College soccer recruiting

Hello!

I am new to the college recruiting process and while browsing websites I came across the following: www.soccerscholarshipguide.com. This guide seems to have the information I am looking for, but I am a bit skeptical that it might be a scam.

Has anyone purchased this guide? Let me know what you think. Thanks

soccerplayer12 wrote:Hello!

I am new to the college recruiting process and while browsing websites I came across the following: www.soccerscholarshipguide.com. This guide seems to have the information I am looking for, but I am a bit skeptical that it might be a scam.

Has anyone purchased this guide? Let me know what you think. Thanks

If you're buying it for your son, I would think twice. It claims to be written by a D1 NCAA player who is female. The scholarship opportunities for men and women are VERY different because of Title IX.
You'd be better off paying for a good SAT prep course and getting academic money, in my opinion.

soccerplayer12 wrote:Hello!

I am new to the college recruiting process and while browsing websites I came across the following: www.soccerscholarshipguide.com. This guide seems to have the information I am looking for, but I am a bit skeptical that it might be a scam.

Has anyone purchased this guide? Let me know what you think. Thanks

Talk to parents that have been through the process with some level of success. They will get you started in the right direction. Junior year is the big push, contacting prospective coaches, showcases, college camps, etc. I keep hearing a common these that the DVD is very important to get you kid max exposure for the investment.

Our club has college prep talks given by some of the more experience coaches. These are very helpful.

Yak Attack wrote:

soccerplayer12 wrote:Hello!

I am new to the college recruiting process and while browsing websites I came across the following: www.soccerscholarshipguide.com. This guide seems to have the information I am looking for, but I am a bit skeptical that it might be a scam.

Has anyone purchased this guide? Let me know what you think. Thanks

Talk to parents that have been through the process with some level of success. They will get you started in the right direction. Junior year is the big push, contacting prospective coaches, showcases, college camps, etc. I keep hearing a common these that the DVD is very important to get you kid max exposure for the investment.

Our club has college prep talks given by some of the more experience coaches. These are very helpful.

When our son played in college, the coach would give the DVDs he received to the players, who would play them for laughs. Waste of time. Spend your effort and money on grades. There's just not much soccer money out there. But for smarts - always.

rocks wrote:

Yak Attack wrote:

soccerplayer12 wrote:Hello!

I am new to the college recruiting process and while browsing websites I came across the following: www.soccerscholarshipguide.com. This guide seems to have the information I am looking for, but I am a bit skeptical that it might be a scam.

Has anyone purchased this guide? Let me know what you think. Thanks

Talk to parents that have been through the process with some level of success. They will get you started in the right direction. Junior year is the big push, contacting prospective coaches, showcases, college camps, etc. I keep hearing a common these that the DVD is very important to get you kid max exposure for the investment.

Our club has college prep talks given by some of the more experience coaches. These are very helpful.

When our son played in college, the coach would give the DVDs he received to the players, who would play them for laughs. Waste of time. Spend your effort and money on grades. There's just not much soccer money out there. But for smarts - always.

Was he a walk on to the soccer team? Or was he recruited as a soccer player? I think that process is what most of us are not familiar with . I think everyone knows grades are important to colleges and scholarship committees

Hate to be a downer here but for those who aren't aware of the numbers regarding men's soccer and athletic scholarships, here are some facts:

* "There is an average of one Division I scholarship available for every 196 high school soccer players. Only men’s track and men’s volleyball faced longer odds. Factor in that many elite, college-bound players who bypass high school to focus on club soccer, then the ratio becomes even greater for the high school soccer player."

* More than half of all men’s soccer players (11,075 of 21,601) play at Division III schools where there are no athletic scholarships.

Basically if your son is a good athlete and you really want him to go to college on an athletic scholarship, you would be better off picking another sport. Many college soccer teams use academic scholarships to supplement soccer athletes so as was stated earlier - concentrate on grades first. If your son makes good grades and is a good soccer player, chances are he will be able to play somewhere in college. But there is very limited budget in D1 or D2 colleges (and none in D3) for Men's Soccer scholarships.

off_the_woodwork wrote:Hate to be a downer here but for those who aren't aware of the numbers regarding men's soccer and athletic scholarships, here are some facts:

* "There is an average of one Division I scholarship available for every 196 high school soccer players. Only men’s track and men’s volleyball faced longer odds. Factor in that many elite, college-bound players who bypass high school to focus on club soccer, then the ratio becomes even greater for the high school soccer player."

* More than half of all men’s soccer players (11,075 of 21,601) play at Division III schools where there are no athletic scholarships.

Basically if your son is a good athlete and you really want him to go to college on an athletic scholarship, you would be better off picking another sport. Many college soccer teams use academic scholarships to supplement soccer athletes so as was stated earlier - concentrate on grades first. If your son makes good grades and is a good soccer player, chances are he will be able to play somewhere in college. But there is very limited budget in D1 or D2 colleges (and none in D3) for Men's Soccer scholarships.

Great info woody, thanks for sharing... very enlightening. Not to doubt your data, but just curious what your source is.

off_the_woodwork wrote:Hate to be a downer here but for those who aren't aware of the numbers regarding men's soccer and athletic scholarships, here are some facts:

* "There is an average of one Division I scholarship available for every 196 high school soccer players. Only men’s track and men’s volleyball faced longer odds. Factor in that many elite, college-bound players who bypass high school to focus on club soccer, then the ratio becomes even greater for the high school soccer player."

* More than half of all men’s soccer players (11,075 of 21,601) play at Division III schools where there are no athletic scholarships.

Basically if your son is a good athlete and you really want him to go to college on an athletic scholarship, you would be better off picking another sport. Many college soccer teams use academic scholarships to supplement soccer athletes so as was stated earlier - concentrate on grades first. If your son makes good grades and is a good soccer player, chances are he will be able to play somewhere in college. But there is very limited budget in D1 or D2 colleges (and none in D3) for Men's Soccer scholarships.

It's more a question of does you child want to play in college. I don't think anyone in this process is expecting a free ride.

Woody is correct.

We contacted several selective schools which offered soccer. In the end, kid received offers based on grades, not soccer. Some more than others. Some were D1. some D3. Of course, the D3 schools could only offer money for grades.

Then we visited schools and talked to coaches. Also sent e-mails re. tournaments. Some coaches visited, some got feedback from other coaches who attended. Sort of an informal "help each other out" thing I guess.

Anyway, basically the same process for our non-athlete college student, who received a very similar percentage of $ help. Contacted professors or other friends of friends to show interest. Ended up with about 80 % of tuition and room & board covered for each. Based on grades, not soccer.

rocks wrote:Woody is correct.

We contacted several selective schools which offered soccer. In the end, kid received offers based on grades, not soccer. Some more than others. Some were D1. some D3. Of course, the D3 schools could only offer money for grades.

Then we visited schools and talked to coaches. Also sent e-mails re. tournaments. Some coaches visited, some got feedback from other coaches who attended. Sort of an informal "help each other out" thing I guess.

Anyway, basically the same process for our non-athlete college student, who received a very similar percentage of $ help. Contacted professors or other friends of friends to show interest. Ended up with about 80 % of tuition and room & board covered for each. Based on grades, not soccer.

The above is also true for football. But you would be surprised at the type of scholarships, other than athletic, that are available. The schools weigh heavily on their class ranking, GPA, and the SAT/ACT scores.

[quote="forbin"]

off_the_woodwork wrote:* "There is an average of one Division I scholarship available for every 196 high school soccer players. Only men’s track and men’s volleyball faced longer odds. Factor in that many elite, college-bound players who bypass high school to focus on club soccer, then the ratio becomes even greater for the high school soccer player."

But my son is going to be the one that gets the scholarship! Seriously, though, thanks for the wakeup call.

Come on people. There are too many club coaches promising college scholarships for this pessimistic information to be true, right? Even if they've never been to college, they can't all be wrong, can they?

This is kind of what I thought when my wife and I discussed, just maybe if our son turns out really good he could get some help for college. I have found that most of the schools he would want to go to (UT, ATM, Baylor, etc.. do not even have men's D1 soccer). It seems to even get a soccer scholarship he would have to go to some small DIII school that he would never consider if not for the soccer aspect.

This calls into question why do we as parents spend so much time, money and commitment to club soccer in NTX when the result is intramural soccer for the kid when he gets to college.

We do it because my son still young and he has fun. Not sure we will keep it up through his highschool years.

WRG wrote:This is kind of what I thought when my wife and I discussed, just maybe if our son turns out really good he could get some help for college. I have found that most of the schools he would want to go to (UT, ATM, Baylor, etc.. do not even have men's D1 soccer). It seems to even get a soccer scholarship he would have to go to some small DIII school that he would never consider if not for the soccer aspect.

This calls into question why do we as parents spend so much time, money and commitment to club soccer in NTX when the result is intramural soccer for the kid when he gets to college.

We do it because my son still young and he has fun. Not sure we will keep it up through his highschool years.

Again, it'll be his decision...unless you want to pull your son's club scholarship.

rocks wrote:Woody is correct.

We contacted several selective schools which offered soccer. In the end, kid received offers based on grades, not soccer. Some more than others. Some were D1. some D3. Of course, the D3 schools could only offer money for grades.

Then we visited schools and talked to coaches. Also sent e-mails re. tournaments. Some coaches visited, some got feedback from other coaches who attended. Sort of an informal "help each other out" thing I guess.

Anyway, basically the same process for our non-athlete college student, who received a very similar percentage of $ help. Contacted professors or other friends of friends to show interest. Ended up with about 80 % of tuition and room & board covered for each. Based on grades, not soccer.

So where'd he end up?

WRG wrote:
This calls into question why do we as parents spend so much time, money and commitment to club soccer in NTX when the result is intramural soccer for the kid when he gets to college.

We do it because my son still young and he has fun. Not sure we will keep it up through his highschool years.

I think there is only one single good reason to spend so much time and money on NTX club soccer : because the kid like soccer. I am baffled that some parents can even consider any other reason (especially the hope to see him make money out of it through college or by becoming pro) !!