Option 1: Accept an offer to play NCAA Divison 1 sports on a high ranked team at a huge sports school in a sport that you love and have given blood, sweat and tears to become the athlete that you are. The school is not selective and rank middle of the road. Others have said it may be challenging trying to get in top graduate programs or top companies upon graduation.
Option 2: Accept admission offer to a highly reputable, highly selective T20 school that is the dream school and the inspiraion behind the achievement in academics and leadership.
It is unbelieveable to be offered these opportunities, only they are at different schools and you have to pick one. Both are literally goals you have worked towards you entire life. You are in a complete quandry. Other considerations: Financial will be the same at both schools. Both are easy travel from home. Weather is not an issue. Both are similar in size and about an hour outside the city center. You know kids at both schools.
It will feel very unnatural to decline the highly ranked school or the highly ranked D1 program. Love to hear others’ perspective, students, student athletes, parents. Thanks.
Is this a real situation? I’m doubtful. If someone is a D1 athlete why wouldn’t they be able to play their sport at the T20? Unless the T20 doesn’t have that sport? Or unless the T20 is Stanford? In which case, pick Stanford! (Or Georgetown, or U Michigan etc).
Well, first I would probably not have this choice, as if I were a D1 athlete concerned about high academics I would have applied to selective D3 schools where my athletic prowess would help get me admitted, and I’d have the best of both worlds, playing my sport at a prestigious institution.
But since that’s not your choice, the answer between the two is very clear: decline the D1, accept the T20. It will hurt to close the doors on your athletic dreams, but attending the best school academically that sets you up for a successful future is clearly the best option. Look at the rest of your life, not just the next four years.
(And you’ve heard the excellent advice – what happens if you get injured and can’t play your sport? Then you are stuck at a mediocre institution AND not playing.)
Seems unlikely that someone would get a D1 athletic offer at a high performing athletic school singularly. Generally those kids have multiple offers. But if this is truly the case, examine what you really want out of life. The ball field will end at some point, at some level. I assume this level isn’t professional or you would likely have several scholarships to play in college. That said, if playing your sport is what makes you tick (and I would understand that), it may make you a better student as the void might really effect you.
You don’t specify what type of academics interest you. Often, athletes are viewed favorably in the business world (in many roles -not just sales) because they have proven tenacity, resilience, work ethic, team work (assuming team sport), etc. Those are attractive qualities. If you’re a STEM oriented student, really hard to do that with D1 sports - essentially a full time job.
I suggest really doing some soul searching. What will make you happy? What will help you launch? Can you combine them? Lot to think about.
I don’t agree that D1 athletes cannot be combined with STEM or top academics. Stanford, Duke, ND, Rice all have athletes who are also in engineering, math, physics. Yale had an All American lacrosse player who had a 3.96 gpa.
and I don’t agree that it’s a no brainer to choose the top 20 academics over the sports powerhouse. that 4 year experience as a D1 athlete is something you will carry with you forever. who are we do judge what’s more important to you? heck it might even open up connections with alumni that will take you farther than a T20 diploma.
again, we would really need more details about the schools and sport, but it is certainly not so black and white.
If I had the chance to play football for, say, Clemson, vs go to Cornell and play football there…no so sure I would choose the Ivy.
If you want the best possible academic experience, how will you even have time for that as a D1 athlete? As others have said, I’m not sure how you ended up with only these two options.
Would it be correct to say that the T20 in this question is one of MIT, Chicago, JHU, Caltech, or WUStL, since these are the USNWR T20 national universities that are not in NCAA D1 for sports? (But then the OP could attend one of these and play the sport at the NCAA D3 level, where s/he and his/her NCAA D1-level athletic skill would be welcomed as a walk-on if not recruited as such.)
Because that’s not how it works. You have to be offered a spot by the coach, and just because one coach offers you one doesn’t mean other coaches will.
I understand that, but most of the top 20 schools are either the Ivy League, which generally is low level D1, or they are D3. If the OP is a strong D1 athlete they should be able to play at most top 20 schools. If they can’t play, to me that implies we are talking about a strong d1 school, and those would be Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Northwestern. If this is the case, I vote the strong d1/top academic school.
I didn’t say cannot be done, just that it’s really hard. They’re each really hard individually, let alone combined.
OP ask yourself what kind of college experience you want. Know athletes that love playing college sports. Know others that only do it for the scholarship. Know a third group that don’t NEED the money and would rather have a what many consider to be the typical college experience without all the required training, meeting. practice, etc. Really comes down to what you want.
I’m with those who think this doesn’t sound like a real scenario. Unless the spot at the sports school is a walk on. Anyway, in my view academics always trump sport. But it’s not always the case that ‘T20’ are better academically for a student than D1 sports schools. People could probably give better advice if the question had details rather than the ‘imagine if…’ approach.
Hello, Thanks for the replies. I didn’t want to give it away because everyone is on this site. To answer the questions, those are not the only two options, just the only two being considered. There are a few other acceptances at very good schools in the T40, but only one is T20 and happens to be the one of the two dream schools (waitlisted at the other one). This school has a team but they did not offer a spot on the team. Obviously that would have been ideal. If you are familiar with college sports recruiting process you know it is very grueling. There were multiple D1 offers and scholarships are involved with a couple of them. But we have funds reserved so it isn’t a concern. Two of the offers are from T40 schools and it might seem the best of both worlds but after the official visits I declined both because they were very high pressure and wanted me to commit without doing all my official visits. Red flag, and especially when neither one has a particularly good team.
Someone mentioned that he would not pursue middle of the road school. That was our strategy in the beginning, but this is a very good team, ranked top 25 in the country. It isn’t a pro sport. I am very flattered to be recruited by them. Sometimes good sports schools are not good academic schools. When serious athletes are in the mode, they get obsessed with it, as is my case. Maybe the logic subconsciously is either get into the best academic school or the best sports school that you can get in. But when both happen and they are not the same school, you are in a strange quandary. Two more weeks to make a life altering decision.
I am reading most think academics over sports. I would love to hear from someone with similar situation or student athlete also.
I also want to clarify that you can be a really strong athlete and get no offer. Today’s youth sports is extremely competitive. I have friends who homeschool to practice more hours, not to go to the Olympics, not to go pro, some don’t even want to do college sports, it is just so they can win. If you have been through the recruiting process, you know that a lot of it is what position a school needs at any given time, or the fit with the team, or you are simply calling at the wrong time, or one coach likes you but not the other, or not calling on the right schools that match your abilities. Sometimes it is even I didn’t hear from you for two weeks I thought you aren’t interested any more. It isn’t just if you are a strong athlete you are guaranteed to get a spot. There are too, too many strong athletes for the few college spots out there.