What to expect when you get to college?

This is a great thread for those of us going thru the recruiting process- I just thought I'd add my 2 cents- We always look at the roster. If there aren't many upperclassmen on the team, we rule it out. We also look at the majors, as generally those are listed as well. If none of them are in my DD's interest, we rule that out as well.
Some D3 team coaches are fine with study abroad semesters "out of season". If that's part of your college dream, best find out early on.

Many of the teams have facebook and instagram pages, where you can see what the girls are doing. That helps get a feel for the team before visiting.

This isn't softball, but my DS is a college athlete, a D-3 rower at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Which means, in addition to being a major in Mechanical Engineering, he has 6 practices a week at 6 AM. That is all year round.

In the fall they have a few races, some close by. One in Milwaukee, one an hour or two away in Wisconsin, and one in Illinois. Those take all day. Then the best rowers (he and one of his apartment mates made it this year) go to the Head of the Charles in Boston, which is the entire weekend.

Winter they row on rowing machines indoors, and take a couple of trips to Madison for tank rowing. Their bus broke down the last time, so that took ALL day.

Break between winter and spring quarters they row all day every day at Baylor.

Spring break they row all day every day in Milwaukee.

Spring they have lots of races. If things go as planned, in addition to a few races in Wisconsin, they will race in Columbus, Philadelphia and Sacramento.

Basically, it is a tremendous amount of work for kids who are also engineering students. (The softball team at that school also has some nursing students, not an easy major either).

He shares an apartment with two other Junior ME major rowers. They take classes together and study together. The team is his ENTIRE social life.
Junior year is THE toughest year for ME majors at his college. One of his roommates considered leaving the team, but the coach let him miss some practices and stay on the team, to keep up the grades. However, that guy won't be on the better boats in the races.

So, that is something to really think about.

If your kid is planning on a demanding major, how will the coach handle it?
In some programs, they will cut a player some slack for practices so the kid can get the grades up, BUT, there is a price to pay. The kid who misses practices to keep up the grades gets more time on the pine. Sorry, but that is that.

If your kid is going for a demanding major, it would probably be best to be on a team where most or all of the kids have demanding majors, or at least a LOT of them do. That is the case for DS' team, where EVERY member of the team is an engineering major. Every one. Not one exception.

In schools like that, the coaches work with the students to make sure they can have a study/team balance.

If your kid goes to a program where the teammates are basket weaving majors, then the coach probably expects the team to come first, second and third.

Sorry to make this so long, when it isn't even softball, but to some extent college sports are college sports.

slappinandstealin said:

we also look at the majors, as generally those are listed as well. If none of them are in my dd's interest, we rule that out as well.

Click to expand...

this ^^^^^^^^^^

Slappinandstealin said:

We always look at the roster. If there aren't many upperclassmen on the team, we rule it out.

Click to expand...

A more thorough approach also looks at:
- How many have been there since frosh vs transferred in.

- Previous rosters to see how many were in those upperclassmen's group as frosh and whether/when some dropped off. Sometimes they started as part of a small class.

- If coach's tenure is less than 4 years, timing of dropouts versus coaching change(s).