Chico Escuela posted:Gov posted:Good information shared above. Since RJM mentioned Duke, HC Pollard told me directly he is quite adamant of needing a min 26 ACT to play for his program.
...
Another friends kid is being recruited by Penn, RC said his 27 ACT will suffice.
For those who may not realize: There is a big benefit at many of these schools to being a baseball player, even if no athletic scholarship money is in the mix. To take the two examples above, the Prepscholar web site says the Duke ACT mean is 33 and the 25th percentile score is 31. At Penn the corresponding scores are 33 and 32. A non-athlete applying to those schools with a 26 or 27 ACT has essentially zero chance of admission unless he has something else extraordinary going for him (a building on campus named after a grandparent, for instance). And non-athlete applicants with even 35s and 36s, can't count on being accepted-their odds still are much less than 50%.
From another angle: A 33 ACT score puts a student in roughly the 98th percentile. A 26 would be approximately in the 82d percentile--still a very good score, but not one that gets an applicant close at the schools Gov mentions.
So a student can use baseball to help get himself in the door at a school he otherwise might not be able to attend. With reasonable diligence and effort, a kid with a 27 ACT absolutely can graduate from Duke or Penn and do well--but there are so many applicants that few get the opportunity. (Both schools accept about 1 in 10 kids who apply.)
Do those kids that get in with the lower scores get enough tutoring help to be able to keep their grades up since they’re in classes geared towards the more academically gifted students or is it a constant struggle to remain eligible and obtain a degree?