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Surly kids who can't get into UT


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On 1/12/2025 at 11:27 AM, Armybrat said:

38 years ago my oldest son, very active in sports and in the top 15% of his class, couldn’t come close to getting into UT. 

Da fuq?  I was somewhere around 11-13% and barely did any sports and had no problem getting accepted (about the same time frame).  Made a bad decision and went elsewhere, but I got the acceptance without much drama.

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On 1/13/2025 at 2:44 PM, Bateshorn said:

For those with kids who excel in sports and grades: I am imploring you to look East towards quality Div III programs.  They are desperate for quality athletes and the coaches can get preferred admissions.   Do you have a child who is National Merit and also All District or Region?  Good enough to not get stomped by Div. I athletes, but not good enough to get an offer to a school that is up to academic snuff?  The New England Small College Athletic Conference would very much like to make their acquaintance.

 

Maybe not in the east but we're looking at this for our son who is on the high school swim team. If he's able to get his times down then he might be able to get the interest of some DII schools at least. He's got the potential to get into UT but won't have a shot at the swim team - he's just not at that level.

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On 1/13/2025 at 2:44 PM, Bateshorn said:

For those with kids who excel in sports and grades: I am imploring you to look East towards quality Div III programs.  They are desperate for quality athletes and the coaches can get preferred admissions.   Do you have a child who is National Merit and also All District or Region?  Good enough to not get stomped by Div. I athletes, but not good enough to get an offer to a school that is up to academic snuff?  The New England Small College Athletic Conference would very much like to make their acquaintance.

 

My friend coaches a D3 volleyball team back east. It’s a struggle since they can’t offer athletic scholarships, tuition is expensive, the athletic department doesn’t bring in a ton of money so he has a very limited budget for staff, travel (road games and tournaments), recruiting. He has some influence in getting kids accepted and works hard to match them up with merit scholarships, work-study, and other forms of aid to offset the costs. If my sons get accepted (academically) to a good D1 school that costs less than the D3 school that will let them play sports, we’ll have a serious conversation about the value of playing D3 sports vs. more student loans and (possibly) less respected degree. 

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On 1/13/2025 at 2:44 PM, Bateshorn said:

For those with kids who excel in sports and grades: I am imploring you to look East towards quality Div III programs.  They are desperate for quality athletes and the coaches can get preferred admissions.   Do you have a child who is National Merit and also All District or Region?  Good enough to not get stomped by Div. I athletes, but not good enough to get an offer to a school that is up to academic snuff?  The New England Small College Athletic Conference would very much like to make their acquaintance.

 

This is 100% where we are.  Daughter really wants to get out of the state and we're engaged with the coaches at Carnegie Mellon and WashU.  Loras College in Iowa is also really coming on strong.  

My point is you're not going to play pro.  So use the sport to help get into schools that otherwise are highly selective.  

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Sports is a huge commitment in college, even D3.  My son elected to opt out of the club soccer team at UT because of the practice and travel demands, and that's not even a varsity sport.  It may be similar in terms of hours per week, but I honestly don't know how varsity athletes do it if they're serious about academics.

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2 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

but I honestly don't know how varsity athletes do it if they're serious about academics.

That's the dirty little secret.  One girl on our club team, her older sister plays at Texas State and wants to be a vet.  Coach isn't having it and she might have to switch majors or switch schools.  The percentages are not in the girls favor.

Only 7% of all female HS athletes play in college at any level.  And then less than half of them keep playing through their senior year.  It's a grind for sure.  

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18 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

My friend coaches a D3 volleyball team back east. It’s a struggle since they can’t offer athletic scholarships, tuition is expensive, the athletic department doesn’t bring in a ton of money so he has a very limited budget for staff, travel (road games and tournaments), recruiting. He has some influence in getting kids accepted and works hard to match them up with merit scholarships, work-study, and other forms of aid to offset the costs. If my sons get accepted (academically) to a good D1 school that costs less than the D3 school that will let them play sports, we’ll have a serious conversation about the value of playing D3 sports vs. more student loans and (possibly) less respected degree. 

I've said this many times, depending on the school, the price isn't usually the price when talking D3 schools, depending on your income.  If you are middle class, after need and potentially merit aid, the cost is often 1/2 to 2/3 less than the listed price. Don't look at that sticker and immediately swear off a school.  It's worth reaching out to the coach, having a conversation, throwing in an application, and seeing what the school offers you. Your child doesn't have to be resigned to the Greek IM field at second tier state U. 

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On 1/15/2025 at 1:09 PM, Fudge Nuggets said:

100% not true for the service academies.  Athletics are a big deal for the rank and file applicants.

A school like Middlebury, Tufts, or Bowdoin, which are near impossible to get into academically, will give A LOT of preference to a top tier athelete who can pass the academic sniff test. 

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On 1/15/2025 at 12:09 PM, Fudge Nuggets said:

100% not true for the service academies.  Athletics are a big deal for the rank and file applicants.

Yep got a good friend who is a retired Colonel and West Point grad. His oldest is there now. Not only did both do sports in HS, realize at least at WP every single cadet must compete in some athletic endeavor all four years. Intercollegiate, Club or Intramurals, whatever but you have to do some “sport”. 
 

Edited by Surly Bevo
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2 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

Yep got a good friend who is a retired Colonel and West Point grad. His oldest is there now. Not only did both do sports in HS, realize at least at WP every single cadet must compete in some athletic endeavor all four years. Intercollegiate, Club or Intramurals, whatever but you have to do some “sport”. 
 

Yup, two of my cousins are Army grads who played "sprint" football at West Point.  I suppose that's a level above intramural but not D1 type competition.  One of them eventually reached Colonel and ended up back on campus as an assistant AD.

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12 minutes ago, Surly Bevo said:

Yep got a good friend who is a retired Colonel and West Point grad. His oldest is there now. Not only did both do sports in HS, realize at least at WP every single cadet must compete in some athletic endeavor all four years. Intercollegiate, Club or Intramurals, whatever but you have to do some “sport”. 
 

My son did it the hard way and did not play a varsity sport in HS.  His academics, leadership, community service, et al were stellar.  He still had to go the prep school route, basically to prove he could handle the physical training component of the academies. He was 6'4 and about 160 his Senior year.

High school athletics isn't mandatory for consideration, but if it is absent, you gotta freaking crush the other stuff.

As an aside, I felt like military drill team with rifles was every bit as demanding as some of the other country club sports, if not more so, and he was commander his Junior year( very rare.)  The admission folks could not have cared less.  No fucking athletics.  It made a huge difference.

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On 1/13/2025 at 2:44 PM, Bateshorn said:

For those with kids who excel in sports and grades: I am imploring you to look East towards quality Div III programs.  They are desperate for quality athletes and the coaches can get preferred admissions.   Do you have a child who is National Merit and also All District or Region?  Good enough to not get stomped by Div. I athletes, but not good enough to get an offer to a school that is up to academic snuff?  The New England Small College Athletic Conference would very much like to make their acquaintance.

 

I don't know how to save posts so I'm responding to this for future reference.

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My kid just got her 12th acceptance to UMass and they gave her a $14,000 merit scholarship.

She's 12/12 with only CU-Boulder outstanding.  She's received $175,419 in cumulative merit scholarships at the 12 schools.

Maybe she underestimated the schools she could get accepted to or maybe I should go into college counseling as a side hustle.

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38 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

My kid just got her 12th acceptance to UMass and they gave her a $14,000 merit scholarship.

She's 12/12 with only CU-Boulder outstanding.  She's received $175,419 in cumulative merit scholarships at the 12 schools.

Maybe she underestimated the schools she could get accepted to or maybe I should go into college counseling as a side hustle.

same here - daughter got into everywhere she's applied. we're proud and very surprised. we're also waiting on CU. 

Biggest win application-wise was Baylor. Didn't expect to get in there. 

 

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6 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Sports is a huge commitment in college, even D3.  My son elected to opt out of the club soccer team at UT because of the practice and travel demands, and that's not even a varsity sport.  It may be similar in terms of hours per week, but I honestly don't know how varsity athletes do it if they're serious about academics.

I got offered half my tuition paid for academics and half for basketball at Colorado School of MInes. Went for my visit, realized how demanding that would be, and ended up at UT. 

Those kids were straight out of "Real Genius". They were breaking into the library in the middle of the night to study for finals. 

 

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Y'all CU applicators please keep updating with your experience.  It's on the short list for my Jr, visiting this summer (after a Red Rocks show, natch).

They release EA decision on 2/1. Attended the scholarship zoom call a few weeks ago. They basically don’t give shit because out of state applications are sky high and willing to pay full price. IIRC, the number she threw out was like $7,500 max merit aid.
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10 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

This is 100% where we are.  Daughter really wants to get out of the state and we're engaged with the coaches at Carnegie Mellon and WashU.  Loras College in Iowa is also really coming on strong.  

My point is you're not going to play pro.  So use the sport to help get into schools that otherwise are highly selective.  

If you're looking in the Midwest already, you ought to add Carleton.  My niece from Florida swims there and absolutely loves everything about it. She's another example of what's been discussed on this page.  Her grades in high school were great, but who knows if she would have gotten in without preferred admissions.

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Pretty excited and proud, our daughter was admitted with her first choice major. I had heard a lot were deferred but this am I saw it was some like 95% deferrals. Crazy! She was auto admit - valedictorian, School of Natural Sciences. 2 years ago my son was deferred until Feb and got in first choice major engineering. He was not auto admit (although #3 in class)

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14 hours ago, CooterBrown said:


They release EA decision on 2/1. Attended the scholarship zoom call a few weeks ago. They basically don’t give shit because out of state applications are sky high and willing to pay full price. IIRC, the number she threw out was like $7,500 max merit aid.

I’ve made this joke before in this thread, but when Oregon played Colorado, that’s a lot of rich California kids who didn’t get into their first choice UC school.

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14 hours ago, TexasHooch said:

If you're looking in the Midwest already, you ought to add Carleton.  My niece from Florida swims there and absolutely loves everything about it. She's another example of what's been discussed on this page.  Her grades in high school were great, but who knows if she would have gotten in without preferred admissions.

Every Carleton grad I’ve met is fucking smart and cool.  

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