What qualifies as a student-athlete on the admissions process?

Applying to College
1

<p>I understand that athlete’s are generally allowed SOME lee-way when it comes to grades, due to their time spent on the court. Now my question is, when does this count?
Does it only count when you are recruited by the particular college, or any serious athlete who’s applying?</p>

<p>For instance, I play basketball for my country’s national team, meaning I’m in the top 12 players in the country. Starting five means I’m in the top 5 at the moments. Does this not count as a student-athlete?</p>

<p>Besides, my GPA is very near a 4.0 un-weighted with all the work done. My SAT is a 1920, I’m only worried because I didn’t have enough time to study for the SATs.
Other than that too, I am applying for architecture, and an art portfolio is in the whole equation. Luckily, I have one of the best portfolio’s internationally, as I received a gold medal (out of 11,000 applicants) for it. So would you say the SAT can hurt my chances of getting into a prestigious school, not the Ivys however. (I have other ECs that are pretty impressive, such as founding a charity club, but these two are the most rare)</p>

2

<p>If the college is recruiting you for its team, then that is what is generally considered the “athlete hook” (usually a very large advantage in admissions to that college).</p>

<p>If not, then the sport is a nice extracurricular. Starting five on the national team can indicate a high level of achievement (probably much higher than the usual lists of extracurriculars, clubs, etc. that people list here), depending on the size of the country and competitiveness of the national team.</p>