<p>nylorac87 - I googled NYT Haverford 2005 and saw references to the series of articles I referred to covering Haverford’s athletic recruiting efforts. The articles were dated from 9/11/05, 10/6/05, 12/4/05, and 12/25/05. I didnt realize there were so many articles. I only read 2 of them but the message I got was that sports could make a big difference to getting into a college like Haverford. I do not think the article quantified it, but I keep hearing that things like sports can be worth a hundred or two hundred points off your standardized test scores and or a bite off your GPA. I believe that giving that kind of preference to athletics is inappropriate if the essence of the institution is academics.</p>