D3 Athletic for Merit Scholarship?

twoinanddone
Sun, 10 Dec 2023 17:24:19 +0000

What is your daughter planning to study? Although a school may not be top 30 in overall ranking, a particular school might be tops in engineering, music, theater, etc., have her sport, have merit scholarships, etc. My daughter had a lot of LACs recruiting her but she wanted engineering so those were out, even if they were higher ranked than the school she chose (Smith, Kenyon, Rhodes, Center). She had D1 schools recruiting her but they were small or had teams that weren’t competitive.

You can read the very long (very long) thread from this application cycle of a parent/student who wanted to be recruited but it was more important to that family to have a top ranked academic school that wasn’t an athletic match to the student athlete. They made the decision of where to apply based on what was important to their family (school ranking) and that’s okay to do; you just have to realize it is unlikely to have it all of a top ranked school that gives merit and that will recruit your student (and in your case, not require an ED app). You can try for it, but it is a rare unicorn.

My daughter could have gone to UF, but she couldn’t have played her sport there (they were ranked 4th in the country at the time). She could have gone to Smith, studied general engineering (not what she wanted) and probably gotten good FA, and been a superstar on a pretty bad team, but she really didn’t like Smith (neither did I). We kept an open mind at when looking at other schools and it worked out. My father and brother thought she was a fool for passing on Smith, but she didn’t like it! It worked out for her. Her team went to the NCAA tournament twice, she played a lot, she graduated with little debt and got a job. She’s now making as much as an engineer 6 years out that I made at my top salary.

Decide what is important to you and your family. If you want a top ranked school, I think you’ll have to pay for it or take the NMF/instate option where she may not get to play her varsity sport (club may be available).