Different era. But I’ll never forget Ralph James. Could have played basketball anywhere - he was the creme de la creme. Yet ended up at Harvard. Obviously his choice - but he was clearly prepared for all scenarios.
Then you have others - like tennis players - go to academies like Bollitieri or IMG. Another way of life.
The thing that scares me about altering an academic plan vs just keeping the same or as rigorous as one can handle is injury.
I also (generally) wouldn’t recommend altering a kid’s academic plan for athletics. Many who might look to be recruitable at some point don’t make it for many reasons…besides injury they can burn out, or have growth spurts that are detrimental to their ability to play their sport (e.g.,. gymnastics, golf), or just make the choice to do other ECs.
Although in our set of 1, S was recruited by both MIT and Caltech (although even with coach support, the odds were only 50/50). He took pretty much all AP courses across all subject matters, STEM and non-STEM. His only STEM activity was the school math team, no robotics, engineering or other science clubs. So I do think a well rounded student who is a really good athlete, can realistically aspire to highly rejective schools, including STEM heavy programs.
Now that we are through the process with both kids who were athletic recruits, I am of the opinion that youth sports is out of control. To get to the level that you are recruitable requires early specialization (unless you are a physical freak) which means time and money spent from at least junior HS. I am a big fan of what sports can do to help kids develop as a person, competition, teamwork, work ethic, perseverance, etc…, but you don’t need to be travelling 2-4 hours every weekend for nine months of the year to get those benefits. However, if you want to use athletics to get a boost into certain schools, you have to play the game.
I agree, and it’s taken me awhile to get there. That’s even with one of my kids who was very good at hockey early in his life (like 5-8 years old.) He joined an ‘elite’ team (makes me laugh now just saying that), where one time we played a team from our local area in Chicagoland in the finals of a tourney in Toronto. Ugh. (I will say a couple of kids on the ice that day have been drafted by the NHL, but none playing there quite yet.)
As one who has worked with many underprivileged athletes who wanted to play in college, the worse situation is ignoring academics for a chance to ‘make it big.’ Are some of these athletes I worked with playing pro now? Yep. Did some play in college and graduate, but not go pro. Also yes. But there are FAR more of these students who are ex-athletes without a college degree struggling just to get by in life.
And yes I agree there will always be exceptions that athletes without engineering type ECs might be able to go to MIT, et al and that’s why I hedged by saying ‘it likely won’t fly’
For years I have tried to convince parents on my kids’ travel and HS teams that if they are shooting for “scholarships”, their money is better spent on SAT/ACT prep and subject matter tutoring. The sports were equivalency sports, so even if they got a scholarship, it was likely to be just a quarter. There is a lot more money out there for URM/lower income students in academic scholarships and FA in wealthier, more selective schools. I was mostly met with blank stares and I think quite a bit of parents trying to relive their glory days through their kids.
Still valuable in the EC realm as it shows dedication and commitment. Going deep rather than broad. The “applying sideways” method. IF it is your son’s lesser-known sport, he would stick out much more than the “typical” robotics champion.
This may or may not be true, but the truth is that those schools are soooo rejective, no one will ever know why they didn’t get in. There is just as high of a chance of the student NOT getting in with a long list of ECs and academic highlights but no (athletic) hook.
As your kid is just starting high school, unless he is already a high-level academic/math standout, playing in these highly rejective schools while successfully majoring in engineering may be insurmountable. While his sport may help him get in, staying in the engineering program is another matter. When it comes time to apply, will he fit the “admitted student” profile or the “admitted athlete” profile? The “admitted athlete” may be fine majoring in exercise science or communications, but engineering may be a bridge too far.
Much of this is just too early to predict, even though you are being pushed to make the decision now. However, even if you do make that decision to move on with the sports angle, it doesn’t seem like it would be completely impossible to change the trajectory after freshman or sophomore year. Things to observe in the meantime would be:
Time management skills
Would he be happy doing ONLY his sport and academics in college, or does he need/want
“more”
Is he happy with only his teammates as close friends
How does stress and lack of sleep affect him
Where is is ranking academically and how much effort it takes
Will he be happy in academics with “doing enough,” or will perfectionism creep in
Can he reach out for help/protect his mental health
Two years down the road, he changes his mind… Still able to get into engineering. Unfortuantely for him, he’s in a bit of a unique situation with the super rejective nature of the D1 schools that have his sport and the complete lack of D3+sport/engineering schools. However, I looked at the schools with competitive club organizations and it’s just about every engineering school you’d want to look at. Unless he has Olympic aspirations, that might be the best of both worlds. I would try to check out a match or two and see the level of play.
Or maybe just saving and investing so that parental financial limitations will be less limiting on the student’s college choice. Parental financial limitations are often the primary limit on students’ college choices, and student achievement only matters within those cost constraints.
While saving is always a good thing, an investment in raising these kids’ grades and test scores would likely generate a much better financial return and frankly better life outcomes. Many of these teammates were unprepared for college/jr college and never completed a degree. The biggest waste was one of our star pitchers who played for a D1 program on a partial. She was a smart girl and aspired to med school. She could have played on my D’s D3 school, gotten significant FA (probably way more than her athletic scholarship) and dominated the NESCAC (and pursue a pre-med track). Instead, she fell off in her D1 career and is a technician rather than a doctor.
I just want to say that I am growing increasingly uncomfortable with this thread.
In the original thread you kept misunderstanding what I was asking. When you asked a question that had nothing to do with my situation, people suggested that you start another thread, which you did. I assumed you would start another thread on the same forum (my post was on the parents forum) to talk about the general idea of preparing kids for various majors, but instead you came to a different, unrelated forum, (note: I see now that it has been moved to athletics, which I appreciate) and posted a false narrative about my child.
So now we have a thread that seems to be all about my child, in which you state over and over that my child and I are doing things that we aren’t doing. And now you have claimed that the thread is somehow “yours” as if that absolves you of the obligation of incorporating the truth.
College Confidential has clear rules against starting posts about other people’s kids. I think they should apply here.
Sorry. I believe and the mods may say I’m incorrect - but I believe they moved it. I saw I message in my system that hinted that - it was moved to athletic recruiting.
I understand I misunderstood the initial. The topic just interested me.
Certainly the mods can close it. I’m not looking to upset anyone. And there’s been lots of informative to me responses - not about your son but what I thought the topic was.
I think the pressure to decide early is more about the family wanting to set the student on a path where they can balance both athletics and academics. Some sports have early recruiting timelines, and athletes need to dedicate time to training, which can take away from academic focus. That said, it’s probably not a hard rule to decide now, there’s still time to adjust. A well-rounded high school schedule, even if it’s STEM-heavy, keeps options open in case the athletic path doesn’t pan out.
When I was at UT-Austin, there was a guy named Raul Allegre who was also a civil engineering student. We were inducted into the CE honor society at the same time. He was UT’s football kicker and went on to play in the pros. He even kicked in a Super Bowl.
This thread will remain closed. If starting a thread that veers from an off-topic conversation in another thread, please be mindful of keeping to your own topic rather than referring in detail to another poster. Discussing other families’ decision process is inappropriate as it can easily lead to misunderstanding. Thank you for your understanding.
