Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:No, but he will need good test scores and captian/lessons linked to the sport helps.
boggles my mind that people still make these statements - I guess it’s true for the smaller handful of test required schools, but test optional is real my friends
I personally know 2 coaches - both T25 schools - one a public, one an ivy (non-helmet traditionally “smart kid” sport). Both say test scores are mostly meaningless if they want the kid and grades are good. The Ivy academic index is a thing of the past with regards to the test component. Coaches may ask for test scores as it can only help if they are good - but at worst they are a neutral variable in the process
OP here. This is interesting. I thought SAT was required but high score was not necessary.
Recruited D1 athletes for major sports like football, basketball, soccer, hockey, and maybe lacrosse are inhabiting a different reality than every other applicant to college. Yes, there is some academic leeway - sometimes a lot - for recruited athletes, whether Duke basketball or Stanford soccer or Harvard hockey.
But if you are not at that level it is a foolish gamble to rely on sports as your ticket to a good D1 school. By sophomore year, you should know whether you are recruitable. Are you playing in the highest level league? Are you the best player on your team? If there are kids that are better on your elite team, you are probably not recruitable at a D1 school. The DMV is a tiny corner of America. It's a big country, particularly when it comes to soccer.
Sophomore year is when choices have to be made. As you mentioned, varsity sports is incredibly time consuming. It demands a very high opportunity cost. You should sit down with your son and have an honest talk about the reality of both getting into college and what it takes to play at the D1 level. If he's not a recruited superstar, it's a hard choice. I definitely would not skimp on the academics - GPA, rigor, test scores. A great student is going to have many more opportunities than an athlete rolling with a 3.2 and a 1250, unless you're Messi.
I have two kids at T20 schools. Both athletes. Both great students. They both made choices. One dropped his sport - or rather went from varsity to low key AAU - so he could focus on ECs that were more likely to help get him into highly selective universities. He knew he wasn't going to get recruited. The other kept competing. Recruited by D3 schools. But he did not want to go to a D3 school. Fortunately he was a top student - 4.7 and a 35 - and had some national awards in his field of interest. Got into his school of choice. Talked to a coach and trained with the team freshman year but did not compete. Will compete on the varsity squad sophomore year.
In both cases, they prioritized academics to get where they wanted. It's a better bet than relying solely on sports to get into a good D1 school. There are a million great high school athletes out there. Getting those D1 athletic scholarships is incredibly competitive.
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}