From the perspective of an admissions officer, a recruited athlete must satisfy the same standards as the rest of the class. Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 uses what he calls
“the broken leg test” to evaluate prospective student-athletes, who, when admitted, enroll at much higher rates than the average admitted student. According to an article in The Daily Princetonian, athletes typically enroll at a 92-94 percent rate, 35 percent higher than Princeton’s general enrollment rate.
“Say a student who happens to be an athlete or a dancer breaks his or her leg in five places and can never participate, is this still a good admission?” Fitzsimmons said he and the admissions committee ask themselves. “Will the person be able to take the energy, the drive, the commitment that went into becoming a great dancer or a great athlete, or whatever else it may have been, and turn that into something positive?”
Likewise, both Jones and Fish said that the AI plays only a small part in how coaches and admissions officers assess potential students. If the Academic Index didn’t exist, Jones said, the admissions process would change little.
“[The AI] is something we use to make sure we get the best student-athletes that we can, but a student’s writing samples, what they’ve done in high school, how they perform in their interview...all these things are more important to admissions than the AI,” Jones said.
“It’s a guideline we use, but it isn’t something we live or die by,” Fish added.
A CULTURE THAT VALUES ACADEMICS
A recruit’s career does not end at admission, however. The Academic Index has no direct bearing on athletic ability and is no harbinger of future success. In a 2011 interview with The New York Times, Jones commented that it was possible to artificially adjust the AI of individual teams simply by changing the members on a squad’s bench.
“You can make your number whatever you want by recruiting kids just for their high AI, and who cares if they play?” Jones said at the time. “It is done. Not here at Yale, but it is done.”
Though the AI, like most recruiting guidelines, opens itself up to potential loopholes, there is, in theory, a self-correcting mechanism because unqualified students are unable to keep up academically.
When students arrive at Harvard, with higher academic expectations for its students, they are expected to succeed in a number of ways no matter the circmstances of their admissions. Scheduling that places the majority of athletic events—such as all Ancient Eight basketball games—on the weekends means that athletes rarely can excuse themselves from class and are held to the same standard as their peers.
“[The admissions committee is] trying to invest in futures and the skills and character traits they see in those people,” Fish said. “[If there] is an exception from the numerical measurement...it is a special kid with special leadership abilities. I think it’s a credit to their judgment; they make terrific choices.”
Even before they arrive on college campuses, the academic futures of student-athletes are already given substantial attention. High school and preparatory academy athletic departments across the country closely monitor their athletes’ scholastic pursuits, preparing them for an ever more rigorous college admissions process.
Michael Potempa, the Athletic Director at Montverde Academy—a school that boasts current and former Harvard men’s basketball players, including current sophomore forward Steve Moundou-Missi, as alumni—noted that his school, like fellow Ivy feeders Harvard-Westlake and Northfield Mount Hermon, among others, takes pride in sending student-athletes to Ivy League institutions. Potempa credits the school’s practices with much of the success.
“One of the things we try to instill in them here is that we have a very similar setup as college athletic programs,” Potempa said. “The expectations [we have for our students] are high. [We have] weekly grade reports [and] study halls for athletes who need a certain arrangement with quiet monitoring in the library with a coaching staff.”
Though performance on the field can be given more attention than performance in the classroom, institutions like the AI allow for an expanded view of what being a successful student-athlete means. Athletic and academic success can be a vicious tradeoff; stories of illiterate professional athletes like NFL All-Pro defensive end Dexter Manley demonstrate that, in pursuit of athletic success, academics can be lost in the shuffle.
In the Ivy League—a conference known more for its Nobel Prizes than Heisman Trophies—the AI has helped preserve the league’s primary academic goals. Recently, Jones adds, this has not prevented on-court success.
“Our league has done quite well basketball-wise recently,” Jones said. “Cornell going to the Sweet 16, Harvard making the second round; clearly something is working.”
—Staff writer Alexander Koenig can be reached at akoenig@college.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at davidfreed@college.harvard.edu. Follow him on Twitter @CrimsonDPFreed.