College soccer questions

[Guest]

For those of you whose kids are looking to play in college, I have a few questions I'd like to ask:

- If the only college recruiting offers your kid received were from losing programs (any division), would your kid accept? (the alternative being going to college and not playing varsity sports).
- If your kid received a recruiting offer from a losing D1 program and a winning D3 program, and assuming academics were of similar level, which would you want your kid to accept?
- if your kid received a recruiting offer from a losing D1 program with stellar academics and a winning D3 program with not-as-stellar-but-still-strong academics, which would you want your kid to accept?
- If your kid received a recruiting offer from a winning D1 program with mediocre academics and a losing D3 program with stellar academics, which would you want your kid to accept?

In answering these questions, please assume that tuitions from offering schools are similar and if scholarship money would be a primary or secondary consideration.

I also realize that there are tons of other factors that go into these kinds of decisions, like geography, size of school, etc...but to keep the discussion simple, assume that generally the schools satisfy your kid equally in these other factors and that the decisions around which school to go to come down to the factors asked in the questions.

[Guest]

Things to consider

What school is the best fit for your student athlete? That's your first and most important question to answer. The sport can and often does go away so they best love the school without it.

Being on a losing team can be a real grind/hard to get motivated for, especially D1 which really doesn't take any breaks.

If the coach has had a losing record for a long time they could be fired soon. The new coach could be great or a really bad fit for your player. It's a risk.

The D1 grind is no joke. There's not much balance in their lives. Certain majors are extremely challenging to do, even discouraged by some coaches. Internships and study abroad aren't common.

Which coaching staff and team members did they like best?

[Guest]

Things to consider

What school is the best fit for your student athlete? That's your first and most important question to answer. The sport can and often does go away so they best love the school without it.

Being on a losing team can be a real grind/hard to get motivated for, especially D1 which really doesn't take any breaks.

If the coach has had a losing record for a long time they could be fired soon. The new coach could be great or a really bad fit for your player. It's a risk.

The D1 grind is no joke. There's not much balance in their lives. Certain majors are extremely challenging to do, even discouraged by some coaches. Internships and study abroad aren't common.

Which coaching staff and team members did they like best?

So how would you and/or your kid answer the questions?