<p>Hawkette, as usual, you have misread my comments and placed your own spin on things. </p>
<p>My first comment refuted your post #71 where you implied that Ivy league athletes need only meet the 171 Athletic Index, which would mean that they only needed a 540 CR and 540 Math SAT score. I was merely pointing out that (and your own posts agree) that very few of the Ivy athletes have scores so low. Do you agree? </p>
<p>My second comment was indicating that your view of the graduation rates for those who have exhausted eligibility was implausible and that afan is correct. Do you have any logical reason to think that your view is correct and that athletes graduate at an equal or even higher rate than other students at some of your favored schools (other than your general “we’'ll never know the truth” kind of comments when someone else has made a point you don’t want to acknowledge)? </p>
<p>My third comment was merely pointing out that there are schools where athletes are held to a much lower standard in the admissions process and schools where athletes graduate at lower rates (this is not exactly news by the way). While I believe that Ivy League recruited athletes are also held to a lower standard, because of the fact that the Ivy League graduation rates are so high and because of the fact that very few Ivy League students have low board scores, I think that the overall admissions standards for these athletes are fairly high. </p>
<p>You know, I think that athletes are terrific and do incredibly well in the world after college and I wish that my kids were talented enough in a sport to pursue it in college and afterwards. I actually have very little bias about Ivy League athletes vs. athletes at other top-notch schools such as Stanford and Duke. What does bother me are your attempts to smear the Ivies (such as your arch posts about why their football seasons don’t start earlier etc.). I applaud your views that there are many excellent schools out there and that a wider net should be cast by parents and students. I just don’t like your sometimes illogical and misleading statements and your attempts to create controversies where there are none.</p>