<p>eireann, The difference is probably that MIT, Caltech are D3 and just don’t place as much emphasis on athletics as the Ivies do.</p>
<p>Agree, first the coach has to like them enough to really, really want them, go to bat for them. At Ivies, they have to be academically capable of handling the work at that school. Nothing says “state’s best” is any kind of shoe-in. Or the kid who broke some sports record. Could be true at some publics or other sports powerhouse. The AI is the factor that can prevent auto-admits. And yes, it does, in some cases.</p>
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<p>Are you sure about this? I thought that’s what the “slot system” meant. If you clear the academix index requirement and you are one of the x top athletes in a given sport and there are x slots at the school, then you’re in.</p>
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<p>Right, I qualified it by saying if they cleared the AI requirement. It does mean that in the measurable sports such as track, that a combination of AI and sports statistics equates to auto-admission.</p>
<p>Which means sports superstars are not auto-admits. Not in the sense some are asking for math superstars.</p>
<p>There are a variety of considerations for athletes. Depends on the school and what it needs, etc.</p>
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<p>Ha ha, well I’m pretty sure the math superstars would clear the academic index requirement they use for athletes…</p>
<p>To provide some balance, I have to say that if a school does not offer the AMC tests, it may not be so easy for a student or parent to get them to start. For one thing, I think the tests cost the school money–a small amount, but some school districts are really strapped for funds. For a second thing, the school may have an anti-academic-competition philosophy. The local schools encouraged sports, but gave rather half-hearted or no support to the academic competitions (with the exception of the National Latin Exam). </p>
<p>Sue22, can you imagine the publicity if one of the top 12 basketball recruits in the country lived in the next town over?</p>
<p>The local school did not acknowledge the existence of Mathcounts. It has become better known recently. I am not sure that it would have been worth the negative fall-out, to try to get the teachers at the local school to even mention it to the students.</p>
<p>I have changed my mind, and think that there should be a time requirement in the 1 mile run, in order for the USAMO qualifiers to be auto-admits. Just to make it parallel to the situation for the athletes. I am thinking 11 minutes :)</p>
<p>c.alum, maybe we need an EC index or a likeability index.</p>
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<p>Yes, there is definitely more of an emphasis on athletics at ivies. MIT is D3 in all sports but one (rowing is D1). I just want to point out that MIT in particular does not admit lower-stats recruited athletes, for whatever it is worth. My understanding is that different top schools have different processes for how much they prioritize athletes in admissions (Duke vs ivies vs MIT and CalTech) and for MIT, the boost is very small. Very very far from an auto admit.</p>
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<p>QM, you are missing my point. Obviously the kids on the math team know about the contests. It’s the other 98% of the student population that has know idea what goes on there (well maybe not 98%, but the vast majority). Math Club is not the football team or orchestra. Similarly, the vast majority of students, even at schools like NT, have no knowledge of the individual science Olympiads until they are knee deep into their AP classes. Look at the finalists of these contests, lots of professors’ kids. Why? Because they have a huge head start. </p>
<p>Forget about just your average high school. As others have noted, no knowledge whatsoever of these contests outside of small insular groups of helicopter/tiger parents.</p>
<p>Well, on the other hand, I highly doubt most math superstars would pass any kind of athletic index. My kids are very athletic but not math superstars per this discussion.</p>
<p>Academic accomplishents do make the papers here. Not as much as athletic ones ,for sure, but it does happen.</p>
<p>eireann, I understand this about places like Caltech and MIT. S1 was approached by Caltech for sports because he probably met their minimum academic requirements. He just was not a Caltech or MIT type of guy .</p>
<p>Well, ivies and pretty much every D3 program have a slot system, whereas MIT does not. FWIW, I said athletes are not auto-admits at MIT. It seems people read my post as the opposite.</p>
<p>Until things have changed, Caltech doesn’t care at all about athletics, though their athletics coaches may try to get potential recruits to apply and matriculate.</p>
<p>Well, Caltech tried to care more about basketball at least a few years ago. They wanted to find kids that had actually played varsity basketball before ,instead of relying on walkons who had never set foot on a basketball court before. Not sure it worked too well but it was a noble experiment.</p>
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<p>If you go out for math team, you probably will hear about these things. My parents aren’t professors and I heard about the AMC freshman year (at my regular high school.) I’m not even sure that it was a math team activity–I think my math teacher may have suggested it. It’s too long ago to know for sure.</p>
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<p>This says a lot about us as a society that we don’t care about stuff like this, yet the sports pages and even TV programs feature high school athletics.</p>
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<p>Ha ha, sounds about right.</p>
<p>Sports can be fluid. Even the big NBA or NFL stars occasionally have a bad night.</p>
<p>QM,</p>
<p>Formula: USAMO +11MM=AA </p>
<p>Done! Let’s contact MIT admissions. :-)</p>
<p>sevmom,</p>
<p>My son was contacted by a coach at Caltech, too. 
We were pretty excited to think he could be a star athlete there! LOL Too bad he didn’t like the school.</p>