<p>Hi. I am trying to identify colleges for a very talented young goalie who is not in need of financial aid but who has a B average and would like to attend a college where his desire to play team hockey will give him that infamous athletes advantage.</p>
<p>He has the B at an academically sound school that often sends kids to top tier schools.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Is he a strong enough goalie to be recruited by varsity hockey programs, or would he be going as a walk-on?</p>
<p>Colorado College?</p>
<p>I think somewhere in-between.</p>
<p>I would think that his strategy would be to go through the hockey coach and try to get him as an advocate in admissions. If he’s not being heavily recruited, he may want to consider Division III hockey programs (I’m not sure that there is a Division II in men’s hockey). Here is a list of D-III schools:</p>
<p>[Men’s</a> NCAA Division 3 Hockey Rankings 2010-2011](<a href=“http://www.ushsho.com/d3mrank.htm]Men’s”>Men's NCAA Division 3 Hockey Rankings)</p>
<p>Cornell?</p>
<p>What would his major be? The College of Human Ecology, and the College of Ag. and Life Sciences have different admissions requirements than the College of Arts and Sciences does.</p>
<p>^^Check out the NCAA Division 3 rankings provided by gadad. The top 10 colleges should have something for you. :)</p>
<p>what kind of team does he currently play on? many elite teams participate in ‘showcase’ tournaments where college coaches gather to access talent. if he’s not at that level now he’s going to have a tough time.</p>
<p>If the GPA were a bit stronger and test scores are good I’d urge him to aim for one of the NESCAC schools. D-3 hockey is big there, and academics are outstanding. Hamilton, Bowdoin, Williams, Middlebury, and Amherst are all currently top 30 in D-3 hockey; Colby’s #37, Wesleyan #46, Trinity #47, Connecticut College #54. All great schools, but pretty reachy for a kid with a B average (Trinity and Conn college perhaps slightly less so than the others). </p>
<p>Among the other currently ranked D-3 teams, I’d say Hobart (#4), Skidmore (#33), and St. Olaf (#38) are very good schools and a bit less competitive in admissions than the NESCAC schools. Although little known outside its region, Gustavus Adolphus (#39) is regarded by many people in the Upper Midwest as being pretty close to St. Olaf academically; the difference is Gustavus is historically a Swedish Lutheran school, St. Olaf a Norwegian Lutheran school, which makes all the difference in the world to Swedes and Norwegians but no difference at all to the rest of the world. </p>
<p>I think he should put together a video showing what he can do in net and send it around to the coaches at some of these schools, and perhaps arrange a few school visits where he schedules a meeting with the coach. D-3 schools don’t have big athletic recruiting budgets, so athletes sometimes need to take the initiative. Getting the coach to advocate for the kid at admissions time can make a difference. But I’ve also heard a lot of stories about college coaches making big promises early in the process that turn out not to be as ironclad as the recruit thinks; and of coaches overselling how much influence they have with the admissions office. So I wouldn’t put too many eggs in that basket. The main thing, I think, is to come up with a list of schools that make sense for this kid academically and where being a recruited athlete is potentially an admissions plus, and/or where he has a good chance of making the team as a walk-on. If he’s not already being recruited by D-1 schools, that’s likely to be at the D-3 level.</p>
<p>University of New Hampshire</p>
<p>Is he a high school junior? What part of the country is he interested in? Type of school? Test scores?</p>
<p>I think UNH is D1. No chance unless he is very good.</p>
<p>Also find schools w/a graduating goalie, vs. one w/a freshman.</p>
<p>Manhattanville, Gustavus, Suffolk…</p>
<p>really, i think any school fielding a hockey team would give some sort of tip to a promising talent. goalies, especially, are a rare breed and difficult to find. if you look at the rosters of most schools you’ll find that many student athletes come from the junior leagues, which means they play a year or two of post high school hockey on clubs focused on getting their players into Dl or Dlll programs. so if one is not getting much interest right out of high school an option is to develop skills further via the various junior leagues. it will also increase connections with college coaches.</p>
<p>It is really surprising to me how many DIII college hockey players come out of junior hockey. Look at the roster for Hamline, a small liberal arts college in St. Paul, MN, currently #17 in the DIII rankings.
<a href=“http://www.hamline.edu/hamline_info/athletics/mens_hockey/1011/2010-11_roster.html[/url]”>http://www.hamline.edu/hamline_info/athletics/mens_hockey/1011/2010-11_roster.html</a>
Almost no one straight from high school.
Wow.</p>
<p>Junior hockey (Tier 1, Tier II and Junior A) are feeder leagues to the NCAA. Most college hockey coaches seem to prefer their players have some junior experience after high school and that they enter college at a later age. The players are bigger, faster and more mature.</p>
<p>S1 has two friends who could have played D3, but instead are playing juniors to hopefully snag a D1 gig.</p>
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<p>Except that of the 5 players on the Hamline roster who came straight out of HS, 2 are goalies. Or, looking at it the other way, 2 of the 4 goalies on the Hamline roster came straight from HS, making the goalie position pretty exceptional.</p>
<p>I think this may also be partly a regional thing. Both the Tier 1 junior hockey USHL and Tier 2 NAHL are Midwest-centric. In other parts of the country there’s only Tier 3 junior hockey, which is not always that big a deal. My impression is the Northeast LACs draw a lot of their hockey talent from top prep schools with strong hockey programs. I’m not in a position to compare these programs to Midwestern HS hockey but my guess is the prep schools can afford to pay for fancier facilities and higher-priced coaches.</p>