athlete: princeton or duke

Colleges & Universities A-Z Princeton University
7

<p>I want to add something to the comments already made. It’s a subject near and dear to my heart. Note: D was a DI athlete and later transferred to a lower level (athletics) school, also a top 25 National university.</p>

<p>The first consideration must be academics, because there is no sport in female athletics (with a few exceptions at the absolute pinnacle of basketball, soccer, track and field) where you can make a living long term. [I’m assuming that you can afford the tuition payments at Princeton while still providing for your retirement, etc.] I’m sure your daughter is very bright and capable academically, no doubt mature, so you and she must do an honest assessment of which school she prefers. Even though she is an athlete, I would advise approaching this decision more or less as a regular student. </p>

<p>Things to consider:<br>

  1. Princeton is Princeton. Duke is great, but most would still pick Princeton in just about any field.
  2. Duke is ACC. Unless the sport is fencing, your daughter will be playing in one of the most competitive athletic conferences in the country. There will be surprising (dismaying?) demands placed on your daughter’s time for training, traveling, and games. She will be playing against Florida State, Clemson, NC State, NC, etc. All very elite athletic schools in most sports. The time commitment at Princeton will also be great, but it is the Ivy league, and the league has an organized approach to managing the time commitment. Plus, there is absolutely no doubt at Princeton that academics come first. So many coaches play lip service to this, but with their jobs on the line, when the going gets rough, guess what gets bumped first?
  3. Take a look at the academic majors of the players on the rosters of the sport right now. Any engineering majors? Pre-med? Computer Science? If all the ladies are liberal arts or psychology or the equivalent then you should be worried that not enough time is given to the girls for academics. I don’t mean to denigrate liberal arts, but the other majors typically require more time and flexibility for problem sets, labs, exams, etc. If none of the girls are picking these majors, it might indicate that a variety of subtle pressures are placed on the girls to pick less time consuming majors.<br>
  4. There is sure to be some emotion here. Your daughter, and in fact your family, did not get to the point where your daughter is a recruited DI athlete without a lot of time, money, emotion, energy. She’s no doubt had a lot of success, and it’s natural to want to continue that good feeling in college. But you’ve got to realize that this is whole new ball game both academically and athletically. You must, must try to look at the big picture.<br>
  5. If you look at this as objectively as possible, and Duke is still the pick, then go for it 100%.</p>

<p>Anyway, good luck with your choice. Your daughter has two splendid schools to pick from.</p>