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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Sports are a hook like NO other.

Some sports parents seem to have a complex about this for some reason.   It's not that the kids are unqualified, it's that they have the boost from "maybe" to "yes".   When you are talking 5% admit rates this is obviously a huge help. [/quote]

It is a great hook. I think the problem arises when non-athlete parents think the athletes shouldn't have been admitted at all almost exclusively referencing comparative GPA and/or test scores.
I agree some sports (think sailing and fencing) should be treated more like orchestra by admissions since they hardly draw spectators, don't raise the school's profile in a meaningful way, and have a minimal ability to bring the campus community together. Others though (think football and basketball as the big ones but also hockey, soccer, lax, and baseball at many places) bring students, alumni, and locals together in a unique way. Schools would be crazy not to try to be competitive in at least those sports. Even in the Ivy League, look at the atmosphere and attendees (and fundraising ops) for the Harvard Yale football game or Princeton Penn basketball at the Palestra. I've never seen so much pride and gear wearing from my non-athlete Princeton friends, who mostly don't even follow college sports much, as during the runs their basketball teams had this year in the NCAA tournament. [/quote]

The problem is some sports parents insist recruited athletes don’t have lower stats.  On the whole, they do. Why pretend they don’t when the data are clear.

[/quote]

Students with 99th percentile ACT and SAT scores ~[b]and[/b]~ collegiate level athletic ability are rare and special. Schools can casually turn away miles and miles of academically superior applicants. They can do the same with miles and miles of athletes. But finding applicants with the whole packages is a challenge and they ALL have separate offices just to recruit those students.

Why pretend like your star athlete with mediocre academic ability, or your star academic with mediocre athletic ability is more unique than they actually are?

99th percentile test scores? There are at least 75,000 each year.
Top players in football, basketball, etc? There are many hundreds of thousands.

Tops in both areas? RARE RARE RARE[/quote]

[b]If you’re playing a sport at the D3 level you are almost certainly not at the top of your sport.[/b] [/quote]

Tell me you know nothing about college sports without telling me you know nothing about college sports.

Across all levels, the transition from high school to college typically runs at about 10% participation rate.  So that means approximately 90% of students that participated in youth and high school sports decide either they can't or won't compete collegiately.  I ask you, is the top 10% the "top of your sport"?

There are tiers of athletic ability within D1, D2, D3, NAIA, and inter-collegiate club.  Depending on the sport, top D3 teams can easily compete with / beat, mid and upper tier D1 programs.  Not talking about an SEC power house football team against a D3 football team.  But there are lacrosse players, soccer players, swimmers, tennis players, field hockey players, basketball players, etc., that turn down D1 offers to play at a D2 or D3 (or other) school because of a holistic better fit.

The athletic hook is powerful.  Without a doubt.  Own it.  Love it.  But don't discount the athlete's academic credentials either.[/quote]

You actually don’t know much about college sports…kind of laughable you would write this diatribe.

If you were to mix D3 teams and D1 teams in a tournament setting, you would be lucky to have a D3 team win one game.  There are more kids that would rather play club sports at Power 5 schools than would play D3 sports.

BTW, the fact you referenced D2 schools in your answer proves you know little.  Go look at the list of D2 schools…if you have heard of 5 of them you would be lucky.  Nobody turns down a D1 offer to play D2 sports.  98%+ of D3 athletes receive no interest from D1 programs.[/quote]

Written by someone who can't imagine why an outstanding athlete might want to attend MIT, Johns Hopkins, U Chicago, Pomona or Amherst and still play their sport, even use it to help them get in, rather than attend a potentially lesser Div 1 school just so they can say they played D1 sports.  D1 athletes routinely also have restrictions on what they can major in, can't do internships or study abroad, and lots of other issues that a really smart kid might find unappealing.  Not all D1 sports programs are elite, and not all D3 sports programs are filled with athletes who had no interest from or in D1 schools as you suggest.  Plenty of athletes make a decision to prioritize differently than you and your family might. [/quote]

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