[Mick]

The comment about the Ivies maintaining its standards while Stanford alters them significantly brings to mind an event of a few years ago.

A great friend (whose son I recruited to Stanford, albeit without needing to try hard) had a second son who projected as a possible D-1 defensive back.  His brother and I notified them both that the second son's 3.05 and 1075 SAT probably doomed his chances of admission to Stanford.  I assumed that his chances of admissions to any Ivy were worse.

Not at all.  He was actively recruited by Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (yes, they do recruit.) He was assured admissions by two of the schools and eventually admitted to Harvard, where he played for three years. 

Several Ivy schools are passionate about football and unwilling to field teams comprised of 3.8 and better studentss if it means losing seasons.  Unless something has changed since 2011, it appears the Ivies relax their standards considerably and perhaps even as much or more than Stanford.

Hulk, my son was recruited to a top Ivy with two other athletes, and there are three other non-recruited players on the team that are in their class this year.  None of their GPAs were south of 3.9, all of their ACTs/SATs were 32/2160 or higher.  Two of them had 800 SATs.  In the same sport in the same year, Stanford recruited an extraordinary athlete whose SAT was more than two standard deviations below those standards, according to a direct relative of his.  Great guy, certainly smart enough, and the program at Stanford can and has included Olympians whereas my son's program does not.  My son's team invests about 2/3 as much time as Stanford (near as I can tell), they play a D1 schedule and they're very good, but the athletes don't match up to Stanford's level.  The Ivies don't give academic scholarships, but they do provide generous financial assistance to those that need it.  Part of the attraction of the Ivy experience is that the athletes spend less time on sports.

The Ivies have a basic calculation for incoming recruits, the Academic Index.  It rates incoming student athletes on a 1-240 point basis.  The 240 points consist of three 80 point sections;

The average Harvard student is around a 225, the average Harvard athlete is around a 210.  The 210 equates to about a 3.7 unweighted gpa, and a 2040 SAT score. 

[Mick]

The comment about the Ivies maintaining its standards while Stanford alters them significantly brings to mind an event of a few years ago.

A great friend (whose son I recruited to Stanford, albeit without needing to try hard) had a second son who projected as a possible D-1 defensive back.  His brother and I notified them both that the second son's 3.05 and 1075 SAT probably doomed his chances of admission to Stanford.  I assumed that his chances of admissions to any Ivy were worse.

Not at all.  He was actively recruited by Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (yes, they do recruit.) He was assured admissions by two of the schools and eventually admitted to Harvard, where he played for three years. 

Several Ivy schools are passionate about football and unwilling to field teams comprised of 3.8 and better studentss if it means losing seasons.  Unless something has changed since 2011, it appears the Ivies relax their standards considerably and perhaps even as much or more than Stanford.

Hulk, my son was recruited to a top Ivy with two other athletes, and there are three other non-recruited players on the team that are in their class this year.  None of their GPAs were south of 3.9, all of their ACTs/SATs were 32/2160 or higher.  Two of them had 800 SATs.  In the same sport in the same year, Stanford recruited an extraordinary athlete whose SAT was more than two standard deviations below those standards, according to a direct relative of his.  Great guy, certainly smart enough, and the program at Stanford can and has included Olympians whereas my son's program does not.  My son's team invests about 2/3 as much time as Stanford (near as I can tell), they play a D1 schedule and they're very good, but the athletes don't match up to Stanford's level.  The Ivies don't give academic scholarships, but they do provide generous financial assistance to those that need it.  Part of the attraction of the Ivy experience is that the athletes spend less time on sports.

The Ivies have a basic calculation for incoming recruits, the Academic Index.  It rates incoming student athletes on a 1-240 point basis.  The 240 points consist of three 80 point sections;

The average Harvard student is around a 225, the average Harvard athlete is around a 210.  The 210 equates to about a 3.7 unweighted gpa, and a 2040 SAT score.