Unfair Advantages: The Loss of Lowering College Acceptance for Athletes

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College bound students around the world are in search of an easier route to be accepted into college. What about college athletes? These students are those who stand out. Many college athletes feel as though they deserve a “reward” for enhancing the school’s program. Though they may deserve acknowledgement of their participation, lowering admission standards will lower their effort in school as well. Intercollegiate athletic programs corrupt their educational institutions by advertising a double standard and devaluing scholarships in favor of athletic competition.
The lowering of admission for student athletes is not beneficial for one’s academic standing because it encourages the student(s) to be lazy. Often, entire programs are implicated to academic scandals, which leads to professors changing grades without proper authorization (Gurney). In a Atlanta Journal- Constitution article, the reporter does extensive research on the gap between an average accepted student to an athletes SAT scores. There is nearly a difference nearly 200 points from those students who were average of the student body. In Alison Go’s article “Athletes Show Huge Gaps in SAT Scores,” she states a similar problem occurring in many colleges:
Now the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has gone ahead and quantified that by comparing average SAT scores and grade-point averages of athletes with the rest of the college's student body. Not surprisingly, football and men's basketball players came out on the bottom, and some averaged hundreds of points lower on SATs than their classmates.
The Journal-Constitution studied 54 public universities, "including the members of the six major Bowl Championship Series conferences and other schools whose teams finished the 2007-08...

... middle of paper ...

...eyond college. If administration does decide to raise the standards for student athletes, the students will be well-prepared for the future. the institution will not only have a successful athletic program, but also successful academic standings.

Works Cited
Atlas, Ben. "Admissions requirements for athletes should remain lenient." The Oracle. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Barker, Jeff. “Special admissions bring colleges top athletes, educational challenges.” The Baltimore Sun. 22 Dec. 2012. Wed. 8 Nov. 2013.
Gurney, Gerald. "Commentary." The Chronicle of Higher Education. N.p., 12 Apr. 2011. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Lederman, Doug . "The Admissions Gap for Big-Time Athletes | Inside Higher Ed." The Admissions Gap for Big-Time Athletes | Inside Higher Ed. N.p., 29 Dec. 2008. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Port, Rob. "Say Anything." Say Anything. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.

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