<p>Question for parents and students going through the recruiting process NOW, or who have gone through the process, and have some perspective:</p>
<p>What are the pros and cons of Division I v. Division III for sports? (While son is a football player - class of 2014 in HS, I suspect any advice from any sport would be helpful).</p>
<p>My bias? As my CC name suggests, I went to a Div III NESCAC school, and while I did not play a sport, the people I knew that did seemed to have a ball and most importantly, they had the full college experience. I am somewhat concerned that the Div I athletic experience (even non-scholarship) will be extremely difficult to juggle with the coursework, and will make it hard for my son to take full advantage of his college experience (e.g., going abroad his spring semester of junior year).</p>
<p>It did not help that I was leafing through some Amherst admissions material and they had a profile of a Div III All-American woman lacrosse player who had transferred from Harvard. </p>
<p>This is probably a really simplistic answer since we are also of course still new to recruiting, but the one thing I hear over and over again is that Div. 1 sports programs “own you” … most assuredly the programs that offer sports-based scholarships, but even others get you in the off-season for spring football or fall/winter baseball training.</p>
<p>Ivies supposedly let you be 2-sport athletes but I can’t say I can picture too many football coaches who’d be thrilled if you want to play a sport like rugby in your off-season and risk injury. I have heard of some football players who might do some track (shot, discus).</p>
<p>The Div 3 materials, particularly the ones I’ve seen for NESCAC, seem to emphasize that the football season is well-defined, permitting you to take advantage of things like exchange programs or 2nd sports in the remainder of the year.</p>
<p>I have a swimmer who (in the last recruiting cycle last year) looked at both D-1 and D-3 programs, wrestling with your exact question. She weighed the obligations of D-1 athletics, the D-1 experience, and the D-3 lesser commitment. In that sport, we found that there were advantages to both divisions. D-1 seemed like a tough commitment, especially for lab science majors. Our swimmer was told at two D-1 schools that their lab science commitments would have to be done in the summers, and that it was difficult to major in enginneering as well. In talking to most D-3 coaches, she struggled with the coaches ability to coach to her needs–but she knew academically that the schools were a good fit. Ultimately, she chose a very highly ranked academic D-1 school, with a lesser swim program as a “meet in the middle” strategy. The incoming swimmers on her team have been encouraged to take the minimum amount of hours this first semester to see if they can manage the full workload in both swimming and academics. We’ll see how it all plays out about six weeks from now. Our daughter chose to take 16 hours anyway, so we’ll have to wait to see about workload.<br>
We know many swimmers who ended up D-3 are are extremely happy with their tight knit, competitve teams; and they have some free time to be college students as well. </p>
<p>Remember–a D-1 experience that includes a scholarship means that for that year, the school “owns” your child’s schedule, their practices, and their time off. That includes when they come home to visit you–minimal time in season, if at all.</p>
<p>Perhaps a little off topic, but I’m curious…We are just starting the process and looking at some lower D1 schools and D3 and many of the D1s we are looking at don’t offer athletic scholarships in my daughter’s sport. Instead it seems like you end up with a better shot at merit money if the coach wants you, but since we are just starting the process I’m a little fuzzy on if that is truly the case. Does anybody have insight/experience on how this type of D1 school differs from a D3 in terms of time commitment in and out of season?</p>
<p>It is totally dependent on the recruit’s end goal. Frankly, there are not many recruits (in son’s sport) that get to choose between D1 and D3. The level is picked for you. </p>
<p>If your son or daughter seeks a professional sports career, I’d gravitate to the D1 level as that is its intended purpose. If your son or daughter seeks another profession such as medicine, law or engineering while playing college athletics then I’d gravitate toward D3, D1 Ivy or D1 Patriot. It is incumbent on the recruit to find the fit.</p>
<p>To my mind there are two reasons to go D1 for sports…to get financial support for your education and/or as a stepping stone toward a pro or semi-pro career. I’m not an athlete so I surely wouldn’t understand why any student would commit the level of time and energy that’s required for D1 sports if it weren’t for those reasons.</p>
<p>Fenway: You’re spot on but I always point of the exception to the DD when she asks about school and sports. DD attends the same school that graduated Frank Hermann; in fact his younger brother was in school with DD for a year.</p>
<p>The combination of a 95 mph fastball & an economics degree from Harvard are quite advantageous. Unfortunately Frank is out for the year with elbow surgery. I remember watching him pitch on TV when the Indians were in Yankee Stadium a few years ago. TV put this family on as they’re local; from NJ.</p>
<p>Agreed. There are always exceptions. Even in the case of an exception like Frank Hermann, I’d like to submit to you he has hedged his bets toward professional pursuits outside of athletics. </p>
<p>Someone with his skills probably had many offers, possibly including a school like Stanford (my presumption). He chose Harvard which is the road less travelled. PAC10 players (Stanford is part of PAC10) get many players drafted into MLB every year because it is one of the best college baseball conferences year to year. Ivy League is not known for producing many MLB players. Last year 8 Ivy players were drafted which is a fairly small number when you look at 30 teams and 50+ rounds.</p>
<p>The DI vs. DIII question made my son really question whether he wanted to be the “big fish in the little pond or the little fish in the big pond” . In many sports (not all, but definitely track) there is a big difference in level of competition. Too soon to say if he made the right choice, but he went DI. Part of the reason is that he lives and breathes his sport and couldn’t imagine being in with kids who didn’t feel the same. We just did not get the same feel from the DIIIs we visited. So best fit depends on the sport, school and your child’s long term goal (pro athlete vs. pastime).</p>
<p>My daughter didn’t want to be “an athlete 1st, a student second”. She LOVES her sport…but didn’t want the pressure. We didn’t really consider many D1 schools, except those really smaller ones in her sport. However, we were surprised at what a D3 could offer her. In the end…I think we have a great school, with a SUPER coach, who already makes my daughter feel like she is special.<br>
Hope this link works:</p>
<p>Son is a D1 athlete at a mid major in his sport, he does plan to go pro and it is a HUGE time commitment. The premise is you can really only do two things well. Sport, Social life, Academics. If you try to do all 3 it is very hard to do them well. Can say it is very true in our case.</p>
<p>My S is Canadian and can easily go to McGill (our Harvard of the North) at little or no cost and compete in his sport. The coach knows him well and has been recruiting him for years now. The only problem is my S would like to compete in the NCAA, not the CIS. He has his eyes set on a well-reputed US tech school (he’s a science/math guy) but the school is a little bit (not a lot) of a reach. He’s still getting e-mails from the coach but they never seem to get on the personal level like with certain other schools.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, some mid-major schools are already clearly interested. He would already score points at their conference championship in multiple events and he’s a rising senior with a lot of physical maturing left to do.</p>
<p>So here’s the dilemma. Do you walk away from McGill at minimum cost for a mid-major school? And if the school you really want has not yet offered an OV, what are the chances they ever will?</p>
<p>I know the answer in my house. He’d be going to McGill for the best education possible. He’d be participating in athletics as an option. Neither of my two oldest aspire to be professional athletes. They aspire to get their respective mechanical and chemical engineering degrees.</p>
<p>There is still time for an OV for certain schools (Ivy, Patriot, D3) for 2014s. But, I’d press the issue with the coach if it is your son’s first choice. Good luck.</p>
<p>I don’t know if my views are even valid as we are so new to this, but regarding this
we have been asking ourselves a similar question, and are at the moment, erring on the side that attending the NCAAs as a loner/with a tiny team might be tantamount to not going at all. Having the support of a big team Vs next to no support, can make a massive difference to the experience/performance of most - well that’s what we think.</p>
<p>Also, I read an article somewhere (can’t remember where, sorry) that Athletes with valid alternative choices should ask their Div 1 school to give them a 4-year scholarship - I think it said this would have to be done outside the NLI. I nevertheless found this [Multiyear</a> scholarships to be allowed - NCAA.com](<a href=“http://www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/article/2012-02-17/multiyear-scholarships-be-allowed]Multiyear”>http://www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/article/2012-02-17/multiyear-scholarships-be-allowed), which seems to confirm what I believed I had read. You might therefore want to consider this, although the original article I read said that the schools kept this very quiet, and only a few of them had offered any 4-yr deals. If I find it, I shall post it on this thread, as the article named those who had, and how many they had given.</p>
<p>I hope your son reaches the right decision for him.</p>
<p>We are looking into this too, for soccer, and the problem is that based on my son’s academics and major selection (computer engineering), he’s much more likely to go to D1 than D3. Carnegie-Mellon and Union College are two D3 schools that offer his major, but the costs are astronomical. There are D1 schools in our state where he could get in-state tuition and his major, even if he only got a 0.25 scholarship.</p>
<p>He does understand that he might have to spend an extra year in college if he plays D1 soccer, but that’s fine with him.</p>
<p>Fenwaysouth: I really appreciate your opinion but as someone who went to the Canadian equivalent of a state school and is very successful, I’m not sold on big name=big success. In the case of the school mentioned, I actually don’t hire from there (in my specific field) because their program does not prepare grads well. They come out with theory but no marketable skills. That’s just one program though, admittedly. Maybe that’s why I don’t buy into the wow reaction everyone has when the school’s name is uttered.</p>
<p>Researchmum: I worry too about the size of the team and the support available. But it worries me less than seeing my son go to a big top 6 conference team where he waits 2 years before being close to the top tier of point scorers. He loves his sport, he’s good (not going to make the Olympics good but good) and he’s a member of one of the strongest clubs here, so he would die if he were left in a “holding pattern” until he became an upperclassman. Athletes need challenge yes, need support yes, but if there is one thing that is key to them training well and performing well is they need to feel good/happy about their place on the team. My son’s sport is not one that leads to any pro career, but he does love it and is not ready to say he’s done. I believe the infrastructure in the US is such that it will enable him to continue doing both. If he stays here, I suspect the logistics (you’re pretty much on your own) will force him to quit before he’s ready. In the end, quitting his sport before he’s ready may be more detrimental to him (balance, passion, athletic brotherhood) than not having a big name school to put on his r</p>