Reply to Elite Colleges’ Quiet Fight to Favor Alumni Children

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Legacy is a problem, but kids getting into schools because of sports is an even bigger problem. Those two student populations take a significant number of spots at top schools.  A kid could be busting their ass, and an athlete who has a weaker transcript & test scores will get it. [/quote]

If it's that easy, teach your kid how to play lacrosse. [/quote]

My kid used athletic talent to access high academic college.  I can't control that that is the system, so we played that game, but it's a silly criteria to use to help gain admittance to a place for academic pursuits.

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This is our approach. I don't control the system. I don't like it. But I'm not changing it. So we are going to try to use sports as a hook in. So far, so good. We'll see how DC lands in the end (high stats -so far- and high level of play in the sport). [/quote]
I think parents should play with whatever cards they were dealt with because the college admission process is a brutal game.  My neighbor played the sports card and their child is at Harvard.   Great kid, but his mother was very strategic about the college admission process from the time this kid was in middle school.  Sports can take you places.   As a matter of fact every child that I know who has received a full ride at top universities all played sports.   Good luck to your child.   [/quote]

Doesn't work out that way for most sports kids.  Just look at the number of people dumping $15-20K/year into travel sports.  Then consider how many full scholarships there are in DI, DII and DIII schools in the USA.  The odds are still against you (keep in mind that beyond DI, most kids are not there on FULL scholarships, some are but not most).  In reality, if you saved and invested the $15-20K/year spent since age 7 in travel sports, you would have more than enough to pay for Harvard or any other $80K/year university.

I've watched several families dedicate their lives (and their wallets) to sports from a young age in hope that their kid would get a scholarship.  Very few are even playing in college with a scholarship.  Most that are on even partial scholarship are at a D3 school.  Their kid could have easily gotten into those D3 safety schools (none are elite or even 2nd tier) on academics alone and parents could have easily paid for college with the money from sports.

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Years ago I was on the rental car bus returning to the airport after a soccer tournament for DD. DD enjoyed playing soccer, the fees were no hardship, and, barring unforeseen developments, knew she would be a full pay college student. She must've been about 8th or 9th grade as many coaches were scheduled to attend this tournament. Ended up talking to the dad sitting across the aisle. He started pressing on where DD wanted to play, had she been in contact with coaches, etc. When I said it seemed a little early for that and DD wasn't even sure she wanted to go that route, he was just aghast and ended up asking, "why are you even here?"

I came to understand that some parents wanted their kids to play wherever they could get in, especially if the school gave them money. Then another segment of parents wanted their kids recruited, but only to good schools. And some parents could afford to not worry where it was all going. I feel fortunate that we were able to be in that group yet also know that some parents spent a lot of money on travel and may have ended up with more cash for college if they had avoided travel altogether.  [/quote]

This---do it because you can afford it and your kid loves it.  Don't do it because you think it's the "ticket" to a sports scholarship, because the odds of that are slim, but the odds your kid burns out and hates the sport are high if you are the one pushing it[/quote]

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