I have a question which I hope one of our Ivy-knowledgable folks can
help with.  It has always been my impression that, although the Ivies
don't give "athletic" scholarships, that doesn't mean that a first-rate
hockey player (or computer scientist or violinist) is treated the same
as an "average" student when financial aid is doled out.  At least I
know that at St. Lawrence in the days of no "grants-in-aids" we still
determined a level of financial need for each student (by some mysterious
but well established formula), but then had some flexibility in how that
need was met.  So that a student with a great slap shot (or 1600 SAT's)
might have more of their need met with scholarship dollars, while
a more "average" student may be funded through loans or work study.
Is that the way the Ivies work their financial aid?  In which case we
shouldn't assume that every member of an Ivy hockey team is paying
full tuition (or getting no benefit from their hockey talents).
 
I know that even as SLU has moved to grants-in-aid, the understanding was
that the total dollars spent in financial aid for hockey players would
not increase - just that we could consider fully funding a recuit who
might not have a great deal of need.
 
On the question of student athletes and academics, I see a strong distinction
between hockey and the other "major" sports (b-ball & football).  The major
junior leagues offer a well-established alternative for getting to the NHL.
While we might argue about whether the Juniors or College route is better
hockey preparation, we shouldn't see players going to college solely as
the pathway to the pros (as is often the case in other sports).  Thus it
would seem that we could often expect more serious academic aspirations
among our college hockey players.  I have found this to be particularly
true with students coming to US schools from Canada.  If you're a Canadian
high school student and your priorities are clearly hockey first and
academics a very distant second (or third, or ...), why would you ever
consider coming to a US college to play hockey when you've got Major Juniors?
As a bonus, many of the Canadian students come with an extra (grade 13)
year of high school which sometimes yields a bit more maturity when they
encounter college level courses.
 
Robin Lock
St. Lawrence University
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