Elite collegiate education in America was historically reserved for white men hailing from wealthy families in the northeast corner of the U.S. The Ivy League, for example, used to only admit the scions of America’s White Anglo-Saxon Protestant elite. A spirit of amateur athleticism and “Christian masculinity” pervaded this era of exclusion, with Ivy League athletes and war heroes receiving widespread veneration from America’s educated class. But what does this little piece of history have to do with the contemporary relationship between height and Ivy League admission? We’re glad you asked!

The current athletic recruitment system in place at many highly selective colleges and universities — and the Ivy League athletic conference, in particular — gives the players of certain aristocratic sports a leg up in the admissions process, a vestige of this old way of doing things. The high schoolers fortunate enough to play these sports — which require extensive resources and specialized training — are fast-tracked into elite universities. The same goes for the players of more democratic sports, such as basketball and football, but not nearly at the same proportion as those who do these boutique sports.

But what’s the big deal here? We at Ivy Coach take issue with the recruited athlete pipeline because it perpetuates many of the social ills that elite universities are supposed to stand against: athletic ability taking the place of strong academic performance, the earmarking of slots for students who are categorically wealthy, the wholesale exclusion of trans and gender nonconforming students from an expedited track to elite education. But on this list is another more subtle dynamic that many fail to consider when scrutinizing athletic recruitment: height discrimination!

Athletes Are Much Taller than the Average College Student. Do You See the Problem Here?

Okay, maybe we’re having a bit of fun with the negative implications of Ivy League athletic recruitment. But we’re nothing if not thorough on this issue! In a world where athletic ability can get you onto campuses like Dartmouth College and Princeton University, even as acceptance rates dwindle to record-setting lows and more and more highly qualified students face rejection each year, it follows that tall high schoolers have an edge over their shorter counterparts. But don’t take our word for it. Let’s look at the data.

According to the CDC, the average American male is five foot nine inches tall. The average American female is five foot three and a half inches tall. Turning to athletes at Princeton (a sufficient representative of elite colleges across the nation for our purposes here), we find a men’s baseball team with an average height of six foot one, a men’s basketball team with an average height of six foot five, a men’s football team with an average height of six foot even, and a men’s lacrosse team with an average height of six foot one. Turning to women’s athletics, we find a women’s basketball team with an average height of five foot eleven, a women’s field hockey team with an average height of five foot six, a woman’s rugby team with an average height of five foot seven, and a women’s softball team with an average height of five foot seven. We trust that you are seeing the pattern that we see.

Phase Out Unfair Athletic Recruitment to Stop Short Student Discrimination!

When it comes to leveling the playing field of elite college admissions, many feel that they should choose their battles. Focus on legacy admissions or athletic recruitment or race-based discrimination. Fortunately, we at Ivy Coach have all of the time in the world to get into the granular details of just who gets the long and short end of the admissions stick. And the data tells the story: college athletes are much taller than the average Joe. This injustice simply adds further fuel to our fiery resolve to call out the unfair advantages of athletic recruitment! Phase out athletic recruitment at highly-selective schools, including the Ivy League schools, and the problem will remedy itself!