Soccer path for a STEM daughter

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If you have never been involved at the D1 how would you ever know what is available on the pre-med route for a properly motivated, highly successful D1 student athlete. You seem bitter that your kid didn't have the options that other kids clearly do.

Take a look at D1 rosters. Not many science majors on the rolls. Pre med is challenging enough for students let alone student athletes. Top schools churn pre med students apart.

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Not to get into the whole D1 vs D3 debate, but there are many top D3 schools that are great for STEM programs and for the student athlete. It can be done D1, but much harder to pull off

Thanks. She is looking at D3 too but she says she wants more of a big school experience. Will have to make some compromises.

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If you have never been involved at the D1 how would you ever know what is available on the pre-med route for a properly motivated, highly successful D1 student athlete. You seem bitter that your kid didn't have the options that other kids clearly do.

I don't need to know. I've got you to explain it all to me. And please tell us all the many reasons why I or anyone else would be jealous of you, BTNT? I pity you, to be honest.

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Thanks. She is looking at D3 too but she says she wants more of a big school experience. Will have to make some compromises.

Look at schools like Emory, Rochester etc. Still very good sized schools, excellent STEM programs and good soccer. Mine did not want smaller or more rural schools either.

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Look at schools like Emory, Rochester etc. Still very good sized schools, excellent STEM programs and good soccer. Mine did not want smaller or more rural schools either.

Johns Hopkins, Tufts

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You want big? A big school? And a big city? NYU.

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Look at schools like Emory, Rochester etc. Still very good sized schools, excellent STEM programs and good soccer. Mine did not want smaller or more rural schools either.

Also, other UAA schools like Chicago and Wash U.

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Take a look at D1 rosters. Not many science majors on the rolls. Pre med is challenging enough for students let alone student athletes. Top schools churn pre med students apart.

It seems that you don't understand what is available in terms of academic supports nor how the game is played. First, go look at what is available at a big state school like UVA for academic supports. Toured their facilities once. Amazing. The amount of money they spent on it was mind blowing. The Ivies and D3 schools generally don't have that type of infrastructure to specifically support their athletes. Usually it's just the opposite where there is a bias against the athletes. Most D1 schools have a full staff of tutors and advisors that literally walk the athletes through to graduation. Aside from graduating, generally the goal is to produce the highest possible GPA and that is usually done in a major that supports the kid's ultimate grad school aspirations but is not necessarily "THE" major they might have chosen if they were not athletes. For example a kid might major in math instead of nuclear physics because the basic rigor of the course load is less to accommodate their athletic workload but the pre-requisites for grad school might all be there. Who cares then what the major on the diploma is if the kid ends up studying the information that interests them and it puts them on a pathway to the grad school of their choice. Most places have the entire faculty and course catalog graded and mapped out in terms of suitability for athletes. The fact is not every class is suitable for an athlete's schedule nor is every professor accepting of them. In a big university with an extensive course catalog it is normal to use classes from one academic track to satisfy major requirements on another academic track. That is just what goes on at a major university. A good academic support program will literally have this all mapped out and computerized. Your kid will tell them what their academic aspirations are and they will give them a custom tailored road map. The size of the course catalog is actually a big component of all of this and a big reason why a small liberal arts college might not be the best choice for an athlete with academic aspirations. That said, one reality that every parent really should come to grips with though is just how invested in academics their kid actually is. Most academic scandals involve pushing kids through who really aren't interested in school and that tells you that a lot of universities are more than willing dumb stuff down and let athletes do the bare minimum to graduate. Ultimately all the athletic department is concerned with is that they stay in compliance with the NCAA rules. They don't actually care how well educated your kid becomes only that they get a degree and the minimal GPA the school needs to stay in compliance. I call this the dummy track. Parents should understand that if their kid is not a motivated student they will be pushed onto it. It is one of the reasons you have to be careful about believing all of the pro academics hype on this site. If your kid isn't super motivated in the classroom there will be a lot of pressure to go down the dummy track. In that case you are better off swallowing your ego and nudging them to pick a less rigorous school because in the end they will end up with a better education. When you are an athlete often times it is better to be at the top of the admissions pool than at the bottom because you compete more favorably with the student population and they literally end up getting treated like an academic superstar. Good luck.

[Unregistered]

It seems that you don't understand what is available in terms of academic supports nor how the game is played. First, go look at what is available at a big state school like UVA for academic supports. Toured their facilities once. Amazing. The amount of money they spent on it was mind blowing. The Ivies and D3 schools generally don't have that type of infrastructure to specifically support their athletes. Usually it's just the opposite where there is a bias against the athletes. Most D1 schools have a full staff of tutors and advisors that literally walk the athletes through to graduation. Aside from graduating, generally the goal is to produce the highest possible GPA and that is usually done in a major that supports the kid's ultimate grad school aspirations but is not necessarily "THE" major they might have chosen if they were not athletes. For example a kid might major in math instead of nuclear physics because the basic rigor of the course load is less to accommodate their athletic workload but the pre-requisites for grad school might all be there. Who cares then what the major on the diploma is if the kid ends up studying the information that interests them and it puts them on a pathway to the grad school of their choice. Most places have the entire faculty and course catalog graded and mapped out in terms of suitability for athletes. The fact is not every class is suitable for an athlete's schedule nor is every professor accepting of them. In a big university with an extensive course catalog it is normal to use classes from one academic track to satisfy major requirements on another academic track. That is just what goes on at a major university. A good academic support program will literally have this all mapped out and computerized. Your kid will tell them what their academic aspirations are and they will give them a custom tailored road map. The size of the course catalog is actually a big component of all of this and a big reason why a small liberal arts college might not be the best choice for an athlete with academic aspirations. That said, one reality that every parent really should come to grips with though is just how invested in academics their kid actually is. Most academic scandals involve pushing kids through who really aren't interested in school and that tells you that a lot of universities are more than willing dumb stuff down and let athletes do the bare minimum to graduate. Ultimately all the athletic department is concerned with is that they stay in compliance with the NCAA rules. They don't actually care how well educated your kid becomes only that they get a degree and the minimal GPA the school needs to stay in compliance. I call this the dummy track. Parents should understand that if their kid is not a motivated student they will be pushed onto it. It is one of the reasons you have to be careful about believing all of the pro academics hype on this site. If your kid isn't super motivated in the classroom there will be a lot of pressure to go down the dummy track. In that case you are better off swallowing your ego and nudging them to pick a less rigorous school because in the end they will end up with a better education. When you are an athlete often times it is better to be at the top of the admissions pool than at the bottom because you compete more favorably with the student population and they literally end up getting treated like an academic superstar. Good luck.

Oh no I fully understand the level of support, and the rest of what you say also supports what I said - a pre med track, even with support, is still going to be very challenging to accomplish as a D1 athlete. You won't find many coaches supporting you on that track, lab schedules can become a huge issue.

[Unregistered]

Johns Hopkins, Tufts

Hopkins, Tufts, Rochester, Emory and UChicago are pretty much the only "big" D3 schools (<5000 undergraduate students) with top-tier academics.

[Unregistered]

It seems that you don't understand what is available in terms of academic supports nor how the game is played. First, go look at what is available at a big state school like UVA for academic supports. Toured their facilities once. Amazing. The amount of money they spent on it was mind blowing. The Ivies and D3 schools generally don't have that type of infrastructure to specifically support their athletes. Usually it's just the opposite where there is a bias against the athletes. Most D1 schools have a full staff of tutors and advisors that literally walk the athletes through to graduation. Aside from graduating, generally the goal is to produce the highest possible GPA and that is usually done in a major that supports the kid's ultimate grad school aspirations but is not necessarily "THE" major they might have chosen if they were not athletes. For example a kid might major in math instead of nuclear physics because the basic rigor of the course load is less to accommodate their athletic workload but the pre-requisites for grad school might all be there. Who cares then what the major on the diploma is if the kid ends up studying the information that interests them and it puts them on a pathway to the grad school of their choice. Most places have the entire faculty and course catalog graded and mapped out in terms of suitability for athletes. The fact is not every class is suitable for an athlete's schedule nor is every professor accepting of them. In a big university with an extensive course catalog it is normal to use classes from one academic track to satisfy major requirements on another academic track. That is just what goes on at a major university. A good academic support program will literally have this all mapped out and computerized. Your kid will tell them what their academic aspirations are and they will give them a custom tailored road map. The size of the course catalog is actually a big component of all of this and a big reason why a small liberal arts college might not be the best choice for an athlete with academic aspirations. That said, one reality that every parent really should come to grips with though is just how invested in academics their kid actually is. Most academic scandals involve pushing kids through who really aren't interested in school and that tells you that a lot of universities are more than willing dumb stuff down and let athletes do the bare minimum to graduate. Ultimately all the athletic department is concerned with is that they stay in compliance with the NCAA rules. They don't actually care how well educated your kid becomes only that they get a degree and the minimal GPA the school needs to stay in compliance. I call this the dummy track. Parents should understand that if their kid is not a motivated student they will be pushed onto it. It is one of the reasons you have to be careful about believing all of the pro academics hype on this site. If your kid isn't super motivated in the classroom there will be a lot of pressure to go down the dummy track. In that case you are better off swallowing your ego and nudging them to pick a less rigorous school because in the end they will end up with a better education. When you are an athlete often times it is better to be at the top of the admissions pool than at the bottom because you compete more favorably with the student population and they literally end up getting treated like an academic superstar. Good luck.

Feel better now that you got all that out yet again, BTNT? And what a schizophrenic post! The first half sings the praises of highly competitive D1s and how much they care and will do for you, and then the second half states they don't care at all as long as they meet the minimal requirements of athletic eligibility. You need a new hobby, BTNT.

[Unregistered]

Hopkins, Tufts, Rochester, Emory and UChicago are pretty much the only "big" D3 schools (<5000 undergraduate students) with top-tier academics.

Yep, except for MIT, Wash U, Carnegie Mellon, NYU...

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Yep, except for MIT, Wash U, Carnegie Mellon, NYU...

Doh! You are correct! But the point is that there really aren't many "big" D3 schools. Maybe less than a dozen?

[Unregistered]

Oh no I fully understand the level of support, and the rest of what you say also supports what I said - a pre med track, even with support, is still going to be very challenging to accomplish as a D1 athlete. You won't find many coaches supporting you on that track, lab schedules can become a huge issue.

Honestly I don't actually agree with you. I have a daughter who is at one of the high end academic P5 schools that always gets bandied about here. It seems they always have 1-2 girls a year getting into med school.

[Unregistered]

Feel better now that you got all that out yet again, BTNT? And what a schizophrenic post! The first half sings the praises of highly competitive D1s and how much they care and will do for you, and then the second half states they don't care at all as long as they meet the minimal requirements of athletic eligibility. You need a new hobby, BTNT.

First part describes what is out there and how it is used. The second part basically says you lead a horse to water but can't make them drink. What's so hard to understand. If a kid is not super motivated in the classroom when you put them in over their heads what they end up with is the bare minimum education. Is that what people actually want or is it more important that the name of the school sound more impressive when bragging around the water cooler. I suspect the later is the case with folks like you.