If your kid wants to go to a selective university, do not let them play sports in high school
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Anonymous
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I suspect recruited athletes admitted with stats under the norm would disagree. And for some of the schools mentioned, the athletes don't have to be "that good" at the sport to be recruited, as top athletic talent is going elsewhere, esp now w NIL$ potential.
Even if not recruitable, why prohibit them from playing, if that's what they enjoy? My sports-playing kid is not going to pivot to science fairs just because I say so. |
Anonymous
Mic drop. Best post of the month 
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Anonymous
Of the 300,000 AMC test takers each year, I would say there are maybe 10,000-20,000 competitive kids that put in as much effort as a recruited athlete. The quality of school that you get with USAMO is starkly different than the school that will take the average recruited athlete. Most recruited athletes aren't being recruited to Stanford and Duke. The USAMO kids go to MIT and Columbia. The 86,700 First robotics competitors are on about 3500 teams. Each team can only nominate 2 dean's list finalists. So we are talking about 7000 kids vying for 100 spots. Of the 7000 kids maybe 500-1000 teams are putting in as much time as a recruited athlete. These kids get to go to Stanford and Carnegie Mellon. |
Anonymous
You're making an assumption, a poor one. Her life was the opposite of what you described. The thread is "do not let them play sports in high school". I pointed out that one sided view could be misguided, like much of well meaning but misguided advice. My kid did lots of things that I didn't mention in my post, but she did them because she wanted to, they weren't manufactured. She was a member of French club but didn't have to obsess over becoming an officer to demonstrate leadership. She had over 1,000 hours of volunteer time at a local hospital because a 4 hours shift every other week isn't really that onerous and she wants to go into medicine. She volunteered with friends at a foodbank; because filling/emptying boxes was an easy way to complete service hours and it was kind of like hanging out. She worked multiple different jobs, mostly summers but also during school breaks and to fill in sometimes because that is how she gets things beyond her allowance. We/she also learned a lot during the process We learned details about admissions because it starts after your sophomore year if you are considering D1 sports We learned that academics are still very important for top schools We learned that the requirements at the Ivy's is lower than the NESCAC, UAA, JHU, MIT etc., and the Patriot league is still lower. We learned that we had to work and take the SAT early. She took her SAT after her sophomore year because JHU and MIT will literally not talk to you until you have a 1500 plus to show them. We learned that rigor matters and that at MIT the expectation is to always take the hardest course available to you and excel at it; athlete or not. We also learned that you don't get extra credit for adding courses 7/8 to your schedule. They really would prefer that you do something else as you have crossed the academic bar. We learned that test scores matter everywhere but everywhere is different. MIT wanted a 770M, JHU wants a 1500 composite, WashU said that her 780 wasn't interesting ("everyone comes with a high math score") but 780V would be a big plus with the admissions office. We learned that honors courses don't carry much value (too variable) but AP courses do. And, if you take the course you need to take the test or else the grade is suspect. But most of all we learned about what I mentioned at the beginning of my original post. Whatever you do for ECs; have impact. Passion and significance is what matters; it doesn't matter so much what the EC is, it matters what you do with it. Someone above stated that they spoke to 3 different counselors who said not to play sports if you weren't recruitable. They either asked the question wrong or they should find new counselors. Years of dedication, moving up the ranks, leading and playing on a top team is an excellent EC and a good counselor knows how to work with that to show the impact on the player and those around them. Impact in the EC is what matters, more than the EC itself. My daughters Co-captain wasn't recruitable as a player but she is at a T30ish school today. The MIT "Applying Sideways" blog should be read and taken to heart by everyone in this process. Find something that you love, run with it, become great at it, and demonstrate how it impacts a wider community. |
Anonymous
I gather this depends on the sport because I know a kid recruited at JHU who applied TO and most certainly didn't have a 1500+...since I imagine he would not have applied TO if that was the case. |
Anonymous
Where are you getting 18,000 female volleyball players from? It seems like 100,000 female seniors alone. https://www.ncsasports.org/womens-volleyball But I get your point. At top schools, you aren't competing with the whole spectrum of players. And particularly in team sports, you don't see high stats that frequently because most of the high stat kids gravitate towards more individual sports like tennis, fencing, swimming, running, etc. So the competition for a spot on the ivy women's voellyball team isn't 100,000 senior girl's volleyball players, it's likely closer to 1000 or 2000. |
Anonymous
The activity is still fine contrary to what many posters on here would like to believe. As you said, he learned a lot of life skills that will help him down the road. He can highlight passion, dedication, and focus. Sports builds resiliency. |
Anonymous
DP It's an important distinction. Not all recruited athletes are equal. The baseball player being recruited by Columbia is NOT being recruited by Florida or LSU... The players being recruited by Florida are very likely not meeting the academic standards for Columbia. |
Anonymous
This is just one anecdote, but the head of admissions of MIT loves FIRST robotics kids. His own daughter has participated since a young age and I think now is maybe 8th grade or high school? He said FIRST is directly applicable to STEM majors, the kids accepted at MIT are usually the most excited about their studies and perform well at MIT, and they also tend to get more involved in similar ECs at MIT at a far higher rate than the general student body. Of course, thousands of kids that participate in FIRST don't get accepted into MIT. |
Anonymous
Were they a Lax player? JHU is D1 Lax and the rules are very different than the rest of their programs. We got it straight from the coach when we reached out after her 16 season. The coach responded with "Her film looks great and we're interested. Please keep sending film and I can set up a call once you can show me a 1500 SAT score. |
Anonymous
It comes from the NCAA https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2015/3/2/estimated-probability-of-competing-in-college-athletics.aspx |
Anonymous
It is true that the baseball player getting recruited by Columbia is not being recruited by Florida or LSU...however, there are a decent number of baseball players recruited by say Florida or Stanford or Duke who do meet call it the minimum academic standards of Columbia, but they are good enough to be recruited by a Power 4 school and 99% of all baseball players will choose an SEC/ACC/CA Big 10 school over an Ivy. |
Anonymous
No...basketball. Not a URM just to make that clear. |
Anonymous
Also BTW, my 1450 SAT baseball player passed the pre-read with flying colors and was provided a likely letter at WashU. |
Anonymous
Not to offend...but there are recruited athletes and then there are RECRUITED athletes at these D3 schools. If your kid is considered one of their top 3-4 recruits, then the rules are different compared to say the next 5-6 recruits. For the top 3-4, a great transcript can overcome low test scores (i.e., they will let you apply TO). I know two kids recruited at the same D3 school, with one RECRUITED and the other just recruited and coach was telling them fairly different things regarding the process. |