It's not an issue. I went to one. I know plenty of people that were on the sports teams. There were other people from my high school that I went to college with that got in solely because of sports and there were some of the lowest ranked students during high school. They had no issues graduating from an Ivy League school. The teams make sure to support them with lots of mandatory study hours, tutors and the like to make sure they keep their GPA above the minimum threshold not to mention most of these people are not exactly taking the most difficult courseload. Being an athlete graduating from an Ivy League school shows, at the least, that you are dedicated and reasonably hard working (a good thing for sure) but definitely not that you are particularly intelligent.
Fair enough. But I would add... if they're getting mandatory study hours, tutors, etc from a high-end institution... ok, maybe I'll take back the intelligence thing, but they're certainly likely to be pretty well-educated... lighter courseload or not.
Agreed. It's certainly a good thing that they do put in the hours to make sure their grades stay up. If they didn't do that then they would be thrown off the team and not graduate. And they obviously learn while there since they have to. Just saying I don't think by default there is much of a correlation between how smart a particular athlete and where he graduated from college. There are of course, exceptions, such as Brandon Copeland of the (New York) Jets.
It's not hyperbole, it's flat out incorrect.
Now do athletes have an easier time getting in than normal applicants? Yes, but the top schools still have pretty strict admissions standards for athletes. You can't get in if you're a "terrible" student.
Yeah, I also went to one, and I can attest that there are athletes (and the children of big donors) that don't possess the same native intelligence as the average student, but they do have to meet a minimum bar (though it will be set lower for them) in terms of grades in order to a) get in and then b) graduate – whether they meet it via hard work, tutoring, "strategic course selection" or some other method. Which is not to say, as
@SA16 points out, there aren't exceptions who just happen to be both great athletes
and brilliant students (the jerks).
It should be noted that the height of said bar depends on the sport and the school. Football players, for example, will be held to a much lower academic standard at pretty much all of the Ivies. Whereas I doubt Columbia grants lacrosse players the same leeway that Princeton does. As regards hockey specifically, I can't say for certain, but I would imagine Harvard is likely the most forgiving; where Dartmouth ranks, I don't know.
