BS vs athletic scholarship for college

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
1

Hi, I have been lurking long enough to feel confident in the judgment and experience of many BS parents who are regulars here. I am eager to hear your thoughts on my dilemma.

GoatKid1 plays a sport in a prominent local club on a team that travels to 7-8 states during the season, and to a national championship every year. Her team is top 5 nationally. This year, she started training year-round, and the club has placed her in their college prep program. The expectation is that she will play said sport in college. They regularly bring in college scouts, send videos of skills to various college coaches, and really do a terrific job placing their players on athletic scholarships (or a combinations of scholarships for those schools that technically do not offer athletic scholarships).

That said, GoatKid1 is a top student in a private K-8 school with accelerated curriculum, and has loads of talents and accomplishments, both academic and artistic. GoatParents just don’t think she should be devoting the rest of her life to athletics. So after some thought, we suggested to GoatKid1 the BS idea, and after doing some research of her own she latched onto it. We visited several BS, she scored great on the SSAT, and is now happily writing her essays. She even requested recommendations from her coaches in the club.

It all sounds good, except that GoatMama, in a bout of parental anxiety, is now second-guessing the premise of this plan.

If GoatKid1 doesn’t go to BS, she would attend the local BS as a day student, keep drinking the athletic Kool-aid, and get an athletic scholarship to pretty much any college of her liking. She would miss out the entire BS experience and all that goes with it. If she goes to BS, she will take advantage of all BS has to offer, but the play-and-get-a-free-ride-to-college door will shut forever. A BS simply cannot offer the same level of training that a club can (we have discussed this with several BS coaches).

So I wondered, if this were your child, what would you do? What would you advise her? She really liked a couple of the BS we visited and hopes she would get in, but she is also under the illusion that she can play in a club close to the BS when the school season is over. I very much doubt this is feasible. You just don’t go to BS to spend half of your time training off-campus or traveling the country for tournaments.

Anyhow, please chime in. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

2

Sounds like great options either way.

Maybe it depends on the sport your daughter plays, but BS kids do get athletic scholarships, too. There’s the opportunity to play more intensely during the summer and at some boarding schools, kids are able to finagle a way to play club sports as well in the local BS area. If you wish, pm me your daughter’s sport and I’ll tell you if I know of any kids who played club at BS/got athletic scholarships.

One thing to keep in mind: Your daughter could get injured at any time in a way that might end her college athletics, or she may get burned out and not want to compete any longer. I’ve seen bother scenarios happen to high school athletes I know.

There is merit money available at many schools for top academic students. All scholarship money doesn’t need to be sports related.

3

@doschicos Regarding injuries/burnout and merit scholarships: My thoughts exactly. That’s why we weren’t sold on the athletic route in the first place. Kids like her can play all they want, but they don’t need a sport to get them into college. I will PM you.

4

Local BS as a day student all the way! She gets the best of both worlds – and you get to keep her close. She will miss little of the traditional BS experience laying her head on her own pillow each night.

However, are you sure that attending the local BS would enable her to fully participate in her sport at the club level? When their eyes are open, day students spend as much time on campus as traditional boarders and will have most of the same commitments. If you’ve already discussed this with the local BS and their program would enable your daughter to fully participate in her club sport while staying close to home, I wouldn’t have any decision to make. But that’s just me.

Good luck.

5

ChoatieMom, the local BS is small and has only 30% boarders. Several girls who attend as day students play in the same club as my D, so it doesn’t seem to be an issue. I’ll make sure to ask, though.

6

First, why do you (of do you?) think by attending the local BS as a day student she would be “devoting the rest of her life to athletics”? Is it an academically reputable BS? Now, if you want her to get an athletic “scholarship”, definitely stay put where she is. If you want her to be recruited by a tippy top college as a recruited athelete without a scholarship (as those colleges don’t offer any usually) then maybe consider one of the top BS that have “track records”. Tippy top colleges don’t get to recruits the very best athletes but many of those recruited move on to non sport fields in life after their short tenures as the recruited athletes. My 2c.

7

@panpacific I sort of do think that this is what will happen. She loves the sport, the club is very good at enticing kids to become college athletes (nothing wrong with that, just stating a fact), and she will not be able to withstand the peer pressure. Then, once they get to college on athletic scholarship, especially D1, they are there to play, first and foremost. They take classes and select majors that can fit their practice schedule, they can’t take advantage of many summer programs, exchanges, internships, etc. They don’t get to know or spend time with hardly anyone but their team. Four years later, they emerge with a major they may not even care about. I don’t have a first-hand knowledge of this, I am just repeating what I’ve heard from former athletes or their parents. Then again, I am sure there are many who don’t regret their choice. That’s why we are trying to gather as much information as possible and assess all these different perspectives before deciding.

8

@panpacific Yes, local BS, while not in NE, is academically sound. Probably top 30 or so, depending on the definition of “top.”

9

@GoatMama Then what do you expect her to gain from going to a BS afar? whats missing from the local BS? If there’s anything, is it significant enough to make up the training she would miss?

10

I think you’re answering your own question as you post. It doesn’t sound to me like you’re all that thrilled with the idea of your daughter being on this conveyor belt of sports to and through college. Personally, I certainly think that athletic scholarships have a lot of pluses: it may enable a kid who wouldn’t otherwise go to college to attend one, it may enable a kid to get into a better college than they otherwise would have, it obviously saves dramatically on costs and loans, and there’s a lot to be said for the discipline and maturity that collegiate varsity level athletes learn. All that said, unless my kid was potentially really a world-class athlete (i.e., could compete in the Olympics, on a national team, play professionally, etc), I’d be pretty leery of having her so focused on sports to the exclusion of other opportunities. These are the years (high school and college) where you hope your kid will explore lots of different interests and find their passions. They’ve got the time now to experiment relatively risk-free, and as they get older, it gets harder and harder to find the time to do that. To me, one of the very best things about boarding schools is how they encourage kids to try new things, whether it’s a new sport, a new extracurricular, learning a musical instrument for the first time, trying out for the play, etc. If your daughter were to attend a BS with a strong program in her sport, she might very well get the best of both worlds (as there definitely are plenty of BS kids who end up with athletic scholarships or who are able to walk on and play in college varsity sports).

11

@panpacific She knows half of the kids at the local BS. It’s a small environment, and quite encapsulated. It is academically sound, but with fewer opportunities to try new sports, get involved in new activities, make new friends, experience different environments. As parents, we are considering BS for the independence and maturity we expect it will cultivate, as well as to expand her world and give her a break from the club sport culture. She likes the idea of BS because she wants to meet new people, make new friends, and compete academically on a higher level so she doesn’t have to hold back for fear of irritating her friends. Is it significant enough to warrant sending her a few hours’ flight away? That I don’t know… Still trying to figure it out!

@soxmom You’re right, and sometimes that’s what we need - to hear our own thoughts and people’s reactions to them. Both validation and challenge are useful. I agree that attending a BS with a strong program in her sport may be the best of both worlds. At least that sort of thinking got us started on the BS trajectory to begin with.

12

@GoatMama The way you put it sounds “significant enough” to me. It seems everyone in the household agrees she shouldn’t be focusing on sports or planning for a career in sports. Because of that and her capabilities in non-sports areas, it makes sense to find her a more suitable school. I also think your concern that her chances of getting an athletic scholarship wouldn’t be negatively impacted she chooses to go a BS away from home. If your family can come up with her college tuitions in other ways, then things could be less complicated. Is it possible?

13

I guess, with “possible” being the operative word. We’re far from well-to-do, yet we’ve managed to pay private school tuition for the past 10 years, both for her and GoatKid2. In the absence of decent local public schools, both will continue the private school route until they graduate from high school, whether as day or boarding students. After 15 years of threadbare living to pay for pre-college education, the thought of free college will be as enchanting as a mermaid song.

14

No advice here, just support. It sounds like you are in an enviable position with two fine paths. If she is self-censoring academically that would worry me a bit - does the local school have enough peer and curriculum challenge to take her through 12th grade? You might want to have her reflect on her ideal day and ideal school experience without strictly considering either the current situation or a theoretical BS experience and see if that vision looks more like one or the other type of school. Also to balance things out, there are lots of up sides to being a college athlete in addition to possible scholarship money. These may include an instant, positive and likely lasting peer group and (again likely) less wasted time and lower probability of substance abuse.

15

And don’t rule out the possibility of her getting significant FA from one of the very rich BS given your financials and her talents. (Mighty be money saved for college!) She’s already on the way anyway. Give it a best try and see what options you have coming March 10. Good luck!

16

Thank you to all who offered their thoughts. All the points that were brought up here led to a good discussion with GoatDad. We are now much more clear about what we want to do and why.

One observation I have to make: I was prepared for managing spreadsheets with applications, but didn’t anticipate the serious soul-searching that is part of the process, at least for our family.

17

@GoatMama Does goatkid realize that by attending a far off BS that she will likely reduce her skills in her sport? I would think that if she LOVES her sport, she’d want to stay.

Day student BS is truly best of both worlds, truly. Sounds like she is getting an amazing experience traveling with her sport, experiences that many kids would dream of. Its not the same as sleeping away at BS, but as a parent of a Day student BS kid, the only experience he doesn’t get there vs boarders is the roommate experience. He is there ALL the time. Your daughter will have the experience of leaving home come 4 years from now… .why rush it when you have such great options.

Also, is it possible that local BS will give you good aid? This may make the decision easier.

18

Here’s a good thread : http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-parents/1564851-choosing-a-bs-because-of-a-sport-%C2%97-pro-con.html#latest

It may not answer your question directly but there’s some good info/insight that might be helpful.

19

@PhotographerMom Oh thank you so much! I don’t know how a missed that thread. Very useful!

20

@suzyQ7 You bet, the FA size will be a major factor, whether we like it or not.