[2006alum]

I don't think it's a canard, because while it's true that football players are assessed via a different pipeline, they still need to be viable candidates in their own right, and be able to academically flourish at Stanford. The 25th percentile for SAT scores at Stanford roughly corresponds to the 95th percentile nationwide. We don't have nonsense majors like UNC where the profs write the papers for the students. The athletes need to hang, just like everyone else, and admitting students who are literally two standard deviations below their peers does a disservice to everyone.

Even for the other things: the mandatory freshman orientation and random roommate first-year dormitory experience is not something Stanford is all of a sudden going to compromise just to try to eke out one more football win per season. Admitting students early means they don't join the freshman class in the fall like everyone else, their roommates will likely be football players from day one, and they will not have the same orientation experience that other students undergo. Summer session enrollment is a compromise that doesn't forgo the athletes from fully participating in their freshman dorm/year experience. (And, as a practical matter, the academic requirements for Stanford mean a lot of students simply won't have completed them all in seven semesters of high school.)

And as for taking JC transfers: that would mean taking fewer other transfers - literally thousands of people applying for 0-40 slots. There's so much pressure on the university regarding transfer admissions as it is, I just don't see that happening for a candidate that isn't bringing a 4.0 GPA and a significant life story from a community/junior college.

[2006alum]

I don't think it's a canard, because while it's true that football players are assessed via a different pipeline, they still need to be viable candidates in their own right, and be able to academically flourish at Stanford. The 25th percentile for SAT scores at Stanford roughly corresponds to the 95th percentile nationwide. We don't have nonsense majors like UNC where the profs write the papers for the students. The athletes need to hang, just like everyone else, and admitting students who are literally two standard deviations below their peers does a disservice to everyone.

Even for the other things: the mandatory freshman orientation and random roommate first-year dormitory experience is not something Stanford is all of a sudden going to compromise just to try to eke out one more football win per season. Admitting students early means they don't join the freshman class in the fall like everyone else, their roommates will likely be football players from day one, and they will not have the same orientation experience that other students undergo. Summer session enrollment is a compromise that doesn't forgo the athletes from fully participating in their freshman dorm/year experience. (And, as a practical matter, the academic requirements for Stanford mean a lot of students simply won't have completed them all in seven semesters of high school.)

And as for taking JC transfers: that would mean taking fewer other transfers - literally thousands of people applying for 0-40 slots. There's so much pressure on the university regarding transfer admissions as it is, I just don't see that happening for a candidate that isn't bringing a 4.0 GPA and a significant life story from a community/junior college.