This is why he eliminated non-business-focused programs and will minor/double major/3+1 in business. He’d rather have a non-sport business job than a non-business sport job, if that makes any sense. The good programs have a healthy amount of business courses - finance, econ, management, marketing, analytics. It varies (some are fitness/rec/youth focused), but the ones he applied to aren’t “fluffy”.
Has your son actually contacted anyone doing the type of job he wants to do to ask their guidance in how to get there? It’s a requirement in our school that kids do this (at least for jobs they think they want to do post graduation). If he hasn’t, this would be the time to ask him to do so. Most people are very willing to share their thoughts with someone younger who wants to follow in their footsteps. Make sure he contacts a few though as not all will reply. Usually the replies are similar to each other, and if so in this case, it ought to help him see a path that could work. I have my doubts that he needs an expensive college. I’d guess he needs connections and involvement. But I’m guessing as the field is outside of my expertise. Have him contact those currently in the field he wants.
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No. In your son’s case, with his career goals, none of them are worth it, so much so that you should choose it over what Miami OH is offering him.
First of all, stop feeling sorry for your son. EVERYONE has lost out, what with the pandemic, including you, your husband, and your daughter. You don’t owe him a 300K college education just because he has missed out on the rituals of senior year of high school. So many others have lost so much more than that.
Don’t look at how much money the school is “giving” you. Look at the cost of attendance. My friend would crow about how a school was offering her daughter EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS, when that meant that instead of paying 75K/yr, she would pay 55K/yr, and still 25K/yr over her perfectly good flagship state U.
Look realistically at the employment opportunities for your son. “I’m going to lead a professional soccer league” is more realistic than “I’m going to play pro soccer”, but it’s still very much a dream job, that most people will not achieve. And the road there is mostly very low paying, filled with potholes. He would have to have drive, talent, achievement, AND know the right people, and have the right social connections. Does he have those?
Right now, I would agree that the full tuition scholarship to Miami (OH) is the best offer on the table. I would imagine that room and board there would be about 15K/yr. UMass with that max OOS merit 16K/yr scholarship is 40K/yr! Loyola with that scholarship would also be about 40K/yr. Indiana OOS would be about 45K/yr with that scholarship.
I have seen OOS get some money for U Mich, and the kid didn’t deserve merit, and didn’t come from poor - family does very well in the trades, although they may have been hiding income. So there may be some chance U Mich would give money. Rice has a reputation for being more generous with aid, in order to attract the best. Syracuse might give him some merit money. Penn ain’t giving you a cent, unless you’re poor. But going to Wharton would open doors for him that would otherwise be closed to him… if he were interested in those doors. Wharton is not going to get him that. Wharton would get his foot in the door at Wall Street firms, big banks, hedge funds, etc. It doesn’t sound as if he wants to knock on the doors that Wharton might open for him, so even if he were to be accepted, is it worth the money to him?
Under the circumstances, and with his aspirations, I think that Miami OH does make the most sense for him. He could very likely get into any of the schools he’s waiting on, other than Wharton. But it doesn’t sound as if it’s worth the difference in money, especially since, as Suzy Ormond would have said, “YOU CANNOT AFFORD IT!”
You can’t afford it if you have to stop funding your retirement, let alone RAID it, and stop funding your daughter’s college account. It’s one thing if you were to say, well, we won’t be able to buy ourselves that mountain ski home in addition to the beautiful paid off home and and the paid off summer beach house we already have. It’s quite another if you have to jeopardize your retirement and your other child’s education, for his education.
Hindsight is 20:20, but the time to have considered finances, and to have had a frank discussion with your son regarding money for college, and what you could/would contribute, was when you were compiling the list. But it’s not too late. Show your son your finances. Show him what you expect to need for retirement, what you expect to need to pay for your other child’s college, and explain to him that that with times being so uncertain, financially, depending upon what other offers come in, it’s looking as if Miami is the best so far. You may be able to use Miami’s offer to negotiate a higher offer from Syracuse, if that comes through. Many schools will match other schools’ fin aid offers, or at least increase theirs, when push comes to shove.
I have a feeling that if you are open with him about your finances, that he will understand. But whether he resents it or not, you cannot jeopardize your finances, your retirement, and your ability to pay for your daughter’s college education, by overpaying for his.
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Yes, the time would have been in the fall. I think part of UMich, Rice, and UPenn was that all of his other schools were, frankly, safeties (save for Syracuse bc of program), and he wanted (and needed) some schools to either be proud of just getting in or learn that it’s not going to be easy here on out.
I get that I need to get over pitying him for a sucky senior year. It has really just crushed him and I’m a softy. LOL! I don’t want to work until I’m 70 though, and husband would never go for taking from retirement though (he wants to be retired in 10 years), but I put it out there in case anyone thought there might be a legit reason to make such a choice.
He is in a great place, really, and we are fortunate to have the wherewithal to even consider the other 4 schools in the running to pay without borrowing. A good point made by others that his choice of field limits him in a way that a field where entry level is high paying would not.
I learned my lesson with high stats #3, who had to turn down her first choice, the other kids only applied to pretty much safeties/matches, chasing merit with no disappointments.
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Based upon the admits and $$, my gut is that your son will be admitted to
Syracuse, but not the others. This reality will make your decision a whole lot easier.
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It’s a crapshoot. He has great stats but no hooks, but so do a lot of other applicants. A feather in his cap if any of the 3 T20 schools say yes. UMich no will hurt a little, but the others will be a “them’s the breaks kid”.
The $$ for U Mass and IU provide reasonable insights as to where he stands. Please report back when you hear.
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Meaning safeties = sufficient automatic merit for stats, matches = sufficient competitive merit that appeared easy to get?
Have to agree with others that a sports management major seems overly specialized toward a very limited career direction, and may signal to other employers that the applicant is not really interested and will leave for a sports business job at first opportunity.
It seems to be one of those majors that sounds a lot better to high school students than the job market. Computer game design may be another major with similar characteristics.
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I agree that these ultra-specialization is neither necessary nor beneficial. There aren’t enough materials in the specialty to cover a 4-year+ curriculum. The schools that offer these majors do so partly to distinguish themselves (that they couldn’t otherwise), with limited, if any, benefits to their students.
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Until you’ve examined the curriculum of some of these programs, you would be under that misimpression. We literally split the states in half and went through each school that had programs. Yes, some where fluffy, but many were not.
Most of the classes in solid programs are business and thus transferable to, well, anything. There isn’t anything ultra-specialized when half of the required classes include general business, economics, finance, operations management, marketing, communications, business law, and analytics.
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I know a bunch who have the ticket sales jobs in basketball, hockey, and pro soccer (same ownership group). My niece had the hockey one. Fun? Sure but a lot of hours for little pay. She was not a sports management major, but International Affairs. She did it for about a year, went to a lot of hockey games, worked a lot of nights (when there were hockey games) and I don’t think she can tell you ONE thing about hockey except that it is played on ice. The other kids who had the job were also from many different colleges with many different majors. Many of them were connected through their old days in catholic schools and youth sports. If that’s the job your son wants, he could have it now (although with covid I’m sure they’ve cut back on sales jobs).
My daughter’s roommate was a sports management major and did get a marketing type job with a new women’s soccer team. Fun, very low pay, I think she got it through connections and could take it because her parents were willing to support her.
My brother was a sports management major. He owns and runs a youth sports organization. He makes his money through kids signing up for his teams, but to keep it running he has to do a lot of work for the leagues they play in like getting the fields, making the game schedules, hiring the refs. And OH does he spend a lot of time talking to mothers about their kids, the teams they are on, the teams their friends are on, the nights they have practice, why he scheduled a game when Junior’s school in on spring break… He works all the time. Those making big bucks in youth sports are the tournament organizers and travel team owners.
So…don’t spend more than you can afford. He’ll make the connections he needs at any of the schools you listed, but he’ll have to do all the work to make those connections.
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I would say Reputation is more important because employers are going to ask “what school you went too?” and not “how much you spent at those places?”.
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@Mom2SandG , can you share more about your Syracuse research? The Syracuse SM program seems fantastic, but we’re not sure about the “personality” fit for D. We researched every bit of digital content, talked to students, admissions counselor, etc, but could not visit campus. It’s a big place so presumably students find their friend groups and community…do you have a good idea what the vibe is like for the Falk SM students?
I think that type of career is much more about hustle (which it sounds like your son has) and who you know in the sports industry, than it is about college or major. He’s also limited himself to soccer, which hopefully he will learn to broaden to other sports.
I currently know 2 kids who recently graduated with that degree and are struggling to find related work (pre-Covid).
I went to college with Steve Levy (ESPN). We attended a small state university in the shadows of Syracuse’s Newhouse School. He lived in my dorm, on the same floor, and he hustled from day 1, hosting a sports show on our campus radio station (the only big sport we had was ice hockey, so no advantage of a big, multi-sport school like Syracuse). Obviously he continued to find success in the sports industry after graduation, but my point is if your son has the passion for SM and the hustle to get his name out there and to take advantage of any opportunity, then it doesn’t matter what school he goes to (unless you find one that has a direct pipeline to professional soccer management).
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That sounds like a business degree. If that’s the case, why not major in business with a minor in the specialty? It should be more broadly marketable and far less restrictive.
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I hire for a living, and have done so for 35+ years. Mostly huge corporations but a few smaller organizations along the way.
The problem with the specialized degrees is NOT the curriculum and how much "fluff’ is there-- you are looking at the wrong thing. The problem is down the road- the kid with the master’s degree in real estate finance, interviewing for a job while the industry is in a downturn (which happens) being asked “why should we hire you vs. someone with an MBA?” or “how do we know you won’t leave once the real estate industry turns around?”. Same question for sports management, hospitality/hotel, travel/tourism, etc.
You can get a degree in anything- but predicting the labor markets down the road ain’t so easy. And my heart breaks for the kids who majored in petroleum engineering (which used to be thought of as a “sure thing”) who graduate into a major downturn in oil and gas, instead of majoring in mechanical or chemical engineering which can get you a job in oil and gas, as well as in 30 other sectors which are not so cyclical.
I’d be encouraging your son to investigate the career paths of the people who have the jobs he wants, as suggested above. I’d be encouraging him to explore a more fungible Plan B- agree that the trends of hiring analytics, accounting, finance, math folks in sports is likely not going away AND gives him a more flexible degree if he graduates into a hiring trough in soccer (it happens). I know a LOT of sports management young folks in real life who are still grinding away at their “survival jobs” (if they haven’t been eliminated due to Covid) wondering why the job they wanted at ESPN went to someone with a degree in statistics, or the job they wanted with the NFL went to someone who majored in English.
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Mostly the second, based on the experience of older siblings. Dd21 has 18 college acceptances (covid made her a little nuts). Some gave more than expected, some less, some were a merit reach (Elon and JMU, did get a fellowship interview and a letter from JMU asking if she was really interested before being considered for a scholarship). She will make her decision after all merit offers are received (mostly public schools with a handful of privates). I really don’t think the college matters that much with her major, maybe the particular program (actuarial science, some offer some exams with the program).
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I 100% agree about not getting the specialized degree (unless they are very technical). I have one (BS and MS). Early in my career I had to do a lot of defending of my degree. Even when I was considering a PhD, my professors were suggesting to get on in the more general field due to future opportunities. Nobody that is recruiting for a job in the sports industry will exclude someone with a general business degree. People that are recruiting for other fields will exclude sports management degrees.
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