We live overseas. My daughter is also a US citizen… She is B+ student and a senior in high school. She plays soccer at a high level in our country (professional coaches), but is not a youth national team player.
My daughter wants to play college soccer in the USA. She has made a verbal commitment (full scholarship) to a Div 2 Liberal Arts university (Niche grade B+) that checked all of the boxes for her. Before committing she went to a weekend ID camp and she loved the team and future recruits, playing level, the coaches and school. She chose this school over mid and low ranked Div 1 schools for a variety of reasons and is excited about her choice.
Everybody keeps asking us why not a Div 1 school because she is “good enough to play at one”. I tell everyone that she can transfer to Div 1 after a few years if she wants to or do her masters at a well known school, but now I am wondering if I am wrong. This discussion board never mentions Div 2. When I Google I can’t find anything about Div 2 soccer. Have we made a mistake?
If she likes the team, the coach, the academics, then I wouldn’t worry! Assuming she’s not going pro, what does it matter?
Also, I’m curious which school it is? My S22 is D2 material and a B student so I’d love to know if you’re comfortable sharing (and they have a men’s team). We are 100% going to be looking at some D2 schools.
Not to oversimplify but I think a lot of it depends on the individual student. Some kids are more laidback by nature and don’t want the amount of pressure at a D1 school. My D is a swimmer and the feedback we have gotten from older kids she knows is D1 is more regimented, with set wake up times, 2-3 daily practices, set study/tutoring sessions while D3 is less intense and let’s students have more of a college experience. She has a few friends who started playing lacrosse at D1 schools and transferred to D3s because they realized the emphasis should be on academics not athletics, especially when it came to study abroad or internship opportunities. We also know a student who was an athlete at a top Ivy and he was the only kid in his particular engineering major who was taking a break before starting grad school because he was just so burnt out. These are just anecdotes and don’t prove anything, just food for thought.
@helpingmom40 For her, she didn’t know if she could handle academics (she’s a B+ student) and play soccer at a large state school like a UCLA or UT. She’s ok with the pressure and hard work.
Also, some of the D1 's that were interested in her were located in smallish towns with not much to do close by the towns and this didn’t interest her.
To me the two important questions for student-athletes: is the school a good fit without the sport in the picture? If yes, is the team, level of play, time commitment required an appropriate fit? Seems like answers to both are yes, so I wouldn’t second guess it. There are some really good D2 schools and programs and some lousy D1 schools and programs (in all sports). One thing about coaches though is that they move often, so it’s great if your daughter likes the current coach but I would make sure the other factors will work for her should the coach leave.
The divisions are not in order of the skill of the players or how good the teams are. Yes, the top top D1 schools (for the sport, not the academics) are the best athletically. There are D2 and D3 teams that can challenge the mid-ranked D1 teams.
My daughter was recruited by schools in all 3 divisions, but we found D2 to be the sweet spot with her skills and with $$$. During Fall Ball they play the teams from the other divisions in the area - the D2 schools were much better than the D1 teams, because those D1 teams were low ranked and her team was good (NCAA top 10)]. There are some really awful D1 teams and some good D2 and D3 teams.
My D put in as much time as she would have on a D1 team with lifting, practices and games, the schedule, study tables, etc, but one area she really ‘saved’ time on was travel. There are a lot of D2 schools in Florida so travel was cut way down (and lots of schools traveled to us for spring break, so we played 11-12 of 17 games at home). Usually the D1 conferences are spread out more and more travel means more time away from school.
You can transfer from a D2 school to a D1 school, but there is a process and there may be a period (up to a year) when you can’t play. To play immediately, the coach has to release you. You also have to negotiate a new scholarship and the new coach may not have any money left in his cap.
The D2 experience was perfect for us athletically, academically (smaller engineering school), and financially. At a highly ranked D1 school, my daughter wouldn’t have played much (she’s small) but at the D2 school she played almost every minute of every game for 4 years. She has friends who went D1 and they never played at all (a couple dropped out completely) and they were high school superstars.
Don’t second guess her choice and don’t try to justify it to ‘everybody’ who keeps asking why not D1. They don’t know your finances, don’t know what she wants in a school, probably don’t know anything about the D2 school.
She likes the school, you like the finances. Win win.
Yes, indeed, you can always transfer, and that’s a comfort to have in your back pocket.
However, you need to consult the NCAA transfer rules about transferring from a given division to a different (or the same) division, which in some instances require players to sit out a season.
I always chuckle when I hear comments about D1,2,3. There are so many variables at play, that you can’t paint any with a broad brush.
For example, I now plenty of D3 players that had options to play D1 but chose to play D3 instead. Does that make them “less of a player” than the kid who decided to play D1? Absolutely not. D2 frequently has a stigma of weaker academics on a whole, but you can certainly find schools with strong and weak academics at D1, D2, and D3 levels.
As a parent, I’m only concerned about my kid finding the right environment. If it’s D1 great. If it’s D2 or D3, also great.
@Junebug100 do what is right for your family and don’t get caught up in the nonsense of “Divisions.” The advice you have gotten here is very solid, as is the fact that schools are not ranked due to the ability of kids or teams. All the D1 teams are NO WAY better than all the D2. All the D2 are NOT better than all the D3. That’s just not how it is and no one who knows anything about soccer thinks it is. You are getting questions from people who don’t know what they are talking about! I get that but don’t let it bruise your ego or question your choices.
I would absolutely not be planning out a transfer before your child has even started college. I think that sets up no one for success. If you have chosen this school because it is a good school for her then relax and be happy!
I would come up with a standard answer for people prying into your choices that makes it clear you’ve made a good choice and that they cannot make you feel small for said choice.
I’m not already planning a transfer!!! Our family is very excited about her choice. I’m only saying it’s an option. We live overseas and she just started getting serious about going to university and playing soccer in the US. We are very grateful she has this amazing opportunity.
We believe that our D will be successful at this school and have a great time and make the grades to get into a good masters program (and we will have the money because we didn’t pay for undergraduate). Plus close by there is a 2nd division summer league pro team that she can try out for.
I just couldn’t understand why Div 2 wasn’t mentioned ANYWHERE. This forum and other sports forums really only talk about Div 1 and Div 3 - and even a few of my relatives in the US said they wouldn’t send their kids to a Div 2. We don’t live in the US so that is why I’m asking here.
The aren’t as many D2 schools as D1 and D3. The schools tend to be smaller than D1, and a little bigger than D3. I don’t know where your daughter will be playing, but there are sure to be some schools she plays that no one has ever heard of and that are never discussed here on CC. Mt. Olive? Alderson-Broaddus? Most D2 schools have 2k to 5k students, many are rural, many have religious affiliations. The strongest conferences are on the east coast.
It was a great fit for my daughter and the first question anyone asked when she said she was going to Florida Tech was WHERE? and then Where’s that? The only people who knew where it was, even in Florida, were engineers.
You are so very lucky you have so many options in the USA. And that university life can actually be fun - sports, intramurals, greek life, clubs, etc. It’s very unique to the USA.