WOW, if there is height/athleticism in your family, have your kid play football

[Anonymous]

My son goes to a top academic private school that also has a football team.
He has friends (from this school and an almost identical one) who have football offers from Duke, UVA, Cornell, Columbia, Yale, Harvard, Boston College (these are all different kids and some have multiple offers, not listed). They are mostly white.
They're smart enough---GPAs around 3.5---or middle-of-the-pack for the grade--- and they play football well enough (nothing spectacular or all-state but they're tall and athletic).
However, the elite universities are THRILLED to take these kids because they can do the academic work and fill a spot on their football roster.
The kids are literally choosing their colleges.

Meanwhile the academic kids in the grade are killing themselves to get a 3.9 for some chance at getting into a top school on grades, scores, extracurriculars.

Moral of the story: if you have height and athleticism in your family--have your kid play football. Better yet: have them attend an elite private too. They'll walk into an Ivy and won't have to sweat out the grades.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a mix of rich full pay + actually good at the sport + strong academics. I'd think they are desirable at many schools!

[Anonymous]

It's such a gross system. 3.5 is frankly terrible for the ivies, but, because some kid spent more time tackling and catching a ball, they will surpass all the kids hard working academic students who might add much more to the campus community. Recruitment makes me sick. Does any other nation allow some of its brightest students to be surpassed by athletes? Last I checked, Oxford doesn't need sports recruits to keep its global prestige, why do top colleges?

[Anonymous]

Either your kid goes to a football academy or that didn't happen. If your kid does go to a school where the whole team gets recruited, the odds are very good that the high school coach also recruited

[Anonymous]

If you want your son to get a TBI, have your kid play football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's such a gross system. 3.5 is frankly terrible for the ivies, but, because some kid spent more time tackling and catching a ball, they will surpass all the kids hard working academic students who might add much more to the campus community. Recruitment makes me sick. Does any other nation allow some of its brightest students to be surpassed by athletes? Last I checked, Oxford doesn't need sports recruits to keep its global prestige, why do top colleges?

What does the average good student add to the campus community? Meanwhile 51,000 people attended the Game last year to watch those 3.5 kids tackle each other

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want your son to get a TBI, have your kid play football.

True. And then at our HS you are competing with number 1 and 11 NFL draft picks, Heismann trophy winners. Kid wouldn't be good enough to make the HS team. lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Either your kid goes to a football academy or that didn't happen. If your kid does go to a school where the whole team gets recruited, the odds are very good that the high school coach also recruited

OP here. No, he does not. It's a independent prep school.
Not making this up.

In several cases, these kids have not even played a lot of football. One is not even a starter. One is primarily a track and field athlete. What they are is super athletic and tall/big. In one case that I know well, the coach has basically said: "i know you can do the work at this university and pay the bill and we we can teach you the football piece."
It makes you realize how hard it is to fill the football rosters at some schools (Ivy and similar) both with kids who can do the academic work. It's been wild to see. These kids are completely middle-of-the-pack academically at this tough high school.

[Anonymous]

No concussion for my kids, thanks, OP. I'd rather pay full price for a less reputable university than have my kids play football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Either your kid goes to a football academy or that didn't happen. If your kid does go to a school where the whole team gets recruited, the odds are very good that the high school coach also recruited

OP here. No, he does not. It's a independent prep school.
Not making this up.

In several cases, these kids have not even played a lot of football. One is not even a starter. One is primarily a track and field athlete. What they are is super athletic and tall/big. In one case that I know well, the coach has basically said: "i know you can do the work at this university and pay the bill and we we can teach you the football piece."
It makes you realize how hard it is to fill the football rosters at some schools (Ivy and similar) both with kids who can do the academic work. It's been wild to see. These kids are completely middle-of-the-pack academically at this tough high school.

yeah, that didn't happen. There are football factory schools (including very academically respected independent schools) that send loads of kids to ivies, but those kids are smart and good football players.

[Anonymous]

UVA, Duke and BC are in a power 5 conference and heads and tails above the rest of the schools mentioned. Aside from a few obscure sports the Ivy is advanced HS that don't belong in the D1 for football, baseball, or BB. Watch the Harvard Princeton football game next year, there are 100 people in the stands, all parents.

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen this too. But like most parents I don’t want my kids playing football, even if it got them into Harvard. The TBI risk is too high.

Ot takes a lot of kids to field a football team and in UMC areas in the northeast it’s getting hard to find enough kids…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's such a gross system. 3.5 is frankly terrible for the ivies, but, because some kid spent more time tackling and catching a ball, they will surpass all the kids hard working academic students who might add much more to the campus community. Recruitment makes me sick. Does any other nation allow some of its brightest students to be surpassed by athletes? Last I checked, Oxford doesn't need sports recruits to keep its global prestige, why do top colleges?

What does the average good student add to the campus community? Meanwhile 51,000 people attended the Game last year to watch those 3.5 kids tackle each other

Why does this at all determine your admission to Harvard? It's not like any sizeable amount go on to professional leagues that justifies the massive rah rah schools. It's a backdoor for wealthy kids. Take away the football example, explain to me what softball or rugby are adding that needs to have recruiting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA, Duke and BC are in a power 5 conference and heads and tails above the rest of the schools mentioned. Aside from a few obscure sports the Ivy is advanced HS that don't belong in the D1 for football, baseball, or BB. Watch the Harvard Princeton football game next year, there are 100 people in the stands, all parents.

8k attendance last year - not bad for a terrible team at a school with less than 6k undergrads

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Either your kid goes to a football academy or that didn't happen. If your kid does go to a school where the whole team gets recruited, the odds are very good that the high school coach also recruited

OP here. No, he does not. It's a independent prep school.
Not making this up.

In several cases, these kids have not even played a lot of football. One is not even a starter. One is primarily a track and field athlete. What they are is super athletic and tall/big. In one case that I know well, the coach has basically said: "i know you can do the work at this university and pay the bill and we we can teach you the football piece."
It makes you realize how hard it is to fill the football rosters at some schools (Ivy and similar) both with kids who can do the academic work. It's been wild to see. These kids are completely middle-of-the-pack academically at this tough high school.

yeah, that didn't happen. There are football factory schools (including very academically respected independent schools) that send loads of kids to ivies, but those kids are smart and good football players.

Read my post. We're saying the same thing.
A 3.5 is middle-of-the-pack at this tough school. These kid aren't dumb. That's the point of my post. The coaches know they can do the academic work. They're certainly not the top 20% in the class or the ones taking the top rigor classes but they will completely be able to do the Ivy level work well. And they're athletic enough to play the football.