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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have no previous experience with college recruiting and are researching options for our ninth-grade son.   Recruiting at Ivy League and other extremely selective schools appears to be a balance of just three factors -- GPA, ACT/SAT scores and sports ability.  Is the recruiting process really limited to those three?  For example, &quot;strong extra-curriculars&quot; are a much-discussed part of a strong application for elite schools, but between playing his sport and keeping up his grades in challenging classes, our DS is not finding much time for other pursuits.  If our DS has high enough GPA and test scores (academic index) and the requisite ability on the field/court, how important are other parts of his application? [/quote]

Suggest you go to College Confidential where there are detailed discussions of the Academic Index and Ivy League recruiting generally.

You are correct that for recruited athletes any other EC's are not important at all.

[/quote]

Thanks, PP.  Previously looked around on College Confidential and it seemed that extracurriculars, etc. are a non-issue because they aren't really discussed, but wasn't sure -- thanks for the confirmation.  [/quote]

I'll second the PP's post.  We have 3 recruited athletes.  And before someone jumps in with a nasty comment about athletes not being up to snuff I want to point out that none of our kids caught a break on the SATs; they all all made bench ([u]&gt;[/u] 2100) plus [u]&gt;[/u]700 on 2 subject matter tests.[/quote]

I do think people often are not aware how your stats have to be in order to be a recruited athlete in the Ivy League and at some other elite schools, especially in sports other than football and basketball.  PP, what has been the experience for your athletes?  You hear sometimes that athletes in the Ivy League are a completely separate community and feel as though they are looked down upon..... [/quote]

Sorry, I was away for a while and missed your question but it looks like others have responded, too, which is good.  We have two at two different Ivies and one who will be at one of the same Ivies as a sib next year.  Both my husband and I attended a Big 10 school where the athletes were treated like Gods and had just about every privilege known to man; however, we had heard that students at Ivies can be tough critics of each other, and most especially of athletes.  So we were concerned with the same thing you mention - that the children would be segregated from the rest of the community and treated like complete dummies by their peers.  Fortunately, both of our children have found that athletes are extremely well integrated into the two schools they attend AND that athletes are well respected for both their academic and athletic prowess.

The only small difficulty one of our kids had was during freshman year when one roommate in a suite of six had a very negative attitude towards the three athletes who constituted half of the suite mates.  Interestingly, the roommate had no problem at all with the singer/drama roommate.  But ... think about what I just wrote.  Of six students, four had significant extra-curricular responsibilities, three of them in athletics.  And that dynamic (so many students involved in athletic extra-curricular activities) apparently is not unusual at that school.  We know because we asked the very first time we met the Dean of the college.

Finally, our kids know they made the academic mark.  They don't go out of their way to make it known and they will never brag but they certainly are capable of holding their own against anyone who intends to begrudge them their abilities.  Coupled with the fact that their grades in their chosen majors, not gut majors by any stretch of the imagination,  are stellar and they are more than able to buttress their contention that they belong right where they are.

Good luck, PP, to you and your child if she or he is an athlete intending to pursue an Ivy or D1 education.  It is a hard but rewarding path and our children are thriving, which is all we want and can ask for.[/quote]

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