Truth About Recruiting at Elite Schools?

bluewater2015
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 18:02:26 +0000

@FutureCollegeAthlete I really doubt that Stanford has higher academic standards for athletes than the Ivies, considering that in some sports (such as football) Stanford is also recruiting higher level athletes. If anything academic standards for athletes might be a bit lower at Stanford, or at least with more flexibility to take some top recruits with relatively low academics. Not low in an absolute sense, but low relative to the average student at the school.

Stanford can do what it wants, as it is not constrained by Pac 12 academic rules to any significant extent (in fact, some Pac 12 schools will take athletes at the NCAA minimums, though not Stanford, obviously). Ivies are bound by the AI rules at a conference level so have less flexibility at an individual school level.

As one data point, that 12.5% with <30 ACT scores at Stanford that I mentioned earlier - the comparable number at Princeton is 8%, and 10% at Harvard. So Stanford has a few more of these students - still a small percentage, but a few more. That’s consistent with a bit more flexibility for athletic recruits, though of course not all of these students are athletic recruits.