Why do elite SLACs and Small R1s value athletic recruits

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like sports. But I don’t think it takes more time or dedication than high level music or drama (those kids in musicals get home at 10pm for a third of the year). Or part time jobs. Who cares!

You can choose when to practice your instrument or which plays to audition for. I have a friend in NYC with a musical theatre kid who auditions for Broadway workshops, plays and filming mostly in the summer to avoid interference with school work during the school year. In contrast, if you play on a team, your schedule is dictated by your league and you have zero say when you can practice and compete. DC has had games the night before important exams and has to deal. My niece doesn't touch her instrument before big deadlines and tests and then makes up for it another weekend.

[Anonymous]

The culture of youth sports has morphed way past the original concept of sound mind, sound body as it was meant to be, in the old days of the “gentleman scholar”. the level of time required to achieve recruitable levels of athletic achievement has gotten so extreme that it often prevents kids from developing their academic skills. not to say most kids wouldn’t have been smart enough to, but just didn’t have the time.

[Anonymous]

Also tall does not automatically equate to good looking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like sports. But I don’t think it takes more time or dedication than high level music or drama (those kids in musicals get home at 10pm for a third of the year). Or part time jobs. Who cares!

You can choose when to practice your instrument or which plays to audition for. I have a friend in NYC with a musical theatre kid who auditions for Broadway workshops, plays and filming mostly in the summer to avoid interference with school work during the school year. In contrast, if you play on a team, your schedule is dictated by your league and you have zero say when you can practice and compete. DC has had games the night before important exams and has to deal. My niece doesn't touch her instrument before big deadlines and tests and then makes up for it another weekend.

If you sign up for a theater crew or an orchestra or choir or dance team, your schedule is also dictated by them.

And there are recruited sports which don't require joining a team, like track. This seems like a post-hoc justification, and a poor one at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like sports. But I don’t think it takes more time or dedication than high level music or drama (those kids in musicals get home at 10pm for a third of the year). Or part time jobs. Who cares!

You can choose when to practice your instrument or which plays to audition for. I have a friend in NYC with a musical theatre kid who auditions for Broadway workshops, plays and filming mostly in the summer to avoid interference with school work during the school year. In contrast, if you play on a team, your schedule is dictated by your league and you have zero say when you can practice and compete. DC has had games the night before important exams and has to deal. My niece doesn't touch her instrument before big deadlines and tests and then makes up for it another weekend.

Your niece obviously is not a real musician. They have to practice daily, often for 2 hours.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:What would happen to a school like Hamilton if it dropped out of the NESCAC? In a generation it would have “really fallen off” and in two generations it would be lost in the academic wilderness.

Or what if Cornell dropped out of the Ivy League and U Rochester joined? It sounds preposterous, but what would these two schools look like in 50 or 75 years?

These school know they need to remain in their athletic leagues to remain as relevant as they are today. Thus they need to recruit
athletes that will keep them competitive in their conference. Many, many of these kids being recruited are exceptional students and they get priority in admissions because they offer something to the school beyond their grades and test scores. It’s a case of “and” not “or” for the most part. Yes there is the occasional football player with the 1250 SAT but that is the extreme exception.

And the ancient Greeks agreed with the American model. The mind and intellectual pursuit was inseparable from the body and the athletic.

Um, the ancient Greeks also had slaves. If they are truly exceptional, they would not — as you euphemistically describe for an entirely different admissions process — need “priority” in admissions now, would they?

Lots of kids are smart and have great GPAs and test scores. Some have the great academic stats plus they are excellent athlètes.

The athletes are prioritized because they have it all and then something else that the school wants. Any kid who puts the time and effort into both the academics and the athletics these schools are looking for can also be sought after by these schools.

This is the answer. Why can’t any kid develop the academic and athletic abilities these schools are looking for?

Because it's rare to have a kid who is sufficiently talented and motivated across both axes. Replace "athletic abilities" with "banjo-playing abilities" and you'll understand understand why it makes no sense.

Right. The kids who excel academically and athletically have something extra that the kids who only excel academically just don’t have.

This isn’t that hard: these schools value kids who work hard at very different endeavors, use their time efficiently and effectively, and keep at it even when it’s hard.

If that were true, excelling in musical theater or at an instrument would help as much as being a recruited athlete. But it just doesn’t

I was heavily involved in musical theatre in high school and I also played a team sport. Team sports simply require a a more intense commitment of time and focus. When I was in musical theatre rehearsals, there was always some amount of down time here and there when I could pull out my books and get some homework/studying done. Sports practices require full focus pretty much every minute- there’s no time to work a few math problems or a chapter of a text book in the middle of a sports practice.

Sports are also more physically demanding: the student just needs more rest after a two hour sports practice than after a two hour theatre rehearsal. The sports kid just has to have a tighter grasp of discipline and organization to make it work. Colleges recognize the skills developed by kids who can excel in both academics and sports, and they want those kids on their campuses.

This isn’t that hard to understand. Encourage your kids to get involved in sports. When they excel at academics and athletics, they will be successful with many of their college apps.