It’s not athletes that have an advantage. It’s rich and UMC athletes that have the advantage. Do you think all that training and travel is free? Tying college admission to athletics is another way the rich keep a stranglehold on what they view as limited resources. Legacy being the other, of course.

The anger and vitriol that parents of non-athletic kids have towards kids who win athletic scholarships to college is pathetic. It's not a zero sum game. They're not taking spots away from your kids, and they're adding to the university community in a way that your kid cannot.

My kids, for example, were all dorks, without an athletic bone in any of their bodies. They did very well on the college admissions front regardless.

One of my kid's boyfriend, on the other hand, had a perfectly respectable high school record and test scores and was a first-team all met selection in the DMV for a revenue sport. He generated serious interest from several lower level Division I programs with high academic standards without even trying, including an Ivy League school. In the end, however, recruiters took a pass and he was left scrambling. He ended up at a complete no-name school with no scholarship,

They don't just hand out admissions and/or scholarships to athletes. You have to be really, really good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I would be embarrassed if my kid had to take this route to get into a good college.

Plus, I would worry that he would have time and/or the capability to do well there (i.e., that he might eek through, but fail to actually gain a strong education).

No you wouldn't. You'd be bragging to anyone and everyone. Green eyed monster.

You so don't get people like me, and my circle.

DP. You and your circle sound like insufferable and judgmental jerks.

Carry on with your bad selves.

Anonymous wrote:DC's classmate was recruited for a sport and just found out he is deferred. How can that happen? Seems like the school should have told him and the family that it was not looking good.

D3? That's terrible. The coach should have given him some indication this was coming.

Anonymous wrote:Most athletes who are successful in their chosen sport spends hours and hours of training and have the discipline & work ethics to be successful.

Having a specific skill - a sport, musical instrument, singing, dancing is MUCH more rare than a kid with high stats.

Scarcity creates demand thus colleges will fight over an athlete much more than a kid with 1600 SAT/4.0+ GPA.

I have one kid who is academic and another who is athletic but I guild them not to be defined by it. You are more than your grades, school or sport.

Be a good person and kind to others!

Omg! This +1 million.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I would be embarrassed if my kid had to take this route to get into a good college.

Plus, I would worry that he would have time and/or the capability to do well there (i.e., that he might eek through, but fail to actually gain a strong education).

No you wouldn't. You'd be bragging to anyone and everyone. Green eyed monster.

You so don't get people like me, and my circle.

I'm sure you would be very embarrassed if your kid golfed for Harvard or played tennis for Princeton

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Anonymous wrote:You haven’t figured out that our society values sports over education?

But you can get into a good school with amazing academics and zero athletics, but if you have amazing athletics you still need academics that are far above average.

It's higher EDUCATION...not higher athletics.

Then you don't understand EDUCATION.

I don't give a rats ass if my lawyer or my investment advisor or my doctor can catch a ball. I need their brains...period.

College athlete is still a great proxy for work ethic. There's a reason that they also have an edge when applying to jobs.

This. They can take feedback, work hard, be a teammate, and persevere through adversity. And they have great time management skills, because to get recruited to the best schools they need a strong academic transcript on top of the elite sports skill.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You haven’t figured out that our society values sports over education?

But you can get into a good school with amazing academics and zero athletics, but if you have amazing athletics you still need academics that are far above average.

It's higher EDUCATION...not higher athletics.

Then you don't understand EDUCATION.

I don't give a rats ass if my lawyer or my investment advisor or my doctor can catch a ball. I need their brains...period.

And you get that, as med and law schools don't look at sports for admission.

They do consider it in an applicant though. If you ace the LSAT, and had top grades, plus played a varsity sport in college, and maybe also were the captain, that added time commitment and leadership on top of academic success does stand out to a law school as law requires excellent time management and leadership.

Thanks anyway but I want one that honed their time management skills with academic work and internships , not time on the field or in the pool or whatever.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:If it's so easy why can't all the high SAT scorers also be world class athletes?

Stay on topic, please.

The topic is the edge, the schools want kids who are multi talented. Not singularly talented test takers.

If they accept kids who don’t even apply - no, they don’t. And before Dolty responds, I mean a real application. It just a meaningless paper trail.

DC's classmate was recruited for a sport and just found out he is deferred. How can that happen? Seems like the school should have told him and the family that it was not looking good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are talking about all sport like lacrosse or crew or field hockey, these recruits statistically will presumptively be successful in their chosen careers.

They are tiny fraction of the people who are successful in their chosen careers. Tiny. Far more people in this world are successful and did not play those sports. In other words, playing lacrosse is not what makes a person successful.

Not presidents and CEOs.

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Anonymous wrote:This is our culture. I agree it makes no sense. Really what do sports have to do with pursuit of higher education? I don't think.any other countries play collegiate sports like we do. But you have to accept it as it is just the way it is here.

I do accept it but it’s crazy. His sat is about hundreds below the average accepted sat there.

Not that crazy. Colleges looking for a whole person not a computer.

Um, if the kid is accepted with no application - the college is definitely not looking at the whole person.

Some schools do an academic evaluation before making a sports offer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I would be embarrassed if my kid had to take this route to get into a good college.

Plus, I would worry that he would have time and/or the capability to do well there (i.e., that he might eek through, but fail to actually gain a strong education).

No you wouldn't. You'd be bragging to anyone and everyone. Green eyed monster.

You so don't get people like me, and my circle.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it's so easy why can't all the high SAT scorers also be world class athletes?

Why would they want to spend their time on that?

The goal of the SAT is college acceptances. If being an athlete is really so easy and results in better acceptances, it seems like the time would be better spent training. It's super easy to get recruited, right?

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Anonymous wrote:My friend’s son has many offers from good schools - only one application submitted - and just committed to a school where he hadn’t applied.

There is no way they didn’t apply. They might have applied after a verbal offer but they still filled out the forms and sent their transcripts etc . . .

My kid signed a National Letter of Intent. A binding contract to play soccer at a school. Before applying. Then on the last day of ED applications due dates, Kid applied and received acceptance 10 mins later.

Exactly, your kid applied.

You’re a dolt if you think this kid’s application had anything to do with his admission. Do you think he was stressed whatsoever in applying like everyone else?

Your insane if you think it’s not stressful signing a NLI.