My son was admitted to two schools and I am hoping for some insight into how different his experience would be because one school only has his sport as a club sport. His sport, lacrosse, is his passion.
School A: Small D3 liberal arts college, not as well regarded academically, but recruited son to play varsity sport. More expensive, and son would have to take out 25K in loans over the 4 years of school. He visited and loved it there. He really likes the feel of a small LAC better than a large school.
School B. Huge state flagship university. Excellent academic reputation, but D1 lacrosse and my son knows he would not make the team. Large Club lacrosse team, involved in charity fundraising. More affordable and son would not have to take out loans at all.
I would love any thoughts! My feeling is that it is hard to pass up the chance to go to the large university without having to take loans, but my son really wants to go to a small LAC and play varsity lacrosse. I’m just not sure that is important enough to take out loans.
That’s a tough one. My DS attended a D3 liberal arts school and was recruited for a varsity sport (not lacrosse). In his second year, he tore his ACL and missed an entire year of the sport and only played sparingly the following season before “retiring” to focus on his coursework.
So, the big question – aside from the money – is “Son, if you could NOT PLAY YOUR SPORT, which school would you like best, would provide you the best background for your major and future employment, etc.”
Depending on what his major is, and whether post-grad school might be needed, the “no loans” aspect is probably the way to go. Especially since he can still play lacrosse, just not as a varsity sport.
@cgpm59 has the correct question- if something tragic happened and you could not play your sport, would you still be happy with your school choice? That’s a tough question for kids who have lived their whole life focused on a sport they really enjoy and culture tells them playing on the varsity team is better than club. But that IS the correct question. Everything else falls into place from there.
Of course, in his back pocket should be the knowledge that kids transfer. It is not an unusual occurrence. If he ends up feeling he made the wrong choice, he can always make another. Good luck to him!
In our house, college decisions are based first on academics, second on affordability. If he likes the smaller school enough to pay to be there playing then good for him! What happens if he can’t play (either not enough time of health issues) - would cost of attending increase? If everything else were equal I would be leaning towards the higher ranked, less expensive option.
Some club teams are as competitive as D1 teams. The Club national champion is top notch lacrosse.
My daughter was in a similar position. She would not have made the D1 team at the flagship. It would have cost a lot to go to the D3 schools that recruited her, and she didn’t like the schools (size, level of play of the teams, just LACs in general). She found a D2 school she really liked and we made it work for the money. It really was the perfect solution.
If she had had to pick between the D1 with not playing and the D3 schools, she would have been better off at the D1 school financially and academically.
Just another parent agreeing that the question to ask is, “if I had a career ending injury on the first day of pre-season – am I still happy this is where I am going to college?”
$25,000 total in loans is not an excessive amount for a student to carry, but if the student is just as happy to attend D1 vs. D3, if the sport is not in the picture at all, then it wouldn’t make sense to go the D3 route.
Thank you all for your perspectives! That is a great idea to have my son really think about the question of what makes the most sense if he was injured and not able to play lacrosse, since that is always a possibility, plus it tells us something about how he feels about the schools. I think it will be tough for him to imagine…but important to try.
It’s good to hear about your experiences. I’m glad to hear too that club sports can be competitive! I have no experience with them (not at all an athlete myself!) so that is really useful to hear.
Many of these schools do not have men’s varsity teams, so the club teams are the players who would have been D1 recruits if the school did have varsity. Others have top D1 teams and enough other good players to make up a club team. A few of the Pac 12 teams are thinking about flipping from club to D1. I just read that Utah hopes to make the jump in 1-2 years.
My nephew and at least 20 of his friends at college could have played D1 if they wanted to, but chose to go to their flagship and not play club (a few play, most do not because club is a huge time commitment too). They were on state championship teams and clubs that won national tournaments. They stay involved in lacrosse by reffing, coaching youth teams, playing in men’s leagues, or just goofing around with each other. The talent level at a pick up game is pretty high.
Wow I had no idea club lacrosse was so huge…and so competitive! Our university in question is part of the NCLL. @twoinanddone your opened up a whole new world of research for me…I am learning a lot! Thank you!
One difference between the D3 team and the club team will be the cost. The D3 team should be free to your son (may have fund raisers or need to provide his own equipment) but the club team may cost him $3-5k because of the travel, reffing, etc. It depends on how much the school kicks in and how much travel there is.
My daughter played club hockey and it was the cheapest I’d ever paid for her hockey since she started. I think the school subsidized it a little. Just depends.
Wow…that is so good to know too @twoinanddone!! I had no idea! That is really important, since one of the things the university has going for it is that it is less expensive, but if club lacrosse will cost a lot more, that may make up a bit of the difference in costs between the two schools. I will have to find out more about the club lacrosse program and its costs. I so appreciate the heads up!
I agree with others here that club sports can be very competitive. We know athletes who could play on a D1 level who have chosen club instead because they don’t want the stress of a D1 sport or because they want to attend a particular school where their varsity sport isn’t available. Questions to ask about clubs: when are try-outs held; how many players does the team carry and how many typically try out; what cost is the student responsible for including uniforms, travel, training, hotels,etc.; how much does the team travel and are all tournaments mandatory; who coaches the team and who manages the team (sometimes students can do most of one or both)??? All things to find out before making any decisions.
I would absolutely pick the school based on the academic reputation, statistics and employment opportunities. My son has D1, D2, D3 and Ivy offers and ultimately chose the school he felt was the best fit for him and also was highest ranked academically in his desired major. He ended up choosing a top tier D3.
The D3 school encourages study abroad, internships, gave an incredible amount of merit aid, etc. I know part of him wishes he “went D1”, but I told him in 20 years, I seriously doubt he will look back and wish he went to a different school.
Which school will his long term education and career benefit the most? Best value for the COA.
The ability to play LAX at both schools is really still a plus. Did he spend overnights at both ?
As a parent, you can only steer them much, best of luck.
If everything else were equal it’s kinda like paying $25,000 to have the chance to play for the lax team and be at a school that is not as highly regarded.
I don’t know the situation here at all but I know that coaches at some D3 schools have to recruit kids that they know aren’t really going to contribute to the team because they need to meet enrollment numbers. A league commissioner told me that he knew of a baseball team in D3 that had near 40 kids. That is way too many