So let’s say, theoretically, that Princeton showed interest in an athlete, but that athlete wasn’t particularly interested in Princeton. Do people string them along to get to the point where there is a financial aid pre-read, just to get other schools to match? I thought financial aid pre-reads happened late in the game, after the student and coach have pretty much decided they both want each other.
This is theoretical, I am not saying my kid wouldn’t jump at a chance to go to Princeton.
He has two Ultimate playing siblings! I could see him making that switch.
I think he would love WPI. It sounds like a really perfect fit for him. But I’m not sure we’d get enough aid. He would need at least $50K in aid, and I don’t know how realistic that is.
I have the same question about Case, CMU, and Rochester, three other schools named here that I think would be great fits, but not sure if they are realistic financially.
I am hesitant to put that much identifying information out there.
I will say that he’s academically very strong, at the top of his class at a demanding school where the top students tend to go to top schools. The feedback he’s gotten is that, without soccer, top schools like Princeton or MIT would be worth applying to, and he’s a strong candidate for Banneker-Key at UMD. Not to say he’d get those, but that it’s not unrealistic for him to apply.
That certainly is a possibility. Hopefully, coaches can discern who is truly interested. In Princeton’s case, they have a LOT to offer as a school. But there are plenty of athletic recruits in every conference that take official visits to schools that they have no intention of committing to. Because hey, free trip! Very disingenuous.
But, correct me if I’m wrong, with an offer in hand. Not the NPC. If OP would play club at UMD I imagine he is not a prospective Princeton recruit (ranked 7 and 8 respectively) with Stanford following.
Not for athletic recruits, no. Contact is enough at some schools.
I think you can move on from worrying about Engineering plus soccer being doable, having said that, he should make sure he is looking for schools he loves, even without soccer.
He came away from a UMD camp feeling like combining soccer and engineering there would not be realistic, or wouldn’t allow him to have the college experience he wants. That’s the best way I can put it. But he also doesn’t think he needs soccer to get into UMD.
I’m not saying that UMD is a safety, but I think his odds of getting in without using soccer as a hook are better than his odds of getting recruited, whereas, at Princeton, I think the opposite is true. So, if he decides he wants to go to Princeton, then trying to get recruited makes sense.
Has anyone mentioned University of Pittsburgh? This student might get sufficient aid to make this an affordable option.
The other place to check is West Virginia University (remember, it’s their engineering department students who figured out that whole VW issue with altering the mileage output).
I certainly hope not. And again, we are taking about this in the context of recruited athletes. What other specific schools are you talking about?
I understand that you are just reporting what he says. With that said, if he thinks the balance would be different at Princeton, I would not necessarily expect that to be the case. I would encourage him to continue doing research and asking questions of coaches and players.
Agreed. OP, would he be recruitable at UMD? Has he spoken with that coach? I am not really getting the vibe that soccer is that important to him, he is just thinking of using it opportunistically…is that accurate?
I think the challenge many athletes face when applying to schools like Princeton without the recruitment piece is their possible lack of other ECs. Many high level athletes have little time for deep activities beyond their sport. The academic piece is a given, but admissions will be looking at you to fill other buckets, not the athletic one. FWIW my athlete walked on because he was not quite at the level required to receive an athletic offer at his top choice school. We, with help from his college counselor, were very conscious of the narrative he crafted throughout his application.
My son was in a different sport but also focused on engineering. He definitely found in discussions with players and coaches that some of the large, public D1 schools discouraged athletes from engineering, so your son’s impression of UMD and playing club doesn’t surprise me (this particular school was not on my son’s list so I’m not relaying anything specific to them).
The smaller, academic focused schools - whether D1 or D3 - had definite expectations that academics came first and the sporting teams made adjustments to make things work. My son ended up at a UAA school which was a good fit for the balance being discussed here. Two of his top choices, Case Western and University of Rochester do offer merit and the merit is included in the preread process (at least it was 6! years ago when my son was in high school).
It sounds like your son has strong academics, so I wouldn’t rule out merit being able to bridge the gap, best of luck to him!
He has some decent EC’s, but I figure that still gives him the same chance as all the other applicants at any Ivy, which is probably somewhere in the single digits.
He went to a UMD camp, and afterwards told me he loved the school but he didn’t want to try to play there. I didn’t question it.
Fortunately he doesn’t need to worry about that yet. He can let the recruiting process move forward and he’ll know his options well before he’d need to apply as a non recruit.
My S22 was getting recruited harder at Lehigh than WPI. For Lehigh we did an academic and financial pre-read the summer before senior year. I think any school where he’s seriously talking with a coach you could ask for a financial aid pre read. The D3 schools aren’t going to give athletic money, but you never know about merit aid and possibly need based aid.
If you / he do end up thinking more about WPI feel free to ping me with any questions. Like any school, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns, but it was a really great fit for my guy and a wonderful experience.
He’s seen Pittsburgh because he tagged along on an older sibling’s tour. He liked it, although I think he likes UMD better. He might apply though, because UMD is a hard school to predict, and having another early admission would be good.
UMD notifies EA applicants of admission by Feb 1. In practice it’s usually one of the last days in January, for Class of 2030 it was Jan 30.
If he applies to Pitt in August, he should hear by end of October. But no guarantees.
UMD is a men’s soccer powerhouse. Someone not competitive for UMD soccer could well be a plausible Princeton soccer recruit.