@Alexandre He has and will be attending Stanford and Duke this summer but again as a junior the offer isn’t there yet. He could certainly apply academically and try to walk on if accepted but at UF it is a preferred walk on which guarantees a roster spot as opposed to a walk on. With Stanford’s great financial aid(and CS reputation) it would be hard for him to say no even as a walk on if accepted academically.
He should also check out Michigan. The CS department is very good and highly recruited by Silicon Valley giants (150 graduates are hired by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon annually). With his credentials, even if he isn’t recruited for football, he could get a hefty scholarship. But what could be better than majoring in CS from one of the top 10 or 15 departments in the nation while playing football in front of 115,000 rabid fans.
OK, so given his talent, he’d have a decent chance of playing at UF.
He’d have a decent chance of playing at any P5 school, even if no scholarship, so I don’t think it matters if he gets the preferred walk-on designation or not. Coaches will want to utilize the best talent available regardless.
Few schools would be recruiting for his position (only once every few cycles). My advice would be to focus on the Ivies/equivalents (they all meet full need). Schools like ND and Vandy (and Duke, though the Duke ones are insanely tough to get) also offer big academic merit scholarships. Northwestern offers small ones but with fin aid, you may get a good offer there as well.
Top CS schools like Cal, UCLA, UMich, Texas, UW, UIUC, and UVa are worth considering if he gets in to CS there and they give the full-ride athletic scholarship.
Merit at ND is given to less than 20 students I believe. I do think their kicker will be a senior next year though.
Now if he is a kicker…U T needs a good one bc theirs entered the draft! Rabid fans and all!
Second UMich as well. Of course this is all me being biased and is not advice! Lol!
After football season, what is the expectations for working out whatever during the off season?
What if he didn’t make the team/
What if he made the team but didn’t play?
What if he was injured?
Do you think he would be better off surrounded by UFers or Ivyers or no difference? That is, would be be influenced greatly by the less academically inclined?
Where does he want to end up working after he graduates?
Also, why would he get the 60-70K left over? That is your money!
Does your son have any interest in playing two sports (such as football & soccer) during his undergraduate years ?
@bopper Both require off season workouts for football. If he didn’t make the team on either level he would still have academic scholarship at UF and FA at Ivy. It’s actually better not to be on athletic at UF so it isn’t pulled if he didn’t make the team and at Ivy you can always stop your sport without consequence. As for surrounded by UFers vs Ivy you also have to remember it would be UF honor students and dorm as his surroundings. No preference per say as far as location after graduation but of course silicon valley is a top destination for CS.
@Publisher He would have an interest in football primary sport and volleyball but most likely at the club level for fun.
Interesting results when I googled rankings of artificial intelligence/CS schools.
The Univ. of Florida did not make either of the two (one =top 25, other = top 20) lists that I found.
-
CMU
-
Stanford
-
MIT
-
Berkeley
-
Harvard
-
Yale
-
Cornell
-
Maryland
-
Columbia
-
Texas
-
UCLA
-
Michigan
-
Georgia Tech
-
U. Massachusetts
-
Illinois
-
Penn
-
USC
-
Caltech
-
Wisconsin
-
Georgia
-
University of Washington
-
Colo. State
-
U. Pittsburgh
-
South Dakota School of Mines & Tech.
-
Eastern Michigan
Another site ranked 20 schools from 2016 focused on undergraduate course offerings in AI :
-
Tennessee
-
Univ. Washington
-
Stanford
-
Georgia
-
U. Penn.
-
Berkeley
-
Michigan
-
Illinois
-
Northwestern
Duke, Florida, Rice, Notre Dame, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown were not on either list.
It seems clear to me that your son should target Stanford University.
Since he’s ranked top 25 at his position it doesn’t appear he has to compromise. He could have the best of both worlds at Michigan or Stanford. If he doesn’t need to commit now he should target those schools (along with the other Ivies) and see how it plays out.
Forgot about GTech. If he gets football scholarship there, that’s also good.
@Cookies510, teams generally only recruit one kid every few years for that position and often rely on walk-ons.
There may only be around 30 full athletic scholarships given out by FBS schools for that position a year, and most schools in FBS aren’t terribly elite academically.
A couple observations.
Playing football in the Pac12 (Stanford) is not the same as playing football in the SEC.
And besides kicker, there’s also the punter who cannot be hit legally, unless if either the kicker or the punter miss the ball, the kick is blocked, there’s a trick play, etc., then they’re considered just another player on the field and can be hit.
OP has a difficult choice. I’d be “fence sitting” myself. However, if the OP son’s major or department at any college they’re considering, is not highly ranked, then that might sway my decision to a school with a more highly ranked major or department, whether that’s Michigan, Stanford, Cal, etc.
ND has an excellent kicker in Justin Yoon. He’ll be a senior next season.
Being recruited as a walk-on, with aspirations of being a game-day player, is going to be a tough road. Even the chance of him practicing with the first team, or traveling, are slim. Please keep in mind that being a big fish in a small pond is a fantastic result, much less doing it at an Ivy. Take the long road and have him enjoy college as a means to the next step in life.
Being recruited as a top 25 position player as a walk on at Florida, might be a scholarship player at Northwestern.
Won’t be the same rabid fan experience as at Florida or other SEC schools, but the Big 10 does okay.
@PurpleTitan I know there are limitations, but since he’s a junior there’s no need to make a decision now and he should at least explore to see what opportunities may exist at Michigan, Stanford and other top academic programs within the power conferences. He has so much going for him that he should at a minimum identify these schools and contact the coaches of the programs.
@sushiritto While the Pac12 isn’t the SEC for football it’s still a big step up from the Ivy league in terms of the level of competition and bowl options.
A punter may get more in game practice if he plays on a team with bad offense against teams with good defense…
Seems like he will be spending a huge amount of time with other football players, so how strong the academic focus is within the football team should be highly important if peer group is of concern.
Right. The Pac12 and SEC are about as different as the Bundesliga and Premier League. Different teams and somewhat different styles of play, but Bundesliga teams do challenge for the Champions League title just like Pac12 teams challenge for the national championship.
The Ivy League is like the Estonian Meistriliiga in sporting terms.