For the record, I wasn’t writing a diatribe. And I’m not trying to pick a fight. I apologize for potentially impugning the merits of your daughter or any other specific student-athlete. Going to, and playing for, Princeton is an unbelievable accomplishment, and one that should be celebrated. I purposefully didn’t mention Princeton or any school in particular (other than the Stanford sailing coach who was interviewed in the Varsity Blues documentary) and what I said is very dependent on coaches/programs/schools that were revealed in the Varsity Blues investigation.
In responding to the posts earlier, I was simply trying to shed some light on what the system looked like pre-Varsity Blues, relying on the record of the two trials that went forward, and personal experience from development departments at multiple small private colleges. To that end, there is substantiation in the massive record produced in the Varsity Blues investigation, especially the two trials, of the role development departments played in admissions decisions.
At the end of the day, I’m sure the overwhelming vast majority of students and student-athletes are admitted based on their own unbelievably impressive merit with no promise of donations. And that was also proved by the record in the Varsity Blues trials.
Lastly, my kids couldn’t get into Princeton even if my last name was Rockefeller, so the point of this is not to help my kids get recruited by an elite Ivy league school. We’ll make do with some lowly California public school.
And that’s it for my “diatribe.”