Niche sports and rich-kid affirmative action: The Atlantic

[Anonymous]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/squash-lacrosse-niche-sports-ivy-league-admissions/616474/

Winning parents stay winning. A fair number of you should see yourselves in this.

[Anonymous]

Good. I am an immigrant and cannot understand the obsession with sports in this country. I think sports are great for physical fitness and to learn a few important social skills - but I don't think sports should play any role at all into college admission.

My kids only do sports for recreational purposes and I refuse to get drawn into those travel teams that costs thousands per year plus all that time commitment. No way. Unless a child has a really remarkable talent and loves it, it is not worthy it.

[Anonymous]

Insane. But what’s new, rich parents going to rich. At least it’s not varsity blues.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. The squash coach stories are amazing.

[Anonymous]

Sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting. The squash coach stories are amazing.

They really are especially when hardly anyone plays or watches squash at all. I didn't even know what a squash court looked like and had to google "squash sports video" to even know how squash is played.

[Anonymous]

I think the problem is the ridiculous obsession with certain schools. Our children are in private school, have good grades and reasonably good at sports (and arts). I could not care if they go to an Ivy League school.
DC play a lot of sports and I don't see many families like this, though we are relatively new to the travel level. Sadly most kids don't know what to do with themselves and free time other than electronics. I would rather they do sports.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Two of my kids went to Ivies and one burned out on swimming at the start of 12th grade and we immediately let her quit, thinking we'd rather she walk away for a couple of years so she could go back to it when she was ready and love it for the rest of her life. The other was never into competitive sports at all.

I feel like they each really dodged bullets in that way.

[Anonymous]

I read this yeast Er day and all I could think was that COVID was a perfect time to let D1 college level sports go. D3, Club and intermural, sure. But doing all sports all the time for the purpose of getting into college has never made any sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read this yeast Er day and all I could think was that COVID was a perfect time to let D1 college level sports go. D3, Club and intermural, sure. But doing all sports all the time for the purpose of getting into college has never made any sense to me.

+1

College is a great place to play sports recreationally, to try new sports you might never had had an opportunity to play before, etc. And I suppose a college can take account of someone's athletic participation in admissions -- sports, like other activities, can show commitment, dedication, persistence, ability to be a team player, leadership, etc. But the way that colleges have become appendages to sports programs is nuts.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that article is a LOT. I'd love a follow-up with Sloane's daughters. Is there something like Munchausen by proxy for sports parents?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good. I am an immigrant and cannot understand the obsession with sports in this country. I think sports are great for physical fitness and to learn a few important social skills - but I don't think sports should play any role at all into college admission.

My kids only do sports for recreational purposes and I refuse to get drawn into those travel teams that costs thousands per year plus all that time commitment. No way. Unless a child has a really remarkable talent and loves it, it is not worthy it.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Reminded me so much of Tiger Mom. Just substitute Squash for Violin lessons.

[Anonymous]

What really stands out is that some poor kid from the inner city who fills out his college applications doesn't actually know that he's not competing with Fred. He's competing with Fred's mom who has an MA, and Fred's Dad, and a nanny who does research, and a coach who works for the family and a college admissions consultant and the pilot of the private plane, and some kind of sports strategist, a couple of regular tutors as well as the tutor who 'helped' write the essay. Also, a couple of psychologists, and the staff of the pricey summer camp, etc.

What stands out to me in all these stories is that this is a kid who is being produced by a team. It's not really fair that individuals have to compete with conglomerates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What really stands out is that some poor kid from the inner city who fills out his college applications doesn't actually know that he's not competing with Fred. He's competing with Fred's mom who has an MA, and Fred's Dad, and a nanny who does research, and a coach who works for the family and a college admissions consultant and the pilot of the private plane, and some kind of sports strategist, a couple of regular tutors as well as the tutor who 'helped' write the essay. Also, a couple of psychologists, and the staff of the pricey summer camp, etc.

What stands out to me in all these stories is that this is a kid who is being produced by a team. It's not really fair that individuals have to compete with conglomerates.

Well put. But I guarantee you that the colleges know, they just don't care.