Phil Kessel

[JS \'93]

One of the prime recruits for 2005 has a B+ average and an 1180 SAT score.  Would that be considered sneaking past admissions?  Possibly.  If he was a regular applicant, he would have little chance of being accepted, but he brings a special talent to the school.   As long as he works hard, he should not have any problems academically.  My guess is the majority of the Men's Hockey team would fall into the above category.

[billhoward]

In the past the recruiting / admissions system was described as being in bands or layers of preference.

If you played the sport in HS four years and started, good for you, it's like playing the tuba in the band, but you still better take the Princeton Review to make sure the SATs are as good as possible. (That would have been me.) It's points toward your being a diverse student, if not quite the admissions office ideal of the gay Native American Eagle Scout from South Dakota with a decent jump shot brought up by a single mother whose great-great-grandfather roomed with but did not matriculate with Ezra Cornell, making the kid the first in his family to attend college but who will be bring a scholarship package with him. (Harvard probably has the Harvard Corporation Gulfstream warmed up and ready to take the kid to the Cambridge summer enrichment program.)

If you have the potential to earn a spot on the Cornell varsity, that's to your credit and has some additonal positive effect on admissions.

If you could star for the team, better still, and worth even more. Your potential could be couched in terms of past honors, say all-league mention in high school.

If you have the potential to be all-league, possibly All-America, at Cornell, then the coach has a couple near-wildcards he can use that help overcome hurdles of borderline grades or SATs. I think it's these people who fit the mold of "if Schafer wants a player, he'll get him [in]."

I don't think Schafer each year can ramrod five to eight marginally qualified recruits past the admissions committees. A couple, yes, and I think the coach has to vouch for their ability to be able to do the work. And then there are the players who are genuine students, too. That happens.

Sports is not the only place where Cornell takes a chance on admissions. That's one facet of affirmative action - admitting people who might not be 100% qualified based on the norms of the rest of the student body. Then there are the offspring of trustees and the grandchildren of people who've donated buildings or endowed professorships. I'd say if the daughter of the speaker of the New York State assembly has her eyes set on Cornell and she has a B-minus average, the only question I'd be asking would be, "Does she prefer North or West Campus?"

And lastly there's the protective camouflage of the student body as a whole. What is it, a quarter don't finish in four years and some fraction of that quarter don't finish at all? For the admissions people, every admission carries the risk the student can't or won't take the pressure. Not just the athletes.

[Will]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:

I'd say if the daughter of the speaker of the New York State assembly has her eyes set on Cornell and she has a B-minus average, the only question I'd be asking would be, "Does she prefer North or West Campus?"
[/q]

FYI, these days, all the freshmen live on North Campus.  West Campus is strictly an upperclassmen community now.  So maybe the question you should be asking is, "Does she prefer Balch Hall or Mews Hall?" :-D

[David Harding]

35+ years ago a Harvard alumnus came to my high school to talk with prospective applicants.  When asked about the preference given to children of alumni, his response was that 1/10 of all students at Harvard would be in the botton 10% of their class.  It made sense, he said, to spare students who had been top-notch academically in high school the emotional turmoil of doing poorly in college by filling those slots with students who had other assests to bring to the university.

[billhoward]

[Q]David Harding Wrote:

 35+ years ago a Harvard alumnus came to my high school to talk with prospective applicants.  When asked about the preference given to children of alumni, his response was that 1/10 of all students at Harvard would be in the botton 10% of their class.  It made sense, he said, to spare students who had been top-notch academically in high school the emotional turmoil of doing poorly in college by filling those slots with students who had other assests to bring to the university.[/q]

Did the Harvard alum make sense when you heard him then?

Today it's more PC to say one is in the upper 90% of one's class.

Someone who's in the upper 90% of his or her Harvard class might still be doing okay academically, just not against the curve. But wait, didn't Harvard provide for that embarrassment by giving just about everyone A's anyway?

More seriously, everyone who gets into Cornell or Harvard is *capable* of doing the work. Just that some won't do the work, and others who do the work find 90% of their fellow students are doing it better, or getting graded better. I know Forbes or the WSJ uses this argument, perhaps effectively, in opposition to affirmative action, saying someone who just *can not* do the work should see no embarrassment in stepping back from, say, a Cal to go to a Fresno State and actually learn something. I think the article implied  "minority students" in this instance.

I like the quote from the head of Enterprise (car rental), who said he prefers kids who had to hustle to make it. I think the quote was, "We're hire students in the half of the graduating class that makes the upper half possible." I have never been treated more politely at a rental car desk than by the Enterprise kids, although I wonder if it annoys them to have to wear ties when the Avis and Hertz people get by with logo'd Lands End polo shirts.

[Robb]

[Q]David Harding Wrote:
...his response was that 1/10 of all students at Harvard would be in the botton 10% of their class..[/q]

Wow - with math skills like that, he's a threat to graduate with honors!  

:-}

[Greg Berge]

[Q]David Harding Wrote:
Today it's more PC to say one is in the upper 90% of one's class.[/q]
Somebody in the bottom 10% of his class is not in the top 90% of his class.  Even at Harvard.

[David Harding]

[Q]Greg Berge Wrote:

 [Q2]David Harding Wrote:
Today it's more PC to say one is in the upper 90% of one's class.[/Q]
Somebody in the bottom 10% of his class is not in the top 90% of his class.  Even at Harvard.[/q]
That's not what David Harding wrote.  That's what Bill Howard wrote.
:-P