How important are grades, SATs/ACTs?
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Anonymous
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NP. It’s very important and can make the difference in admissions.
For D3, it’s critical. That having been said if your kid is the coach’s top pick with GPA at the low range for the school, GPA won’t necessarily keep the kid out. But to give some color, University of Chicago men’s soccer won the NCAA championship last year (beating Williams), and the kids from both schools were also exceptionally good students. So, there will be a lot of good soccer players who can also meet the academic requirements. For D1 and D2, it’s less critical but still important. Coaches have more leeway and can admit outside the school’s GPA range. However, it is exceptionally unlikely a coach at a good D1 will want to use their admissions slots for a freshman with a lower GPA unless that freshman is good enough to be considered at the USMNT camp level or something like it. Nowadays the majority of D1 recruiting is either international or kids coming in as juniors via the transfer portal. There are freshmen getting spots, but largely only as practice players so coaches will be looking for high GPAs to keep the incoming GPAs relatively high over the team as a whole. That having been said, this can vary per school. What sort of schools is your DC considering? - Parent with son playing in college now. |
Anonymous
| OP back again. There’s a lot of talk above about Ivy and competitive schools. To clarify, DC isn’t applying to anything in the top 50 academically. And it’s unlikely DC will be able to play D1 for soccer so we are realistically targeting D3 and probably not the top there. DC just loves soccer and wants to find a way to combine soccer with college. He needs to start attending ID camps and we don’t want to waste time at schools that are too much of a reach. |
Anonymous
| College club soccer sounds like his best bet. They still play other schools and it’s still comprised of kids that played travel their entire youth. You try out for it. |
Anonymous
Yes. This is definitely the plan if he ends up at a D1 school. And the backup plan if he doesn’t make the roster for a D3 college team. |
Anonymous
I’m the PP with a kid in college playing. What part of the country are you looking at? I could suggest some programs. There are many great possibilities in the 50-100 range. Also, does he need money? What level does he currently play at? Eg ECNL, MLSNext, etc. Also, don’t assume you need to attend an ID camp. It may not be necessary. |
Anonymous
Don’t bet on club soccer as a sure thing. The tryouts at big schools are extremely competitive and they often take very few freshman. Intramural is easier. |
SDSoccerDad
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Semantics warrior over here. So this thread can actually be helpful, it is true Ivy's may not give out "scholarships" but they certainly give out merit aid, which like scholarships is free money that reduce the cost for an individual family to attend. |
Anonymous
| It's not semantics. Demonstrated need is the standard, even for money awarded based on merit. Scholarships, on the other hand, don't take demonstrated need into account. |
Anonymous
Of course scholarships take need into account, maybe not at Ivy's because they don't do scholarships but bottom line there is money available anywhere its just might not be titled exactly what you thought it would be and its a limited pool of funds. Best bet is to have amazing grades to keep all your options soccer or not open and plentiful |
Anonymous
Thanks! We are definitely hoping for merit. Looking at schools in MD, VA, PA, OH. He’s also thinking about going further north but doesn’t know much about schools in the northeast. He’s a GK so we’ve been told the entire process is very different from field players and ID camps are important. As far as level, EDP1/ECNL-RL based on latest offers. He’s in the process of changing teams. |
Anonymous
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GK is definitely different. It’s one of those things where if a team needs a GK they tend to really need one for that recruiting year, but otherwise they don’t recruit. Idk about the ID camps but for GK in particular I would not go to one of the big multiple school camps, since it’s important the coaches for the actual school see him in action. If he stays ECNL level, he will get seen.
The good news for you is that there are a TON of D3 schools in PA in particular. It’s actually crazy — PA has more men’s D3 programs as soccer-crazy California, which is nuts. The bad news is that means the level of play can really vary and some of those schools will possibly disappear in the next decade. There are so many PA colleges that there are different conferences which vary by level. So for instance the University Athletic Association conference is more competitive than the Presidents Athletic Conference, with the Centennial Conference somewhere in between. Schools he should consider IMO, given what you said about grades: Gettysburg Muhlenberg Ursinus Chatham - This is interesting because it is in Pittsburgh so a good location but also because they are actively trying to recruit boys. The program is new and the school is investing in it. They give good merit aid What I would do is when your DS is a junior (I can’t remember what year he is), have him email D3 coaches in PA. Some will respond and he can go from there. I have more thoughts but will have to come back, this is long enough! But feel free to ask more questions. |
Anonymous
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. This is great info. We had Gettysburg on our list but will check out the other schools. |
Anonymous
Semantics ignoramus more like. They give out aid based solely on financial circumstances. There is no aid based on merit at any Ivy league school. |
Anonymous
Might want to actually look at how private schools define merit, before you call-out others ignorance, this is all very grey despite SCOTUS' recent involvements which just made it even muddier to understand |
Anonymous
No it didn't make it any harder to understand. Scotus involvement has not affected the financial aid package at all. Most of the Ivy league schools make their aid calculators available on the internet. You plug in your income and assets and it tells you what you will get. And that's what you get - black, white, male, female, athlete, doughboy, or striped like a zebra. |