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Jewish World Review Feb. 21, 2001 / 28 Shevat, 5761

Linda Seebach

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Why no outrage at discrimination against non-athletes?

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- CRITICS of racial preferences in college admissions are frequently asked why they aren't equally opposed to other kinds of preferences -- for athletes, say, or for "legacies," the relatives of alumni.

One possible answer is that they are. Another is that racial preferences are unconstitutional, except in very narrow circumstances, and other kinds of preferences aren't.

But before deciding on an answer, one might want to know, what are the consequences? James Shulman and William Bowen investigate the consequences of athletic preferences in their new book The Game of Life. It draws on the same data as Bowen's earlier book with Derek Bok on racial preferences, The Shape of the River. (HARDCOVER)

The effects on students recruited to institutions for which they are ill-prepared academically are remarkably similar, and much to the students' disadvantage. Sharply higher dropout rates, lower grades for those who do manage to graduate, social and academic isolation -- young people with weaker preparation than their classmates have trouble keeping up, and who would be surprised by that?

Of course, Bowen and Bok are strong advocates of racial preferences, while Shulman and Bowen are dismayed by the results when athletes are the beneficiaries.

The Game of Life, like its predecessor, is based on the proprietary "College and Beyond" database compiled by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It covers 30 colleges and universities with selective admissions, and includes information on who applied, who was admitted and how they did in college, linked with survey information about their families, their views and what they have done since graduating.

Louis Menand, reviewing the book for The New Yorker, said the authors "are the sort of people who think that no observation is so intuitive that it can't be improved by a regression analysis," and I can't improve on his description.

They chop their data up every which way -- Ivy League, other private and public institutions; what division they play in; whether they offer athletic scholarships; students' year of admission; whether they play high-profile sports like football, basketball and hockey or low-profile sports; whether they participate in athletics or other time-consuming extracurricular activities or none at all.

The extent of athletic preferences is striking, and it has increased over the years in almost every category of institution.

At one school -- the authors don't identify it, except to say it doesn't offer athletic scholarships -- a male athlete had a 23 percent better chance of being admitted in 1976 than a non-athlete with the same SAT score, but 48 percent greater in 1999. In contrast, the advantage for minority students in 1999 was 18 percent.

Male athletes playing high-profile sports in Division 1A private universities averaged 180 points lower SAT scores in 1976, and 284 points lower in 1989.

These are selective schools, and graduation rates overall are high. But it is still noticeable that in the high-profile sports -- where the gap in entering credential was greatest -- 14 percent of male athletes failed to graduate in six years, while the dropout rate was only 5 percent for male students who spent similar amounts of time playing in the orchestra or editing the school paper.

But just graduating isn't enough. Most of the financial reward of attending a selective school accrues to students who go on to professional schools. But 72 percent of male athletes in high-profile sports are in the bottom third of their class. At the private Division 1A schools, like Duke or Stanford, this group has an average class rank at the 18th percentile. That's in spite of the fact that athletes tend to choose majors with easier grading.

Not all the news is bad; the authors discovered that business schools tilt slightly toward athletes in their admissions, and more former athletes end up as executives than students at large do, though they are less likely to be professionals.

Shulman and Bowen have some suggestions for improving matters, but they're not optimistic. "Courage among presidents on questions of athletics," they note, "rarely portends a long tenure."

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