Reply to Friend just announced her junior DD has committed to play lax at a top school

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it's funny how parents of athletes are twisting themselves into pretzels justifying this completely arbitrary advantage that athletes are given in the college admission process.  Yes, your kid puts in long hours -- so do lot of other kids doing music, or theater, or science or dance at a high level.  They don't get special admissions processes.

Yeah yeah, sports promotes community and school spirit.  So do the performing arts.  A tiny percentage of sports bring in money, most do not, yet they still get to recruit.  You know that this glaring loophole in college admissions is the reason why the bribery scheme in the "Varsity Blues" case actually worked right?  Take a picture of yourself on a rowing machine, call the kid a crew recruit -- voila, admission!

There are other unfairnesses in college admissions of course (legacies), but just because there are others doesn't mean that you can't acknowledge that this one is -- objectively -- unfair.  [/quote]

Totally agree. Parents seem completely oblivious to the water they’re swimming in. [b]It is a bizarrely American thing to value the hard work put into athletics so much more than hard work in other areas.[/b] I’d take a kid who looked after his younger siblings after school every day over a kid who went to soccer practice every day because he wanted to win so badly.[/quote]

This to me is it.  It is bizarre -- the elevation of athletics over any other activity connected to the university community (arts, debate, chess, science, what have you).  It is uniquely American.

To those saying it's just another thumb on the scale for something the university wants like URM or orchestra and they still have to achieve top grades and test scores, do you see those candidates getting a special recruitment procedure?  Does the diversity officer of the school call up a URM candidate and say, "you've got the diversity and background we could really use here.  You've got to get a GPA of __ and a SAT of __, but as long as you do, you've got a soft commitment from Larling U!"  Does the orchestra director say "we're in need of good trombonist and you caught our eye.  If you maintain a GPA of ___ and get SAT of ____ and keep at the trombone, you're in."  It's not a plus factor putting them over other candidates with equal stats, it's a whole nother admission procedure.

The only other candidates I can think of that might get an entirely new path set up for them are development, Z-list, your dad donates a building, candidates.  But that's all very hush-hush, cloak-and-dagger, rumor which the university wants to hide.

Here, it's all in the open, and everyone looks at it and is like "yeah, seems legit."

Can you not admit it's not just another factor, it's a special fast-track just for athletes?  The emperor has no clothes![/quote]

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