Anonymous wrote:Need some google guidance please.
It’s early days, and am trying to do some advance parental research to find potential schools for STEM kid who enjoys non-recruited sport (like fencing, volleyball…) and is also in HS band and may want to continue in college. Thanks for advice on how to search.

The marching band will typically end up at larger schools, but perhaps marching band isn't the focus but music/instrument is?
Men's volleyball - https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-volleyball/colleges
Fencing - quick search provided https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_fencing_schools

Having interests outside of academics can help drive a conversation with your student, its important to keep in mind that academics will be the primary focus - they should want to attend the school without the activity. We had our student start a Google sheet - they added school names to the list that seemed to fit their interests as they built it we started to see patterns on location, size etc and used that for our school visits. There is so much online the students can get a lot of good information to help with their research.

RIT

Anonymous wrote:Men’s volleyball programs are rare, but many schools have club volleyball.

Steven’s institute is an amazing STEM school and has club volleyball.

If the sports are important, educate yourself on the full range of options: Div 1, Div 2, Div 3, Club.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Size especially influences the EC opportunities like band and fencing. He should consider what kind of band -- does he want to do marching band, jazz, symphony, pep etc. Big schools will likely have all those, smaller schools may not.

On the other hand, at a smaller school, there may be less competition for a student to be able to join an activity. DS is at a SLAC and is doing orchestra (like in high school) and participating in the fencing club (which he tried in middle school but didn't continue in high school).

Definitely pros and cons for both. My DD was mostly focused on LACs. She'd done marching band in HS and liked the fun of playing at games but really didn't want the time commitment marching band requires. So she preferred schools that offered a pep band + concert band. She really didn't want a school that has marching band at all since her experience in HS was that students who were in band but not marching were kind of outside of the social group. For another student, the jazz band might be important. This is why you really need to think about what aspects are important to you.

Anonymous wrote:Size especially influences the EC opportunities like band and fencing. He should consider what kind of band -- does he want to do marching band, jazz, symphony, pep etc. Big schools will likely have all those, smaller schools may not.

On the other hand, at a smaller school, there may be less competition for a student to be able to join an activity. DS is at a SLAC and is doing orchestra (like in high school) and participating in the fencing club (which he tried in middle school but didn't continue in high school).

Check Fiske

What kind of weather do they want?
Distance from home?
Size of school? (2,000? 20,000?)
Preferred vibe? (sporty? preppy? progressive? intellectual?)
Likely GPA when applying?
How many APs? IB program?