<p>I really need advice from a parent (or student) who has been there, or is just very intuitive! My son plays a sport and is academically pretty strong. He applied to several schools and wants to play his sport there. Dilemma: It seems like either the strong school has weak sports, or the school with strong sports has weak academics. The range of academics is "Most Selective" to "Third Tier". The range of sports is "National play-offs" to ""never made the play-offs". This sport is my son's passion....it is what he cares most about. Academically, he is not the hardest working student, but is pretty bright. I have searched the internet for an article or something about how important it is to graduate from a well known college, a top 100 college, etc. versus getting a degree at a 3rd tier college.....I am just at a loss as to what to advise him. Are the "top" colleges merely "designer schools" or is their value measuarable? Is there any reason to go to a lower level college when you can go to a more prestigious one? Can anyone give me some of their wisdom on the subject? Parents or even students. Thank you!</p>
<p>IMHO college should be mainly about studying and academics and preparing for a career. Sports, routinely overemphasized, should be a distant second, unless he really is planning for a career as an athlete. What if your son got injured and couldn't play, and found himself at a mediocre university? You son should go to the best school that accepts him.</p>
<p>I agree wholeheartedly with the person above me. Unless he has an amazingly good chance of going pro-he should attend the best academic school possible.</p>
<p>Anyways, all it takes is one misstep in a game to tear his ACL or sprain his ankle, ruining his chances as a professional athlete and causing him to end up with a third tier degree.</p>
<p>Use the broken leg test, it actually happened to a freshman on DS team this year. The kid broke his leg the first day of training, it does happen. My first thought was I hoped this kid pick the school for the academics!</p>
<p>Additionally, this year's top sports teams may not be the top teams over the next 4 years. Look at GMU baskeball, who would have thought, never in history won an NCAA tournament game before this year.</p>
<p>Another angle to think about is what level your son would actually be contributing on that national playoff level team verses how much play time he might see on the lower ranked team with better academics. Most kids want to be actually playing and contributing to the team not sitting the bench. </p>
<p>At the end of the day (or end of 4 years) what was the purpose for attending college.....get the best education you can get, that includes academics, social, and opportunities. So it doesn't have ot mean the answer is the highest ranked school but make sure it is the best fit overall considering the academics heavily and the sports very lightly.</p>
<p>"3rd tier" sounds so terrible! Is that 3rd tier as defined by U.S. News and World Report? There are some very nice colleges that they call "3rd tier" that would probably be indistinguishable from many of the "ranked" colleges in the 75 - 100 range.</p>
<p>I agree with njres
true some schools have larger endowments and higher average scores and stats of their students- but I would hope all the schools on your list are ones where you would be happy attending, otherwise why have them on your list?
I also wouldn't corrolate prestige necessarily with rigor</p>
<p>This may sound way off base, but what about just letting your son decide what is most important to him? I know, I know, he's 18! I have no idea if we did what was right, but my D. sure has been happy. She chose to go to a very low rated school academically, but was national champions in equestrian and had a great equine program. She has been involved there 2.5 years and they have two national championships the past two years. Yes, her college name is not going to open any doors to anyone but those people involved with horses, but she followed her passion and if you don't do that when you're young, when do you do it? Of course, she is now saying when she finishes this degree she really needs to go somewhere else for more academic work as in another undergraduate degree or grad school. But these years have been great for her. When she's 30 and looks back she may relish the memories or she may say why the H.. didn't I go somewhere with tougher academics. Oh, if we could only have that crystal ball for a moment! But at least I can respond "Hey, you made the choice!" lol</p>
<p>My son faced the same dilema and in the end decided to pick his school based on academics and not athletics. His reasoning is that in the long run his brain was going to help him pay his bills not his arm.</p>
<p>I believe another question your son should ask himself is if he got injured and could never play his sport again, would he still be happy at the school?</p>
<p>Just my two cents worth.</p>
<p>I'm sure it's not as clear cut as athletics vs. academics. My older son chose a fourth tier school over a top 100 school - because the girls were cuter! And I didn't try to talk him out of it. Unless the "athletic" school is really, really bad I doubt that your son will be denied the opportunity to get a decent undergraduate education. It will be up to him to see what he can do with it.
I say he should follow his heart.</p>
<p>I guess I should add how another decision went in our family. My S. had the opportunity to play soccer at lower rated schools, but not at "top" schools at least in the geographic area he was interested in. He made the completely opposite decision of what our D. did. He decided that academics were the most important factor for him and chose to go to a school where he is academically challenged, but is not playing collegiate ball. Again though, the decision was his.</p>
<p>Your son should figure out just how much academics he is comfortable with. Des he wants to be in rigorous program? How about level of competition for the grade point?
Tier 3 has many wonderful schools which will give him excellent education. Maybe you and your child could visit some nearby places, let him sit on the classes and see where he feels comfortable. Sometimes kids make very surprising discoveries about themlseves after such visits.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if your son is pursuing his passion at a school with weaker academics, he will (a) be happy, and (b) have an easy time managing both the sport and the academics -- so more likely to end up with high GPA. If he chooses a more academically rigorous school, where he cannot pursue his sport, it is possible that he might be very unhappy, have to struggle to keep up, and end up with a poor GPA. So then the question becomes, what is better, graduating with honors from a 3rd tier university, or graduating with a C average from a top university? </p>
<p>I agree with all posters who say that this is a decision to be made by your son. I assume that the 3rd tier colleges with the sport that he lives for probably also are more likely to give your son generous scholarships, so if anything finances probably favor the sport. Your son does need to consider the possibility that he could be sidetracked due to injury..... but please don't stand in the way of your kid pursuing his passion. You never know where that will lead, but I don't think anyone has ever regretted doing what they love most.</p>
<p>Will he be able to get an equal amount of play time at each school? I assume that would be important to him, because being on a team as a bench-warmer isn't much fun. I mean, who cares how highly the sports team is ranked if you aren't a player? The situation might be that you can get better academics AND more play time if the higher academic level schools have a lower division sports team.</p>
<p>My nephew wanted to play football in college, so because of family reasons, I was asked to help him seek colleges etc.</p>
<p>Realizing that while my N was a decent player, he would never even be a star or even a starter in most big football schools, I checked the LAC's in Pa (he lived in NJ and I knew my sister wanted him to go to a school near NJ.)</p>
<p>I found that Dickinson College, had very good academic programs and reputation (my N was a good student), but a terrible football team (the previous year only one win) they had an excellent phy ed building and such for the football team (Washington Redskins trained there in the summer).</p>
<p>So I steered him to Dickinson, the Coach was impressed with my N abilities and academics - long story but, N went to Dickinson with a very good Financial aid package, played and graduated with a good degree.</p>
<p>It is always more important to get a challenging academic situation IMO, but consider the playing side, personally I would rather play on a poor or fair team then sit on the bench and only practice against the starters.</p>