<p>I am a football player (2040 SAT / 3.8) who has the chance to attend BC at no cost or Harvard at less than $20k/year. I could go to Harvard for four years and graduate with a bachelors degree or I could go to BC and because I would "redshirt" one year would be in school for 5 years and if I do it the right way can have my scholarship cover my bachelors and at least 1/2 of my masters degree. Any advise is greatly appreciated. Thanks</p>
<p>They are both great schools with very different feels - you should try to visit both maybe do an overnight if you can. BC suburban and smaller, Harvard urban and large but both very good academically - may depend on what you want to study as well.</p>
<p>@tonyfab - Congrats on being able to make a decision like this!</p>
<p>You should see if the Harvard coach can put you in touch with players who had to make similar decisions. I know Clifton Dawson, for instance, gave up a scholarship at Northwestern to come play at Harvard - with both playing time + academics being motivating factors.</p>
<p>yeah I wouldn’t choose BC if it were likely that I was going to be like fourth string QB my five years. But if you think you can get some good playing time at BC, and maybe are thinking about a career in the NFL, I think BC would be a better choice. Much better competition and visibility. And think about playing on national TV, which you’ll probably get to do at least once or twice at BC. Not to mention BC consistently is near or at the top of the FBS (is that the right name) for academic performance, which probably matters to you.</p>
<p>Two completely different experiences. Boston College is a Division I powerhouse with national ambitions. Being a football player there is a full-time job year-round, and your academic career will be expected to take a back seat to your paying work. The level of competition and media attention will be many levels above that at Harvard. If you pursue a “serious” major and career path, you will be something of an outlier on your team.</p>
<p>At Harvard, playing football is intense during the season, but much less so the rest of the year. Football players are not different or apart from the rest of the student body. Everyone agrees that academics come first (although you WILL be expected to make some compromises). Your financial aid is not dependent on making the team, or continuing to play. You can be a hero in a very limited world, but people outside that world will not care much. (I have repeated on CC, several times, the story about the all-Ivy Yale quarterback from my day who had to pretend to be a regular-ol’ Notre Dame student to pick up girls in bars in the city where we lived.) If you pursue a serious major, you will have lots of company in the locker room, and lots of networking potential outside of it.</p>
<p>JHS is spot on - but I should add that it’s certainly possible to make it to the NFL from Harvard if you have a ridiculous amount of raw talent. Dawson + Alex Fitzpatrick are two recent, high-profile examples. Linemen seem to do it more frequently (and with a lot less publicity).</p>
<p>^I heard lineman requires the most smarts of all the positions. </p>
<p>If you’re a kicker or punter I bet it won’t matter as much for NFL if you don’t go to a top football school either. Heck a lot of those guys never even played college football.</p>
<p>The BC football experience is quite different from Harvard’s and Harvard’s campus life is quite different from BC’s. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide which is the higher priority - I don’t know that anyone else’s set of priorities will be of much use to you. If the NFL is a realistic consideration, you can get there from the Ivy League, but it’s a lot easier to get there from the ACC - just as it’s true that you can sing at the Met after graduating from a liberal arts college but the road to there is much more direct from a conservatory.</p>
<p>I think in your case BC is the better choice. If you still need to pay $20K/year at Harvard, you’d be saving $80K if you attend BC instead - which is quite a chunk of change.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And you can get to lots of great places with a degree from BC. It seems like you’d be one of the smartest players on the team, so if you follow through with that and succeed academically, you’ll probably get a lot more cred than had you done so at Harvard. </p>
<p>Take Myron Rolle. He was a boss for going to FSU and being an NFL caliber player while also maintaining great academic standing. If he had gone to Harvard to play ball, he probably would have not distinguished himself as much academically from his teammates, and succeeding academically on the Harvard football team is not as big of a deal as doing it at FSU. </p>
<p>This can come in handy for future interviews as well. So I wouldn’t worry about having a bigger football commitment at BC that leaves less time for academics, or being a big fish in a small pond as far as academics are concerned. You should have judged on your visit how your teammates view top academics (from all my experiences you would be well respected, if not slightly envied). </p>
<p>These are all just things to consider. Only you know what’s best for you.</p>
<p>If the OP is paying 20,000, I believe it would be affordable, right? I know Harvard’s financial aid is great and wouldn’t expect him to be paying that much if it wasn’t affordable. 10% rule right?</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>Even if one could “afford” it, I doubt there would be many parents/families willing to shell out $80,000 if spending $0 is an option.</p>
<p>Spending $80,000 for Harvard and less football over BC and more football isn’t a no-brainer, but it’s an option I would sure encourage MY kid to take. Unless he had a realistic shot at the NFL and was desperate to pursue that.</p>
<p>I know close to zero about football but I will try my best to pass on a story I heard. </p>
<p>This young man went to an elite private school and was also a top football player. He was well recruited by an list of schools, two being Harvard and BC. As I recall, the family actually had to make their decision/commitment before the young man’s senior year of high school. The family, seeing a great football carrier ahead of him, accepted BC to be red shirted one year (to let you grow), then 4 more years to play (I think the students end up with a masters in the end?). The family is thrilled. They described the dinners they were taken to, etc, etc. They next time we are talking, it is now probably half way though the senior year of high school. The mother is now beyond upset. And this is the part that I get rather hazy about. But what I think I recall was that they found out that there son was one of many recruits accepted for the same slot and that the odds of his ever making the field had changed significantly (Though I might be off some I am certain that she was upset about limited time on the field. It is the cause that I am uncertain about). She was quite upset that they had turned down Harvard for the opportunity for BC football stardom only to find out the opportunity was not as great as they were told/imagined.</p>
<p>Hope I got that right. But it least gives you some points to at least think about or investigate.</p>
<p>^^^ That’s certainly a realistic possibility. Another interesting situation is incoming freshman Blake Barker, one of the top HS tight end prospects in the U.S., who played in the UnderArmor national all-star game this year. He was heavily recruited and narrowed his choices to BC and Stanford before giving a verbal commitment to Stanford last fall. He subsequently had a change of heart and is going to be a freshman at Harvard in a couple weeks. Incidentally, Harvard was picked as the favorite to win the Ivy League at the Ivy Football Media Day this week.</p>
<p>Yes, Blake Barker chose Harvard over BC and I think he handled the process well. Barker took his time and made all the appropriate visits. Actually, it looked for a while like he was headed to Stanford (outstanding mixture of big time athletics and education). In the end he went to Harvard. Barker’s grandfather played for Harvard and I think Barker’s heart was always with the Crimson. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I understand that former Yale great athlete Brian Dowling offers a different point. He now says that with the price of an Ivy league education these days that he can’t see student athletes paying, rather than accepting the free education that a football scholarship offers.</p>
<p>I think Barker offers a good model for you to follow. If you live in the Boston area, visit both schools as often as possible. Get a good feel for both places. Both places offer excellent opportunities, but there are certainly differences. What is most important to you? </p>
<p>What is it you want to study and what is each schools reputation in that particular area? </p>
<p>Harvard football is very good and certainly there are Harvard/Ivy league players that play in the NFL. However, BC offers the better path for this. </p>
<p>How big a factor is the Jesuit and Catholic influence for you at BC? If you are Catholic by the way, are you aware that Harvard has a very strong Catholic community and a good relationship with next door neighbor St Paul’s? </p>
<p>What are your and/or your families financial resources? The $20,000 per year is not insignificant.</p>
<p>And yes, asking questions like you are on this board is a good way to get more information. To answer your question directly, I would take Harvard. For me it has the better athletic/education balance (by the way this is not a reflection of the excellent BC educational opportunities, but rather my feeling concerning the demands placed on D 1 athletes). </p>
<p>Good luck with your decision.</p>