Michigan fans laugh: Stanford jocks had an "easy A" list

Some of my friends flunked out the first semester. They were shaken by the experience. I considered going there myself before heading east.

 

When I was in college it was really not that hard to figure out how to survive in the UC system. Every subject area worked under a numerical system where 0-99 classes were for lower division (basic frosh and soph classes), 100-200 were "upper division" (Jr. & Sr. level). More importantly, classes with the "10" designation were "designed for non-majors." So you need filler? Go take Geography/Sociology/Psych etc. 10. Even better, there was "Military Science" classes run by the ROTC program. Figure this out, classes did not go towards completing degree, but did go towards your GPA. No shortage of athletes in those classes and not easy to get into classes either. Come on, and you think a list is out of the ordinary?

 

Is the average Stanford FB/MBB player more academically qualified for school than those from virtually every other big-time athletic program? Generally yes, with the exception of the Ivies and the academies.

But as anyone who regularly covered Stanford athletes from those two sports could tell you, the difference was greatly exaggerated. Stanford FB/MBB had/has its fair share of knuckleheads, too. They're not all brain surgeons or budding poets.

And the athletes in that story have a much easier time telling the truth than the administrators, that's for sure.

 

I always heard Cal was easier to get into Stanford easier to get through. You can sit for a final - look at the test, and walk out and drop the class. Of course, telling mommy and daddy they are going to have to pony up for another semester or two down on the Farm might not be very easy.

 

Emma Stone is smoking hot.

Wait, what were we discussing?

 

I wish -- wasn't 21 until after graduation.

 

All the really good schools are relatively easy to actually get through. Of the top 22 colleges in the U.S. News and World Reports rankings for national universities, only one has a six-year graduation rate of less than 90 percent -- Caltech at 89 percent. Of the top 50, only Georgia Tech has a graduation rate of less than 80 percent.

The flip side is, the acceptance rate at Harvard, Yale and Stanford is less than 10 percent. Ten of the top 11 accept less than 20 percent of applicants and one of the top 25 has an acceptance rate of 30 percent or more -- Emory at 30 percent.

The top schools do their weeding out on the front end. They figure if you're good enough to go to our school, we're going to do everything we can to help you succeed.

BTW, Michigan's acceptance rate is 50 percent and its six-year graduation rate is 89 percent. It's No. 29 on the USN&WR list.