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E-PrinceWhile Jack Turnage’s article, “When colleges recruit athletes, everybody loses” (published on Forbes.com), circulated around various social media feeds earlier this month, I felt it spoke directly to me. Though I was not one of Princeton’s Olympians ...
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Two points:
1) The Forbes article was focussed on the 99% of the colleges where athletes are seldom students. As a current scandal at UNC indicates, oftentimes, even the faculty fall prey to the lure of Big Time Athletics, to the total disregard of academics.
2) Gary Walters "Education Through Athletics" is yet another crock, but if it helps you to do your thing, enjoy it.
My main problem with his argument centers on the belief that playing and training for athletics at a high level somehow precludes one from paying as much mind to academics. However, I would argue that excelling at *any* extracurricular, be it creative, athletic, leadership-oriented or otherwise, requires a similar time commitment, and can be just as mentally draining as athletic endeavors. To imply that athletics are uniquely taxing is to discredit the equal efforts of musicians, writers, and everyone else who excels. If a concert violinist can find time to maintain her GPA while still practicing for five hours a day, so too should an athlete.
@Pinky Baket - No, the Forbes article VERY DIRECTLY mentioned Princeton. It was not about the other 99% of schools.
@Tyler L - When you say GPA, do you mean high school GPA? Because Princeton most definitely gives applicants with a strong background in the arts a leg up over other applicants with comparable GPAs.
What about physically challenging? Believe me when I say practicing for 3-4 hours on the track wiped me out. There was no rest time because I needed to get done about 6 hours worth of work done. And I did it. Athletics is more taxing that other pursuits. That's a fact. I'm not saying that just because you do athletics you should get a free pass on academics, but don't belittle how much of a commitment athletics truly are
Don't sell Ivy League athletics short. They are one of the cornerstones of this great institution. Princeton's athletic recruiting is constrained by strict maximum deviation requirements for GPA and SAT scores so I can assure you that Princeton athletes are well within the bell-curve of the student body. They can't "bottom-feed" like so many Universities with a 50% graduation rate and national sports championships. Princeton may not field the best athletes in their contests but they usually field the smartest. Even the Rhodes Scholarship seeks athletes for their awards.
The athletes may not be "dumb jocks," but they have substantially lower grades and SAT scores. I'm sorry, but we are here to learn and not play and watch sports. We should try to bring in the smartest students and extend NO preference to athletes. Once they get here, they can do sports if they want.
To be candid, I have not been impressed by some of the obvious football and basketball recruits in my precepts the past two years. I'm not sure if Princeton, Harvard, or Yale is the right place academically for them. Also, to be frank, who honestly cares if we beat Dartmouth in basketball or Columbia in football? I don't; it seems trivial to me.
From the Forbes Article:
In Reclaiming the Game: College Sports and Educational Values, former Princeton President William Bowen and his co-authors describe how at 33 of America’s most academically selective colleges, recruited athletes are nearly four times more likely to be admitted than other applicants of similar academic caliber. And such recruits are significantly more likely to be in the bottom third of their class.
End recruiting for athletes NOW! It hurts the athletes by putting them in the wrong fit, and it hurts all of us with the skewing to the student body.
First, I'm ambivalent with above, agree strongly with Tyler L. Sports are not uniquely taxing.
Stanford routinely lets in football students with SAT scores 1400-1700. If you are the best in football, you can go to Stanford, even if your name is Forest Gump.
Stanford has special classes for athletes. While some athletes, Luck in particular, do well, most are far below average. Questions for Kevin:
1. Should there be any academic standards for athletic recruits? I.E. Should Princeton follow Stanford and let in kids with 1500 SATs and mediocre grades?
2. Do you support the Academic Index, which Princeton and the Ivies use? Princeton is in the top bracket of the AI with Yale and Harvard (i.e. our student bodies, compared to the other Ivies, have highest grades and SATs). Should we stop using this system and adopt a Stanford type model?
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/stanford...
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/03/09/stanfo...
Student for Meritocracy! -Athletes do not have substantially lower grades and SAT scores. That is a false stereotype. If you truly belong at such a great institution, like Princeton, one would think you understand that colleges are communities. Not unlike every business or firm or organization, a university like Princeton has a diverse body of people that excel at many different activities, not just studying a book.
Furthermore, athletes are not the only students that may receive support in the admissions process. To some extent everyone is supported in the admission process or there would never be a 4.0 / 2400 rejected from these top schools. And there are many every year.
@reality, with the ai system, don't athletes have lower sat scores?
it raises an interesting question about whether princeton is a school for just smartest kids or what extent diversity applies to athletes.... idk
I came into Princeton 4.0/2400 as a recruited athlete. There are sports that value academics. Women's Track and Field were honroed a couple of years ago for having the highest GPA of any sports team at any school (3.8). So chill out on the expectation of athletes having bad grades.
Additionally, I believe it should be noted that athletes typically earn more money when they leave Princeton and are relatively more successful. Obviously, they are bringing something to the table.