Why Some Seats at Elite Colleges Only Go to Prep School Students
reality is quite different, said Rick Eckstein, a sociologist at Villanova University who has studied youth sports in America. Parents spend about $19 billion a year on youth sports programs, travel teams and specialized coaches, he said. The investment creates a steep hierarchy with a disproportionate number of players from wealthy families at the top.
“Sports has this aura that it’s the antidote to inequality, that it’s a level playing field, it’s just about talent, it’s just about skill and you get judged by how good you are," Eckstein said. “That’s not the case. Some people don’t have the ability to even get to the place where they’re judged.
They can’t get through the door." The opportunity to earn a recruited spot on the squash team roster at an elite college is officially available to players of any background, but in practice, opportunity is limited. To excel, players are generally introduced to the game by age 10 or 11 and start competing by about 13. To advance up the rankings, they need to travel to tournaments.
The squash rosters at Ivy League schools read like a who’s who of private prep schools. For example, 10 of the 11 women on Dartmouth’s team this year graduated from private high schools, including the Hotchkiss School, Phillips Academy and Grace Church High School. Total cost to attend each is around $60,000.
Not all students pay the full price, and private schools offer some scholarships. Greg Zaff played collegiate squash at Williams College before playing professionally. In 1996, he started SquashBusters to help children from less-wealthy families get into the sport and excel in school.
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