DC exiting recruiting process - share your experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids aren’t there yet. However, I have seen some kids go to colleges I have never heard of or not as strong academically to play a sport. One girl in particular got into Johns Hopkins but decided to go play tennis at some large state school. She got injured in college, graduated and now teaches little kids how to play tennis at a country club.

My son also plays tennis. We have always told him that academics is first. He has been told he can play college tennis but it wont be at the better colleges he is interested in.

I am glad that (at least for now) my daughter is firm that she will go to the academically best school she can get into, whether they want her for her sport or not. But OP's kid is not in the situation described above. He is in the opposite situation where he could potentially go to a better school as a recruited athlete. That makes this a verrrry tough decision.

I'm the OP - thank you for recognizing how tough that aspect is. I really didn't know how significant this recruited athlete hook can be until DS got deep into this process. Lots of opinions about whether it's fair or not, but it is real. And for DS it could mean T20 opportunity. He is a strong student, high stats but as everyone knows that's generally not enough without a "spike" or hook. We are by no means pushing T20 schools, just to be clear. But it did complicate the decision making a lot and make him feel like he is closing a door that he was really fortunate to have open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids aren’t there yet. However, I have seen some kids go to colleges I have never heard of or not as strong academically to play a sport. One girl in particular got into Johns Hopkins but decided to go play tennis at some large state school. She got injured in college, graduated and now teaches little kids how to play tennis at a country club.

My son also plays tennis. We have always told him that academics is first. He has been told he can play college tennis but it wont be at the better colleges he is interested in.

I am glad that (at least for now) my daughter is firm that she will go to the academically best school she can get into, whether they want her for her sport or not. But OP's kid is not in the situation described above. He is in the opposite situation where he could potentially go to a better school as a recruited athlete. That makes this a verrrry tough decision.

I'm the OP - thank you for recognizing how tough that aspect is. I really didn't know how significant this recruited athlete hook can be until DS got deep into this process. Lots of opinions about whether it's fair or not, but it is real. And for DS it could mean T20 opportunity. He is a strong student, high stats but as everyone knows that's generally not enough without a "spike" or hook. We are by no means pushing T20 schools, just to be clear. But it did complicate the decision making a lot and make him feel like he is closing a door that he was really fortunate to have open

I am having a hard time understanding you. What do you mean by not a "headcount" sport?

What do you mean for a Top 20, it's not enough without a "spike" or a hook. My kid is talking with an Ivy league school for baseball and knows a kid recruited to play...and it's pretty simple. If you are a good enough player and have strong grades and ideally high SATs...I mean, that's it. Your athletic ability is the spike or hook.

Ivy is D1, so I get that will be different from say MIT or Williams or other high academic D3.

Now, baseball, basketball and football are going to be different from tennis or squash, etc. That said, baseball is nothing compared to basketball or football in terms of school awareness and fans attending games.

Other than football or basketball, there is little money for other sports. I mean, there is more money for baseball at say LSU or Vanderbilt, but in general most D1 baseball players are receiving little to no $$$s.

[Anonymous]

Headcount sports such as football, basketball, etc have a restricted # of scholarships they can give and each is a full ride. Other sports split up their scholarship allocation among as many athletes as they want and amounts vary but usually aren't full ride. Ivies do not give any athletic scholarships.

By not enough for T20 without a hook or spike I mean that my kid had the hook of being a recruited athlete and is now unhooked. As I said there is plenty to discuss about whether that hook is fair or not but it exists, and walking away from recruiting offers completely changes that landscape for him. Being fortunate enough to have the opportunity made the decision especially difficult

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Headcount sports such as football, basketball, etc have a restricted # of scholarships they can give and each is a full ride. Other sports split up their scholarship allocation among as many athletes as they want and amounts vary but usually aren't full ride. Ivies do not give any athletic scholarships.

By not enough for T20 without a hook or spike I mean that my kid had the hook of being a recruited athlete and is now unhooked. As I said there is plenty to discuss about whether that hook is fair or not but it exists, and walking away from recruiting offers completely changes that landscape for him. Being fortunate enough to have the opportunity made the decision especially difficult

Got it...we use the term "revenue sports" in our circle = equal football and basketball. I know Ivy schools don't give scholarships...we honestly don't care much about the $$$s and are looking to a sport to allow our kid to "punch above their weight" for a college, but only if they actually want to attend the college.

Again, I don't know your kid's sport...but there is a social aspect to playing a sport, and that social aspect can be positive or negative depending on the sport. There are a number of college sport suicide stories (unfortunately), but one that stood out was a Xcountry runner at an Ivy. She came from a HS where running was a big sport and you were kind of popular at HS if you participated.

At the Ivy, the sport was horribly isolating. She would comment that when she told other students she ran XCountry, the most common response was "why?". Basically, you are off training with just your teammates not on-campus and participating in a sport that literally nobody at the school cares about (that is not participating) or even respects. It is a jarring experience. Yes, she could have quit...but her entire identity and social circle was tied up in the team...so it was like she had no choice.

Good luck to your kid.

[Anonymous]

We did this recently with my son who was considering schools and also considering running Track.

His times were matched for low d1/all d3, but the kind of college experience he wanted was more at the top D1 running schools. basically, he wanted to go to a top flagship or oos public, for both size of the school, his major, and cost.

Once we decided we wanted a decently ranked school that was <55k in cost all in (we don’t qualify for aid) and a school that is more than 3000 students, that cut out most d3s.

Our kid will most likely be doing club running at a d1. It’s tough though because I know how much he loves running. He just does not have ACC, SEC, or Big 10 running times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Headcount sports such as football, basketball, etc have a restricted # of scholarships they can give and each is a full ride. Other sports split up their scholarship allocation among as many athletes as they want and amounts vary but usually aren't full ride. Ivies do not give any athletic scholarships.

By not enough for T20 without a hook or spike I mean that my kid had the hook of being a recruited athlete and is now unhooked. As I said there is plenty to discuss about whether that hook is fair or not but it exists, and walking away from recruiting offers completely changes that landscape for him. Being fortunate enough to have the opportunity made the decision especially difficult

Got it...we use the term "revenue sports" in our circle = equal football and basketball. I know Ivy schools don't give scholarships...we honestly don't care much about the $$$s and are looking to a sport to allow our kid to "punch above their weight" for a college, but only if they actually want to attend the college.

Again, I don't know your kid's sport...but there is a social aspect to playing a sport, and that social aspect can be positive or negative depending on the sport. There are a number of college sport suicide stories (unfortunately), but one that stood out was a Xcountry runner at an Ivy. She came from a HS where running was a big sport and you were kind of popular at HS if you participated.

At the Ivy, the sport was horribly isolating. She would comment that when she told other students she ran XCountry, the most common response was "why?". Basically, you are off training with just your teammates not on-campus and participating in a sport that literally nobody at the school cares about (that is not participating) or even respects. It is a jarring experience. Yes, she could have quit...but her entire identity and social circle was tied up in the team...so it was like she had no choice.

Good luck to your kid.

Head count and revenue sports are still different. Head count is full scholarships for x number of athletes. Like gymnastics, other sports like baseball they can split the max allowed scholarship among more players. So for baseball it is extremely rare to get a full scholarship since they are splitting up 11 scholarships among a roster of players

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Headcount sports such as football, basketball, etc have a restricted # of scholarships they can give and each is a full ride. Other sports split up their scholarship allocation among as many athletes as they want and amounts vary but usually aren't full ride. Ivies do not give any athletic scholarships.

By not enough for T20 without a hook or spike I mean that my kid had the hook of being a recruited athlete and is now unhooked. As I said there is plenty to discuss about whether that hook is fair or not but it exists, and walking away from recruiting offers completely changes that landscape for him. Being fortunate enough to have the opportunity made the decision especially difficult

Got it...we use the term "revenue sports" in our circle = equal football and basketball. I know Ivy schools don't give scholarships...we honestly don't care much about the $$$s and are looking to a sport to allow our kid to "punch above their weight" for a college, but only if they actually want to attend the college.

Again, I don't know your kid's sport...but there is a social aspect to playing a sport, and that social aspect can be positive or negative depending on the sport. There are a number of college sport suicide stories (unfortunately), but one that stood out was a Xcountry runner at an Ivy. She came from a HS where running was a big sport and you were kind of popular at HS if you participated.

At the Ivy, the sport was horribly isolating. She would comment that when she told other students she ran XCountry, the most common response was "why?". Basically, you are off training with just your teammates not on-campus and participating in a sport that literally nobody at the school cares about (that is not participating) or even respects. It is a jarring experience. Yes, she could have quit...but her entire identity and social circle was tied up in the team...so it was like she had no choice.

Good luck to your kid.

Head count and revenue sports are still different. Head count is full scholarships for x number of athletes. Like gymnastics, other sports like baseball they can split the max allowed scholarship among more players. So for baseball it is extremely rare to get a full scholarship since they are splitting up 11 scholarships among a roster of players

NCAA rules dictate this by sport

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did this recently with my son who was considering schools and also considering running Track.

His times were matched for low d1/all d3, but the kind of college experience he wanted was more at the top D1 running schools. basically, he wanted to go to a top flagship or oos public, for both size of the school, his major, and cost.

Once we decided we wanted a decently ranked school that was <55k in cost all in (we don’t qualify for aid) and a school that is more than 3000 students, that cut out most d3s.

Our kid will most likely be doing club running at a d1. It’s tough though because I know how much he loves running. He just does not have ACC, SEC, or Big 10 running times.

Club running at a D1 is a great compromise. There will be plenty of fast kids ... and a lot less pressure!