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][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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I’ve never met anyone spending more than $5k per year for travel sports, and for most of us it’s around $3K. What sport are people paying $15-20K/year for?[/quote]

I'm guessing you never met anyone who plays travel hockey. The club fee is $5750, and that's to play and practice from mid-August to Thanksgiving. Tournaments are extra (e.g., CanAm at Lake Placid comes to about $2,000 if the player and both parents go.) Constant driving and hotel rooms adds about $2k more. $500 for the uniform (annually or every other year, depending how quickly your child grows.) A new pair of skates a year: $800-$1000+. One or two new sticks a year @$300+. Not to mention all the other uniform components (pads, helmet, neck guard, mouth guards). If you want a private lesson, it's $100-$150/hour. Skate sharpening: $5-$10/week. If they participate in camps or showcases over the summer, minimum $1,000/per exclusive of travel.

And that's before the high school season even starts. At our high school, the playing fee is $2,600/player.

Don't even make me add it up; I'll vomit. And my kid is not even going to get a whiff of being scouted for a team at a school that would be a good fit for them academically. (Clearly, the reason they play hockey is because they love it -- not part of any college plan.)[/quote]

Thank you for detailing this!  I was shocked someone thinks most only spend $2K on travel.  The "costs to travel" each weekend and stay in hotels alone for 9 months of the year (fall spring and summer for Baseball) can alone cost $3-4K and that is nothing to do with the actual travel sport fees. I know people that spend $10K+ for baseball each year and have done so since age 10.

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I assume that people whose kids don't play a travel sport think that tennis lessons at the local rinky dink club, or house league hockey that meets once a week is "travel." I mean that in the kindest way. If your child hasn't played on a travel team, you would have no idea.

A friend of mine has a son who has been playing tennis once a week since elementary school. When tryouts came along in ninth grade, she was shocked to find out that virtually every other kid there had been playing 3-5+ days a week year round. She thought that that was something that only elite high school players did. Her son ended up not even trying out, because he didn't want to play five days a week, which is what the high school team schedule demands.[/quote]

My kids personally haven't done travel, but I've lived in two different areas where it is BIG.  So it doesn't take much to understand what that means.  And I do have a dancer who did competition team, so I estimate we spent $15K/year on dance, recitals, competitions/travel, etc.  And I have one who did not do travel baseball simply because I knew we couldn't manage the traveling every weekend with one parent who is always on the road for work.  Dance is different because it's local and only 3-5 competitions per year all being within 2 hours, not every single weekend traveling 2-3 hours.

Common sense seems to indicate that ice skating/hockey will be even more as rink rental would not be cheap (and costumes for Ice skating are ridiculous since the sequins must be sewn on specially to ensure none come off and injure a skater when on the ice).  [/quote]
This is all making me feel much less resentful of travel soccer fees. [/quote]

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