College - How much does soccer help?

Appealing to the experiences of parents with older kids, can someone give me some insite on the true value of soccer in regards to the college process. I know this may have been mentioned in other threads, but I don't have time to read all of them and have only seen references to which players went to which colleges.

My daughter in on a top D1 team in Maple and entering high school next year and a good student. The questions we are struggling with in the short term are, will practice everyday affect her grades, does she go to practice on thursday when she has two tests and a quiz on friday, will it severely detriment other opportunities to join the math club, drama, or student offices.

In the long term, do we use soccer as a tool to gain acceptance to certain schools, is there a really a chance at a full scholarship or a partial scholarship, and would she be better off being on the Math team or from a student officer position as far as college acceptances. I know a lot relies on what she wants to do, but right now she wants it all.

Re: College - How much does soccer help?

Appealing to the experiences of parents with older kids, can someone give me some insite on the true value of soccer in regards to the college process. I know this may have been mentioned in other threads, but I don't have time to read all of them and have only seen references to which players went to which colleges.

My daughter in on a top D1 team in Maple and entering high school next year and a good student. The questions we are struggling with in the short term are, will practice everyday affect her grades, does she go to practice on thursday when she has two tests and a quiz on friday, will it severely detriment other opportunities to join the math club, drama, or student offices.

In the long term, do we use soccer as a tool to gain acceptance to certain schools, is there a really a chance at a full scholarship or a partial scholarship, and would she be better off being on the Math team or from a student officer position as far as college acceptances. I know a lot relies on what she wants to do, but right now she wants it all.

Theres a thread that has all this...search for it. Its all in there

Re: College - How much does soccer help?

She can do it all don't worry about it. My daughter is going to college next year and it was difficult at times. You just have to keep tabs every day and have her go to extra help everyday she can.

You try to get into the best school you can and if soccer helps thats great if not the memorizes will be great. If you dont let her play she will alway remember that.

Do not count on any scholarships, they can also be a double edged sword

It goes by so fast.

Math team will be the most challenging, Sudent offices will be great for the social life.

Re: College - How much does soccer help?

Regarding college, there are two ways you can think about soccer. One is to treat it merely as an extracurricular activity to strengthen your child’s resume/application (similar to band, drama, school clubs, and the like), and the other is to treat it as a pathway to scholarship and therefore acceptance. Only a small percentage of players are good enough to play at the college level and an even smaller percentage to receive a soccer scholarship - and even if they do, the money is not great. A lot has been posted in this forum on that issue. If you are seriously concerned you will take the time to search and read about it.
Our children fell into the first category. Sport (mostly soccer) was their primary extracurricular activity from middle school through high school. Because they were not looking for athletic scholarship, the colleges were not evaluating them as athletes, but rather were looking for evidence that our children had found some activity to which they could dedicate serious commitment and demonstrate some aspect of growth, leadership or performance. In that context, the colleges evaluated out children’s sports involvement in the same way that they evaluated another student’s commitment to playing bassoon, performing charitable work, or studying dance. Colleges look for a mix of students and might take the bassoon player instead of the soccer play, if they have more of one than the other that meets their academic requirements for acceptance. Our children were very good athletes –above average – but not college-level players. The colleges understood that, were not evaluating them on that basis, and our children (who were more importantly good students) got into top colleges. I guess even soccer players are occasionally needed to round out a class.
So if your child is not one of the chosen few who will be recruited for college-level play, then just chill out and let them have fun, because where they play and how good they are will have essentially no influence over their getting accepted. Just the fact that they diligently participated will be enough. On the other hand, their standardized test scores, the difficulty of their high school curriculum, their grades and the quality of their recommendations will have a significant effect. And will generate more scholarship money than sports.

Re: College - How much does soccer help?

Soccer is a short season in HS. If she can't multi task in HS regarding a sport then forget about College.

And if you seriously have to think whether or not to study for a test or go to a practice your priorities are not in the proper order.

And it's too bad you don't have "the time" to go through all the posts on this subject. Invaluable info from coaches, players and parents has already been detailed.

Re: College - How much does soccer help?

I think some of you responding are being awfully hard on the original poster. When you are encountering the HS/club soccer balance for the first time with an entering freshman, it is a new experience and there is no telling how even the most organized student will handle things. There is an absolute boatload of info on this site (including links to other sites) that goes back awhile. Lighten up on the poor parent! Several have already made the point, do a search. But offering some constructive advice and revisiting is not such a terrible request. Personally I think the poster should go ask the question on the other board where (some of) the responses will not be so petty. Take the higher road and offer some good advice like some of the other folks who have responded here.

My soccer player is only an entering sophomore and we are still figuring it out so I wish I could offer some real advice but the only thing I can tell you is that for a serious student in an high achieving academic environment who makes HS varsity -- the first semester is brutal and will really challenge your player and her priorities. Be supportive but let her take the lead is I guess what I would advise, you have already done your job getting your child ready for this challenge.

And from the research we have done so far, I would echo the other posters that the most important thing you can do for the soccer/college issue is to not look at it in terms of scholarships (even if a scholarship were available it won't be much $$) but in terms of where does your kid think he wants to go in terms of college: big/small, city/country, close to/far from home, potential majors available for area of interest.... all that other college stuff (pretend she doesn't play soccer), then after all that, see if the soccer might be a good fit. And looking at it in those terms, definitely do not give up the other HS experiences (math team, student council) if they are available to your child and she wants to try them. She may find she loves math or government even more than soccer (yes U12 parents, it can happen, even to the most devoted player!!) and after all, a knee injury won't ruin her math team career. Also remember she has 4 years to try all the other extracurricular activities so she doesn't have to jump in and join other stuff on day 1 (in fact, that is probably a bad idea if she is playing a varsity sport and is facing all the freshman academic challenges).

Good luck!

Re: College - How much does soccer help?

Colleges look at it as any other activity. It can only help, not hurt..........however if you are looking to play soccer in college...........well there are some stats that club coaches don't want you to see.....


I would highly suggest checking out the NCAA website and looking at the statistics of how many players go from playing high school to college. Let's face facts, just about every club player plays for their high school team in this state. Here is the report from the NCAA on chances of playing in college:

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?ContentID=279

So for all you U11-U14 parents who think that the club coach who says they got all these players into college and playing soccer there did all that, just look at the numbers. There are some out there.

Re: College - How much does soccer help?

Soccer will help you get into college but it won’t help you make the grade once you get there.
A recruit who got admitted because of soccer may eventually consider dropping out from the team when the rigors of academics forces a decision. This decision is more difficult if scholarship money is also part of the arrangement. The college roster turn-over/drop-out averages around 5-10%; depending on the college this may be much lower or lightly higher than the average.

While soccer will help you get into college, this is all relative to a colleges specific admissions standards for athletes. This varies wildly across the spectrum of colleges and universities. No matter how good an athlete may be, it’s really unfair to bring them into an academic environment that is over their capabilities and then handicap them further with the distraction of a rigorous sports program.

[beentheredonethat]

Re: College - How much does soccer help?

The answer to the initial question is yes, soccer can help. How much is a function of the amount of athletic and academic ability, the quality of the school and their selection parameters. This past year we had a boy from Blue Hills get roughly 20K in aide to play soccer at a small D3 school up in the UP of Michigan. Not exactly a big time program nor a well known school. I'm sure that a good chunk of the money was need based but this kid was not really a top level student nor, for that matter, a top flight soccer player. In fact he had only been playing 2 years. None the less, soccer was the reason behind the connection.

Most schools have a sliding scale that allows them to bring in a prospect that has a marginal profile relative to normal applicants but there are strings attached. If the marginal student/athlete does not make it, the coach typically get penalized with future admissions. Another string is when a coach reaches for an athlete they typically have to bring in another with impeccable academic credentials to balance out the recruiting class. This is why you sometimes see players ending up at schools you would not have thought they could have played at. Good grades really do open doors.

The college selection process is a real maze. Everyone is correct in that soccer is only one part of it, but I feel that many on this board underestimate the importance it can carry. The notion that you should only concentrate on academic/social fit and accept whatever soccer circumstances present themselves I believe is very short sighted. There is nothing worse than playing in a "bad" program.