Like isn’t enough. Love that blog post. Going to use it on the pre-med forum too.
Sports has helped women in recent years to gain admission to the Ivies but you still must be a top student. Type of sport can be paramount-e.g. womens hockey. Don’t rule out this: a B+ football player with the full dinner plate could get into a Duke because it defeats the stereotype.
@lordofthering I hate to seem as if I am dogpiling, but I want to give you a cautionary tale about top Ivy admissions:
4.0 unweighted GPA, 2250 SAT (single sitting), rigorous course load, NHS, Valedictorian, varsity swimmer, 3 generation legacy, female in a STEM subject with summer research experience. Applied ED to Yale, was deferred and ultimately denied.
The salt in the wound? her mother and grandmother had rubbished other colleges, saying ‘why bother with anything that isn’t a top ivy?’. She was devastated when she “only” got in to JHU (with very very nice aid, btw). Her mother was gutted when she realized what she had done to her super-smart, super-hard working, super-talented daughter.
Obviously, your son(s) may have better luck- but if they don’t, they are the ones who will have to deal with the rejection, not you.
ps: postscript- she loved JHU, and has just been accepted to a very prestigious PhD program at UNC-CH with a full ride and very,very generous stipend.
Don’t worry about it. If your son is really exceptional, it will show regardless of you effort. You can prod him though, but with that confidence, there is no problem. Tennis won’t help much but it could show that in addition to being a genius, he is also a social butterfly. Regardless, it sounds like he has a promising life so that in itself is good. Don’t squander too much of his talent on tennis, perhaps spread it and make sure he is shown for 100% or more of what he is. Just make sure he stands out, and is not just anyone, but someone who they want!
@collegemom3717: I would not expect for my son to go to Yale if he would have similar credential. I would think Yale will not admit student with such or similar credential. May be in rare case if he/she would have extra ordinary essay or ED along with it.
@lordofthering My daughter got accepted in Yale Class of 2019. She’s national rank golf player but she got in because of her academics, leadership, cum laude and lots of academic award. Invest on academics and research not sport…
I made mistake on investing on her national golf competition… BTW, she got recruited on D1 or D3 but she declined she prefer to get in college without golf. Got accepted in 3 IVY’s.
@waitlisted1: It makes perfect sense what you said. That is what I was afraid of as well and wanted to be careful on over committing on a sport where he is not likely to get recruited in D1 college but his academic ability will likely to be good enough for those colleges based on what he is doing so far. He always had A+ grade in most of the classes. I believe with focus on right direction and early planning can lead into achieve right goals.
" I would think Yale will not admit student with such or similar credential. "
But they do. When you have 31,000 applicants for 1,300 spaces, there are many, many strong candidates who will not get a place.
“He always had A+ grade in most of the classes”. The girl I mentioned had straight As through out all of school and was valedictorian of an academically strong school. That was not enough. Nor were ECs, leadership, legacy, and so on.
“I believe with focus on right direction and early planning can lead into achieve right goals.”
Pretty much everybody on CC would agree with that - even if they disagree as to what ‘right’ is! 
I think we are all working to help our kids to get the best outcome for them.
What I hear from the many voices on this thread is that unless he is recruited by Yale, his athletics will not be enough to get him in; that he should be making choices based on who he is and what he likes, not just to try and get into a specific school, and to keep in mind that, while cheering and steering and helping your son along, as the parent you also need to be prepared for what happens if it doesn’t go to plan.
I would expect a student like @collegemom3717 to be capable of getting into Yale, but could also easily not get in. As she even said
@CaliCash
Prestige Hunting? Pressuring his child? And how exactly do you know that he’s pressuring him? Did the completely and likely situation that the son WANTS to go to an Ivy League school because he wants a good education and likes the environment there EVER cross your mind?
Didn’t realize that the ivy league had such a monopoly on good education/academic environments such that the same thing doesn’t apply to schools outside the Ivy League like Duke, WUSTL, JHU, Caltech, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, ND, Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Pomona, etc.
@Akashi Any parent who asks about their Middle School child getting into an Ivy League is prestige hunting.
Also, I highly doubt a middle schooler would have done any research into colleges yet, meaning even if the kid wanted to go to any Ivy League school, it’s likely because of the name.
You know what was my dream school growing up? Harvard. Why? Because it was pretty much the only non-local school I had heard of.
@lordofthering, I agree with @skieurope. The best chance of your son getting into a top university, Ivy or not, is for him to do sports or any EC because he enjoys it … and of course do well academically.
Having just completed the college application process, and heading off to Yale in September, I now believe that it really is such a crapshoot. I knew I was a strong applicant but when 94 out of every 100 applicants gets rejected, it is foolish to feel confident that you will get in – and crazy-talk to think that way about an 8th grader. There is no formula to plug in to your 8th grade son’s life plan (or your life plan for your 8th grade son) such that in four years out will come an Ivy acceptance letter. But hopefully, in four years you will have raised a happy and healthy son who is proud of his accomplishments and whatever university he will attend.