<p>Not sure what you mean by down to earth. Trinity has a very (to my eye) Oxford-Cambridge-Ivy “looking” campus ( a plus in my eyes for that traditional college feel). Yet it is smack in a not-so-great part of Hartford and has worked hard at establishing productive town-gown ties. Contributed to the establishment of the Learning Corridor,an adjacent “campus” focused on improving educational opportunities for Hartford residents. Students we saw were more down-to-earth than Ivory Tower. Don’t know what their “diversity” stats are, but I saw diversity on campus, including our Tour Guide who was an URM. Very impressive place which just didn’t happen to be a match for our S.</p>
<p>jrpar, that’s a great link. Sure flies in the face of the Williams stereotype.</p>
<p>I think my friend should look at Trinity.</p>
<p>It is interesting. Here’s the report on athletics referred to in this article - reading the two together probably gives a more balanced picture: <a href=“http://www.ephblog.com/archives/images/athletic_report.htm[/url]”>http://www.ephblog.com/archives/images/athletic_report.htm</a>
I know several kids playing sports at Trinity who are really happy.</p>
<p>jrpar, another great link.</p>
<p>Are there any top schools that basically don’t recruit athletes by accepting them with significantly lower academic ability. If so, I’ll put that school at the top of my list.</p>
<p>mensa, that was sort of a stupid thing to say. Most of the schools discussed on this forum do not “accept them with significantly lower academic ability”. Even the lowest academically qualified athletes accepted at the Ivys are students very able to do the work and are not permitted to be “significantly lower”. We aren’t talking about OU football here! Most of the student-athletes on these boards, or discussed on these boards. have the credentials for the schools to which they are applying, but have hopes that their sport will help them get in over equally qualified applicants. I fail to see a problem with that. The qualities my son exhibits in training for and competing in his sport are the same qualitie that make him a good and motivated student. I worked at a company for many years that had a CEO who tended to recruit executives who were competitive runners, cyclists or swimmers because he liked their energy and discipline.</p>
<p>Univ of Miami, Syracuse somewhat depending on major, USC, UCLA.</p>
<p>
Were they delivering pizzas?.</p>
<p>MomofWildChild, don’t even bother to respond to Post 108! “Extinction” as a child-rearing tactic works wonders for the immature.</p>
<p>
Read the Williams article posted above. The difference in athletes test scores is two standard deviations. TWO STANDARD DEVIATIONS! If that’s not “significantly lower”, I’d ask you what is? Why do you act as an apologist for this scam?</p>
<p>Duke,Stanford, Vandy, Rice,Notre Dame, Northwestern,Gtown, all Ivies, Holy Cross, Colgate, Davidson-all very good academic schools with Division 1 sports. Holy Cross is perhaps the smallest school< 2700 students which can claim NCAA division 1 champs in Basketball and Baseball. Rice recently won NCAA Baseball championship.</p>
<p>Mensa,
Guess what? I know someone who received 12 varsity letters in high school, and was the captain of 3 teams senior year. He also was the lead role in the mainstage theater production senior year, and very active in student government. However, this “athlete” also scored well above 1500 on the SAT’s, and won many academic awards. So yes, believe it or not, some athletes are not as one dimensional as you think. </p>
<p>Now, what is it that you do besides score well on tests and perhaps get good grades? Why are you so down on athletes?</p>
<p>“In the class of 2006 only 10 ‘low band’ athletes were accepted…”
I should take the advice not to respond to you, but your total obnoxiousness demands it!
I would put my athlete-son up against you before an admissions committe any day, Mensa.
Oh- as for the delivering pizza comment… The CEOs of Papa John’s, Domino’s and Pizza Inn do pretty well for themselves, but I guess you aspire to higher things.</p>
<p>If I were an athlete I’d use it, believe me. So I’m not criticiszing you or yr son. Just to add, part of the problem is that athletes have been very mean to me in school.</p>
<p>Oh…well then I’m sorry about that. Then I don’t really blame you for being a bit snide, but will reassure you that at the top academic schools, you really will find lots of athletes who are just as happy to talk thermodynamics or the economics of Medicare as they are to talk about their sport. And maybe, hopefully, they’ll be nicer than the high school group you are talking about. I don’t like big academic allowances being made for star athletes either, but at the kinds of schools that are being talked about here, I think that the adcoms are able to discern between the kids whose grades and test scores reflect an inability to handle the academic work, from those whose grades and scores may be a bit lower as a result of the intense time and focus they have devoted to their sport. You have to look at the whole person and see what the teachers say about their academic potential, I think, to understand the reasons behind the differences.</p>
<p>I think there is a general misconception about atheletics and academics in colleges and universities. Once you get past the “revenue” sports football and basketball and to a much much lesser extent hockey, lacrosse and baseball at the schools where they have these sports you do not see an significant difference in qualifications or graduation rates between college atheletes and the general school population. Indeed the graduation rates are frequently higher for some sports than they are overall.</p>
<p>I’m sitting under a picture of my college eight as I type this and I see a doctor, a dentist, a podiatrist, a lawyer, and an engineer among the guys and gal (cox) I have been able to keep track of, and believe me I wasn’t rowing for Harvard. In the olympic sports - swimming, track, tennis, golf, gymnastics, soccer, rifle etz there is very little if any scholarship money available and the kids are mostly doing it for love of the sport and dedicating huge amounts of time and effort in the process. They are by and large kids with a lot of self-disciplin who can organize their lives and manage their time. Rather than being a drag on a university most are exactly the kind of passionate, disciplined, and organized men and women who will go on to successful careers and bring further distinction to their schools.</p>
<p>well put, patuxent.</p>
<p>Ohio Wesleyan University is not athletics-oriented. It emphasizes balance but most of the students there are there for its excellent academics.</p>
<p>These debates would be a lot less heated if schools would be more forthcoming with their recruiting and admissions data.</p>
<p>Half of the athletes at the top schools are average or better academically and receive essentially no help from the coaches in the admissions process (even though they probably think they do). Thus, there is no reason at all for the defensiveness about the academic qualifications of these athletes.</p>
<p>Half of the athletes are below average, but a good chunk of those only slightly, just like there are slighly below average admits who bring other talents to campus. No big deal, no grounds for complaint.</p>
<p>Having said that, I can’t name a single college that doesn’t recruit and admit some athletes who are significantly below average for the school and who never in their wildest dreams would have gotten accepted on the basis of academic qualifications. Significantly below average might be 1150 SATs for an Ivy or a top LAC or it might be 750 SATs for a big Division I school. Each school sets their own bar at just how low they will go; some higher than others.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, then I guess you can never tell a 3.5 gpa, 1300 SAT scorer he doesn’t have a chance at a school. If he is a good enough athlete, he does have a chance. Of course, then the question becomes, what is good enough? I guess that depends on the athlete’s abilities, and the needs of the school.</p>
<p>Many people have mentioned Trinity in Connecticut as a possible school for kids who want strong academics and are good athletes. The more I read about the school
though, the more I think the neighborhood surrounding the school is just too bad. Why go to a school with crummy and dangerous surroundings when there are many schools with beautiful, or at the very least, safe surroundings?</p>