1of42

Indeed. And yet, while academics may be an integral part of an institution, the other facets of a campus make up another important, if not equally important, characteristic of a campus. You seem to suggest that in order to get a well- and widely-diverse campus you must simply set high academic standards and you will still get the diversity, both in athletics, culture, socioeconomic status, minorities, etc. That is simply not the case.

From experience in closely researching, applying to, and deciding whether to attend the single university in the US that essentially does not lower its academic standards for anyone (athlete, musician, minority, poor person) - Caltech - I can tell you that when you give academics primacy over all else, you create a monochrome campus. It's really as simple as that.

Furthermore, your argument is predicated on the assumption that there is some "standard" GPA/SAT combination, and that athletes are having it waived whereas others are not. This is simply not true. GPA and SAT scores, like all other factors on an application, are only important in the context of the entire application (though they are significantly more important). Admissions officers don't admit the GPA and SAT scores, and only if the scores are too low decide to look beyond them at other factors (such as athletics). They admit the total package. Athletics are a part of that. Elite athletes get the same boost as elite academic students, because both are part of a total applicant package.

What this comes down to is that it is your opinion that Princeton should make academics its sole metric in evaluating students, except insofar as otherwise academically equal candidates must be differentiated. That is your opinion, and you are welcome to it. But it is by no means true a priori; there is no "unfair" in Princeton accepting recruited athletes, and obviously the admissions staff in conjunction with the rest of the University administration have decided that it is in the best interests of the school to continue doing it. Perhaps you know better, and should run Princeton admissions. Perhaps someday you will.

But in the mean time, stop complaining about the way others have chosen to run the institution, and either come to the school (if you were accepted) and try to change it yourself, or go try your hand at some other school. Or you could just go to Caltech, the school that practices your style of admissions. You probably won't enjoy its monochromatic campus life quite as much as you would the campus life here, but that's the price of your philosophy.

You'll have to forgive me if I find your entire argument predicated on a sense of entitlement and jealousy, as I find most anti-[insert minority recruitment, athletic recruitment, whatever] arguments to be.