My daughter is a junior at a large, very diverse high school in the midwest. Up until several months ago, she wanted to play softball in college, and was on a college oriented travel team. She decided that the recruiting process was too limiting in regards to where she could go academically. Her non-softball college list was pages long, but her softball college list was three colleges, and there was no guarantee she’d get offers to play at those colleges. Fast forward to now.
GPA is 3.9/4.5 uw/w
ACT is a 28 (still working on it. 36 English and 24 math – question there: how will this be perceived by admissions? She’s not a STEM kid)
Four year varsity softball player in high school with merits
Played travel ball for four years – very time consuming, year round.
National honor society all three years
4 - 5 AP’s this year and next
Sports writer for the school paper
Annual area awards for writing all three years.
Great reco’s and I’m assuming she will write a good essay as writing is her strength.
My issue is this: we’ve been looking at schools based on softball and are now switching gears, and I’m not sure where she stands. Since she spent so much time playing softball, that’s time lost from more academic ec’s. Her list is as follows:
Target schools:
Boston University
Boston College
NYU
GWU
Reaches:
UTexas
Michigan
USC
UCSB
Safeties:
DePaul
University of Oregon
American (test optional)
I wrote a post just like this because my kid is going through something similar. Mine plays two varsity sports, two club sports, volunteered at a soup kitchen/meal service place. Wants to go D1 type big school, isn’t good enough to play ball there. It was causing me some serious anxiety.
I understand! I don’t know what sport your kid plays but my son plays D3 baseball and loves it! It’s very time-consuming, even D3. And the level of play is high. My daughter had low D1 aspirations, but the risk of not getting recruited were also higher and the amount of time and energy she put into being on the exposure team was like a full-time job. 8 hours during the week and then all weekend, every weekend, plus additional hitting during the week, etc…plus school. If you ask me, the whole thing is crazy.
It is common that athletes have two college lists…those where they would play their sport and those they wouldn’t. So she can still pursue the ones where she could play if those 3 schools are still of interest…athletic recruiting is a long, sometimes grueling process.
Regarding her list…
What state do you live in?
What does she want to major in/what school will she apply to in places like UMichigan, etc.?
That spread in her ACT may be a problem at some schools. What is the issue with the math section…what math does she have now? what math will she have senior year? Is she able to finish the math section? If a speed issue, the SAT may be a better choice.
Also, come September, she would be able to just prepare for and take the one hour math ACT section, and assuming she can increase her score, that could make a huge difference at the schools that superscore the ACT. (check which ones on her list do superscore).
Make sure she is demonstrating interest at the schools where that is important…American is one of those. So, get on the mailing list, visit if possible, connect with the AO, etc. American also fills a majority of the class in ED, so it’s tough to call it a safety if applying RD.
We live in Illinois, but she’s not interested in going to U of I. Had to find another safety nearby which is DePaul. We have a 529 account for her, so the schools she’s picked are all within financial range. Do you consider BU, BC, and NYU reaches because of the test scores or is there another reason? As for math, she’s in Pre-Calc and getting an A but it’s not AP or Honors. I really couldn’t tell you why she’s struggling on the math, but I do know that she’ll be able to retake just that in September. At this point, her ec’s are what they are. Jumping into something new at this late date is tough and her season starts in a few weeks. I know lists change and I’m hoping she will open her mind to some more safeties.
I’d say a 28 ACT with very lopsided math/english scores is better than a balanced 28. Colleges do understand that some kids are lopsided. Might not get her into reaches but its not an issue overall. That said, some tutoring on math to try to get that up would open up more possibilities.
Yes. We started her 529 at birth. The markets have been great to 529’s. Does that make a difference or give her an advantage? I have no experience with this as my other kid was a recruited athlete and only applied to that one school. Academic aid was given to him as a D3 athlete. It was very cut and dry.
I would look at the CDS for your schools to see where that 24 in math puts her. For BC, her composite is low and the math is probably extremely so. There is a tendency, I think, to assume that a low sub score will be overlooked if the composite is high, but it doesn’t seem to actually work out that way most of the time. I think most schools want students to have a minimum in both categories.
Has your D tried the SAT? Is it possible the speed is tripping her up,? Or might she benefit from practice?
She hasn’t taken the SAT yet but must take it through school in Illinois in the spring. I assume that, like the ACT, she can take it more than once. If she does well, or better than the ACT, she can always focus on that.
I agree with looking at the common data sets and overall acceptance rates when determining the category of the schools on your list. That 24 subscore isn’t going to be overlooked at the schools you listed as targets. Will your D do test prep between now and the SAT? Raising that score will help a lot.
I just checked the CDS for BU and 45% of the math scores on ACT fall between 24 and 29. Of course, you don’t want to be on the bottom of that group but…she has just started test prep. If she could get the math up to a 27, with the 36 English, and she got a 10 on the writing, I think she’d be ok. Even a 26 on math would be a lot better than 24. .
But NYU Class of 2023 had a 16% acceptance rate for the ny campus. I don’t see mid 50% ACT score for class of 2023, but it was 29-34 per 2018/19 cds, so 28 is below the 25%ile…NYU should be categorized as a reach even being full pay for OP’s D.
BU, like NYU, is a reach for just about all applicants…class of 2023 acceptance rate was 18.1%, average act 33.
Remember the ACT is 4 sections and it’s not just about her Math and English scores. The Reading and Science sections matter too and some colleges don’t super score and will looking for the best single sitting composite score.
I think your daughter is making the right decision about not pursuing softball in college, especially if you can afford her undergrad education. It opens up a lot of other college possibilities. As a recruited athlete, It’s expected that you are an athlete first and student second and there is really no future in softball after college.
My D played varsity softball and one of her teammates got a full ride to tOSU but most of her college senior teammates had no idea what they would do after college (i.e. they were not prepared for the real world) and most took “easy” classes and majors to accommodate their crazy practice and travel schedules. Being a recruited athlete is a full time job and may not be a good fit for most students.
Agree with @socaldad2002 that athletic recruits are expected to be athletes first and students second. Also agree that athletes are often left without a clear career path or job upon graduation due to lack of any work related internships.
A nephew was a recruited athlete at a top 10 National University. Was not drafted by any pro team. Graduated almost 2 years ago & has a minimum wage job with no other career prospects in this booming economy.
(If asked for a recommendation, I would encourage him to enter into coaching as it builds strong people skills which are highly valued in certain occupations such as sales.)
OP: Consider hiring a math ACT tutor as math scores tend to be the easiest to improve with tutoring and math is the section in need of the most improvement for your daughter.
Consider Bucknell University if interested in a somewhat rural school with just 3,600 students. Might offer a chance to reconsider giving up softball without the intense committment required by D I programs.
P.S. What does your daughter want to study ? Any career plans ?
Yes, but the mid 50%ile math ACT of matriculants is 27-33. So the 24 is well below the 25%ile. The ACT composite mid 50%ile range was 30-33, so below the 25%ile there as well. Generally, recruited athletes, low SES and URMs make up a significant proportion of the matriculants with test scores below the 25%ile.
I’m not suggesting to not apply to any reaches, but your list is reach heavy right now. You need more targets/match schools, and really just one safety if she would be happy to attend it.
If you give more parameters and likely major, posters will be able to give better target school suggestions. Her list so far seems to be mostly medium to larger schools, so here are a few to research:
Miami Ohio
U Iowa
Iowa State
Michigan State
U Dayton (maybe closer to a safety)
U Pitt
U Mississippi
U Missouri
Fordham
Elon
St. Louis U
Is she interested in smaller liberal arts colleges at all? Perhaps a D3 where she could also play softball?
If she plays softball, she will likely play club. That’s one of the reasons she picked Oregon as a safety. They have a good club program. Softball is regional unless you’re a highly recruited player, so if she played D3, she’d probably end up playing at one of the small Ohio or Indiana schools like Denison, where my son plays, or DePauw. A teammate with a similar resume now plays at Kalamazoo College. All good schools but all too small for her liking. The Wash U coach was interested in her but told her she’d have to get at least a 32 ACT to be considered, and that was on the low end. She could always try to walk on as well. She just started test prep with a tutor, so I would think her math score will rise some. The amount of pressure for an athlete in a non-revenue sport is over-the-top. A lot of that is manufactured by the travel teams themselves. Her head coach had her taking the ACT beginning sophomore year. Take it ten times, he said. Talk about burn out. Then there are the showcases weekend after weekend, with the expectation that you perform at your best at all times. This is to play softball in college, with no possibility of becoming a professional after college. I was never in favor of it but didn’t want to squelch her ambition. With my son, it was easy. He went to one prospect camp, his high school coach called the Denison coach, and that was it. He had the academics to get in, so he only applied there. He was done by November.