Flatt plans to skate through college

I think Rocky Marval was promoting this arena near Princeton, as well.

http://www.princetonsportscenter.com/index.html

I remember catching him on CN8 being interviewed about a performance - couldn't make it that day. Place is less than 10 minutes from my home, but it's really away from the main highway and signage is bad.

wanda said:

Don't know how you would know this, or why you would think this. I think it's at least as likely that Flatt either didn't apply SCEA or that she got accepted, but wants to keep her options open.

At any rate, she's a great skater and a highly intelligent student and she will have great college options in the future.

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I think so because

1. Rachael loves Stanford.
2. All SCEA, ED schools offer this for a reason: to recruit athlete & legacy cases. The acceptance rate is significantly higher than the regular round. Most of the accepted cases are athletes & legacy. So for an unhooked applicant like myself years ago, the acceptance rate for SCEA or ED are about the same if not less than the acceptance rate for the regular round.
3. If she wants to keep her options open and got accepted to Stanford, then her options should not include Duke or Dartmouth. Both do not give merit aids. Duke reserves some spots for their scholars. But those are extremely competitive and merit-based. I doubt Rachael is in the top 5% of Duke applicants, as intelligent as she is. Her 4 AP classes (Bio, Physics, Calc, and English) schedule for senior year is not competitive for Duke if she's gunning for their scholar program.

She may be able to do both while she is doing her undergraduate degree, Most students, that has the smarts like Flatt, can probably do both.

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Rachael wants to major in some kind of biomedical field. It's not a fluff major. I doubt she can do both. Remember her peers at her dream schools are likely as smart, if not smarter than her. She can't afford to spend hours skating per day when everyone else is studying.
I love Rachael and want her to do well, but I don't want some kind of half-baked result.

Wishing that school was C.U. Boulder

FlattFan said:

I think so because


Rachael wants to major in some kind of biomedical field. It's not a fluff major. I doubt she can do both. Remember her peers at her dream schools are likely as smart, if not smarter than her. She can't afford to spend hours skating per day when everyone else is studying.
I love Rachael and want her to do well, but I don't want some kind of half-baked result.

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Most kids at college waste a lot of time drinking and partying. Ever heard of "work hard play hard"? I feel like Rachael could skate during the day and then do her work at night while all her peers are getting trashed. The labs will be hard to schedule skating around though, as those are usually like 3 or 4 hours. If she switched her major to something like business or english I have no doubt she could do both.

FlattFan said:

I'm sorry, but if she's accepted to Stanford SCEA, there is absolutely no reason to gun for Duke or Dartmouth, taking her skating into consideration.
I could understand the Denver thing if she really wants to stay with Coach Z and Denver probably throws her a big bone.

In general, a student only apply for Yale or Harvard after getting in at Stanford. Stanford crushes even Yale in the cross admit battle.

Flatt definitely is deferred/rejected by one of the SCEA, and it's likely to come from Stanford. Too bad they don't do alumni interview.

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Flatt did ONLY regular admissions. No early admissions. So, she will know this spring which schools had admitted her.

Nigel said:

Flatt did ONLY regular admissions. No early admissions. So, she will know this spring which schools had admitted her.

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This makes the most sense as to why she applied to these schools but does not explain why she did not do early admissions. It's a leg up, created for people like her specifically.
I was so certain Stanford would take her, until I see her odd school lists.

Most kids at college waste a lot of time drinking and partying. Ever heard of "work hard play hard"? I feel like Rachael could skate during the day and then do her work at night while all her peers are getting trashed. The labs will be hard to schedule skating around though, as those are usually like 3 or 4 hours. If she switched her major to something like business or english I have no doubt she could do both.

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Most kids at college don't score 2200+ on their SAT.
Most kids at college aren't their class valedictorians.
I don't know what kind of impression you have of Stanford, but I tell you now, it's study study study (for engineering, at least)
For some fluff major, I think she might be able to pass, but not with the kind of GPA she's used to getting.

A science major and elite skating? Wow. That's a lot of work. But I wish her luck. Oh yeah I agree with her choice of Stanford. It's really a great school!

FlattFan said:

This makes the most sense as to why she applied to these schools but does not explain why she did not do early admissions. It's a leg up, created for people like her specifically.
I was so certain Stanford would take her, until I see her odd school lists.



Most kids at college don't score 2200+ on their SAT.
Most kids at college aren't their class valedictorians.
I don't know what kind of impression you have of Stanford, but I tell you now, it's study study study (for engineering, at least)
For some fluff major, I think she might be able to pass, but not with the kind of GPA she's used to getting.

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At Stanford, you are probably right. However, Duke and Dartmouth are huge party schools. I've visited people that go there, they level of drinking/drugs/parties is super high. For pre-med or engineering majors, they probably party less, but for most of the other students they can balance all their classes and still have all that time to binge drink and party. I'm just saying, there's so much free time in college because you're only in class for about 2-3 hours a day (not including labs).

These people you visited, what were their grades like? How often did they party? Every night? At Northwestern, if you had visited on a Wednesday night, you might get the same impression as your visits to Duke and Dartmouth because most classes did not meet on Thursdays in the College of Arts and Sciences so every dorm and fraternity had a party night (munchies) on Wednesdays. Same as if you visited on a weekend because there were other times to study. I majored in engineering with lots of labs in the core sciences, but still had time to have a job and a social life (occasional parties, etc). College is what you make of it, as I stated earlier - it's when you start to be independent and make your own choices and learn the consequences of those. Duke and Dartmouth along with Stanford, Harvard, and Yale all have good reputations as top universities.

mskater93 said:

These people you visited, what were their grades like? How often did they party? Every night? At Northwestern, if you had visited on a Wednesday night, you might get the same impression as your visits to Duke and Dartmouth because most classes did not meet on Thursdays in the College of Arts and Sciences so every dorm and fraternity had a party night (munchies) on Wednesdays. Same as if you visited on a weekend because there were other times to study. I majored in engineering with lots of labs in the core sciences, but still had time to have a job and a social life (occasional parties, etc). College is what you make of it, as I stated earlier - it's when you start to be independent and make your own choices and learn the consequences of those. Duke and Dartmouth along with Stanford, Harvard, and Yale all have good reputations as top universities.

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I guess you have a point. I visited on Thursday, and most of the kid's friends went out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. As far as I know their grades were fine. There is something to said about work hard play hard though, while the other kids' play, Rachael can skate.

silverlake22 said:

I guess you have a point. I visited on Thursday, and most of the kid's friends went out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. As far as I know their grades were fine. There is something to said about work hard play hard though, while the other kids' play, Rachael can skate.

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http://www.dartmouth.edu/apply/generalinfo/profile.html

30% of Dartmouth student body are valedictorians
Another 11% are salutatorians.

Some kids party, some kids don't. Rachael can skate while the party kids party. But what about the non-party kids? They study/relax/have a life when Rachael skates.

I think it's a mistake to do both, especially in a higher caliber environment. She will soon realize in high school, it only took her 2 hrs to do her homework, but in college, it will take her all night.

Come exam times, the party kids do badly, the non-party kids do well. Rachael Flatt can't use her muscle memory to interpret DNA sequence.

FlattFan said:

http://www.dartmouth.edu/apply/generalinfo/profile.html

30% of Dartmouth student body are valedictorians
Another 11% are salutatorians.

Some kids party, some kids don't. Rachael can skate while the party kids party. But what about the non-party kids? They study/relax/have a life when Rachael skates.

I think it's a mistake to do both, especially in a higher caliber environment. She will soon realize in high school, it only took her 2 hrs to do her homework, but in college, it will take her all night.

Come exam times, the party kids do badly, the non-party kids do well. Rachael Flatt can't use her muscle memory to interpret DNA sequence.

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. I think a lot depends on how naturally smart Rachael is. A lot of party kids or even non party kids can do well if they are fast workers and quick memorizers, cutting down the studying time needed to do well significantly. Also in college there are less tests/quizzes/papers than in highschool, sometimes you'll have a midterm and a final as you're two real grades in a class.

The other thing is that Rachael could pull a Sasha and not skate seriously for 3 years then take a year off after she's completed her junior year of college and train to make the Olympic team, then go back and finish school after that year is over.

Olympia said:

I am a total sucker for scholar athletes.

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Same here! I'm a high school senior with a five AP, one IB HL, one IB SL course load, and because of this I respect any skater who has the diligence and intelligence to wrestle both athletics and academics. I understand exactly how hard it is to maintain one's grades, while being committed to something you're really passionate about (for her, it's FS. For me, it's animal rights, publications and debate, although obviously her commitment is on a totally different plane). I hold Flatt in the highest esteem because of her wonderful skating and outstanding student profile. I hope to see her in university, perhaps in my top-choice Princeton. Can't wait until late March! Hope the two of us receive acceptance letters from the colleges we love

dlgpffps said:

Same here! I'm a high school senior with a five AP, one IB HL, one IB SL course load, and because of this I respect any skater who has the diligence and intelligence to wrestle both athletics and academics. I understand exactly how hard it is to maintain one's grades, while being committed to something you're really passionate about (for her, it's FS. For me, it's animal rights, publications and debate, although obviously her commitment is on a totally different plane). I hold Flatt in the highest esteem because of her wonderful skating and outstanding student profile. I hope to see her in university, perhaps in my top-choice Princeton. Can't wait until late March! Hope the two of us receive acceptance letters from the colleges we love

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IIRC, Flatt mentioned in one or several interviews over the last couple of seasons, that she has been enrolled in AP classes since 10th grade. So, with pulling all "A's" thoughout her high school career, and the bulk of her classes AP over the last two seasons, IMHO, she will do just fine in pretty much any academic environment. She mentioned in an Ice Network interview, IIRC, that she misses up to 12 weeks of school a year for skating related travel....And still pulls straight A's in ALL of her classes. And did 7 classes last year as a junior to get ahead for this season. So, I think she probably has the time management thing down.

She'll probably has no problem getting in her top school with her grades and other accomplishments that makes her stand apart. However, I am not sure if she can continue skating at an elite level with full load of college courses. At least, if she wants to become a top skater.

Nigel said:

IIRC, Flatt mentioned in one or several interviews over the last couple of seasons, that she has been enrolled in AP classes since 10th grade. So, with pulling all "A's" thoughout her high school career, and the bulk of her classes AP over the last two seasons, IMHO, she will do just fine in pretty much any academic environment. She mentioned in an Ice Network interview, IIRC, that she misses up to 12 weeks of school a year for skating related travel....And still pulls straight A's in ALL of her classes. And did 7 classes last year as a junior to get ahead for this season. So, I think she probably has the time management thing down.

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There is also the issue of different standards in different parts of the country. In general, the east and west coasts tend to be more vigorous and more competitive academically - after all, the two coasts are where the majority of the top universities are located. For instance, I live about half an hour from Yale. My high school does not allow honors classes until 10th grade and no AP classes until 11th grade because our standards for honors and AP are extremely high.

I've read an article in which Rachael talked about a 7 or 9-page paper that she wrote for The Great Gatsby in AP English last year and how it was the longest paper she'd ever written. At my school, we read The Great Gatsby in sophomore honors English, and our midterm and final papers are each 20 pages minimum. (The other honors class goes up to 40 pages.) That's not to say Rachael isn't an extremely intelligent, bright girl, but I have to agree with whoever said that she will be surrounded by peers just as bright as she is at Stanford, Yale, etc. I'm just not sure how her current level of skating and training will fit into a full-time college experience.

This makes the most sense as to why she applied to these schools but does not explain why she did not do early admissions. It's a leg up, created for people like her specifically.

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Early admissions was really created for kids who had a clear top choice or preference for one school. If Rachel didn't have one when she applied, there wouldn't really be a point for her to apply anywhere.

From looking at her list, it looks to me like she and her parents really don't have a clear idea of what they are going to do with her coaching situation when she goes to college. If they did (for example, if she knew she wanted to work out of Boston or San Jose), I suspect she would have applied early to what they decided was the best school/coaching situation combination.

don't know what kind of impression you have of Stanford, but I tell you now, it's study study study (for engineering, at least)

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The engineering and science programs at Stanford are hard, but I think that's overstating it somewhat. They do let the engineers out to see sunlight from time to time.

But seriously, when I received the Stanford alum magazine after the Beijing Olympics, one of the big points of pride was that if Stanford were its own country, it would have placed ahead of most countries in the medal count (I think it would have been something like 10th or 12th). There are a lot of Olympic athletes in training at the university (usually swimming/diving, gymnastics, volleyball, women's basketball, and water polo are big Olympian magnets) as well as prominent football, baseball and tennis programs.

Although sure, some of those athletes are in "fluff" majors, an awful lot of them aren't, and a fair number of them are science/engineering majors. It certainly takes a lot of hard work and time management, but it's definitely possible. Off the top of my head, I believe gold medalists Jenny Thompson (swimming), Val Whiting (basketball) and Amy Chow (gymnastics) are now doctors and Jair Lynch (gymnastics) is an engineer. The quarterback of the football team when I was there (Steve Stenstrom) was also an engineer. And then there's Eric Heiden.

If I were to guess, I would think Rachel would go the Paul Wylie route of going to school and skating, but taking a reduced schedule. I think it took Wylie six years to graduate, and I think Debi Thomas did something similar between school, competition and her later SOI commitments. If she did a minimum 12 units a quarter (vs. a standard 15-16 units or a max of 20 units) and took time off for Olympics, etc., that's probably about how long it would take.

Come exam times, the party kids do badly, the non-party kids do well. Rachael Flatt can't use her muscle memory to interpret DNA sequence.

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No, but at a school like Stanford, you do run into the a number of kids who are truly brilliant where those rules don't apply. I can't tell you the number of "curve-breakers" I encountered in school who studied a minimal amount, but would break the curve for the rest of the class. Sadly, you'd also run into study grinds who for all their studying just couldn't make the intellectual leap to the next level. Studying hard is good, but "smarts" can matter a lot at that level.

That's not to say Rachael isn't an extremely intelligent, bright girl, but I have to agree with whoever said that she will be surrounded by peers just as bright as she is at Stanford, Yale, etc. I'm just not sure how her current level of skating and training will fit into a full-time college experience.

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I think Rachel has as good a chance at rising to the occasion as anyone. Very few people arrive at college on the first day with the whole thing figured out, and kids come from all walks of life and states of preparedness. College is a time take a chance at fall on your face, and she'll have a few years before the next Olympics to adjust her academics and training as she sees fit if she decides to go for it.

And realistically, if she does decide to go for another four year cycle after this one, I'm not going to hold what she says as a 17-year old girl against her if she does decide it would be best for her to put her schooling on hold for a couple of years in the midst of training.

I just want to wish Rachael the best time at college! To enjoy it, savor the moment, and soak everything up.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And for me personally I can say that college was the best experience in my life, tieing only with my Peace Corps experience. I have wonderful memories of both. And I wish the same for Rachael. To study hard, but also to enjoy good times with friends, some of whom you'll remain friends with for a lifetime.

GOOD LUCK, RACHAEL, ON ALL YOUR ENDEAVORS!!!!

Nadine said:

It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And for me personally I can say that college was the best experience in my life, tieing only with my Peace Corps experience. I have wonderful memories of both. And I wish the same for Rachael. To study hard, but also to enjoy good times with friends, some of whom you'll remain friends with for a lifetime.

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Lol, I'm in college now and I kind of hate it. Highschool was sort of like the real world, college is a big regression from that. The kids I go to school with stay up really late, sleep in really late, drink and party way too much, eat crappy food, and live in gross dorms that are usually a mess. Some kids love it though...don't know why .

If you're used to being a good kid and disciplined athlete in highschool with strict parents college is a huge change.

silverlake22, college, as everything in life, is what you make of it! Seriously, enjoy it now, savor every moment, because I guarantee you will remember it as the years/decades go by. Hopefully, like mine, they will be positive memories, but that's because I made it a positive experience.

Lol, I'm a type A personality, always have been, so of course I studied hard, did extremely well, earned numerours scholarships (my favorite was The Daughters of the American Revolution), and was my dorm's R.A. (aka Resident Assistant). But I was very sheltered growing up, so college was a real eye-opener for me in that sense, being on my own for the first time. I loved it, made great friends (one of whom has remained my best friend through both the ups & downs over the decades). But in the end I owe everything I am to my parents, they were the foundation, we truly are a product of our parents. Which makes me so very sad for those that didn't know the love of even one parent.

Sorry for going off topic, my apologies, back to Rachael The Great!!!! Love that, it reminds me of a book I read when I was a child, think it was called Ramone The Great though, lol.


GOOOOOOOOO RACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Edited To Add: but no way can I let you think I was a goodie two shoes. I had & have my moments. Number one I have a quick trigger temper, which has gotten me in plenty of trouble throughout my life. The one thing I hate most is INJUSTICE! And this is the very thing that made me lose my R.A. position when I was a senior in college. If you want, I'll tell you about it someday.