Seeking help on course selection for a rising Junior
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Anonymous
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Hello! I am not sure if anyone here could give me some advice on my son's course selection for the Junior year but I'll try my luck. Ideally he would love to play D1 soccer but he understands the difficulty, so D2 and D3 are more likely within his reach. His career interests are kinesiology, business, sport management, along those lines. Here is a list of schools he is interested in although his interest might change in two years. He'll be equally happy to be in any of these as long as he can play soccer there -
Private - Some ivies, Georgetown, JHU, Duke, Notre Dame, WashU, GW, Emory, Northeastern, Boston College In state - UVA, VT, George Mason, W&M, Mary Washington OOS - UCLA, UC Davis, US Irvine, US Santa Babara, UC San Diego, UNC, UMD, UMich, OSU, PSU LAC - not much interest unless it has a large student body His current WGPA is 3.6, and he plans to take 2 AP's (Math and Science), 2 DE's (English and Geo), 2 Honors (Foreign Language and economics), and 1 regular class (History) in the Junior year. If you have been through the recruiting process, does this sound like a good course load for the Junior year? Should he aim for more rigor or less? Thanks in advance for any thoughts. |
Anonymous
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I am confused because you say that you are aiming for D2 or D3 but list only D1 schools.
I don’t think a kid with a 3.6 weighted is going to make it into most of the schools on your list unless their soccer is amazing. |
Anonymous
With a current 3.6 I think you are too ambitious with that schedule and his gpa will suffer. |
Anonymous
His GPA will probably increase a bit after Junior year. But what schools would you suggest with his current GPA? |
Anonymous
With a 3.6 weighted GPA, I don’t think he’s getting into 90% of the schools listed in the original post, unless he is YNT level/top player at an MLS Academy. Not trying to be mean - my kid has a similar GPA - but many of the schools you listed are looking for kids with weighted GPAs of 4.3+. |
Anonymous
I appreciate your post. Which schools are in the 10% that he might have a chance with in your eyes? What other schools will likely take him if he gets his WGPA to 4.0? Thanks again. |
Anonymous
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What's his UW GPA? How many APs has he already taken/currently taking?
Maybe GW, George Mason, W&M, Mary Washington, Ohio State and Penn State. |
Anonymous
| Thanks. I get the idea. He only took 1 AP this year, I don’t know about his unweighted GPA as his school doesn’t calculate unweighted GPA. I can probably do it myself later. |
Anonymous
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My advice is to read this book and follow step by step. https://rlopezcoaching.com/looking-for-a-full-ride/
Many of those schools have their eyes on transfers, international students, and YNT players. Not trying to burst your bubble since I don't know how your child plays (anything is possible!) but those schools are hard if your player isn't nationally known. Heck, even good DMV schools that are D1 are cut throat to get into! |
Anonymous
Thanks! I have that book - a friend recommended it to me but I haven’t read it yet. My son is not a superstar type of a player but just obsessed with it. He only started getting his mind on studying half a year ago, hence the mediocre GPA. That’s why he now wants to load up with more AP and DE classes. We’ll see how he handles it. |
Anonymous
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This seems very odd.
1. Look at where kids from your club are signing to play. Your club’s website will tell you that. You will get a decent idea of the level your kid’s club is considered. Are kids regularly playing at big colleges? If not - he needs to be trying out elsewhere. 2. It’s not impossible for a kid to be relatively unknown as a junior and be able to land at a good soccer school, because guys very often hit physical growth spurts later. But, he needs to be on a top team for his area next year. There is some advantage as some kids will drop off MLSNEXT teams once they have made their college choice. 3. It is hugely important that he fit reasonably well, academically, with the entering freshman class. Yes, there are some academic supports for athletes, but men’s soccer is getting the general level of support - study hall requirements where there will be tutor assistants available, and class scheduling priority. If your kid would struggle to get a 3.0 on a curve in a typical freshmen class, because of the level of academic competition, then it is a very bad place to consider. For soccer, there is very much a sink or swim attitude when it comes to academics. In season, even D3 soccer is a 40 plus hour a week job. Classes come second. For some of the schools on your list - it’s way way more than that. (I’m not sure the schedule works at all for some of the West coast schools joining the SEC and Big10.) It is a very tough haul for anyone, and you don’t want to add on - being one of the academic weakest in every class. |