My 2023 is looking to play a sport in college. She’s top of her class academically with good test scores. She is looking to major in the sciences. Her list includes many private d3’s, but she is having trouble finding public d3’s where average test scores aren’t far below hers. She’s willing to look Maine to New York/ PA and would love to add one or two public schools to her search list. Does anyone have any suggestions for schools to look into? Thanks!
Which sport?
PA has a lot of public schools that play D2 - West Chester, Slippery Rock, IUP.
If you go to the NCAA webpages, and search by her sport, it will give you all the schools in D3.
Soccer.
Thanks- She would like to find a fit where her grades/ test scores aren’t huge outliers. Finances matter though so it would be nice to have a public school on the list. I am feeling like our choices are public school where she would likely get scholarship money but be amongst the top students admitted academically, or private where she finds her niche and we pay through the roof. I’d love to find a public school in the Northeast that is slightly more selective with admissions- maybe ACT’s of 28 in their top 25%. I have been told some of the d1’s are selective but then we return to her playing a sport. She ruled out d1 due to wanting an academic balance.
Here’s the list. Mostly private, but several of the SUNYs have division 3 soccer (Cortland, New Palz). The College of NJ is academically higher.
Most of the public schools are regional (Eastern Connecticut). You’d have to check what their policies are on merit scholarships. Many public schools aren’t that generous to OOS students.
Look at the D2 schools. She could get an athletic scholarship and a merit scholarship.
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Thank you, I’ll have her look at all of your suggestions.
SUNY–Geneseo offers D3 women’s soccer and strong science programs, particularly in physics, and its 75th percentile ACT reaches 28.
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You’ve probably considered this, but it seems to me a d3 school where she could get substantial merit might make sense. We don’t know her academic stats, but schools like Hobart, Union, Denison, Kenyon, Skidmore, maybe Connecticut College (and many others) etc etc all offer merit aid to good students. Do some UAA (athletic league) offer merit?
All the public schools I can think of are D1 unless they are nonflagships with lower academic bars.
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She’s more likely to get higher merit packages at privates than publics. @cinnamon1212 has some good ones. Also check out Fairfield (if Catholic is okay), Juniata, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Wheaton, Allegheny, and St. Lawrence U.
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What about Binghamton? It’s a public D1, but it seems to fit the rest of your criteria. I know they offer scholarships to strong OOS students. Average ACT range is 29-32. It’s by far the most rigorous SUNY school and students work hard. I don’t know about athletic scholarships.
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My daughter had a 33 and merit brought tuition down to 28,500 OOS.
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As the parent of a D3 Men’s soccer player, I would recommend the OP and her daughter sort through the priorities in terms of soccer, cost, and school. So then, in terms of D3, is the priority merit money, to make cost of attendance more affordable? Recruiting, to get a student into a school with more competitive admissions that the student might not get into with coach support and ED application? Or, is recruiting just a way to narrow the field among possible schools as the student wants to keep competing and is looking for a program where she can play?
As mentioned, Conn Coll and Trinity College in CT both now give merit awards – though no D3 school can give merit awards for athletics. Some Centennial League schools in PA – Dickinson, Bryn Mawr and Muhlenberg give merit awards (though others, Franklin & Marshall and Haverford do not). Some Liberty League schools – St Lawrence, Hobart & William Smith – give merit awards, while others do not or do so only sparingly (Vassar not at all, Skidmore, some arts related merit, Bard seems to be tied to financial need). I don’t know the Landmark conference, but Susquehanna and Juniata are in that conference and I think they both give merit awards. If a family were willing to look to western PA and Ohio, then Allegheny College and Hiram College between Youngstown and Cleveland Ohio, might be of interest.
Another consideration is what role test optional may play going forward in admissions – if the OP’s student has a strong gpa, and schools of interest may still be test optional, then the admissions prospects may be more open.
Finally, the OP should head on over to the Athletic recruiting board where there are lots of experienced families with helpful advice about the recruiting process.
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What school, if you don’t mind me asking? This was directed the response of a student getting merit aid and bringing cost to under $30,000. That is what we are trying to do.
Not mjkacmom, but most of the private schools that accepted my D ended up being +/-$30,000 with merit aid. That includes most of the schools in my post.
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SUNY Geneseo. But do look at private schools unless you are looking at in-state publics. They are more likely to be generous with merit aid than OOS public’s. Also, if you qualify for need based aid and depending on her stats look at the NESCACS, as well as Liberty League and Centennial Conference schools.
Thank you, I will have her look.
Binghamton ties with two other SUNYs, Stony Brook and Buffalo, in U.S. News, at 88th in its category. By objective criteria, these schools appear to overlap in their academic attributes.
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SUNY Binghamton, the only other school she applied to that gave her more was st. Joe’s in Philadelphia, bring total costs down to $20,000. She mostly applied to public universities and got the cost down to around $35,000 for most (not all).
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She is referring to Binghamton.
I don’t think Buffalo is as rigorous as Bing, or at least it doesn’t have that reputation. Stony Brook is a good school with a lot of commuters. No doubt they both have programs they excel at.
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