DAP vs ISL

[Unregistered]

There's the BTDT soccer/educational theory in a nutshell. Beyond telling.

What makes you think only one person holds that view? Bet if you took a poll of a group of U14-15 parents, many more would say they were hopefully targeting a D1 scholarship than targeting a D3 admission.

[Unregistered]

What makes you think only one person holds that view? Bet if you took a poll of a group of U14-15 parents, many more would say they were hopefully targeting a D1 scholarship than targeting a D3 admission.

Pay attention to your own arguments, DDBB. While I doubt your are correct (a poll of which U14/U15 parents?), you were talking about full rides to prep school that we know don't exist. And there is no way that the majority of ISL athletes are "targeting D1 scholarships." You just can't accept that MANY are thrilled with a D3 admission (and not ust as an after the fact face-saving stance). Just because you don't allow that in your home doesn't mean that everyone else does.

[Unregistered]

Place academics first

A lot of the kids I see playing D1 in soccer from DAP teams are not getting into top ACADEMIC D1 schools. I have former teammates that are playing soccer in college but the majority are not at colleges I would want to attend based on their academic caliber. The schools were chosen based on soccer not academics.

If your kid is smart enough to go to the better ISL schools, he will want a top academic college which is what you have stated you are looking for. ISL soccer is fairly mediocre and you sonr may or may not get recruited from an ISL school to play soccer at one of the top academic colleges, D1 or D3. He may get injured, or bored with soccer, or might not be good enough vs the very high competition seen for spots at top academic colleges. However, if he focuses on academics and does moderately well or better at his ISL school, he has a much better chance of getting into a top academic school based on ACADEMICS not on soccer. There is more financial aid and merit aid available in colleges in the USA than there is athletic money. Make a focus on academics first and put the soccer decision second. The Ivies and NESCAC schools like Bowdoin, Williams don't give athletic $ but are generous with need based aid. The are other academically strong schools in different parts of the country that do give generous merit aid to students with strong grades/test scores.

[Unregistered]

A lot of the kids I see playing D1 in soccer from DAP teams are not getting into top ACADEMIC D1 schools. I have former teammates that are playing soccer in college but the majority are not at colleges I would want to attend based on their academic caliber. The schools were chosen based on soccer not academics.

If your kid is smart enough to go to the better ISL schools, he will want a top academic college which is what you have stated you are looking for. ISL soccer is fairly mediocre and you sonr may or may not get recruited from an ISL school to play soccer at one of the top academic colleges, D1 or D3. He may get injured, or bored with soccer, or might not be good enough vs the very high competition seen for spots at top academic colleges. However, if he focuses on academics and does moderately well or better at his ISL school, he has a much better chance of getting into a top academic school based on ACADEMICS not on soccer. There is more financial aid and merit aid available in colleges in the USA than there is athletic money. Make a focus on academics first and put the soccer decision second. The Ivies and NESCAC schools like Bowdoin, Williams don't give athletic $ but are generous with need based aid. The are other academically strong schools in different parts of the country that do give generous merit aid to students with strong grades/test scores.

Great post. Thank you! Question: don't the D1 ivies like Harvard and Stanford offer athletic scholarships?

[Unregistered]

Great post. Thank you! Question: don't the D1 ivies like Harvard and Stanford offer athletic scholarships?

Harvard is Ivy League and it does not have athletic scholarahips--it but does have very generous financial aid packages--arguably one of the most generous in the country. A top athlete with some demonstrated financial need will certainly get some aid through their system. Most of their students--athletes or not--get a good bit of aid.

Stanford is not Ivy League (although it is obviously Ivy-quality academically). It is in the Pac-12 and it does offers athletic scholarships.

[Unregistered]

has Needham HS Boys named a new head coach yet?

[Unregistered]

Who cares? What does it have to do with this thread?

[Unregistered]

A lot of the kids I see playing D1 in soccer from DAP teams are not getting into top ACADEMIC D1 schools. I have former teammates that are playing soccer in college but the majority are not at colleges I would want to attend based on their academic caliber. The schools were chosen based on soccer not academics.

If your kid is smart enough to go to the better ISL schools, he will want a top academic college which is what you have stated you are looking for. ISL soccer is fairly mediocre and you sonr may or may not get recruited from an ISL school to play soccer at one of the top academic colleges, D1 or D3. He may get injured, or bored with soccer, or might not be good enough vs the very high competition seen for spots at top academic colleges. However, if he focuses on academics and does moderately well or better at his ISL school, he has a much better chance of getting into a top academic school based on ACADEMICS not on soccer. There is more financial aid and merit aid available in colleges in the USA than there is athletic money. Make a focus on academics first and put the soccer decision second. The Ivies and NESCAC schools like Bowdoin, Williams don't give athletic $ but are generous with need based aid. The are other academically strong schools in different parts of the country that do give generous merit aid to students with strong grades/test scores.

ISL soccer is certainly not DAP quality, but it is probably the highest quality HS soccer in EMass (not including the prep schools that have post-grads). I don't think its quite fair to call it "mediocre." Virtually all of the ISL schools with consistently good soccer teams (Nobles, Lawrence, Rivers, Milton, etc) have at least 2-3 (or more) kids who are recruited to play in college each year (some D1, some D3). A few are even able to get waivers and play in both DAP and ISL. And there are plenty examples of good players from other ISL schools who also are recruited to play in college each year. My guess is that if you are a high quality ISL player, you are probably a pretty good bet for a college team--a kid who is likely academically prepared for college and capable of being a contributor on the college team.

[Unregistered]

We don't know the OP's whole situation. Someone brought up Newton North as an example. The top 20 or 50 students there are attending just as prestigious a roster of colleges as an ISL. But if you shift the numbers to talk in %s, the isl would look better. You did not say your public HS was an option, but if the ISl offer is not full aid, maybe the amount you would be paying is better saved for college.

Another thing we don't know is the attributes of the school soccer program. Most of them go up and down with the group of kids that move through. It makes a difference if the coach is highly regarded or not. Some school soccer is pretty poor, whether in ISl or a public league, but the good teams in Dual County or Bay State are like good teams in ISL. Even a DAP-caliber player won't make a weak team into a playoff team in those leagues.

Not knowing the whole situation, seems like this student should take the ISL offer, especially if it's 100% aid. The main reason is the unknown: you don't know that the DAP offer will be there every year, or that he'll average more than 10 minutes per game. Everyone's acting like he'll certainly be a DAP starter in 4 years, but he's only in 8th grade. DAP rosters turn over like every other soccer club. Compare that to an admissions offer, which once accepted, means he can attend that ISL school for 4 years.

And just for info, it's true that D1 colleges CAN offer financial aid based on athletic ability. A few, like the 8 Ivies, choose not to offer aid on that basis. It's also true that d3 colleges can not offer financial aid based on athletic ability, but they have the resources to offer need-based aid, and in the end, that can work out best.

[Unregistered]

I am the OP. Thanks for everybody's help. We will indeed take the money and run. He is a decent player. Our public HS is not an option, having graduated 2 from there already. Our 3rd wants more than what is offered there. So we were looking at private or ISL. It now appears that FA will cover 90% of the cost. So we pretty much decided after we opened yesterday's mail.

If I can just add, to those of you who think iSL is out of your league financially, so did we. If you have a good student/athlete, the schools will do what they can to satisfy need.

[Unregistered]

I am the OP. Thanks for everybody's help. We will indeed take the money and run. He is a decent player. Our public HS is not an option, having graduated 2 from there already. Our 3rd wants more than what is offered there. So we were looking at private or ISL. It now appears that FA will cover 90% of the cost. So we pretty much decided after we opened yesterday's mail.

If I can just add, to those of you who think iSL is out of your league financially, so did we. If you have a good student/athlete, the schools will do what they can to satisfy need.

Congrats on what sounds like a great choice for you son.

[Unregistered]

I am the OP. Thanks for everybody's help. We will indeed take the money and run. He is a decent player. Our public HS is not an option, having graduated 2 from there already. Our 3rd wants more than what is offered there. So we were looking at private or ISL. It now appears that FA will cover 90% of the cost. So we pretty much decided after we opened yesterday's mail.

If I can just add, to those of you who think iSL is out of your league financially, so did we. If you have a good student/athlete, the schools will do what they can to satisfy need.

And finally the truth emerges as to what this thread was all about. Good one.

BTW, your "decent" player was a candidate for a "mediocre" DAP?

Love these posters who start a thread and then a day and a half later want to wrap it up to a conclusion ("after yesterday's mail").

Oh, and as to your last telling sentence, how much aid can you get if you have only a good student?

[Unregistered]

Congrats on what sounds like a great choice for you son.

LOL. Too funny.

[Unregistered]

And finally the truth emerges as to what this thread was all about. Good one.

BTW, your "decent" player was a candidate for a "mediocre" DAP?

Love these posters who start a thread and then a day and a half later want to wrap it up to a conclusion ("after yesterday's mail").

Oh, and as to your last telling sentence, how much aid can you get if you have only a good student?

I have no idea what you are talking about. What more do you want me to say? You know that contracts and revisions are going back and forth right? Do you want me to say my kid scored in the 95th percentile? Would you like me to name the team he is on? Or the town he is from? It was an honest thread about whether to put him in DAP or ISL. And yesterday's revision answered our question.

[Unregistered]

And as far as our desire to "wrap it up in conclusion", deadlines are approaching as revisits approach and contracts must be turned in. And we as a family were trying to sort things out before April 10 , or revisit days.