<p>Check this out regarding the NLI-<a href=“http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/nli/nli”>http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/nli/nli</a></p>
<p>is there any way of finding out what the schools would do $$$-wise if your daughter was injured and could not play any longer, or if for some other reason, decided she did not want to play any longer?</p>
<p>There will be very few (if any) coaches who would continue an athletic scholarship is your child chose not to play any more. Any merit or need based aid would stay.</p>
<p>As for injury, you would need to talk to coaches about their practices.</p>
<p>Steve, the combination of college level sports and pre-med courses is extremely ambitious.</p>
<p>There are very few kids who manage both together successfully.</p>
<p>My BIL did play college football, and did make it to med school, but he needed to take a fifth year of college to do it. He is a radiologist today.</p>
<p>Both of my sons considered continuing their sports in college. S1 changed his mind after an overnight visit. He didn’t like that team’s culture, and realized the (small LAC) college was too small for his tastes. He is a senior at our state flagship, playing his sport at the club level, and very happy. The overnight visit was very important in his decision making process.</p>
<p>S2 is pre med, and also participating in his sport at the club level. He chose the academics over the sport. It was a wise decision. The premed sciences and especially the labs are more time consuming than most kids are expecting.</p>
<p>eastcoascrazy–that is why she does not want an over the top intense program. There are 2 senior bio/pre-med majors on 2 of her top 3 picks and both say that the coach is very flexible with practice time, etc. One school has a nursing major, which is far worse for scheduling, and the team members work around her class schedule for practice so they can all practice together. Fall and spring the most she will miss at any program she picks is 5 days of classes total between the two seasons. That is workable for her and she has talked to various bio/chem profs about lab make ups if necessary. I’m not worried. She is used to being busy and it really won’t be any more than what she has in high school for homework and way less classes missed for tournaments then what she has now.</p>
<p>Again, we are happy with how she has narrowed down her choices to the 10, now it comes down to finances mostly but again, anything we should be looking for in the specific offers that we might not be aware of?</p>
<p>My D did 5 OVs …those experiences changed her perceptions in a major way. Her chosen school was near the bottom initially. 5 OVs in 3 months were too many…but 3-4 OVs makes sense.</p>
<p>The OVs gave here information about the students involved in her sport, and the student body more generally (attitudes towards academics, drinking/drugs, politics, fashion, conformity. etc.). And she cared whether the students were happy, busy, thriving or stressed out?</p>
<p>Meeting with profs and advisors in her major helped her see differences between programs and opportunities. She had to make some appointments on her own beforehand, other times a decent schedule was worked out by an assistant coach.</p>
<p>My D is a premed, honors program, chem student participating in D2 track (two seasons). She concluded she couldn’t do it all at the D1 level! The D3 schools she looked at do not offer merit $$ and their FA offers were low (we knew this would be the case based on FA pre-reads).</p>
<p>In the end D2 schools became more attractive due to merit $$, competitive, but not too competitive athletics programs …and at a D2 school she’s more of an academic standout (which would not have been the case at top D3 or Ivy schools). Being at the top of her class, having a high GPA will be necessary for med school applications. The tipping point was a promising medical scholars program…essentially you apply to the state med school after sophomore year (and completion of orgo). If accepted you must maintain your 3.5+ GPA and complete the premed curriculum but you’re IN! Judging by your screen name you are from Massachusetts…so look at the Umass Medical Scholars Program. Each Umass campus participates.</p>
<p>If your D is interested in attending a top medical school, this is probably not the best route. Duke, for instance, has a great program for premed, female athletes. Imagine that!</p>
<p>SteveMA - You have an exciting few weeks ahead of you - congratulations to your daughter! I cannot really help you with what language to be on the lookout for in letters from coaches, but I did want to say that, in our experience, we did receive emails directly discussing $ offers from a D1 university - this was before the NLI signing date for my child’s sport, so $ can come up, in writing, in an email. For what it’s worth, we had not asked about $, or initiated that conversation at all, with the D1 school in question.
Good luck with the decision!!</p>
<p>Our daughter had many offers for D1 schools including the Ivies. Most of the athletic scholarships were discussed in terms of per cent of costs covered. For example, if tuition costs are X and room and board are Y, then X+Y is covered by varying percents. Some schools offered to cover 100% of total costs, others 80% or 60% for four years. One instate school with lower costs but higher national ranking offered 40%. Several coaches offered graduating percents (freshman year 20%, sophomore year 40%, junior year 60% and senior year 80%). Many told us that much of their money was going to upperclassmen and that the graduated approach would be best for them. Not best for us however since we have 3 college students in the family. Now that she is playing in a program, I see that many athletes drop out of the program and many players are freshmen and sophomores. It was very helpful to us to have several offers from a variety of colleges. We were able to negotiate for a generous percent to be awarded every year. Our daughter was very happy to have a higher percent beginning freshman year since the players with bigger scholarships tend to be the starters on a team. Our daughter meets with the coaches at the end of every season to discuss additional aid. She is one of the top contributors to the team and this is an important point for her. Her award is renewed every year at least at the level she negotiated with the coach prior to entering the school.
She also helps the team with the high school recruits that visit, sometimes taking up a whole weekend. All of her books and supplies are covered. Her athletic scholarship will pay for the same percent of costs for her study abroad (negotiated with her coach at recruitment) next semester. The NCAA has a rule book that most coaches keep on their desks. There is a very important rule in that book. If the college athletic is injured playing their sport, it is against the rules to take away their scholarship. This rule does not apply to those students who are injured while skiing during winter break! I wish you and your daughter a very good fall. Hopefully, we parents can unveil some of the secrets behind recruiting.</p>
<p>As parents we ask “Where do you want to go or not go?” For most 17/18 year olds this is a tough question to answer since there are so many things to consider. A more clarifying question is “Where would you regret not going?” See if that helps. For our child it was a much easier question to answer. Good luck.</p>
<p>There is lots of good information here. S had nearly 30 offers with full rides at everyone except Ivy’s. After narrowing his list he did 4 OV’s before selecting a school. Some of the things we learned were pick a school not a coach. Many D1 sports are like a job especially if you are on scholarship. Quit your job loose your scholarship. All of the schools that offered full rides required S to be on campus for at least part of the summer training. We learned not all majors (depending on school) fit with sports. We met one graduate who actually needed to change his major because the labs for his desired major conflicted with practice.</p>
<p>S looked at the academic, social and athletic components of the college experience to help narrow the list. He wanted the best possible academics. A competitive program where he could play and not just be on the team was important. You would be amazed how many star high school athletes do not become star college athletes and end up transferring or just quitting. Finally he wanted to have a great social experience. He didn’t want to be in a bubble where he only interacted with athletes or be viewed as only a athlete. It was important that opportunities outside of sports not only existed but were available to him at the school.</p>
<p>At the end of the day the question “Where would you be happiest if you couldn’t play your sport?” helped him finalize his decision.</p>
<p>If your kid plays D1 sports it is going to be a big part of their college experience. When looking at the non athletic opportunities including academics don’t just look at school A offers this and school B offers that, make sure that those opportunities are realistically available to your child while playing sports. Look at the academic success and graduation rates for your kid’s particular sport and for the entire athletic program. Find out about the coaches flexibility with the practice schedule. Seek out current athletes and graduates (ideally from you child’s sport) who have the same major that your child is considering and interview them. Talk to as many people as possible both connected to sports and not connected.</p>
<p>One coach said “every school has a place to eat, a place to sleep, a place to play and a place to study. Some are just nicer than others. It’s going to be the people that make the difference at the end of the day.”</p>
<p>Best of luck</p>
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<p>Just for fun (and research) I’ve looked at the current team rosters of some of the schools my D might apply to. And the scarcity of seniors on the rosters was very conspicuous. And, I will admit, a bit surprising to me.</p>
<p>windbehindwings–that is very interesting about the in-sport injury. Does that only apply to D1? DD had a former teammate that had an injury relating to her sport that required surgery to correct. The coach told her if she had the surgery done, he would pull her scholarship–so she transferred to another school. This same coach was trying to recruit DD-um NO.</p>
<p>A couple of her former teammates played at the D1 level and they both dropped out after sophomore year because of the travel involved–generally flying out Thursday, playing Sat, Sun, Mon coming back Tuesday–every weekend, spring and fall. There was no way she wanted that, thankfully. If she had aspirations to go pro, that would have been different, but she doesn’t. Most of the schools she is considering has a healthy balance of grades, there are generally only 6-10 players so small sample to begin with. ALL of the programs put academics first. Heck, one program, the number one player missed their conference tournament the past 2 seasons because of classes she couldn’t miss. The coach was fine with that.</p>
<p>Steve and golf/father, since you are both golf parents, I have a golfer, D1, it is the sport where the most school is missed, the academic advisors say golf is the hardest sport to work with. You already know how much time it takes to be on top of your game, so golf father that is one reason why so many don’t make it all the way. </p>
<p>I cannot stress enough Steve that the relationship with the coach is probably one of the most important things your daughter needs to consider. They will be spending A LOT of time together. Is the coach going to encourage her? Support her if she struggles? etc… We had 2 guys quit last year, basically because they did not want it as much as the coach wanted them to want it and the coach player relationship was not good. Both players were great players and guys but they did not get along with the coach. (and thats guys!!!). Being a woman, I would think that relationship is even more important. My son’s good friend (female college golfer) just had to transfer because of a bad coach/player relationship.</p>
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<p>Oops, very sorry. It had never occurred to me that my name could be interpreted as “the father of someone who plays golf.” (Though I am trying to get my son interested in the game.) But I see that now. Maybe I should change it.</p>
<p>I picked the name because I’m a father … who happens to like to play golf. :o</p>
<p>And it is a pun based on the very famous book by Mario Puzo. </p>
<p>My daughter is interested in crew and does not play golf.
Again, apologies.</p>
<p>Even with the NCAA rules regarding injuries and scholarships it is important to understand and discuss both policy and perhaps ask for examples. To keep the athletic scholarship the athlete may have to effectively stay a contributing member of the team in some way and/or continue to live up to the rules and standards the coach may impose on the team. Also, there may be disagreement on what the coach/school feels is career ending vs what you or you child feels is. If there are not a lot of Juniors/Seniors on the roster find out why.</p>
<p>My DD just started playing D1 sports, so it is too soon to tell if our criteria were the correct ones, but I am happy to share our decision making process. She has a major that is unusual for athletes and would be out of the question in a top-ranked athletic program that puts sports first and academics second. Since she doesn’t plan on going pro, she looked at schools outside the top 100, but that had top ranked academics in her field. The coach, a fixture at the school for many years and an alumna herself, was very understanding about her major (enthusiastic, even) and promised to work around her schedule. This weekend is their first trip out of town and they left later than originally planned just so my DD wouldn’t have to miss a morning class. And that is why we picked this school.</p>
<p>LawMom6–that sounds like the programs DD is considering as well. Some of the schools she is considering are in the top 100 but not a top ranked program in her sport, except the D3 programs on her list, all nationally ranked, but again, they only compete on weekends. One coach will even forgo practice rounds if kids have classes they can’t miss or need to make up work, etc.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind sometimes an entire sport (or one gender’s team) will get dropped unexpectedly even after the signing period so don’t burn any bridges. This is a good reason not to withdraw another college application even after NLI. Good luck to all!</p>
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<p>Actually, it was pretty easy once son found his school and situation. He wanted a very deep & broad engineering program coupled with a D1 baseball program that would give him an opportunity to start (pitch) as a freshmen. It didn’t hurt that he loves his postion coach, and the Ivys have rules about practices, travel and the length of the season. We knew we came across the right decision the moment it was offered.</p>
<p>My son is a senior now and will be graduating in May. He plays lacrosse and was a recruited athlete. When he was 17 and being recruited, lacrosse (of course) was his life, and playing in college was his goal. It’s very flattering to have coaches calling you, appearing at your games to watch you play…but my husband and I kept hammering our son about the other aspects of college. He’s a goalie and he gets hit. A lot. We know several players who have had career-ending injuries. So we made a point of reminding our son that he could be injured in his freshman year…and then what? Would he still enjoy the school, if he wasn’t playing lacrosse? Would the academics match his interests? What about internships and job prospects?</p>
<p>Ultimately, he made a measured decision and chose a private school that has been a perfect match. He’s still playing NCAA lacrosse, but he also completed his internship with a local company (in his field of study) and has been offered a job there after graduation in the spring. He won’t be making a living playing lacrosse, but has many strong friendships from the game, and hopes to continue to play in a local men’s league once he receives his degree.</p>
<p>It’s also important to note that the school he chose offered a solid academic merit scholarship, in addition to an athletic one.</p>