We are having a hard time with this for several reasons. We need to identify schools before typical college counseling kicks in because my daughter wants to go to bb camps at colleges she’s thinking of attending.
The reaches are super easy and frankly the reaches are athletically the best fit for her so that’s not very helpful from what I’ve learned on this site.
I’m looking for schools that would be safeties academically but possibly have honors colleges. Maybe D2 schools that might offer her merit.
She is not a D1 big ten player. She is a D1 Ivy/D3 type player. I have watched a lot of their bb and frankly it’s pretty terrible so maybe she hovers between levels.
Academically she kicks butt at a super hard grading prep school (I think this will hurt her with merit as they don’t weight gpa at all and brag that only 7 seniors get a gpa above 3.8, ouch). She’s only a freshman.
I’ve read past threads where people had great ideas for colleges that I’d never considered. We’re in NE so that’s what I know. She doesn’t mind weather, but hates super hot.
As I said I need to start forming a list so that she can attend camps at some match/safety schools.
Since your daughter is a freshman you have some time, but it’s really smart to begin gathering info. The best place to learn about college recruiting is http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/ there is a wealth of knowledge from other parents and it tends to be more about high academic recruits.
eta: I see you have posted there already. good luck!
I’m totally unhelpful about sports in general but wanted to say not to worry about the school’s grading policy. A school report will be sent with her transcript so colleges will see her specific school’s policy and grade distribution.
It’s pretty early to target schools based on one semester of freshman year. What is the goal? Athletic scholarship? Using bball as a hook to get into a highly selective school?
Agree with ideas in #3 as a starting point.
If you expect she will continue to be a strong student and have an ACT of 30+, many D2 schools will be highly likely for her academically speaking. For safety/highly likely schools I am not sure she needs to attend a camp…I would start by filling out the schools’ online recruiting questionnaires and sending a video tape of highlights.
Does she play club ball? If so, can her coach/club admin help target schools?
Many honors colleges are within the larger public schools. Some ideas outside of those: College of Charleston, Pitt, Miami Ohio, Creighton, Fairleigh-Dickinson.
I don’t know a lot about the sports recruiting process but another thought is to look at small D1’s such as Davidson, Colgate, Bucknell, Wake Forest and Rice.
As the parent, have you done the financial planning to know what your college budget for your daughter is?
Once you know the budget, run some net price calculators at various colleges of interest to get an idea of where financial aid may put them in relation to your budget.
Remember that safeties must be unconditionally affordable. Remember also that if a merit or athletic scholarship is needed for affordability, that college’s reach/match/likely/safety assessment must be based on the scholarship, not admission.
Oops, I accidentally posted that and about the small D1’s and got distracted before I could edit. These schools would not really be safeties academically but they might be options to look at for basketball options if your daughter wants to look at D1’s.
Wow! Thank you so much to all. I did not expect so much excellent advice right away. I also expected to be told I needed to settle down and not jump the gun so thanks for validating that I do need to be researching now.
Regarding money. Technically we have enough. My grandmother started a fund for the kids when she died basically. However we are in a very high cost of living area and the other kids are going to be 100% full pay so this is the only one where I started to consider - hmm, could she get merit $ at a match/safety which would make it easier for her siblings (maybe I’ve been reading too many cc threads). I think if she got into some school like Princeton or Amherst which is a reach for anyone but is an almost perfect athletic fit with a truly amazing coach we would make it work. If that’s not going to happen though why pay full cost for a random D3 lac if she could go somewhere else that would be less of a financial burden. So goal is b-ball as a hook for only the most selective otherwise some merit money at a less selective but better than D3 athletically.
I do expect she will continue to be a strong student and I’d assume act above 30. She did fairly well on her ssat and I’ve seen on cc that ssat is not a bad predictor of sat scores. Her teachers say things like “she’s very impressive” at a school where everyone seems very impressive to me.
@momofsenior1 its my understanding the the school report will help with admissions (eg 3.8 was the highest senior gpa So my kids 3.79 looks good for admit) but that it does not help with merit money where a kid needs a 4.0 to qualify for example. in that situation they don’t take the schools rigor/grading policy into account??
I do realize I’m a bit all over the place. That’s why I posted. If I had a great list already I wouldn’t need all the good advice that can be found here.
Yes she does play club ball. The coach is brand new to her team which means he is just getting to know them. I have played with the idea of switching clubs but then she’s still be in the same situation.
D1 womens BB is generally a full ride scholarship. At lower academic schools that means the competition for the spot on the team can be fierce. Ivy League schools are D1, but there are no athletic scholarships. The FA can be very generous though, so run the Net Price Calculator for HYP and one of the other Ivies to get an idea. If the BB coach wants your D and her grades meet a lower bar, then she is in.
Following. These school suggestions are very helpful. I’m in New England so I don’t know if many colleges outside of the region. Although I remember thinking about applying to rice 50 years ago.
My second kid also thinks playing a sport may be where it’s at. I talked to a parent today at soccer who was bemoaning finding the right fit both academically and sports wise. It seemed to me (maybe because this parent is super New England centered) that almost nothing fit the bill. Everything is either not academic enough or the basketball is terrible. Talking to this parent made me start sweating because I was getting so anxious.
@AlwaysMoving yes. One of the issues is that I don’t think she is big ten bb material but academically she is likely ivy material. I have read enough in the recruiting forum to know that getting a hard yes from a coach at an ivy or a top nescac is hard hard hard no matter your abilities and credentials. So I’m looking for something that’s a bit more match/safety. Academically challenging but lower bb. I was thinking about state universities. The issue I’m finding is that the best universities tend to have tippy top bb teams. She’s not going to get recruited to play for Michigan or UVA. So I need schools that are that level academically but could use an ivy level/top nescac level player. Something so that when recruiting starts in earnest I’m not loosing sleep for two solid years over “will the coach/wont the coach.”
Yes, much of recruiting can be serendipitous…what position(s) a coach needs the year your D graduates, whether their program is fully funded, etc.
Many potential athletic recruits have two separate lists of schools…those where they would and would not play their sport. It will probably be straightforward to identify schools she likes, where she might get merit but not be able to play bball.
Then, pursue the recruiting by filling out the online questionnaires, using your club coach to help make introductions/recommendations (hopefully the new guy will get there), attending tourneys with the club team, showcases/camps as an individual, etc.
There will be ups and downs…the timing of things can put pressure on decisions, e.g., a safety school offers a scholarship with a two week deadline to decide, coaches who go AWOL, or whose communications or timelines are less than clear, maybe injuries, questioning whether she wants to play in college, etc. so be prepared for these types of things…CC is a good place to come vent, so your D is shielded from the stress that you might feel.
Hard to avoid this, lol!
In all seriousness, the process tends to be long with tricky communications. Recruits experience much of their college rejection in the summer/fall leading in to senior year, as the funnels tighten and coaches make their decisions. It can be emotionally taxing and your D will need your support.
First off, Rice is in Houston which is dreadfully hot and muggy. Houston has a lot to offer and the Rice campus is great, but it will be hot through part of October and warm up again before the end of spring semester.
One other thing I’ll just throw out there is that it might help to make a list of schools you think are the best academic fit just to see what you come up with. Sports are a great hook, but your number one priority is likely her broader education. It is very easy to get tied up on the sports and miss some other options. (I was a recruited athlete and remember how the sports felt so central until near the end. I chose the best academic fit where I could still play. No regrets. I also got to start all 4 years of college instead of sitting on the bench for two years.)
Do you have a sense of what direction she’ll go in academically?
The answer to this general question will be quite different if she wants to study finance or engineering or architecture or journalism vs. a liberal arts major, and even within liberal arts, different schools have different strengths. And if she’s pre-health or pre-[ ] then that has its own accompanying considerations.
At least basketball is an indoor sport. It’s true that summer in Houston is bleah but between Rice’s almost-excessive commitment to A/C and the fact that you don’t have to stay for the summer, I wouldn’t rule it out just based on that. However, some majors make it easier to achieve “escape velocity” after graduation than others. My social-scienc-y daughter ended up staying in Houston for her first job because that’s where the opportunities were, whereas her STEMmier friends had an easier time getting recruited outside of Texas.
I’m in the thick of athletic recruiting with a high D3/low D1 soccer player so analogous but different sport. And @one1ofeach my mantra, which I need to keep repeating is “enjoy the process” (because otherwise I get tightly wound!).
You are all over the map, which is where I expect most people starting the process are. It just isn’t clear to me what type of school you are considering a safety, and if the safety is bb or academics.
My son is hoping to use soccer to get into the most academically selective school he can. For him this means NESCACs or other academic D3’s. This is because as a low D1 player he is more likely to be an impact player on a D3 team. Looking for a large state school would mean the soccer level would be high D1, as a rule, and would be over his head athletically (meaning, he probably wouldn’t be recruited, and if he was he would be at the bottom of the roster).
I agree with the advice to make a rough list of schools where the basketball is a fit (D3) and then where the academics are a fit. And then see where they overlap. For example, if the Ivies are a fit academically but you have a d3 player, she won’t be recruited or play on the team, though she may get in!
I may not have followed your questions, but if you are saying the academic reaches are athletic safeties for her, then if she is recruited they become matches and not reaches. If you are looking for academic safeties where she could also play, I think you’d be looking at D3 schools that have a lower academic profile than, say, Amherst or Williams. So that might be Skidmore, or St. Lawrence, or Bard or Connecticut College, or Trinity or Union or the University of Rochester or Hobart (I could go on!) . But it wouldn’t be a school like Marist (d1) because although academically it would be a safety, athletically it probably wouldn’t.