My son is a soph athlete with athletic and merit scholarships paying most of his way. However, he chose a school far from home, his team is small and the top player on the team is a head case that makes his life miserable at times. His freshmen year he was homesick but still did great academically and athletically and had good relationships with his teammates. However, all has changed soph year after the senior who was the glue graduated.
He had several good choices as a recruit, but as a transfer I think he would lose a lot of credits and probably not get anywhere near the same scholarships. He has plenty of playing time and his coach seems to care for his players, but because the team really does not have reserves, the coach does not have consequences for top players who make the team environment toxic. My son is an introvert so he withdraws when issues bother him, and some teammates think he is stuck up. He has been lonely and depressed at times, and doesnt have much free time outside of practice, class, study, and competition to make friends outside the team.
We think he should stick it out as it will take a lot more time and $ to change, and the grass may not be greener on the other side. If he transfers, he would probably get the worst housing, worst course selection as he would be late to doing both, and he could have still have issues with teammates. He could lose up to a year of credits too.
Anybody have some advice or positive athletic transfer stories? Some athletes transfer because they dont get to play or didnt get $. That is not his situation. He just isnt happy and he’s had some bad experiences outside the team too, but those are over. I hope to get him to see his glass as half full and not half empty. One semester is less busy with sports, and possibly he could get involved with on campus organizations related to his major and make friends through them.
I think your idea of having him find some other activities to do on campus is a good one. Meet some new people, with a fresh and different perspective. It might take a little while, but I think it’s worth trying for sure. Maybe he could get involved with some chartable group too, he could realize he really doesn’t have it all that bad compared to others more in need. He’d probably meet a nice group of people too.
I will offer up a positive (and slightly long…) transfer story. My son transferred after his freshman year. He was miserable due to a bad fit with his coach. The school looked like the perfect fit until he actually got there. He sought counseling on campus, and they told him he was just homesick and to basically tough it out. But by the spring of his first year he was a different person. He couldn’t come home due to team commitments (spring is his competition time as a track athlete) and he was losing weight and performing terribly. The school was on the east coast and we are west coast. He was not on a full scholarship, so as parents, we felt like we were paying for the privilege for him to be miserable. We also felt if we forced him to stay at his first school, we would make what should have been the best time of his life something he would come to hate.
He added a year to his overall time in college by transferring. He transferred to a school that was in driving distance to our house. He switched his major to engineering (so he needed more credits to complete the degree and lost some credits that didn’t map to the new degree) but he has never regretted it. This was four years ago, and he has since told us that if he had been forced to stay at his first school he probably would have just failed out or withdrawn. Instead he transferred, graduated with honors and ended up improving his athletic performance back to what it was, winning his event in conference and competing at the national level. We knew he loved his second college, because even though he could come home on weekends or whenever he wanted with relative ease, he never did!
My son was able to apply most of his first university’s specific general education courses to elective credits at his new university. He was given a partial academic transfer scholarship, and had to wait a red-shirt year to get back athletic money, but the red shirt year allowed him to compete through the extra year added on for academics.
My advice is to investigate options academically first. You do not need NCAA or coach permission to talk to academic advisors or to transfer schools. You DO however need permission to contact other coaches, or to compete at your new school, but you should find out the academic picture first. Know what credits/courses do or don’t transfer, what the school needs for an academic transfer application, what the deadlines are, etc. and know the implications of transferring before staying another year.
Once you narrow down choices, THEN you can ask for permission from the current school to contact coaches at new choices.
My perspective is that there are so many options and students transfer all the time, and while being an athlete complicates the transfer, it also makes it more important to find the best fit.
Yes, transfer, unless he’s going pro in his sport and his current school is the only means to accomplish that goal.
You may want to contact Rick at Informed Athlete to understand the NCAA rules on transferring so you don’t make a mistake if transfer ends up being the choice you pursue. Athlete transfers can be tricky.
@OnTrack2013 Thanks so much for your response. My son was home for spring break and I didnt look at responses until now. I like your idea about going ahead and talking to admissions and academic offices at other colleges. Good to know that doesnt break rules. However, did your son apply at new schools before he talked to coach at current school? Since athletes have an athletic hold on their account, would my son’s athletic advisor be told if his transcript was requested for another school? If she knew, she would tell coach.
This situation would be a lot easier if son had wanted to transfer after freshman year. He probably would have only lost a semester of credits. I have looked at several possible transfer schools, and he probably would lose a whole year as many of his gen eds would only transfer as elective credits. His advisor had him take easier science courses so those two wont transfer, and his school had different gen eds than most.
Another big issue is that he doesnt have time to visit schools when colleges are in session. There were several in state schools that were interested in him before but he only thinks one would be a good fit. However, that school has a young and successful team; players from his class who were behind him as far as level in HS have done well in college and are probably better than him now. The coach would probably take him as a walk on and he might not even get to play when he was expected to play if he had come in as a freshman. His performance level has gone down this year-it’s OK, but not great. There is one in state school his current college played and defeated; son played well in that competition and he knows players at that school, but he sees it as a drop down in athletic level from his current school and it’s a school that does not have a lot of social life as a former commuter college turned 4 year university. He would still have an extra year there, but would probably get merit aid and get to play and possibly a little athletic $ but nothing like he has now.
I think he wants the choices he had in HS but those options are not available now. Most of all I think he just wants to find a team that is a like a family and where he has or can easily make friends. He was talking about transferring to a school that has a weaker academic program in his major, base cost is more, plus there would be no athletic $ just because he has a friend on that team that also was a transfer and likes it there. There is no guarantee if he transfers that he will be accepted by a team or get to play. He could end up in a worst situation plus be a year behind in school and paying more. However, if he is miserable, he could fail or drop out. I may suggest to him to give his current school another semester as there is less competition in fall and he could try to make friends outside his sports. We are hoping he gets chosen for a summer internship in his current college city as he could make new friends over the summer. The team situation could be better with some of the problem seniors graduating and new blood from freshmen. If the team situation did not improve but he had met friends through his major, we could tell him the could quit the team-he’d have to give up the athletic $, but it still might be cheaper than losing a year and he probably could get a job for 10-15 hrs a week-less time than the 30hours he put in for team stuff each spring. He is currently on 80%+ scholarship between athletic and merit so it is a lot to give up.
@nhparent9 Thanks, I currently subscribe to Rick’s newsletter and I have thought about setting up a consulation. We are flying to visit son in a few weeks to watch a weekend of home competition-first we’ve been to his college this year. If things are not better, that might be a good time to call Rick when we can all talk together.
He will do a conference call between you, Rick and your player. Well worth it if you want to avoid issues.
Sorry for the delay in response…My son did not apply to the school he transferred to until after he talked to the prospective new coach, and verified there was a place for him on the team. (It was a coach that had recruited him originally out of hs) My son DID need a formal release from the athletic director of his first school before any coaches could talk to him, but he investigated his academic options first before asking for the release.
Most schools, have a system where you can get an on-line/downloadable unofficial transcript, which was all he used to talk to academic departments at schools he was considering transferring to. You don’t need an official transcript sent until you actually apply.