NCAA - College Admission Counseling

Choosing the Best College For You–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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NCAA Division 1 Swimmer Describes Working With Educational Consultant

Jared Hobson — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:54:52 +0000

Ally swims. Fast.
She was looking for help identifying schools that were the right match for her athletically, as well as academically. Although she lives in North Andover, Massachusetts, she chose to work with Mark Montgomery, in Denver, Colorado, to help her find the colleges that were the right fit.
Here she is explaining how it worked…in her own words.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

The post NCAA Division 1 Swimmer Describes Working With Educational Consultant first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

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.

The post To Play or Not to Play: College Sports and Academics first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Colleges Cut Costs By Cutting Sports

Jared Hobson — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:45:32 +0000

Yesterday I mentioned that the economic downturn has affected faculty recruitment at many universities, including the University of California system. Thus budget cutbacks are having a negative impact on the educational experience of students.

Universities are also cutting sports–or at least slashing their budgets. Very few NCAA sports programs break even, and even fewer make money: most are a drag on institutional budgets. As reported by the Associated Press,

In the five-year period through 2008, only 18 of 119 Division I athletic departments operated in the black, according to preliminary numbers compiled by Dan Fulks, an accounting professor at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., who has been an NCAA consultant for 20 years. Those numbers were before the economic downturn.

And one might argue (though in America college sports seem to be sacrosanct) that the amounts of money regularly poured into varsity athletics are unjustifiably high. So perhaps it’s a good thing that coaches’ budgets are being axed.

But whether we think this is a good or bad thing, there is no doubt that the faltering economy is having an impact on the student experience at many universities.

Here are some examples:

Some schools are eliminating new scholarships to less flashy sports, like cross country, track and field, and swimming.
Many schools are trimming travel budgets. For some schools this means fewer chartered plane and more commercial flights. For some this means more buses instead of airplanes. For others, it means traveling only to neighboring states.
Some are cutting insurance for walk-on players.
Media guides–hefty, eye-popping, public relations pieces–are being eliminated at many colleges.
Coaches are scheduling more practices and games during the day to save on nighttime lighting.

Some of these measures will be barely noticeable to most athletes (except those swimmers who were expecting scholarships in return for spending countless hours paddling back and forth across the pool). But if the economic downturn continues to affect college budgets, I would expect to see more cuts to athletic programs in the coming years.

Since most athletic programs do not pay for themselves, college presidents and boards of trustees will come under pressure to make further cuts to their institutional budgets. And as they do, expect them to focus more on trimming athletic budgets as a way to protect financial aid, faculty salaries, and student services that are shared by all students–rather than the small number of athletes in some sports.

What does this mean for students and their families who are shopping for colleges with particular sports? Be aware that some sports are much better funded than others, and that while a sport seems well-funded today, that doesn’t mean it will be well-funded tomorrow. Ask questions about the financial health of the program, and inquire as to what cuts already have been made in the last year or two. Don’t just assume that if your son or daughter gets a scholarship today that it will necessarily be extended all four years: that’s a guarantee that no coach can really make in these tough financial times.

Educational Consultant

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More Volleyball at Colorado Crossroads

Jared Hobson — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:50:06 +0000

This weekend I’ll be back at the Denver Convention Center dispensing Great College Advice to volleyball players and their families participating in the Colorado Crossroads national qualifier volleyball tournament.
It’s great fun talking to families about obtaining sports scholarships, the differences between NCAA Division 1 and NCAA Division 3 (see my post here), and how students can find ways to play in college–even without a full-ride scholarship.
I have to admit, too, that I’ve learned a ton about volleyball!
I’ll be there with my friend, Nancy Nitardy, a former Division 1 swim coach at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Indiana University. She helps coach kids about getting a sports scholarship. She also wrote a terrific book called, Get Paid to Play. We’ll have copies on sale at the tournament.
Mark Montgomery
Independent College Counselor

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