My NB16 sophomore wants to wrestle in college, and will probably be a DIV III-caliber athlete (though who knows?). The list of schools with DIV III women’s wrestling teams does not inspire me – mostly obscure, expensive private colleges (a long list is at ncsa sports dot org womens wrestling colleges). Their GPA is 4.0 (weighted), and their most recent SAT was 1260 (will probably improve). We’re in the mid-Atlantic and would like to find a school on the East Coast or in the Midwest. Major undecided. Wants a school with 5K+ students. Wrestling has helped them overcome serious mental health struggles, so encouraging them to attend a school without a team seems ill-advised. Anyone encountered this or a similar dilemma?
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘good’ college. Regardless, you have time to do research. Note that many schools will look at the applicant’s unweighted GPA, core courses only…so calculate that if the school doesn’t do it for you.
Rather than use NCSA, I would get info at these sites:
-NCAA NCAA Directory - Directory - Member Listing
-National Collegiate Wrestling Association’s site (scroll down for women’s team info) NCWA
-WCWC Collegiate Women's Wrestling Programs — The Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Coalition
Some schools may also offer wrestling clubs for women, which may work as well. @dadof4kids do you have any insights on women’s wrestling?
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My friend’s daughter wrestles at Ursinus College. She chose the school over several other options, and is an academic high-flyer in addition to being an exceptional athlete. She has a good experience so far.
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Smaller than your student wants, but Carthage in Wisconsin and Cornell in Iowa are both really solid schools. I know a really strong student (high stats, full IB) and who is LGBTQ+, who is having an excellent experience at Carthage. I don’t know any current students at Cornell in Iowa, but it is one of the CTCL (Colleges That Change Lives) schools, and I know many former grads. Both schools provide a lot of merit, so net price will probably be below 35K if not lower. Also Augsburg in Minneapolis is an interesting school. Their stats are not high on paper, but that is because they educate lots of first gen students. I know a number of former grads. They also have a well-regarded PA program if your student becomes interested in a healthcare career. Augsburg also belongs to a consortium of other LACs in the Twin Cities, so you can cross register at Macalester, St. Kates, St. Thomas and Hamline.
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Colorado State has a great club wrestling team. It doesn’t fit your parameters, but I bring it up because club wrestling is also an option.
Sorry I don’t have much to add, Women’s wrestling is kind of a hole in my knowledge. This is an area where being a few years removed from active involvement means that the landscape is completely different now (it was pretty non-existent a few years ago). This is kind of rambly and not exactly what you asked, but I’m throwing a couple of other random ideas out there. Feel free to ignore.
Lots of schools are adding it, it’s a cheap way to balance Title 9 numbers, especially if there is already a men’s team. The school list will probably look a lot different in 2 years than it does now. But depending on what you are looking for, I don’t disagree that the list is uninspiring. I have seen a couple girls go to schools that really surprised me, but that top level just hasn’t developed yet. I’m sure it will, but right now it isn’t quite there. So girls intent on wrestling sometimes end up at lower caliber schools than you would expect because that is where the opportunities are.
I have a couple thoughts on club. One, any club sport needs research if it’s a priority for the student. I don’t know about any women’s wrestling clubs specifically, but in general some club sports are near varsity level, and some live up to the joke one of my college buddies told me, that his club crew team was “a drinking club with a rowing problem.”
I don’t know what level she is on, but if she is high enough and wants to continue training she could look and see if any of the RTC’s have programs she could participate in. They are pretty much all good for men’s freestyle, Greco and Women’s freestyle are more limited I think. This may not be a realistic option for her, I just don’t know enough about her or the opportunities, especially since college programs are an option now, which did not used to be the case.
Finding a place to help coach HS could also be an option. Our HS and kid’s club have both utilized a couple good HS wrestlers who didn’t want to continue the grind, but who go to the local directional U and are volunteer coaches in the program. There is a huge demand here, and I don’t know how well it is being filled. It is a struggle in HS rooms sometimes, because with the boys the coaches can be a lot more hands on helping them. It is a bit more dicey when a 40 year old man puts his hands on a 16 year old girl. So having a female coach who is young enough to still roll around is a huge asset that many programs don’t have.
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I work at John Carroll University (when I’m not on here for my S23) and we just added women’s wrestling to a lot of fanfare at our school. We tend to have high-level DIII sports and I would expect the university to invest a lot in it over the next two years.
While I’m not sure exactly what sort of school you’re looking for, it might be a match? We’re a Jesuit school in the suburbs of Cleveland, which is highly ranked for teaching and value. Your daughter should also be able to get some good merit. Good luck!
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Another random thought that may or may not be of interest. Princeton’s wrestling coach is a huge womens wrestling fan (daughters wrestle). I know he at least had conversations with a potential male recruit and they discussed the little sister. He may have been anticipating having a program by the time she was old enough (iirc she was in middle school at the time), or they may do something through the club. No idea if he has pull with admissions for a non-varsity recruit. At a minimum he could probably give a soft bump, because since it isn’t for a varsity team the regular Ivy rules about how many athletes they can support wouldn’t apply.
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