Embry-Riddle in Arizona is a tech school and plays in NAIA.
Recruiting Tips for Parents Just Starting the Process
- Thread starter MakeAPlay
- Start date
Embry-Riddle in Arizona is a tech school and plays in NAIA.
Claremont McKenna.
Zerodenero
GOLD
Agreed.
When my kiddo narrowed her election to the final 3. MIT was her front runner. That coach (great dude) said as much as he'd like, he can't compete with players who are also being recruited by Ivy's (especially the big 3) bc he has zero pull/influence on admissions. He didn't have the curve that they have (aka- academic index for younger parents)
In the end, among other misc items i.e campus experience/broader student base..... A Bird in the hand was worth 2in the bush.
Guess my point is in some circles/environments/industries, D3's go toe-to-toe w/big box brands.
Zerodenero
GOLD
Since we're talking Pasadena.....don't forget the girls of CAL TECH...just a hop-skip-jump from JPL. Them girls are coming up And will rival Mr musk.
Both Claremont Colleges and CalTech were mentioned already so I skipped them.
Speaking of acceptance rate, Caltech maybe the hardest to get into. They only admit around 300 freshman students. The percentage is what you might expect (7~8%) but the number is so low its line of acceptance is a razor sharp.
Speaking of acceptance rate, Caltech maybe the hardest to get into. They only admit around 300 freshman students. The percentage is what you might expect (7~8%) but the number is so low its line of acceptance is a razor sharp.
M
A friend from years past went there and he was wicked smart. He got in because someone who was accepted dropped their acceptance to go elsewhere.
Sheriff Joe
DA
I just noticed something with your clubs, you have 2 putters. What's the deal?
NoGoal
DA
I actually collect Scotty Cameron putters, but game 2-3 of them. So when one is acting up they get time out (closet) and they other comes out. Seriously, One is a copper insert, another is carbon steel, and other is a deep milled stainless steel. All feel different coming off the club face.
Sheriff Joe
DA
I have the same milspec.
Those Scotty tour Newport 1.5's are the bomb.
NoGoal
DA
The Scotty Cameron Mil-Spec are one of his best OTR (over the rack) putters he ever released, because it was made from carbon steel. You will be pleasantly surprised how well they hold their value after 16-18 yrs. A mint one which retailed new for $299 can be sold on EBay for $225-$250. The Mil-Spec with the 350 grams head weight will go for almost $400 used as long it’s in good shape aka no bag chatter. He has a Circle T exclusive line (tour only models) which cost $3000 to $15,000, which is technically the Mil-Spec model back in the day.
His newer line of putters since 2016 with the aluminum inserts are garbage and why the older models hold their value well.
Sheriff Joe
DA
NoGoal
DA
Back to recruiting. This is geared for those not at the elite level (e.g., National team level). This is geared for those who love playing soccer, want to play in college and want to get a good education. For them, there are choices to be made (location, level, etc.) and work to be done off the pitch.
Factors to consider and things to focus on (not in rank order) in the college recruiting process:
1. Education Interests-- make certain they look up schools and know what majors they offer. Really, this is a first step to knowing what they may want to do in life and then ensuring any schools that express interest in them or they consider reaching out to match. And I would encourage you to ensure there are other options for them besides what they believe they want to major in (e.g., many change their majors and/or career thoughts once they get to school, so ensure there are plan B or C majors offered by this school).
2. Financial Assistance and Your Willingness to Pay-- this can be in Athletic Money (not if you are speaking with D3 schools!), Need-Based Aid and/or Merit-Based Aid depending on the university. Know your family's situation and ensure that universities your child speaks with meet them. For example, if your family would not meet need-based aid, and you don't want to pay the high costs of some schools (schools like Carnegie Mellon, Cal Tech, the Claremont Schools, Vassar, etc. do not offer any merit-based aid and are not cheap), then you should eliminate these from consideration. Understand what is reasonable for your family, what you could qualify and then find the right matches. For us, we used the cost of attending a Univ. of CA without any financial aid as a baseline to compare against.
3. Location-- will they be ok going to school in random places in the US? A small town in the middle of the Midwest that they would never visit if not for soccer? We are coming from Southern California, and many schools are in far less desirable locations, to put it mildly. The difficulty in getting home if they are hours from an airport and there are no direct flights home. And while this is not about the parents, do you want to go to their school for an entire weekend to watch a couple of games? One thing to look at, how many players are going to this school from Southern California, and are they staying at the school or do they all transfer? This can help expand or limit your search.
4. Think Total Costs, Not Just Education Costs-- keep in mind, not just the cost of attending, but the costs in getting your child to and from school. Or if your family would like to go visit and watch games, factor that into your calculation.
4. How Important is Playing Time?-- some are ok with not playing much their first couple of years (or ever), others would not do well sitting on the bench. Truly understand how a player fits in with a team and if that would work for them. Along with location, I suspect many of the transfers occur because players "reached" for a school and they were not ready to contribute right away and they struggled with sitting on the bench.
5. How Important Is Winning?-- going to a program that consistently loses is not likely to change with them coming in (unless you see progress happening in the previous years, such as a new coach who is in their 2nd or 3rd year and there is improvement you can see in their results on the field). Some will deal better with losing than others. If being on a winning team is important, this will help eliminate schools.
6. D1, D2 or D3 is Not That Important-- I know, this is crazy talk. Again, I am not guiding this for the national team players. And this is not about us parents! This is not for us to brag about, "my child is going to play soccer at a D1 school". There is a fallacy that all division 1 schools are better than division 2, which are then better than division 3. An assistant coach at the school my child will attend said their team (D3) would have beat many of the D1 teams their university (a consistent top 10 D1 program with many National Championships) played against in non-league games. Bottom end D1 programs are not the same as Stanford-- both in terms of soccer and education.
7. Put Education First-- Many of the top universities in the US are D3 schools-- Carnegie Mellon, WashU in St. Louis, NYU, MIT, Cal Tech, etc. Getting a degree from a directional school is not going to have as much value as one from any of the above. And pPlaying soccer is not going to be a career for most players. So find a university that offers as good an education and post-graduate network opportunities as possible that is also financially reasonable for you and your child. But also be realistic in what schools you contact. I did the college coordination for my child's team last year, and an Ivy League coach noted that he received emails from players who had a 3.00 GPAs and lower (so this coach never signed up before going to a showcase to avoid the flood of emails from unqualified players-- they wanted people who wanted their school and sought them out). Nothing wrong with that GPA, but it will not get you into an Ivy League University.
8. Focus on Academics While in High School-- this is probably obvious, but the better their grades and the better their test scores, the more opportunity they will have for money not based on their soccer skills or your financial situation. D1 schools only offer about 50% scholarships on average given scholarship limits and the number of players they carry, so having great academics is a great way to get money/savings for your family. But back to #2, you need to know which schools offer merit-based aid or other merit-based scholarships may be available to your child.
9. Does Size Matter?-- some prefer a small school, others a large school-- and some may be open to either. Before connecting with schools, know what your child could envision for their college experience. Best way is to take them to colleges and give them different examples. Great thing is we have tons in close proximity of different sizes (UCLA, USC, UCSD, San Diego St., Chapman, Redlands, Cal Poly Pomona, etc.). If they really are not sure, take a couple hours when you have a game near some of the schools and walk on these campuses or take the official tour.
10. Parents Play a Role in Guiding the Process-- I viewed my role as a coach, editor, advisor, reminder, etc. My child sent emails to the coaches, spoke on the phone with them, etc. There were times I drafted emails (but only for invites to come watch games, or introduction emails where we had a template from earlier emails, and my child always read and edited them to their liking with something specific about the school and the soccer program). Any on-going interactions were always done by my child, but I usually helped to edit them.
11. Recruiting is a Two-Way Street-- technically, the colleges are recruiting players. But in reality and in most cases, the players also need to recruit coaches. Players really need to be diligent about reaching out to schools. My child was in the right showcases and with a nationally branded club, but generally coaches come to watch the players who show an interest in their school and their team. Again, for the non-national level player, they have to put in time to "recruit" the coaches to come watch them. When they do send emails, they should know about the team, about the university and send communications to the coach with specifics (the generic email you send to 50 schools will often not get attention, especially if you do not have a club name with a lot of cache).
12. Enjoy the Process-- it really is a lot of work for your child and likely you. But you also get to spend more time with them on something important to them that will help create a stronger bond. And it could also help you out financially, so their is a potential financial ROI, too.
Hope it helps. We had a great college advisor at one club, but we also learned a lot of this going through the process. Hope it helps some starting the process now.
Factors to consider and things to focus on (not in rank order) in the college recruiting process:
1. Education Interests-- make certain they look up schools and know what majors they offer. Really, this is a first step to knowing what they may want to do in life and then ensuring any schools that express interest in them or they consider reaching out to match. And I would encourage you to ensure there are other options for them besides what they believe they want to major in (e.g., many change their majors and/or career thoughts once they get to school, so ensure there are plan B or C majors offered by this school).
2. Financial Assistance and Your Willingness to Pay-- this can be in Athletic Money (not if you are speaking with D3 schools!), Need-Based Aid and/or Merit-Based Aid depending on the university. Know your family's situation and ensure that universities your child speaks with meet them. For example, if your family would not meet need-based aid, and you don't want to pay the high costs of some schools (schools like Carnegie Mellon, Cal Tech, the Claremont Schools, Vassar, etc. do not offer any merit-based aid and are not cheap), then you should eliminate these from consideration. Understand what is reasonable for your family, what you could qualify and then find the right matches. For us, we used the cost of attending a Univ. of CA without any financial aid as a baseline to compare against.
3. Location-- will they be ok going to school in random places in the US? A small town in the middle of the Midwest that they would never visit if not for soccer? We are coming from Southern California, and many schools are in far less desirable locations, to put it mildly. The difficulty in getting home if they are hours from an airport and there are no direct flights home. And while this is not about the parents, do you want to go to their school for an entire weekend to watch a couple of games? One thing to look at, how many players are going to this school from Southern California, and are they staying at the school or do they all transfer? This can help expand or limit your search.
4. Think Total Costs, Not Just Education Costs-- keep in mind, not just the cost of attending, but the costs in getting your child to and from school. Or if your family would like to go visit and watch games, factor that into your calculation.
4. How Important is Playing Time?-- some are ok with not playing much their first couple of years (or ever), others would not do well sitting on the bench. Truly understand how a player fits in with a team and if that would work for them. Along with location, I suspect many of the transfers occur because players "reached" for a school and they were not ready to contribute right away and they struggled with sitting on the bench.
5. How Important Is Winning?-- going to a program that consistently loses is not likely to change with them coming in (unless you see progress happening in the previous years, such as a new coach who is in their 2nd or 3rd year and there is improvement you can see in their results on the field). Some will deal better with losing than others. If being on a winning team is important, this will help eliminate schools.
6. D1, D2 or D3 is Not That Important-- I know, this is crazy talk. Again, I am not guiding this for the national team players. And this is not about us parents! This is not for us to brag about, "my child is going to play soccer at a D1 school". There is a fallacy that all division 1 schools are better than division 2, which are then better than division 3. An assistant coach at the school my child will attend said their team (D3) would have beat many of the D1 teams their university (a consistent top 10 D1 program with many National Championships) played against in non-league games. Bottom end D1 programs are not the same as Stanford-- both in terms of soccer and education.
7. Put Education First-- Many of the top universities in the US are D3 schools-- Carnegie Mellon, WashU in St. Louis, NYU, MIT, Cal Tech, etc. Getting a degree from a directional school is not going to have as much value as one from any of the above. And pPlaying soccer is not going to be a career for most players. So find a university that offers as good an education and post-graduate network opportunities as possible that is also financially reasonable for you and your child. But also be realistic in what schools you contact. I did the college coordination for my child's team last year, and an Ivy League coach noted that he received emails from players who had a 3.00 GPAs and lower (so this coach never signed up before going to a showcase to avoid the flood of emails from unqualified players-- they wanted people who wanted their school and sought them out). Nothing wrong with that GPA, but it will not get you into an Ivy League University.
8. Focus on Academics While in High School-- this is probably obvious, but the better their grades and the better their test scores, the more opportunity they will have for money not based on their soccer skills or your financial situation. D1 schools only offer about 50% scholarships on average given scholarship limits and the number of players they carry, so having great academics is a great way to get money/savings for your family. But back to #2, you need to know which schools offer merit-based aid or other merit-based scholarships may be available to your child.
9. Does Size Matter?-- some prefer a small school, others a large school-- and some may be open to either. Before connecting with schools, know what your child could envision for their college experience. Best way is to take them to colleges and give them different examples. Great thing is we have tons in close proximity of different sizes (UCLA, USC, UCSD, San Diego St., Chapman, Redlands, Cal Poly Pomona, etc.). If they really are not sure, take a couple hours when you have a game near some of the schools and walk on these campuses or take the official tour.
10. Parents Play a Role in Guiding the Process-- I viewed my role as a coach, editor, advisor, reminder, etc. My child sent emails to the coaches, spoke on the phone with them, etc. There were times I drafted emails (but only for invites to come watch games, or introduction emails where we had a template from earlier emails, and my child always read and edited them to their liking with something specific about the school and the soccer program). Any on-going interactions were always done by my child, but I usually helped to edit them.
11. Recruiting is a Two-Way Street-- technically, the colleges are recruiting players. But in reality and in most cases, the players also need to recruit coaches. Players really need to be diligent about reaching out to schools. My child was in the right showcases and with a nationally branded club, but generally coaches come to watch the players who show an interest in their school and their team. Again, for the non-national level player, they have to put in time to "recruit" the coaches to come watch them. When they do send emails, they should know about the team, about the university and send communications to the coach with specifics (the generic email you send to 50 schools will often not get attention, especially if you do not have a club name with a lot of cache).
12. Enjoy the Process-- it really is a lot of work for your child and likely you. But you also get to spend more time with them on something important to them that will help create a stronger bond. And it could also help you out financially, so their is a potential financial ROI, too.
Hope it helps. We had a great college advisor at one club, but we also learned a lot of this going through the process. Hope it helps some starting the process now.
outside!
DA
Great post by SD_Soccer. I would add one point.
13. Find out about the academic culture of the school. Some schools encourage competition between students to the point that if a player misses a class, none of the other students will help with notes or even let them know what homework was assigned. Other schools encourage a more cooperative atmosphere. I heard a story last night about a professor at UCSD telling a friend to not send their child there. The professor said it is so competitive during the freshman and sophomore years and that there are so many foreign students that do nothing else other than study 100% of the time that it does not offer a good "College Experience" for students. I my opinion, there is more to be learned at college than just how to study.
13. Find out about the academic culture of the school. Some schools encourage competition between students to the point that if a player misses a class, none of the other students will help with notes or even let them know what homework was assigned. Other schools encourage a more cooperative atmosphere. I heard a story last night about a professor at UCSD telling a friend to not send their child there. The professor said it is so competitive during the freshman and sophomore years and that there are so many foreign students that do nothing else other than study 100% of the time that it does not offer a good "College Experience" for students. I my opinion, there is more to be learned at college than just how to study.
Multi Sport
DA
Another great question to ask is what is the graduation rate of their student athlete's..
Sheriff Joe
DA
Maybe the ideology of the university should be taken into consideration.
The fact is every (well known and highly regarded) school is competitive for students. It really doesn't matter what the major is. Given the acceptance criteria, one would have to be completely out of touch to assume its not competitive in the classrooms.
I believe students will get out whatever they put into it, in terms of college experience, regardless of size. It will be different for each school, but from the expectation perspective, the reason for selecting a particular school will come through, if student wants it.
As for UCSD, like all UC's, is competitive but I always felt that UCSD was laid back UC campus compared to UCLA or Cal.
All I'm saying is that keep comments like what you'd heard in perspective and in context. As far as we know, the "friend" being told not to send their kid there may have less than stellar GPA and may not be a fit for rigorous institution. That doesn't mean that its exceptionally competitive than others. It is out of context to make the statement as said in the post.
Nice post but it reads like something out of one of the recruiting services website. Having gone through it ourselves, I firmly believe that we all get there - perhaps in many different ways.
What's missing in the list is the whole contingency - plan B, if you'd like.
Suppose one goes through and does everything right, and made all the right decision all the way up to the final school acceptance (by them), only to find out that the kid wasn't accepted (Ivys, MIT, CalTech, JsHs and so on) because the coach has a vote, but there are multiple votes and ends up thumbs down.
The coach recruited you is now gone. Before you even start your first preseason camp. Whole new coaching staff or new head coach that completely has a different playing style and philosophy for players. One can simply say, if you'd picked the school first, then it shouldn't matter because even if the coach changes, you're in the door. Right?
There are literally hundreds of players that goes through these scenarios every year. These are not discussed openly for whatever reasons and not publicized.
So always be accepted into multiple schools and have gone through recruiting process with all of them. If the first choice falters for whatever reason, one can now goto another accepted school with a familiar coaches and try to walk-on at a minimum, if its not too late to commit to the new school. If too late, there's always transfer but one needs to be a known quality to have a good chance to make the team.
So when you think you've done everything right, and complete, don't take your eyes off the road until the final destination is reached....
goldentoe
SILVER
Here are some things to consider for those with incoming freshies:
1. The season starts quick; it's fast and furious. The recruiting process is over. The battle begins. The coach is not there to be your kid's friend.
2. I've seen plenty of GREAT players who didn't get much playing time their freshman year.
3. Heard great stories of many who stuck with it to make a huge impact in the following years.
4. Remember, a lot of kids in the Socal area played for some pretty great soccer minds. Not every college soccer coach is a guru, and your player may have already played for the best coach they ever will.
5. If you pick a school solely based on soccer, soccer scholarship $, or the coach (a lot of people do this) but don't take into consideration academics, location, and student life you could be in for a transfer.
Best of luck to all. Here's to them all staying healthy and focused.
1. The season starts quick; it's fast and furious. The recruiting process is over. The battle begins. The coach is not there to be your kid's friend.
2. I've seen plenty of GREAT players who didn't get much playing time their freshman year.
3. Heard great stories of many who stuck with it to make a huge impact in the following years.
4. Remember, a lot of kids in the Socal area played for some pretty great soccer minds. Not every college soccer coach is a guru, and your player may have already played for the best coach they ever will.
5. If you pick a school solely based on soccer, soccer scholarship $, or the coach (a lot of people do this) but don't take into consideration academics, location, and student life you could be in for a transfer.
Best of luck to all. Here's to them all staying healthy and focused.