time management. Its much easier to have a perfect academic transcript if you have a couple of clubs that take an hour or two a week, but you generally get home before 5:00 and have the entire evening to study and work vs. an athlete who can easily have practice four days a week ranging from an hour to several hours that may be a long drive from home and weekends packed with games and have the expectation of doing strength training, cardio, and skills training outside of practice.

I get that the athlete likes the sport and is good at it and has to manage their time to do it. I have one on that track.

But the kid that wants to use their free time in the pursuit of knowledge and learn to manage time doing that is the one I want for my employee, or advisor or surgeon, etc. But you do you.

One person's pursuit of knowledge is another's gaming. I have yet to see a kid was up at 4:00 am to pursue knowledge every weekday morning before school. I'll take the kid used to priritizing and producing under tight time constraints

If you want a worker bee that can get up and work and do it again everyday then hire the athlete I guess.

But if I need an engineer to make sure the plane won't crash..sorry...i am going with the robotics super nerd every time.

[Anonymous]

They absolutely do. The only kids I know personally who go to Ivys are recruited athletes. (Not in DMV area.)

My boyfriend’s ds is a standout soccer player and going to a school he would never get in otherwise.

I don’t have any judgment about it and probably see it as an overall fine thing because I don’t really believe in entitlement to spots in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bunch of stupid idiots. It's all about $$$. Revenue sports bring to the school via sponsors, TV, ads...etc. Schools with good sports teams will get more apps (and up the ranking). Athletics can be dumb as doorknobs but they still bring $.

That's only true for a small minority of programs. Even with revenue sports, most DI football teams lose money. NESAC schools probably have the highest concentration of student athletes (aside from service academies), and I challenge you to find any source of revenue associated with Bowdoin field hockey.

And guess which sports gets the ax when school runs out of money? Answer --> the ones that bring in no revenue. Remember about 10-15 years ago, UMD canceled its swiming team for the same reason?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bunch of stupid idiots. It's all about $$$. Revenue sports bring to the school via sponsors, TV, ads...etc. Schools with good sports teams will get more apps (and up the ranking). Athletics can be dumb as doorknobs but they still bring $.

That's only true for a small minority of programs. Even with revenue sports, most DI football teams lose money. NESAC schools probably have the highest concentration of student athletes (aside from service academies), and I challenge you to find any source of revenue associated with Bowdoin field hockey.

And guess which sports gets the ax when school runs out of money? Answer --> the ones that bring in no revenue. Remember about 10-15 years ago, UMD canceled its swiming team for the same reason?

No NESAC sports bring in any revenue. MD cut sports because their athletic department thought there were Ohio State and spent like it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are talking about all sport like lacrosse or crew or field hockey, these recruits statistically will presumptively be successful in their chosen careers.

They are tiny fraction of the people who are successful in their chosen careers. Tiny. Far more people in this world are successful and did not play those sports. In other words, playing lacrosse is not what makes a person successful.

Not presidents and CEOs.

The only scholar-athlete president tht comes to mind is Gerald Ford. Are there others? Don’t know much about CEOs. I don’t think Musk, Zuckerberg, or @jack played sportball. Please help me out with some household names.

Ford
Reagan
Nixon
Eisenhower
Kennedy
Bush
Carter
Wilson


CEOs

GE Immelt
IBM Palmisano
HP Whitman
Wholefoods Robb
Sunoco Elsenhans
Bank of america Noynihan
Mondelez International Rosenfeld
Comcast Roberts (gold medal)
GM Akerson

(many are women)

[Anonymous]

Here's the bottom line: if your kid is a good student with good test scores she's going to get into a good college. She's not going to lose her spot to an athlete. Relax.