Reply to You can't spell "lacrosse" without SLACs

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "You can't spell "lacrosse" without SLACs"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Really I think what people are complaining about is the differential admissions standards applied to athletes at many schools.

It would be one thing if the admissions slots reserved for lax/ hockey at these schools were filled by students who had more or less the same grades/ test scores/ academic profile as everyone else.

But this is objectively *NOT* the case. Study after study shows that being a recruited athlete confers an admissions advantage equivalent to ~150 SAT points or more, or perhaps a whole point of GPA. Athlete routinely make up the lowest part of the admitted "stats" ranges for most schools. Don't protest about how your DS or DD athlete has great grades...this is just objectively a fact.

If schools are going to do this, reserving "slots" for otherwise unqualified athletes needs to become a *much* more restricted practice. Fine, bring in a few low GPA/SAT ringers. But I think everyone would feel better about selective college athletic if coaches were generally forced to build the rest of their teams out of walk-ons from the general pool of smart kids. In a school the size of many SLACs, where there may be only 700 or so total male students, special preferences for lacrosse (~50 students) and ice hockey (~40 students) and football (~60+ students) add up fast.  The solution is not to abandon sports altogether, but to significantly, if not totally, eliminate the influence of coaches in recruiting and admissions.

Make it about character, sportsmanship, and fun, rather than winning. The way it was always supposed to be.   [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics