Division 3 - Great College Advice

D3 Women’s Soccer Goalie: Recruiting Story

Andrea Aronson — Thu, 28 May 2015 12:15:02 +0000

In my ongoing series about collegiate sports and athletic recruiting, we now hear from a female soccer goalie who landed at a D3 school late in the game. Her philosophy (and a good one at that) was to wait and find the school that had what she wanted academically and culturally first and foremost and then the opportunity to play soccer was simply an added benefit!
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Name: Marie
Sport: Women’s Soccer
Position: Goalie
Athletic Conference Recruited to Play for: NCAA Division 3 – NEWMAC

When did you decide that you wanted to play at the varsity level in college?

I decided that I wanted to play soccer at the varsity level in college around sophomore year.

How did your recruiting process evolve?

My recruiting process began in my sophomore year when I attended my first recruiting clinic. After exploring the academic side/other aspects of several schools, I began reaching out to coaches. I gave them updates and let them know my tournament schedules. Through this exchange, I was able to get information on their recruiting clinics.

What did you feel was the most effective way to get seen and develop interest from coaches?

I felt the most effective way to get seen was through attending clinics on campus. The coaches were able to see me play through many aspects of the game (technical, tactical, fitness, etc.). These were also a good opportunity for me to receive evaluations from coaches and to step foot on campus. I attended one-day clinics, as well as one three-day overnight clinic.

I also created three videos (one with film from sophomore year games and training, one from junior year training, and one from senior year games and training) that I sent out to prospective coaches.

In addition, my club team attended many showcase tournaments (Bethesda, Disney, Columbia Invitational, Jefferson Cup, CASL, PA Classics) where coaches came to see me play.

When did you take your first SAT or ACT?

My club/prospective coaches did not encourage me to take the SATs/ACTs earlier than normal. I took my first SAT in March of my junior year, and I took my first ACT in June of my junior year.

When and how did coaches who were interested in you communicate with you?

The coaches that were interested in me communicated with me primarily through email before and after showcases. If I saw a coach at a showcase, I would say hello, but nothing in terms of recruiting. I also talked to coaches after clinics. And I would email them to thank them for the clinic and ask for an evaluation.

I also talked to some coaches on the phone; they called me first (Andrea’s note: a coach could only initiate a call to Marie based on stringent timelines established by the NCAA). The coach for the team I will be playing for communicated with me mainly by email. I also met with him in person twice, once without my parents, and once with my parents.

Please explain your “commitment” process.

I did not “commit” to the school before I actually applied for admission.

Why did you choose the school that you did?

I chose the school that I did because it has the academic program that I want, and everything just felt right while I was there. The people were nice; it had great volunteer opportunities; and it was a good size for me. If soccer wasn’t an option, I could still say that I would choose the same school that I chose. However, the players on the soccer team were very welcoming and the team seemed competitive. This was obviously a plus.

In the end, the recruiting process turned out for me as I expected. My ultimate goal was to choose a school that had my academic program and had opportunities for me to develop as a person.

Do you have any significant stories that affected your recruiting experience?

A coach who was interested in me contacted me throughout my years of high school. During my senior year, one of his players suffered an injury, and he was in need of a player in my position. He called me and wanted me to check out the school. I wasn’t able to visit the school, but I did as much research as possible and did not see the school as an academic fit.

It was difficult to turn it down, but I knew that it was important to look at the whole picture. I also got a severe concussion my junior year, which sidelined me for my entire high school season and some showcase tournaments for club season, so I was not able to be seen by as many coaches.

Any sage words of advice for others in your sport who are going through their own recruiting process?

Do not get too caught up in jumping to a decision as fast as you can. I committed in mid-April of my senior year, and I was the last person on my club team to commit to a school. Although it was stressful, everything was worth it. In the end, I felt it was helpful to take my time and truly look at each school for what it is. Remember that you are choosing a school, not just a soccer program.
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Click here to read about athlete’s recruiting experiences with D1 field hockey, and D1 women’s lacrosse.

Andrea Aronson
College Admissions Consultant
Westfield, NJ

The post D3 Women’s Soccer Goalie: Recruiting Story first appeared on Great College Advice.

Athletic Recruiting: Plan an Unofficial Visit

Andrea Aronson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:00:58 +0000

So, you want to play sports in college. If that’s the case, then you should start checking out potential colleges of interest a little earlier in your high school career than your non-sport-playing peers. Even though it may seem crazy when you’ve barely started high school to be looking at colleges. Visiting schools to get an idea of what they’re all about is never a bad idea. Take opportunities when you can. Stop by a school when you’re traveling somewhere on vacation. On a Saturday, check out schools that are close to home.

If you’ve identified a college that may be of interest to you, make a special point to visit that school. While on campus, why not make a little time to visit with the coach? Meeting with a coach is a great opportunity to ask questions about the school and the athletic program that you are interested in.

Not only will it give you more insight into the program and help you decide if you like the coach. But it’s also an excellent chance to market yourself. Be sure to contact the coach in advance of your visit to schedule an actual appointment. You don’t want to show up on campus hoping to speak to a coach and have no one there to see you!

Before you go, it’s also good idea to do a little bit of research about the college so that you can highlight to the coach the particular reasons why the school appeals to you. Spend some time on the school’s website. Read up on the school in one of the guidebooks to colleges. Check out YouTube to see if the school has a virtual tour, or go to one of the websites that offers virtual campus tours such as ecampustours.com or Youniversitytv.com.

For your appointment, be sure to take:

A copy of your transcript, so the coach can see what kind of student you are
A copy of your athletic resume

When you go, there’s no harm in having a parent be there with you. It may even be beneficial since your parents will ask questions that you won’t. Be nice to your parents, however! The coach will be observing you, and you want to leave the best possible impression. Coaches don’t want disrespectful players on their team.

Because you have initiated the contact with the coach, and you are paying for everything having to do with your visit (i.e. transportation, food, lodging). You are considered to be conducting an “unofficial visit”. “Official visits” are those where the athlete is invited by the coach to spend time with the college’s team and the athlete’s expenses are paid for by the school. (Note that “official visits” can’t happen until after a student’s junior year in high school.) There is no such thing as an “official visit” in NCAA Division III sports, since those schools will not pay to recruit athletes.

If you are on an early “unofficial visit”, and you don’t really know where you stand with respect to the team and the recruiting process at that school, frame your questions as exploratory (e.g., “Playing my sport in college is very important to me, so I’m interested in understanding your approach to the team and the student experience on the team and at the school.”)

If you are further along in the recruitment process, and you appear to be clearly on the coach’s radar for recruitment. Then you can be more direct and specific with your questions. Either way, don’t be afraid to ask questions of the coach when you meet. You need to have as clear an understanding as possible about where you stand as an athlete with that school. And, if you attend, what your experience will be like when you get there.

For a great list of possible questions to ask the coach, see my colleague Mark’s blog post here.

Andrea Aronson
College Admissions Counselor
Westfield, NJ

The post Athletic Recruiting: Plan an Unofficial Visit first appeared on Great College Advice.

Choosing a College: Considering Greek Life

Jared Hobson — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:51:10 +0000

One of the factors many consider to be central to the college experience in the United States is the social scene created and maintained by fraternities and sororities. Greek Life is an important aspect to the social life of many college students.
On one of my recent visits to a college campus, I met up with a former student of mine who will soon be a junior. He is a Division 1 wrestler, and as an athlete he has been discouraged from joining a fraternity. However, he attends a college that is very heavily Greek.
He explained what that contradiction means in this short video.

If you prefer, you can read the transcript below.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
********************

Interviewer:       So, hi.
Alex:       Yep.
Interviewer:       Alex, tell me, you’re a division 1 athlete, wrestler.
Alex:       Yep.
Interviewer:       What’s it like being an athlete? When you’re a division 1 athlete, what does that mean for you in college life?
Alex:       It means my college life is mainly academics and athletics. I told Mark earlier, there’s three points to a triangle in college, you got social, athletics and academics, you only need to succeed at two. So, one of them’s going to suffer, whether you choose athletics, social, or academics, is your choice, but it’s impossible to get all three, you just don’t have enough time to do it and they have rollover effects, so.
Interviewer:       And you’re an engineering major.
Alex:       Yeah.
Interviewer:       So you’re a little insane?
Alex:       Kind of, yeah. I enjoy it, it’s fun.
Interviewer:       So tell me, behind you, we have some fraternity houses here and there’s quite a few fraternities on this campus and so, oh, we know where we are now. So tell me, what percentage, what’s the story that you hear about that the percentage of students who are Greek and then what’s the reality?
Alex:       I think the school says like 30%, but I think they take that before the new pledge class and after the seniors have graduated, so it’s about half, so I think accurately, I think it’s around 60%, I’m making that up, but that’s just from my experience and how many fraternities/sororities I know and how many kids are in them and how many kids go to this school. So I would say around 60% are in some sort of Greek, whether it’s ones that are here, a few of them have off-campus houses, but are still university sponsored.
Mark:       And are you Greek?
Alex:       No.
Mark:       What does that mean for you, if you’ve got 50, 60% of the students here are in a house, what does that mean for you?
Alex:       I mean, I feel like Greek life fraternities, they provide a group of people to hang out with and do things together, and so if you don’t have that somewhere else, it’s kind of tough, but luckily for me, in the wrestling team, is my fraternity. A lot of times are spent practicing, but we also hang out together, those living off campus, so that’s, I mean, if you’re not in a fraternity or sorority, you have to have another group of people to be with.
Mark:       So what would you say to someone who really doesn’t know, you know, is a high school student and hasn’t thought very long and hard about this whole fraternity issue. What would you tell them to think about as they’re trying to make a decision whether they want to go to a campus that’s heavily Greek or to avoid that? What would you say?
Alex:       I don’t know, I feel like, I’ve never been to a different university that isn’t predominantly Greek, but I feel like even if you go to those schools and at least the ones I talk to, my friends, some of them go to bigger state universities, that aren’t Greek, it still comes down to the same thing, you need a group of people that are, to hang out with, and like the thing a fraternity provides is the people that tend to be very similar interest and exactly like you. Some people don’t like that, some people like to have a diverse group of friends. It kind of depends on what you want. But fraternities/sororities just happen to be people that a lot of times are carbon copies or want to be, so, yeah.

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To Play or Not to Play: College Sports and Academics

Jared Hobson — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:44:08 +0000

I am of two minds when my students consider playing sports in college.
Those recruited and hoping to continue following their athletic passion can surely increase their admissibility at many selective colleges. As we know, schools aim to construct a class of students who bring diverse skills and abilities; one year a selective liberal arts school may be desperate for a bassoon player, while the next year they need a lacrosse goalie. If they really need a goalie, and you are it, you may not need quite the academic profile that is usually required for admission; you must be in the range, yet you could be in the lower end of the range and still get in, especially if you are wiling to apply early decision. The school is then assured that they will have their lacrosse goalie.
And you may be dying to play!! Many high school student athletes love their sport, and cannot imagine life without the camaraderie, the thrill, and the inherent structure that team membership provides. Division 1 is a year long commitment, while Division 3 can often be seasonal.
Yet I ask each student athlete to be certain that they want to continue down the athletic path. A high school basketball player does not know how many new opportunities he/she will discover in so many of our rich college environments. One may actually want to attend a lecture when Warren Buffett or Steven Colbert comes to campus, and demands of practice and academics will eliminate many tempting options on any given evening. Many students never thought that a lecture would ever rival a athletic commitment, but, as we hope, students do discover many new interests in stimulating college environments.
Further, student athletes often emphasize a good fit with a coach or an athletic program, and not look as closely at an overall fit at any given school. Most likely you will not end up as a professional swimmer or football player, so please consider what school may help you grow as a person and an academician, not just an athlete.
All that said, a recruited athlete is in a wonderful position to gain admission to a school which would be a reach without the support of a coach. Additionally, friendships nurtured on the practice field often make for a home within a home at college. Student athletes often treasure their teammates for decades.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant
PS: Check out this link for questions to ask coaches who are recruiting you for NCAA or NAIA play.
PPS: Check out this link for more about the differences between Division 1 and Division 3.

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