Anonymous wrote:My advice is based on two sons who went to schools to play sports. Both of them were encouraged to pick the school where they would be happy if they had a career ending injury on the first day of practice and never got to play a minute in any sport. One played all four years and the sport was a big part of his college experience. He went D3. The other went D1. The coaching staff changed 100% before he arrived and ultimately most of the recruited players left the team as did he. He loves his choice of school and is not wistful about his sport. Good luck to your son. I hope he has a great college career.

This is really, really good advice.

Anonymous wrote:^ Why does he feel he made the wrong choice?

He feels that he should have taken the chance and go after his first choice and not settle for his second choice. I think this is more of a reflection of his personality. BTW, his mother and I encouraged/pushed him to take his second choice. He is doing great and is at a top grad business school.

^ Why does he feel he made the wrong choice?

Several years ago, my DS had the option to apply ED to a top 3 LAC with guaranteed admission via coach's support (but not his first choice school), or apply to his top choice Ivy RD and not play his sport. The same scenario as the OP. He chose the bird in the hand, and went to the LAC. While he enjoyed his experience playing the sport and got a fabulous education, he regrets not at least trying his first choice. He says he will not do this again in his life. Interesting take and resolve and goes to show there are many different choices. While on the surface it seems, to me, he made the right decision, he does not think so.

Anonymous wrote:I would ask the student to decide which school he would want to be enrolled in if he had a serious injury and could no longer do sports.

Take that off the table, and see if a winner emerges.

Right, but as was pointed out above, he's not deciding between guaranteed admission to School 1 with the option to play his sport and guaranteed admission to School 2 with a likelihood of not playing his sport.

He's deciding between guaranteed admission to School 1 with option to play and a small chance of admission to School 2 with likelihood of not playing. If he picks School 2, the most likely scenario is that he won't get in to School 1 OR School 2. Is he okay with that?

Anonymous wrote:Which is really most important to him, education or sport?

This assumes that the Ivy League school offers a higher quality education--a faulty assumption.

Anonymous wrote:Which is really most important to him, education or sport?

??? The LAC would likely offer a better education than the Ivy

But I get the point- have him weigh the reasons for desiring the Ivy more and see what would be lost or gained (if anything) in taking the LAC offer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing to consider is being an athlete at a small LAC is socially a bit constricting. If your DC likes the feel of a small school it could be great for him. Certainly the top LACS offer an excellent liberal arts education. My kid who went to a small private for high school just wanted a bigger school with a larger social scene so he turned down his D3 offer and his happy playing club sports at a larger college. It just depends on the kid and how important it is for him to play. As in all such decisions it is about fit.

Not sure what this means. I had one kid who played D1 and 2 who played D3. The D3 kids had a much more robust social and campus life because they were not expected to spend all their free time on the sport. A D1 athlete is not really able to take advantage of the larger social scene.

+1. This has been our experience as well. Being an athlete at a D3 gives you a built in social group but the school is small enough where you can branch out as well. The D1 kids we know at the large schools essentially spend all their time with their teammates.

+2 Being on a team at the D3 level makes the college transition process very smooth and unlike D1 you have plenty of free time to join student organizations, clubs, etc. Unless your child is a superstar and plans to pursue athletics after college I think D3 is absolutely the way to go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing to consider is being an athlete at a small LAC is socially a bit constricting. If your DC likes the feel of a small school it could be great for him. Certainly the top LACS offer an excellent liberal arts education. My kid who went to a small private for high school just wanted a bigger school with a larger social scene so he turned down his D3 offer and his happy playing club sports at a larger college. It just depends on the kid and how important it is for him to play. As in all such decisions it is about fit.

Not sure what this means. I had one kid who played D1 and 2 who played D3. The D3 kids had a much more robust social and campus life because they were not expected to spend all their free time on the sport. A D1 athlete is not really able to take advantage of the larger social scene.

+1. This has been our experience as well. Being an athlete at a D3 gives you a built in social group but the school is small enough where you can branch out as well. The D1 kids we know at the large schools essentially spend all their time with their teammates.

I would ask the student to decide which school he would want to be enrolled in if he had a serious injury and could no longer do sports.

Take that off the table, and see if a winner emerges.

Which is really most important to him, education or sport?

Anonymous wrote:The only thing to consider is being an athlete at a small LAC is socially a bit constricting. If your DC likes the feel of a small school it could be great for him. Certainly the top LACS offer an excellent liberal arts education. My kid who went to a small private for high school just wanted a bigger school with a larger social scene so he turned down his D3 offer and his happy playing club sports at a larger college. It just depends on the kid and how important it is for him to play. As in all such decisions it is about fit.

Not sure what this means. I had one kid who played D1 and 2 who played D3. The D3 kids had a much more robust social and campus life because they were not expected to spend all their free time on the sport. A D1 athlete is not really able to take advantage of the larger social scene.

Anonymous wrote:He could take it and then if he gets into an Ivy, tell the DIII coach, he's had a change of heart. I would really need to know the sport to be able to give the best advice.

Even if this was possible it is just incredibly bad advice. You're encouraging an applicant to take an athletic slot whilst making a commitment to a school and a coach all with the idea that they will renege if they get in elsewhere? Your moral compass is broken lady.

Anonymous wrote:He could take it and then if he gets into an Ivy, tell the DIII coach, he's had a change of heart. I would really need to know the sport to be able to give the best advice.

No, you can't do this. All the top 10 LACs do early decision so it would be a binding commitment.

He could take it and then if he gets into an Ivy, tell the DIII coach, he's had a change of heart. I would really need to know the sport to be able to give the best advice.