[chrisk]

What evidence do we have that undergraduate academic work at Stanford is "harder" than at Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami, Texas, BYU, USC, etc.? Gaining admission to Stanford is more difficult, but does the admissions challenge equate to academic difficulty or even significant academic difference? I have a hard time imagining, for example, that the undergraduate physics curriculum at Stanford is significantly different than it would be at SMU or Virginia, to take something that allows for clean comparison. And I would not be surprised to learn that Stanford is more generous in its grading than some large state schools are. For all we know, a student who earned a "B" in organic chemistry at Michigan learned more than one who earned an "A" at Stanford in the same class.

I would be curious to know how Stanford graduates compare with those of other "football schools" in standardized tests for graduate school admissions.

The top tier of students at premier state schools (as a surrogate for FBS Schools) are likely comparable to average to above average Stanford students. But just like in freshman admissions, the transfer pool has a small proportion that are in the top tier.

Football players can get a lot of academic support but there are majors and classes that can be utilized at the factories that are not really available at Stanford.Some players make improve their academic standing at another school, but that is only somewhat easier than finding a needle in a haystack.

[chrisk]

What evidence do we have that undergraduate academic work at Stanford is "harder" than at Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami, Texas, BYU, USC, etc.? Gaining admission to Stanford is more difficult, but does the admissions challenge equate to academic difficulty or even significant academic difference? I have a hard time imagining, for example, that the undergraduate physics curriculum at Stanford is significantly different than it would be at SMU or Virginia, to take something that allows for clean comparison. And I would not be surprised to learn that Stanford is more generous in its grading than some large state schools are. For all we know, a student who earned a "B" in organic chemistry at Michigan learned more than one who earned an "A" at Stanford in the same class.

I would be curious to know how Stanford graduates compare with those of other "football schools" in standardized tests for graduate school admissions.

The top tier of students at premier state schools (as a surrogate for FBS Schools) are likely comparable to average to above average Stanford students. But just like in freshman admissions, the transfer pool has a small proportion that are in the top tier.

Football players can get a lot of academic support but there are majors and classes that can be utilized at the factories that are not really available at Stanford.Some players make improve their academic standing at another school, but that is only somewhat easier than finding a needle in a haystack.