Academic hurdles of recruiting.

[ColoradoHusk]

Maybe a 3.0 is easier to obtain in high school than I remember it being. I mean, there has to be a pretty significant number of HS students who are at 3.0 or under, right? What percentile is it?

And the 51% figure is just hard to square. Nebraska's cutoff is surely way below that, given what we know about players who are recruited who are on the borderline. Nebraska is not atypical. Where does this 51% figure come from, and which schools aren't included in that?

I think Nebraska has pretty easy standards to get accepted into, especially for athletes. Wisconsin is one of the more difficult schools to get accepted to, and Northwestern would be even more difficult.

I would be interested in the population of the schools that the Doane admissions guy is quoting. Is it all NCAA schools at all divisions? Some of those smaller division private schools are pretty difficult to get into.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Try getting into Duke, Wakeforest, North Carolina, Stanford, Northwestern...etc. with a 3.0 or less.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Try getting into Duke, Wakeforest, North Carolina, Stanford, Northwestern...etc. with a 3.0 or less.

Just thinking about the Power 5 conferences here are a list of schools that I would consider pretty difficult to get accepted into, even for the "average" athlete:

B1G - Wisconsin, Northwestern, Michigan, Purdue

Pac 12 - USC, UCLA, Colorado, Stanford, Cal-Berkley, maybe Washington

Big 12 - TCU, Baylor, Texas

SEC - Vanderbilt, Missouri, Ole Miss (although they may bend the rules for super studs), Georgia

ACC - Georgia Tech, Miami, Duke, Wake Forest, UNC, Virginia

The service academies are extremely difficult to be admitted to, as well.

 

[zoogs]

Sure. We're talking about some of the best schools in the country there. And we're also talking about "likely to be a competitive candidate for admission". That's a very different criteria than not even recruiting you as a matter of cutoff policy.

What are those 49% of schools? I mean, I guess if he wrote these numbers they came from somewhere. I just want to learn where. This isn't a thought experiment and I'm happy to be given the data.

For example here's an article talking about Duke freshman male athletes coming in with an average of 3.46 GPA. That does not really scream "3.0 cutoff for recruiting" to me, and Duke is going to be one of the higher numbers, right? They're not, for example, Doane.

Here's another article with some similar-ish data on athletes. This one claims Georgia Tech's football team had the highest average HS GPA, at 3.39 on a 4.0 scale.

I'm not arguing against high academic standards. I just want evidence for these numbers, because they don't make sense to me.

 

[NM11046]

Colorado?????

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Colorado?????

Colorado has very high entrance requirements. They aspire to be ranked right up with the top schools in California.

 

[Red Five]

Maybe a 3.0 is easier to obtain in high school than I remember it being. I mean, there has to be a pretty significant number of HS students who are at 3.0 or under, right? What percentile is it?

3.0 is really easy to obtain in HS. Especially with all the honors classes nowadays that have an A = 5.0 (a B in those classes = 4.0).

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Sure. We're talking about some of the best schools in the country there. And we're also talking about "likely to be a competitive candidate for admission". That's a very different criteria than not even recruiting you as a matter of cutoff policy.

What are those 49% of schools? I mean, I guess if he wrote these numbers they came from somewhere. I just want to learn where. This isn't a thought experiment and I'm happy to be given the data.

For example here's an article talking about Duke freshman male athletes coming in with an average of 3.46 GPA. That does not really scream "3.0 cutoff for recruiting" to me, and Duke is going to be one of the higher numbers, right? They're not, for example, Doane.

Here's another article with some similar-ish data on athletes. This one claims Georgia Tech's football team had the highest average HS GPA, at 3.39 on a 4.0 scale.

I'm not arguing against high academic standards. I just want evidence for these numbers.

I tweeted the guy from Doane to see if he would give me specifics of his numbers. I think that his numbers encompass all schools across the NCAA, and all divisions. Some of those small D2 and D3 schools are very difficult to get into, even if you are an athlete.

I imagine the numbers are different if you look at just D-1 FBS schools.

I think the moral to the Doane guy's story is that if you want to be sports in college, it helps a lot if you are also a good student.

 

[zoogs]

Colorado?????

Colorado has very high entrance requirements. They aspire to be ranked right up with the top schools in California.

I didn't realize. I guess I'm not so familiar with CU Boulder.

Do they really have an 80% acceptance rate?

UCLA and especially Berkeley are some of the nation's top universities public or private. CU does some things quite well I understand, but as an undergraduate institution I hadn't thought of them on quite the same level (which isn't a knock, necessarily).

Some of those small D2 and D3 schools are very difficult to get into, even if you are an athlete.

I was thinking about this, too, but while you'll include schools like MIT in the D3 category you'll also include a whole slew of other schools of really varying degrees of academic reputation.

I suppose there must be a large difference between 3.0 and 3.5. And the honors class weighting figures into it as well.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Colorado?????

Colorado has very high entrance requirements. They aspire to be ranked right up with the top schools in California.

I didn't realize. I guess I'm not so familiar with CU Boulder.

Do they really have an 80% acceptance rate?

UCLA and especially Berkeley are some of the nation's top universities public or private. CU does some things quite well I understand, but as an undergraduate institution I hadn't thought of them on quite the same level (which isn't a knock, necessarily).

CU-Boulder is probably a slight step below UCLA and Berkeley, but they do aspire to be at the same level. I do realize that is two separate statements. They do get a lot of Californians who want to go to a big school, but can't get admitted to UCLA, Cal-Berkeley, USC, or Stanford. I am sure many of those Californians also apply to Oregon.

 

[NM11046]

Colorado?????

Colorado has very high entrance requirements. They aspire to be ranked right up with the top schools in California.

Double check that ColoradoHusk. My understanding is the opposite (based on who I know who got in there) and quick research shows:

ACT 24+ (vs. UCLA at 27+)

SAT low: 1130 (vs. UCLA at 1280)

84% of applicants accepted (vs. UCLA at 36%)

http://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/colorado/university-of-colorado-boulder/admission/

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Colorado?????

Colorado has very high entrance requirements. They aspire to be ranked right up with the top schools in California.

Double check that ColoradoHusk. My understanding is the opposite (based on who I know who got in there) and quick research shows:

ACT 24+ (vs. UCLA at 27+)

SAT low: 1130 (vs. UCLA at 1280)

84% of applicants accepted (vs. UCLA at 36%)

http://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/colorado/university-of-colorado-boulder/admission/

Cool, I was wrong. Strike Colorado from my list.

 

[Melby]

most kids get 3.0 nowadays without trying. You can thank No Student Left Behind BS. Teachers get penalized for a student not handing in homework. So, if they show up, they automatically get a 2.0

Before the late 90's, a 2.5 was average and kids actually had to learn things. What most of us learned our freshman year, kids today are struggling to learn their Senior year.

 

[NM11046]

And Nebraska:

ACT: 22+

SAT low: 1100

70% of applicants accepted

*** to be fair, UCLA has a boatload more applicants in general, so that number is skewed a bit.

 

[BigRedBuster]

most kids get 3.0 nowadays without trying. You can thank No Student Left Behind BS. Teachers get penalized for a student not handing in homework. So, if they show up, they automatically get a 2.0

Before the late 90's, a 2.5 was average and kids actually had to learn things. What most of us learned our freshman year, kids today are struggling to learn their Senior year.

Not sure where you went to school but that's nowhere close to what our local school is like.