Sports and admissions

[Anonymous]

You can’t change your race or major donor status, but sports team recruiting seems to be a major hook. Knowing what you know now, would you encourage your child to intensely pursue a sport. You don’t necessarily have to be a superstar for a lot of D3 teams, just a varsity athlete at a big school who plays outside of school at an advanced level. I have a younger kid and I’m definitely not Ivy or bust, I wonder if this is something I should encourage. Even flagship schools have <25% acceptance rates. Wonder what older parents who have gone thru the process think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t change your race or major donor status, but sports team recruiting seems to be a major hook. Knowing what you know now, would you encourage your child to intensely pursue a sport. You don’t necessarily have to be a superstar for a lot of D3 teams, just a varsity athlete at a big school who plays outside of school at an advanced level. I have a younger kid and I’m definitely not Ivy or bust, I wonder if this is something I should encourage. Even flagship schools have <25% acceptance rates. Wonder what older parents who have gone thru the process think?

Do not do this. You are talking about years and years of practices and tournaments and thousand and thousands of dollars in fees and travel expenses. This is for kids that really like the sport, have some drive and talent and the family has the time and money.

Spend all that on something where the student has an interest and talent. It sports...fine. but maybe it is dance or music or science or something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t change your race or major donor status, but sports team recruiting seems to be a major hook. Knowing what you know now, would you encourage your child to intensely pursue a sport. You don’t necessarily have to be a superstar for a lot of D3 teams, just a varsity athlete at a big school who plays outside of school at an advanced level. I have a younger kid and I’m definitely not Ivy or bust, I wonder if this is something I should encourage. Even flagship schools have <25% acceptance rates. Wonder what older parents who have gone thru the process think?

No, def not. First, do not mistake a small college with low expectations for athletes. Williams etc is just as exacting in what they want to see in an athlete as they are at any of the T10 schools. Second, intensely pursuing a sport takes away study time - unless your DC is a natural at academics and athletics, your DC may be sacrificing one for the other. Third, your DC may simply end up not being the size a school seeks in an athlete. Yes, if your DC is willing to play anywhere, then that may not matter. But most kids have some sense of the school they seek. Fourth, every kid I know who was pushed by a parent to move from one club to a better club than a better club ended up quitting unless the kid was all in for the sport. I know a number of kids who played ODP soccer for years - only one made it to a D1 school and definitely not the mom's Ivy alma mater. A few others landed at LACs, but only one really wanted to be at one.

Yes, one of my DCs could have probably played college soccer but the skill set didn't match up with the academic ambitions. Finally, let the kid lead. If they think that this may be a way into college, be supportive and realistic. But don't end up the parent who alienated their kid at a formative stage in the parent/child relationship with mistaken ideas about college admissions.

GL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can’t change your race or major donor status, but sports team recruiting seems to be a major hook. Knowing what you know now, would you encourage your child to intensely pursue a sport. You don’t necessarily have to be a superstar for a lot of D3 teams, just a varsity athlete at a big school who plays outside of school at an advanced level. I have a younger kid and I’m definitely not Ivy or bust, I wonder if this is something I should encourage. Even flagship schools have <25% acceptance rates. Wonder what older parents who have gone thru the process think?

Do not do this. You are talking about years and years of practices and tournaments and thousand and thousands of dollars in fees and travel expenses. This is for kids that really like the sport, have some drive and talent and the family has the time and money.

Spend all that on something where the student has an interest and talent. It sports...fine. but maybe it is dance or music or science or something else.

This person has it exactly right. If your kid loves a sport, and is good enough and with enough drive to play in college, then its a good route. But it makes the whole process very different. I have a kid who is a high school senior and a high level player in a sport and an excellent student (35 ACT, 3.97 GPA/4.53 wGPA, full IB candidate). I am sure he could play his sport in college, likely at the D3 level, but he's not sure he wants to pick his college based on which coach wants him for the team. In other words, where he wants to go to college may not line up with which schools he could play for. At this point, I think its likely that he ends up going to school and playing at the club (not NCAA) level. But I guess we'll know more in the next week or so.

[Anonymous]

Most kids I know playing a sport in division 3 are not at good academic schools. My DS could have played his sport div 3, was recruited by several schools, none of which he’d ever heard of. Being s bright kid, none of that interested him. He is playing his sport in club.

[Anonymous]

Some of you all seem so hell bent on believing that your special snowflakes aren't getting into their top choices because athletes are taking all the spots. It's just not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can’t change your race or major donor status, but sports team recruiting seems to be a major hook. Knowing what you know now, would you encourage your child to intensely pursue a sport. You don’t necessarily have to be a superstar for a lot of D3 teams, just a varsity athlete at a big school who plays outside of school at an advanced level. I have a younger kid and I’m definitely not Ivy or bust, I wonder if this is something I should encourage. Even flagship schools have <25% acceptance rates. Wonder what older parents who have gone thru the process think?

Not familiar with too many sports but for swimming, you still need to be really fast (not easy) to be on the team for top colleges in D3.

[Anonymous]

Does your DC actually have the athletic prowess? You would know by the time s/he is age 8 whether they are competitive - which team they ‘make’, whether they start or are second string… Some kids aren’t getting recruited even to D3 schools no matter how much they practice, exercise, or want it.

[Anonymous]

XC & Track cost virtually nothing (monetarily), but are really hard to be excellent at.

[Anonymous]

My DS goes to an LAC and plays his sport there in D3. The school just missed qualifying for D3 nationals as a team this year in that sport.

It is pretty intense. They practice 6 days a week for anywhere from 1-3 hours and all practices are mandatory. That is in addition to lifting, mandatory bonding events, competitions, and more.

[Anonymous]

Do you know anything about D3 sports? Some D3 schools are as good as D1…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids I know playing a sport in division 3 are not at good academic schools. My DS could have played his sport div 3, was recruited by several schools, none of which he’d ever heard of. Being s bright kid, none of that interested him. He is playing his sport in club.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most kids I know playing a sport in division 3 are not at good academic schools. My DS could have played his sport div 3, was recruited by several schools, none of which he’d ever heard of. Being s bright kid, none of that interested him. He is playing his sport in club.

There are some great schools in D3 among others

NESCAC: Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Tufts
UAA: Chicago, NYU, WashU
Centennial: Swarthmore, JHU

You definitely have to be a great student and a recruitable athlete to get in with a sports hook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids I know playing a sport in division 3 are not at good academic schools. My DS could have played his sport div 3, was recruited by several schools, none of which he’d ever heard of. Being s bright kid, none of that interested him. He is playing his sport in club.

There are some great schools in D3 among others

NESCAC: Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Tufts
UAA: Chicago, NYU, WashU
Centennial: Swarthmore, JHU

You definitely have to be a great student and a recruitable athlete to get in with a sports hook.

CMU, Middlebury, W&M, Pomona

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most kids I know playing a sport in division 3 are not at good academic schools. My DS could have played his sport div 3, was recruited by several schools, none of which he’d ever heard of. Being s bright kid, none of that interested him. He is playing his sport in club.

That description is more suited to d2.