Is Mike Harris that smart? How many years did he play for Rice? Field of study? Are there athletic exceptions for the brainy schools? I know there is one NBA player from Harvard. But not that many from Ivy League schools. Do the players have to meet the usual entrance requirements and maintain certain GPA's? More kudos for Harris if he is the Mensa type. I did not for one second consider applying to Rice. I did go one time to the campus to inquire about graduate studies, but was so intimidated I made a quick exit.
You probably inhaled pseudo-ivy pollen. Your IQ probably returned to normal once you were a safe distance from the marketing hedges.
Ivy league schools don't offer athletic scholarships so their athletes more or less have to meet the usual admission standards for those schools. Matt Maloney (U-Penn) and Chris Dudley (Yale) are Ivy leaguers that come to mind. Rice definitely offers athletic scholarships. I doubt their student-athletes meet the usual admission criteria (not to say they're dumb or anything). Rice baseball in particular takes a lot of people from the JUCO ranks. Many athletes go the JUCO route because they couldn't make the grades to get into 4-year schools the first time around.
Yes athletes must have a great GPA and background to play at Rice. Plus, they do get athletic scholarships Ivy League is more difficult - They are prohibited from offering athletic scholarships. Financial aid is only offered on a need-basis
ah didn't read your post, xcrunner. Yep spot on about the JUCO ranks. San Jacinto baseball comes to mind, where Coach Wayne had his string of success As far as basketball, I know Harris came from a small town high school but just look at the bball roster. A lot of the players come from boarding schools or private academies (Patterson School, Lawrenceville School, Whitney Young Magnet, St. Benedicts, Hargrave)
its not hard to go to rice for sports fyi. someone from my school got a football scholarship and he had a 3.0 on the 5 point scale with no APs and a 1500/2400 SAT
No to great GPA. No to great academic background. Yes to scholarships. I think that it goes without saying that most Division 1 schools have a different, lower set of requirements for their incoming athletes. Back when I went to Rice, football and basketball players had to get a 1000 of their SAT, which is/was a 50% percentile score. There were exceptions, but they were few and far between.
A school like rice that does not focus on their basketball program as much won't give as much leeaway on grades. Nonetheless it is easier for an athlete to get in with lower GPA and academica background, but you still have to show a decent level of competence and ofcourse if you are dedicated and excel at your sport, that takes place of many extra curricular that others have time for. as for the ivy's, they do not give sports scholarships at all and essentially the players only usually play on weekends for games so they have an incredibly demanding schedule
As a Rice alum, I will say this: I've seen some pretty brilliant athletes but I've also seen very typical jock/dumb-asses like Sam McGuffie, who is also a grade-A douchebag.
Harvard's football team shows up at Saturday's game without practicing? I find that hard to believe. I also would not be surprised if there are "backdoor" athletic scholarships at the Ivies?
Ivy Leaguer here. Athletes do get huge admission breaks. I've talked to athletes with SAT scores ~500 points lower than mine (a fairly average score for the school). There is also a lot of talks of ways coaches abuse financial aid in favor of athletes. The sad part is you don't have to be particularly smart or athletically talented to play Ivy League sports.
In general, Rice admissions likes finding students with well-rounded, interesting backgrounds. I think extra-curricular stuff counts for a lot with them, and sports would be a definite extra-curricular feather in one's cap. When I was in high school, I was not well-rounded or interesting, so I went to U Chicago instead, which cared almost exclusively about academics. Our sports teams are also terrible.
How does Rice's academic requirement for atheletes compare to that of, say, U of H or Texas Tech? I remember coaches at Stanford and Notre Dame talking about how their academic standard for atheletes, while not at the same level at those of a normal student/applicant, is higher than the standard for atheletes at most schools (like UNLV, Fresno State, etc.) and that can be a disadvantage. Rick being another "elite/brain" school, I wonder if their atheletes are held to a different standard than athelets at a "non-elite/brian" school.
My friend plays for Rice. He had the same GPA and around the same SAT score I did and im at UTSA (which isnt a bad school). I guess being 6'10" helps.
It happens in every school. It doesn't matter how good it is. Even Ivy league schools have their sham majors, primarily intended for the dumbass legacy kids who just want to party all four years then go take over their father's business or just spend their father's money without working at all. Athletes in the top academic schools fit nicely into this niche. Even if it's a legit major like sociology, anthropology, art, African American studies, hell even English, there are still sham classes that athletes and legacy kids get told to take that will just push them along, little work required. And apparently even that little work in many schools (*cough* UNC *cough* FSU) gets done by a paid "tutor" who is not the student himself. Oh and I only accused UNC and FSU because, you know, the NCAA found them guilty after a length investigation and threw the hammer down hard on them, and now they're about to do the same to UNC .
No they usually schedule games only for Fridays and Saturdays. They practice everyday and its incredibly rigorous because the school won't completely redo your schedule like at some of the big hoops schools yet the sport demands are still there, but academics aren't compromised at all. I wouldn't call it backdoor, but yea like I said it would be easier for sure, you can get in with lower grades, but you still have to be decent, and they won't accommodate for failing at most schools, and as far as scholarships go, yea ivies are 100 percent need based, so if they show that, then they will get it, but maybe they might be more lenient with it, but usually packages in general are generous
No they do not. I met a person that played football for Rice and went on to the NFL. He told me that they only have to meet the minimum requirements for Rice which is higher than some schools but not as high as what normally people to get it in to Rice academically.
