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Broader Perspectives
by Dave
Monday, March 29, 2010
As children head to that date with destiny, college, most of us get sick when we hear or read reports of just how much a college education costs these days. Is it up to a million bucks yet? Don't tell me when it reaches that height. I don't want to know about it. I'll be in the bathroom all day vomiting. I heard a story about a girl, a softball player, who is headed off to school at the end of the summer. The reason I am discussing it today is because she was not able to take the "usual" way many softball parents think their kids will attempt. She had a broader perspective on the college issue and it looks as if it is going to work very nicely for her.
I'm not going to go chapter and verse about how this girl did what she did because that is not relevant for my discussion today. To set the stage, let me say that the girl is a fine athlete but not the greatest softball player I have seen. Don't take me the wrong way. She is quite good. But she is not at a level that would get her substantial money at a top 100 softball school.
This girl is also quite bright but she is not going to get a 100% academic deal at a top 100 academic institution. Again, don't take me the wrong way. We're not talking about a strong B average here but we're also not talking straight A+s in a full slate of honors courses. She is a good, mature, responsible student.
This girl had neither the desire nor the financing to go play 5 to 8 softball showcases across the country. She played ball on a decent A level team rather than gold. She played some smaller showcases, here and there. And at a point in time, late as it turns out, she did do a little traveling with a showcase/Gold team. But she had already made significant contacts with the college of her choice and was already more than well on their radar. Had she not played Gold ball, she would still have had the same deal but I'm getting ahead of myself.
This girl's approach was to decide what she wanted to do: the type and size of school, play or not play, etc. She then contacted the school and eventually found a way whereby the coach could watch her play. I've made it sound simple because I can't go into all the details and from 20,000 feet, this is basically what she did. She chose a D-3 school, not a softball powerhouse. And this is the direction I want to open up for your consideration.
Wikipedia tells me that there are: just under 350 D-1, about 280 D-2, and almost 450 D-3 schools, making D-3 the largest division. D-1s include the sports powerhouses with which any fan should be familiar as well as those "mid-majors" the basketball pundits talk about during their March fever, and many institutions which are not powerhouses and do not often get into the televised circuit with their athletic teams. D-2s are usually (but not always) smaller than D-1s and include public and private schools. By me, many D-3s are public institutions but in places not very far away there are a bunch of smaller private schools.
I'm going to guess that you already know that, in terms of college athletic scholarship, D-1s are permitted the highest number of scholarships, D-2s have them but fewer are permitted, and D-3s do not offer any athletic money. But, not all D-1s offer the full number. Many conferences limit these further than the NCAA. It isn't just the Ivies with their prohibition of purely athletic money. Many D-1 schools themselves do not fund their athletic programs quite as much. So a D-1 school might be permitted to 12 full equivalents by the NCAA, limited to 10.5 in their conference, yet only provide 6 because of the way things work at the particular school. I am not giving actual data for a school but giving you some general principles.
Further, while D-2s have athletic scholarships, many times, their cost, particularly if they are public schools, can be far less. If a kid can qualify for both academic and financial aid, it may cost very little to attend the school regardless of any athletic money.
The same is true of D-3s, except they have zero athletic money. Sometimes the amount of academic aid at a D-3 can far exceed that offered at either a comparable D-1 or 2 school. The bottom line in all this is you want to balance the final cost of a school with your ability to meet that obligation along with the academic benefit of going there. It isn't about one school giving $20,000 athletic, $3,000 academic and $3,000 needs based aid vs. another giving $5,000, $2,000, and $2,000. If the big spender costs $20,000 more than the smaller school, you are still ahead of the game going to the latter, assuming the educations are comparable.
I watched some of the D-3 WCWS last year because it was held within driving distance of my home. It is impossible to compare the level of play within the 3 divisions without making a bunch of caveats, qualifying everything I say, and listing too many schools at differing levels within each division. Let just say that, at the WCWS level - the top 8 schools at each division, D-2 and D-3 is not all that similar to D-1. However, at lower quality levels of D-1, many of those teams do not remotely compare to the WCWS teams either. Someone once suggested to me that the best D-3 schools can fairly easily beat the worst D-1 schools. I don't know that this is true so I won't even bother. I'll give you something better than that sort of comparison. Who really cares?
Oh, if you want to be on TV, I suppose you might prefer a D-1 school, perhaps in the PAC-10, SEC, Big Ten, etc. I know many of those schools have their games broadcast on ESPN, Fox Sports Network, a conference cable channel or some such. Heck, it would be nice for one's friends to be able to watch a kid play some games via the cable or satellite hook-up. But what's the likelihood of that ever actually happening? And what real difference is it going to make to anyone's life?
The fact is, getting a quality college education at an institution well suited for the student trumps any other consideration. It is not as if playing top 25 D-1, assuming one is able to get there and make the starting team, is going to open other doors later in life. There are no million dollar signing bonuses and salaries for professional softball players, unless you add up every player currently on a roster! I do n0ot begrudge a girl for dreaming about one day playing softball as a first career after college. But she will not be able to make a living at just that. She will certainly enjoy playing if she is actually that good but it isn't a means by which to make her way in the world.
Heck, there are a million other ways to make a life in softball which do not require an on-TV experience. A kid go become a teacher and eventually find a coaching slot for a high school or middle school team. She could hang around her college, obtain her masters, and help out with softball team coaching as a volunteer assistant in order to build a coaching resume. She could try to get a job with an equipment manufacturer. There are many ways to skin the cat but not very many careers are otherwise available to even the kid who gets a clutch base hit in the D-1 WCWS aired live on ESPN. The college education is the more important consideration than the quality of softball team one would like to play for.
Let me be clear that many D-1 schools, even the softball powerhouses do, in fact, provide marvelous educational experiences. But athletes can be precluded from pursuing certain majors due to the rigorous training, practice and game schedules. D-1s often play in conferences which require significant travel. They also play the largest amount of games. I do not have first hand information about the rigors of training schedules at each school in each division, but I am sure some D-2s and 3s have extreme training throughout the year. There is no question that some D-1s are not like the others - do little real travel and do not put the girls through a training vise. And some of the "lower" divisions do travel quite a bit. But, in general, in the grand scheme of things, one is more likely to find a school with a less rigorous training and travel schedule while providing a superior educational experience in the "lower" divisions.
I know of one D-1 school which in years past, did not have much off-season training and what little there was, was not policed strictly. Many of the players did whatever they felt like, including skipping training almost completely, without any measure of punishment. Players were not in any way deprived of that good ole college life. The team was pretty bad. And, most importantly, the academic side of things was not much better.
By contrast, I have heard here and there about kids who went off to what amounted to better schools academically speaking, worked regularly and pretty darn hard at both athletics and academics, but had great times and loved the non-D1 institutions they attended.
It is also of particular importance to note that one girl's father told me that she had been interested in a very good academic D-1 school, and they interested in her, but she could not pursue the major she wanted due to the game schedule. At a D-3, she was able to both pursue that major and play softball. The coaches noted to her before she came that several girls on the team were also in that major and she could talk to them about how they balanced athletics with their academics, if she liked. She did and was happily convinced to go to the D-3 school. I should add that both the D-1 and D-3 schools she was considering were top of the line in her chosen major. Both had wonderful reputations and great facilities for the major. But, for whatever reason, the D-3's athletic facilities were actually better than the D-1s! Her decision was a no brainer.
The girl I mentioned first in this piece, the one headed to school next year, chose her D-3 school for reasons to which I am not privy. But I can tell you that the school has an excellent academic rep. She will major in her chosen field. She'll play softball which she is not yet willing to give up! The school is quite small which perfectly suited to her personality. I envy her, not merely because she is young, beautiful, and headed to her very first year of college soon but because she is getting just about a perfect start in life!
You know, this is a D-3 school and it probably occurs to you that D-3s do not have athletic scholarships, like I said above. I told you she did not have the financial resources to play top level ball. How is she gonna afford the tuition? The fact of the matter is the girl's recruitment included some help in obtaining money. She will get about half her costs covered. If I'm not mistaken, that is before she gets any local scholarship money or loans and things of that sort. So, her family can swing it.
A mistake that many people make is assuming that the absence of athletic money means certain schools will cost more than those that give fulls and partials. That is by no means true. Even the Ivies spend significant amounts of money to recruit athletes. It just isn't in the form of athletic scholarship money. Some D-1s and many 2s and 3s (probably more 3s) give out all kinds of aid that is not directly tied into sports recruiting but which is more available to recruits. I know of an Ivy League athlete who pays less than the cost of a junior college. Some D-3 athletes pay nothing because they have a nice marriage of athletic and academic ability.
Additionally, I should tell you that even many D-1s do not recruit purely on the basis of one's athletic prowess. Some D-1s are less interested in batting average and ERA than they are in GPA, ACT, and SAT. Some D-1s may be an outstanding softball recruit's absolute first choice but her academics do not meet the measure of what that school is looking for. All schools are very interested in grades because they demonstrate seriousness and maturity. But some schools, including D-1s, are more interested in their softball roster's grades in their school than they are about the team's winning percentage.
I suspect that parents as well as children know most of the very successful athletic schools. I'd be willing to bet that certain schools are more well known to students because their peers talk about them. Parents may, at least initially, fall victim to the televised game syndrome in which they first think of the very well known schools. All potential college students and their parents need to do more research into the vast number of schools, their academic reputations, and all that they have to offer. The fact that you have never heard of a school means almost nothing. I'd bet that I can rattle off some schools which are either generally great academically or outstanding for certain majors which you have never heard the names of before. You need to look at the entire list of colleges within the geographic area you desire. You need to consider what they do and do not offer. You need to understand where you might be standing on the date of your graduation, as well as the time between then and now.
If you go to a D-2 or 3, you will not ever play in the D-1 WCWS. Just a few of these players will ever make it onto ESPN. Most will never see more than hand-held digital or web cams at their games. Some won't even see those. But at the end of days, college days, none of that is going to matter. If a girl wants to play ball in college, then she should work hard to play ball. If a girl wants to get a college education, she should work hard academically. If she really wants both, she should work hard at both and broaden her perspectives to not merely pursue and consider only the schools whose names are most familiar.Labels: college, showcase
 
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