Keep in mind that D1 schools can not talk to him until June 15 after his sophomore year. He should start emailing and fill out recruiting questionnaires prior to that date(maybe after freshman year season?) to get on their radar. Just don’t expect any meaningful replies yet.
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That’s what makes giving you any meaningful advice so difficult. Those are all important things, along with location, weather, support for hobbies, etc.
I’d start by visiting three schools in your home state (what state is that?). Go see the big engineering flagship, a small D3 school and a medium size school somewhere in the 10-20K range. See what resonates with him.
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Agree with the suggestion above - just recognize that what resonates with your son now may change as he grows and matures. (Also coaches may come and go over the years.)
ETA: Meant to reply to the thread.
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Your son is young. I understand that the coach is asking, but really, a lot of this will depend on how he matures both as a student and as an athlete. The right place to do both will depend on how strong he on both fronts.
Andrew Luck was an engineering major. Clearly a very smart guy as well as a truly exceptional athlete. This says that for students with a certain set of athletic and academic abilities, there’s no need to choose.
With that said, there are kids who are going to find they can’t do both at the highest level, and then, you’re going to need to fugure out what the right place for sport and for academics as well as overall vibe.
At this point, you can provide an aspirational list. Until he’s had a couple of yeats of high school under his belt, it’s going to be hard to pinpoint the right kind of place for him to flourish academically.
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That’s my point. I don’t think that what resonates with him will stay stable. So, my thought is that the list should be as varied as possible, with the limits being a) has engineering and b) has soccer. So, I’m just looking to find ideas of schools I wouldn’t have thought of, in hopes that when he does know what he wants, those coaches will know he exists.
Because he’s got an older sibling and older cousins, and because we’re a family who likes to watch college sports, he’s been on a bunch of campuses. But I don’t think that how he feels now will be a reliable predictor of how he’ll feel at 16 or 17. He is also a very enthusiastic kid, so everywhere we go he’s like “I could be happy here”.
Do a mix. Stanford. Princeton, Tufts, Union, etc. These all have great non-engineering options if his focus changes.
Since the student is not even close to applying to college, the college admission credentials can only be guessed at.
It is not less selective schools that have to be screened out, since they are accessible by both top-end and not-so-top-end students. But too selective schools may be unrealistic for some students.
Western Michigan. Marquette. U of Louisville. SLU.
If he truly wants to do both, he will figure out a way.
Adding MSOE and Carthage in WI.
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I feel like I’m asking about mid level selective? I know what the most selective schools for engineering are, and we’ll put the ones that have soccer on the list, in case it turns out he’s a candidate. And if a school isn’t selective at all, then he’ll be able to get in whether he puts them on the list. So, it’s the schools that are in the middle that I’m asking about.
For example, South Dakota School of Mines, listed above, is a school I didn’t know anything about. But it might have everything he’s looking for. So, I’m grateful for that recommendation!
A lot of the kids on his team have every Ivy and every NESCAC on their list. So, I’m curious about the idea that D3 schools shouldn’t be there. If kids are emailing the NESCAC’s why not other D3 schools? I do wonder if a D3 is more realistic because of the engineering, even if he does end up good enough to play D1.
We are thinking about this very question right now with regard to s26 (ECNL goalkeeper, 4.0uw/4.4w, top 2% PSAT).
A couple of recent “realizations” are:
(1) true D1 soccer prospects are much more rare than most parents realize; of 100+ seniors in our club the last couple years, only 3-4 have been good enough to make a D1 roster as anything more than a preferred walk-on, while
(2) most engineering programs worth attending are at schools with D1 athletic programs.
And so, making soccer and engineering work is a bit of a “threading the needle” exercise unless your player is pretty fantastic at the soccer side of it.
Ours being a “very solid but not top 3%” player on the field, while having pretty serious academic chops, we are looking at academic D3 schools more so than D1, and the options there are a bit limited because most academic D3’s are liberal arts focused.
I agree with others mentioning schools like Tufts, Union, Lafayette, etc. Also look at Worcester, RPI, Rochester and the like. You can toss Carnegie Mellon, Hopkins, etc. in there if the academic potential matches, but have to realize that unlike in football, there is no magic bullet their coaches can use to leverage a borderline case past the admissions office - they have to get into the university first, and then make the soccer roster, not vice versa as usual.
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Great points! I’d also add WashU to this list. D3 with great engineering.
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You can’t discount burnout either. One of my best friends has two kids that were D1 caliber. One played for a single year and quit. The other quit her senior year of high school. She was the captain and the 10 on team that played in a flying league between Dallas and Detroit, won the Surf Cup and the U16 National Championship and she simply walked away. She could have played pretty much anywhere. TLDR: keep it fun. 
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For sure, that could happen. Or he could be injured or become ill.
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Don’t get me started on concussions, broken fingers, a torn ACL, a deviated septum, cleat marks in the chest, etc…
It reminds me of the quote in one of the Jason Bourne movies, “Look what they make you give.”
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I totally agree with your point #1, although it appears my kid might be part of that tiny percent?
But there are plenty of excellent D2 and D3 engineering programs.
The point about waiting on the d3 schools is that there is no advantage to contacting them when your son is in 8th grade. The NESCACs won’t give any offers before July of your son’s senior year. You can get on their radar in your son’s sophomore year and be heavily recruited. It won’t hurt to contact them, but it probably won’t help, so if you want to narrow the pool of all schools that’s one way – hold off on the d3s.
You can shoot high academically. I know kids that played soccer at Stanford and Duke. The Stanford player had to hit a 1250 on the SAT, so there’s quite a bit of leeway. (He was an impact player at Stanford, I don’t know if everyone has the same bar).
I wouldn’t sweat it too much. If your son is a Stanford level player the coaches will find him and be all over him. Your recruiting pathway will be different from most here on CC.
Also, if he’s at that level, is he thinking of going pro? That’s a thing to consider as you think of future plans. Both the Duke and Stanford players I know are in the MLS now, and have an eye on Europe.
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Basketball is the only college sport where this is fairly accurate in 8th grade.
Hence my saying “might”.
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I think Tufts, WashU, Case Western, Rochester, RIT, RPI, WPI, Clarkson, Colorado School of Mines, CMU, I could go on…
Would disagree with you
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Is playing a D1 sport and studying engineering realistic at a place like Purdue or Wisconsin?