Do you have a reference for parents making their children leave athletes alone during college? I mentioned that I briefly was on the rowing team at Stanford. I didn’t notice any significant changes in who associated with me soon after joining the team, which is not surprising, considering nearly everyone in my classes had no idea that I was athlete. Few outside of my dorm were aware, where I had a reputation for being focused on academics, rather than dorm parties/recreational activities.
The women’s tennis team’s average GPA is actually well above the non-athlete Stanford average, with all but one starter at 3.74 to 3.99; so they might fit in well with disciplined tiger children who are focused on top grades for med/grad school and the like. And whatever Stanford’s test score admission polices are for athletes, they seem to be working from an academic perspective. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, Stanford athletes as a whole have the same grad rate as non-athletes, with highest FGR grad rate of all Div I colleges. When people think of Stanford athletes, they probably think of the sports that get the most television coverage, such as Football and Men’s Basketball. However, the majority of athletes play a different sport where it’s not practical to go pro after graduation and as such often have post grad goals that are similar to the overall student body. For example, I’ve known quite a few Stanford athletes who were focused on pursuing medicine are now doctors. This includes some stellar recruited athletes. One was a HS national championship winner in her sport and another was an Olympic participant. Among persons I knew on the rowing team, a disproportionately large number of them are now engineers, including myself. A recent article mentioned the majority of the men’s rowing team upperclassmen are engineering school majors.