Are DII and DIII sports a big scam to get parents to

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is SIX YEARS OLD.

To the tune of “I’ve got my mind set on you”

🎶 This thread is now SIX YEARS OLD,
This thread is now SIX YEARS OLD,
This thread is now SIX YEARS OLD…
🎶

[Anonymous]

Anecdote here: I have a friend whose kid was recruited for D3 sport at a school that punched above their academic weight (based on GPA, SAT, and course rigor). It was a top 40 school and would not have gotten there without the sport. They also got a tuition reduction—I think she said it was a merit award for the sport—33% off the list price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:send their kids to small mediocre colleges that have no brand name? Obviously not talking about any elite LAC or UChicago. Facebook is full of parents bragging their kid is continuing their "sports career" at ~expensive no-name private college~.

There aren't any scholarships in DII or DIII so they're basically paying $30K-65K so their child can play sports in front of dozens of fans?

It’s a ton of Sports or Bust families from the south. White, black, Hispanics.

Most marry early on and go work for their dads or have 4 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're not talking about elite LACs, then you are talking about schools that give merit aid. Many athletes at these D3 schools are getting merit scholarships. And of course they can qualify for and receive financial aid just like any other student.

This too.
Many first gen students who have 2.5-3.0s in high schools.

[Anonymous]

DIII has scholarships, they just call them “merit”. As soon as your kid has an offer, coaches from other schools will try to beat whatever money they are getting.

Not a scam. Don’t do it if you don’t want to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely for D3. Huge scam. They love reasonably decent athletes whose parents are full pay, whether it's a name brand school or not. The kids love being "recruited."

How don't parents get this? You're basically paying full or near full tuition to play glorified intramurals. I'd rather play intramurals at a college with a brand name and endowment than play varsity for a college nobody has ever heard of. It's doesn't make sense to me.

Agree. Knew of ton of texas volleyball girls who went to no name colleges to play, then returned to their hometown to get married.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DIII has scholarships, they just call them “merit”. As soon as your kid has an offer, coaches from other schools will try to beat whatever money they are getting.

Not a scam. Don’t do it if you don’t want to.

Cannot be more than an equivalent student would receive if they weren’t an athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely for D3. Huge scam. They love reasonably decent athletes whose parents are full pay, whether it's a name brand school or not. The kids love being "recruited."

How don't parents get this? You're basically paying full or near full tuition to play glorified intramurals. I'd rather play intramurals at a college with a brand name and endowment than play varsity for a college nobody has ever heard of. It's doesn't make sense to me.

DIII is not what it once was, schools put quite a bit of money into it - multiple coaches, nutritionists, fitness coaches. Nobody is paying full if you are a desired athlete. It can be very rewarding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DIII has scholarships, they just call them “merit”. As soon as your kid has an offer, coaches from other schools will try to beat whatever money they are getting.

Not a scam. Don’t do it if you don’t want to.

Cannot be more than an equivalent student would receive if they weren’t an athlete.

In our experience, it was very significant. I was surprised.

[Anonymous]

One of my daughters will be playing a sport at a D3 private college next year. She loves playing. She got a significant merit scholarship that takes the cost to less than the in state cost of any of the Virginia state schools. This college is ranked top25 in liberal arts colleges, the merit scholarship isn’t tied to her athletics, so if she gets injured or doesn’t like it, she can drop the sport and keep attending the school at the very reasonable price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've seen kids go from a DIII hopeful prospect at sophomore year to a DI prospect by senior year. And I've seen plenty of them pick DIII over DI just because of the school.

This is baseball, by the way.

Or change colleges 2-3x. Go portal.

As you can tell it’s not about education and work career, but sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:send their kids to small mediocre colleges that have no brand name? Obviously not talking about any elite LAC or UChicago. Facebook is full of parents bragging their kid is continuing their "sports career" at ~expensive no-name private college~.

There aren't any scholarships in DII or DIII so they're basically paying $30K-65K so their child can play sports in front of dozens of fans?

These kids are not turning down UVA or Williams (great schools where they were not recruited) in order to play sports at Bridgewater. (Yeah yeah it might have happened once in the history of the world, spare me the anecdote.) These are kids who would be going to Bridgewater or some other small no name school anyway. They aren’t really losing anything by their decision.

[Anonymous]

Here’s a good article on how colleges are using athletics as an enrollment strategy:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2023/12/04/small-colleges-bet-new-sports-boost-enrollment

[Anonymous]

Maybe because the child enjoys the sport and wants to keep playing as long as they can. Grad school or med school or law school can come after the D3. Work will always be there. It’s like everyone wants their kids to hurry up and give them instagram worthy accolades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely for D3. Huge scam. They love reasonably decent athletes whose parents are full pay, whether it's a name brand school or not. The kids love being "recruited."

How don't parents get this? You're basically paying full or near full tuition to play glorified intramurals. I'd rather play intramurals at a college with a brand name and endowment than play varsity for a college nobody has ever heard of. It's doesn't make sense to me.

Agree. Knew of ton of texas volleyball girls who went to no name colleges to play, then returned to their hometown to get married.

“Texas” volleyball girls…… enough said.