<p>First of all, the Ivies do not red-shirt for developmental reasons–only for medical reasons, ie. injury that precludes participation. I know of 2 athletes who for their 5th year of eligibility transferred from an Ivy to another university to compete. From what I understand, this is permissible under NCAA regulations if their original school does not offer that program of study. For example, an athlete could transfer from Princeton to Georgetown for law school since Princeton doesn’t have a law school. Or one could stay and begin graduate work at the same school.</p>
<p>At my D’s university, many athletes begin a master’s program for their 5th year, or finish a master’s program that they began during the latter undergraduate years (called co-terming). Some athletes, particularly football players and those training for the Olympics or other high level competitions, will spread out their undergraduate work over 5 years. This lightens their course load to allow for more training time, and increases the likelihood of graduation for the less academically able. </p>
<p>As for funding, this will vary by individual situation. If the athlete is a key player or star, then the school will likely offer a substantial scholarship for the 5th year to entice them to stay. If not, I suppose the parent pays for the athlete to compete another year. I discussed redshirting at length with the non-Ivy schools D looked at. One coach was clear that if he decided to redshirt my D for developmental reasons (and he probably would), he fully expected her to stay for that 5th year. The implication was that she’d be cheating him if she didn’t. Since we have neither the ability nor the inclination to pay for an extra year, we eliminated that school. D’s current school told her she was under no obligation to stay. However, they do encourage athletes to co-term.</p>
<p>At my sons school it depends on the athlete… we have some on full rides and some with nothing. One of our better players is redshirting his 4th year and intends to play his 5th. He is receiving money despite not competing the year… however, he will finish his coursework before spring season of next year and he will not be getting money as he won’t be carrying enough units to be considered a full time athlete.</p>
<p>To answer the original post, my daughter is settling in nicely. She has bonded well with the other freshman recruits and a nice group of friends outside of her sport. So far, she seems to be avoiding the all out party atmosphere of her floor mates and some of the other sports teams. She is enjoying the mandatory study hall and has established a routine that seems to be working for her. Academically, the classes seem easy to her. The biggest difference is the amount of reading required. Unfortunately, she strained a muscle in her back in pre-season, so is on light practices this week. </p>
<p>So, all in all, a pretty good start. And she has stayed in relatively close contact, even calling her grandpa. Her brother did complain that she hasn’t returned his text, but that is probably just paybacks, haha!</p>
<p>My son has a good friend/HS classmate that was recruited to play two D1 sports at Notre Dame… basketball and baseball. He was drafted by the SD Padres in June, but opted to go to college, instead. He left for South Bend early this summer and has already completed three courses, with five more underway this fall… to get a leg up on credit hours, before basketball season begins. He absolutely loves it there.</p>
<p>He is the only FY player on the varsity roster, and is expected to be a significant contributor. He’s been working out since he arrived, and has already put 13# on his 6’ 5" frame. He will contribute in baseball by focusing just on pitching… so that should make the double DI sport thing possible. I am in awe of his ability and dedication. He’s such a great kid.</p>
<p>I love reading about everyone settling into their new lives as a student-athlete at the college level!
My D is absolutely loving her ivy athlete experience thus far. Needless to say, the level of training in her D1 program is like nothing she has ever experienced before, including her training with Junior Nat’l. Team. She is thriving on the challenges being presented to her, both academically and physically. She loves the camaraderie of the team, how they both practice and study together, and the social mingling between the men’s and women’s teams. There is only one night of the week that works for any partying, due to their training schedule, so it is a pretty disciplined routine, yet it still sounds like they have a lot of fun. She is inspired every day by the national champion winning athletes that make up the majority of her team, and just tonight told me that there is nowhere else she would rather be :)</p>
<p>I’m only a spectator on this thread, but was so happy to read your post: my rowing D just left this evening for the first of her ov’s… and my oldest, a sophomore transfer from a great state school to a great Eastern LAC (he’s not an athlete), just texted to say that he really, really likes it and can’t imagine that he’d rather be anywhere else. So nice to hear that our kids are happy where they’ve landed.</p>
<p>So far, so good for my kid, hopefully the happy continues when the coursework gets tougher. This D1 school had the team see doctors the first day to ensure they were up to the workouts which helped. Like most posters here, there is limited free time but as someone above said there is lots of social life with the team. Makes me think back to recruiting and overnight visits where some teams and coaches seemed very happy but at one school they obviously weren’t and we come to find that particular coach is an even bigger jerk than he came across as when we met him (about to post another comment in Early Decision thread). During OVs pay attention to how the team gets along with the coach, with each other, and how comfortable they make you, the athlete feel. This is HUGE in your experience</p>
<p>Re red-shirting: as a parent I encourage my kid to communicate with the coach, but I agree I would have been shocked to not have been told about red-shirting until on campus. Kid’s experience was that the school that wanted to red-shirt was very upfront about it, and when the NLI was signed (not with red-shirt school) and scholarship info discussed, it was clear that kid was a member of the team not red-shirt. Kid had to perform at a certain level in the preseason trials as did the entire team, but that is different from red-shirting. Red shirts can also be made to pay all of their expenses when travelling which i would assume gets expensive b/c my kid gets money for food when they do.</p>
<p>Spoke with kiddo recently to hear how the last week/ten days or so has gone.
Loving classes for the most part–plenty of work to do…the one large lecture hall/physics is boring and kiddo is hoping with future material it improves.</p>
<p>Looks forward to meals, plenty to eat and quality continues to be great.</p>
<p>Team is terrific, workouts and time is a heavy commitment (knew going in) - continues to enjoy it. Kiddo was U-ber fit going in and still is challeneged by the heavy workout schedule!</p>
<p>Making lots of friends though knows fewer in dorm entryway because of team commitment and not having tons of free time to just hang out in dorm </p>
<p>When I was a freshman, at a Major D1 program (Freshman year = 2002) the thing that surprised me most was not really the conditioning program, or the workouts with the trainers, but rather the pace of the game. I expected everything to be faster than in HS, but the speed at which things happen was several times faster. </p>
<p>When you are suddenly at a program with several Olympic Level athletes, and many not far behind, the competition for playing time is intense. I certainly wouldn’t describe it as “cut throat”, but I felt like I was spending more time trying to “prove myself” than I was spending time actually trying to “IMprove myself” in terms of my sport.</p>
<p>Also, I seriously doubt that, outside of football, many HS athletes get close to the 20hrs a week most college teams practice. When you have two practice sessions a day, five days a week, and compete most weekends, it seems like you never really get a day off…</p>
<p>D is SO EXCITED to be hosting her first recruit this weekend, which is funny, because when she was a recruit she found the overnights typically awkward and didn’t really look forward to them.</p>
<p>My athlete is across the nation so communication was poor till we started Skyping. He told me Saturday You know when you said dont count on everything being different at college - well it is. These are my people! Very happy to be told how wrong I was. When he isnt training or struggling with his Freshman English seminar, he is hanging with the team 75% of the time and with his dorm floor the other 25%. When we stalk him via Facebook photos he is beaming. Sport as expected he hoped to be the Freshman that squeaked on to Varsity but that hasnt happened yet. He is confident he will continue to improve under their coaching.</p>
<p>More recent updates, our student has hosted several recruits…</p>
<p>I was surprised to hear that this year the recruits are often staying with one teammate one night and another the second night…
I think when our student was there, stayed with the same teammates for both evenings…and went to classes with several different people.
With as many recruits as our student has housed for a night, I am surprised. They have a decent room and futon so I suppose that is helping.
Would have thought they’d have spread them out among the soph/jrs who have been around a bit.</p>
<p>Tells us “couldn’t have picked or asked for a better team”…
classes and team commitment is heavy–yet very happy.</p>
<p>fog, I think some schools like the recruits to stay with younger athletes for a couple of reasons: many upper classmen will be gone by the time the recruit is active on the team. The current freshmen have the most at stake in terms of finding the next class to join them on the team. Splitting nights is to expose kids to more than one current team member, and also to spread the work. Hosting can be time-consuming and can put a strain on the host’s study and recreation time. One night of taking care of a recruit during a weekend is often enough, especially if the host wants to go out and do college-type socializing and is not going to be taking the recruit to a party.</p>
<p>Now that my D is a sophomore, it’s really fun for her to play with the girls she hosted last year. The coach and team seem to have done a great job of adding lots of talented freshwomen to the roster, so they are all having a great time, and quite a successful season. </p>
<p>The only thing wrong with this picture is that I only get to see a few games a year!!</p>
<p>In reply to THEGFG comment #17–you are so right. Our S has had a great experience so far in 1st Fall Semester even though he was hurt early in season and missed a few games. Great friends, roommates, teammates. Told us he couldn’t be happier with his choice even when he couldn’t play his sport due to injury (first time he has ever missed a game). We are very fortunate.</p>