<p>Our experience with Ivy recruiting (not gymnastics) was that grades and academic stats were hugely important even for - as was the case in my S’s sport - a sport that the Ivies all value highly. When my S, who had a very good though not perfect GPA while taking the hardest available courses at his school, got his SATs over 2100 every school moved him from the “we’re recruiting you” pile to the “we want to offer you a likely letter” pile. And one non-Ivy but exceedingly elite school went from “you are near the top of our list” to “we can offer you money.” Unless your child is competing internationally for the USA, academics definitely matter.</p>