Impressed by Saarel not compromising on the academics

Whinewhinewhine wrote:

Okay Dads.

Who cares? You can finish school later. You only have a limited window for athletics.

This.

In theory his brain will be around a lot longer than his athletic capabilities. Wasting away his prime athletic years for a sheepskin that may or may not help him later in life.

Way too much emphasis on getting cognitive talent to adhere to a strict schedule.

U Colorado currently has 4 faculty who have won Nobel prizes in Physics.

http://www.colorado.edu/news/series/cu-boulder-nobel-laureates

If Saarel's goal/academic load is based on trying to get/stay in one of their labs, there is NOTHING he can do to reduce his stress level. If that is the case, what he is trying to do academically is MUCH HARDER than winning the 1500 at NCAAs.

Take your time wrote:

Could he reduce his stress level by underloading (i.e., taking fewer credit hours than is standard)? If he goes to summer school and plans to stay in undergrad for five years, he might be able to keep his grades up and get the rest he needs to excel in running. I know my stress level was lower any time I was able to take a lesser class load.

Most engineering curriculums have prereqs to prereqs to prereqs. Reducing class load can only be done by cutting out all the arts and parties classes, about 24 credits in a typical engineering major. Unless you plan on being an undergrad for 8 yrs.... I was an engr major at CU, and had 24 credits of nrotc classes i only got credit for 6 in my major; and got into Adm Rickovers nuclear submarine officer pipeline with a 2.9 gpa. Adm Rickover had statistics that showed that my low gpa at CU was equivalent to a 3.7 at the Iveys when it came to equivalent success at nuclear power school. I got done in 4 1/2 years with heavy class load.

You're saying getting into one of their labs is harder than something that literally only one college student in the country can do each year?

As a guy making 45k as a teacher....this guy will make more for his sacrifices now over his lifetime than say ryan hall and his 2:06....Kudos for looking out for the longterm

Put it this way, id rather he veer towards an education as opposed to say triathlons....

Yes. They have no need or really desire to take undergraduates AT ALL and his running WILL MAJORLY count against him as time he could be spending helping the lab.

Of course, I don't know that this is what he is trying to do.

You have a friend ? Prove that

He dropped out of ColoLoser, and that proves ColoLoser is a tough school?

And that you for your testimony!

I was an Ivy League runner, not very fast, and not a STEM major ... for what it's worth. (Which is very little.)

It sounds like they guy didn't have very high expectations for himself going into the race ("sacrifices", "couldn't sleep", he'll be good if he "puts his head into it"). It sounds like he'd already acknowledged that he wasn't in top form because of his academic pursuits. These aren't excuses - they're just the natural consequences of choices he's made. And from the perspective of older, wiser folks like ourselves, those choices are entirely justifiable.

The sad fact i that it's hard to be comfortable with those choices at a young age while there's external forces pulling you in different directions. This guy's probably got literally dozens of people in his life whose opinions he cares about. But Ben, friend, you can't run well dragging all that around.

The best runners I know - not the average decent runner, but the ones at the absolute height of the game - run and race with an empty mind. (In a good way!) That's the real supplement. Dope - not hope.

Just do it.

Maybe the 5 Nobel Laureates in physics from Colorado, the most recent a few years ago should count for something...

Maybe this is answered elsewhere, but Colorado had finals in the first week of May. What is his reason for not sleeping the last five weeks?

educator guyy wrote:

does make me wonder... how does Ches do in school? Does he have a tutor? Does he have a private helper or is he just in a bunch of easy classes?

Ches was the SCHOLAR ATHLETE of the year!

The Harvard Number wrote:

Ivy League schools are a joke in terms of academics for the most part. They have prestige and nothing else. They are stuffed with the well connected. Hell, look this up; if you're Jewish, it increases your odds of getting in literally a hundred fold, even if you're grades and test scores are less than stellar (google Ron Unz and the Ivy League - a smart Jewish guy embarrassed by what's going on - look up the "Harvard Number").

When you meet an Ivy League student, most of the time they're just some well connected prima donna, not a top drawer student.

Oh please. I'm an Ivy League grad. A few years ago I decided to change careers, so I needed to take some undergrad-level courses in the new field. I took classes at a state school and a private university. It was a joke.

I was an average Ivy League student, but at the non-Ivy schools I was one of the best, if not the best, in every class.

I read about people claiming that Ivy League schools are easy once you get in. Not at all. I was 2nd in my high school class of 250 students. SAT just under 1500. In college there were lecture halls full of people with similar or better profiles. Fun times trying to be in the top half of that curve.

Someone got rejected...

Meanwhile Ed Ches barely has a grasp of the English language yet attends an American college.

ascientist wrote:

That's a pretty bad way of judging a program. Being an MIT PhD doesn't make you a tough professor by any means.

That being said, to people saying Saarel's making it seem tougher than it is, I don't know if that's particularly true. True, he should be able to be decent D1 runner and do all the school he wants and get a moderate amount of sleep. But he's not just any D1 runner. He's at the top, and all his runner peers at his level don't prioritize academics the way he does. It may be possible, but it would be really difficult to match the training of the best D1 runners, keep his GPA up, and also get enough sleep.

You are getting MIT Ph.D./Princeton Postdoc or the equivalent at all the major state universities, as well as the Ivies. The same training and then they teach the same courses. But you think that they must be teaching easier at Colorado than Princeton.

Hulk wrote:

educator guyy wrote:

does make me wonder... how does Ches do in school? Does he have a tutor? Does he have a private helper or is he just in a bunch of easy classes?

http://www.ustfccca.org/2015/02/awards/di-cross-country-scholar-athletes-of-the-year-cheserek-avery-headline-all-academic-individuals

Ches was the SCHOLAR ATHLETE of the year!

So was Rupp, twice. It is a blunt system for giving that out, highest placing finisher in xc with a GPA of at least 3.25. Avery had 3.48, Cheserek 3.30, as a business administration major. That's an extremely easy major--they get the lowest test scores, but good for Cheserek to average a B+ as a foreign student and great, great athlete.

I hate scholar athlete awards because they are so arbitrary in how scholar and athlete are weighted. If coaches in their sports ranked their players, you then took the top X percent of the rankings on each team, then picked the guy with the best gpa, would Ches still be the winner?

Even without accounting for difficulty of major, I would bet not

WHTAFT wrote:

Maybe the 5 Nobel Laureates in physics from Colorado, the most recent a few years ago should count for something...

Colorado admits 88% of its applicants; it is just a big state school that takes anyone with a pulse from Colorado. It is not in the same zip code with any ivy league school.

letter of recommendation wrote:

WHTAFT wrote:

Maybe the 5 Nobel Laureates in physics from Colorado, the most recent a few years ago should count for something...

Colorado admits 88% of its applicants; it is just a big state school that takes anyone with a pulse from Colorado. It is not in the same zip code with any ivy league school.

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/collegeprofiles/p/ColoradoBoulder.htm

Your assertion hinges on the existence of a necessary connection between quality of teaching and rate of acceptance. That isn't apparent. There is a gap in your logic.