Colleges/Universities with high academic standards (engineering)

[nhsoftball]

I'll add University of Rochester on to the list as well. Quality program that was in the D3 championships 2021 season. Several west coast players on the team. My daughter was a Mech Engineering major - now doing product design for a popular sports equipment manufacturer. Lots of time commitment wherever you go. Ask questions from the coach and professors about how they are working with each other - will they be flexible for lab classes, exams, etc.

 

[Orange Socks]

I'll add University of Rochester on to the list as well. Quality program that was in the D3 championships 2021 season. Several west coast players on the team. My daughter was a Mech Engineering major - now doing product design for a popular sports equipment manufacturer. Lots of time commitment wherever you go. Ask questions from the coach and professors about how they are working with each other - will they be flexible for lab classes, exams, etc.

DD former teammate graduated from Dartmouth early and is doing her Graduate work there. I wonder if she'll be able to play one more year.

 

[DonnyS]

Bumping this up. With summer travel starting to wind down I'm going to try to get this list compiled. Thought I'd see if there were any other schools people thought of.

 

[Top_Notch]

Our team provides NCSA as part of our dues. I don't know how much it costs outright. I think it has every college in the US. You can filter by preference (Region, level, academic, settings, major, etc..) Each school has information like coach contact, price, religious affiliation, enrollment, demographics, size, diversity, housing, closest airport, retention, etc... From that standpoint it has been instrumental to us as my daughter wants to play out of state.

The downside is it seems that smaller and juco schools use it more than the more competitive schools. We also don't use the email and prefer to use our own private.

Some will say all this information is free on the internet. While true, with NCSA it's all in one place, summarized, trackable, up to date, and formatted nicely. And you can be recruited through it, although that did not happen for us. (camps people...)

In full disclosure, I have no affiliation to NCSA, just relaying information. Again, I don't even know what it costs, but we used it for our research.

 

[vicimus]

I did a search and came up short. If this has been covered please direct me to the thread.

We have started looking at colleges/universities for DD. She would like to play softball at the college level. Not sure what level she'll end up at and we are casting a wide net in our search. We are hoping to identify multiple schools at each level (D1, D2, D3, NAIA) to investigate and target over the next couple of years.

She is currently thinking engineering as a major (mechanical or aerospace), though I recognize this may change over the next 3+ years. There are obvious choices for schools with that field of study. What I was hoping to get from the collective knowledge on DFS is identification of schools that might not be easily recognized. Specifically smaller schools that have softball programs. Even better if there is first hand knowledge that playing softball and enrollment/success in the engineering program is compatible. We have already talked to one school where the coaching staff was not sure if an athlete could do both.

Hopefully my request makes sense. DD preference is more towards the west coast but we are not ruling out any location at the moment.

Thanks!

Well, the sooner DD decides on which major to pursue the easier to down-select since there's a big difference between mechanical and aerospace programs at schools.

As far as *high-academic* softball DI conferences, Patriot League schools are a great option since they are like Ivy League as far as academic standards but unlike the Ivys, they give athletic scholarships. Drexel is another great east coast engineering school although I don't like what I've heard about how that coach treats his players.

However, I will caution you that based upon my *high-academic* DD computer science freshman year in a DI program, I'm highly skeptical about the time constraints of a DI program (officially 20 hrs/wk but more like 30!) with *hard-core* engineering/science majors workload which is easily another 40 hrs/wk; i.e. she *survived* but now I question if it was really worth triple the stress of playing DIII or not playing softball at all.

That said, just be advised that *high-academic* DIII programs like MIT, CMU, Stanford, etc. got double the applicants during Covid since becoming SAT test-optional, although not sure if any other than MIT has reinstated mandatory SAT test scores. FWIW, my DD was recruited by MIT coach and made it to the final round of the application process but in 2020 MIT got double the applicants after only accepted ~7% of applicants previous years.

Best wishes on your DD search.

 

[vicimus]

Thanks for your insight. If you do not mind sharing, where did you DD go to School? I know when I look to hire people, I prefer to hire those that played sports (HS or college). IMHO they are more likely to be team players. But I fully recognize engineering programs are a different breed.

Club softball is definitely an option. We are also going to look at some of the military academies that have club level softball (e.g. Air Force).

My DD HS varsity softball team mate who was a 2020 graduate is at West Point where the coach tried to get her to play but considering they have lift BEFORE the daily 0600 formation, she passed. ;-)

 

[vicimus]

Duly noted. The research triangle is also on the list (Duke, North Carolina State and UNC). As is Clemson for big schools from that part of the country.

Be advised that certain schools like UNC, UVA, Virginia Tech, etc. have *in state* requirements by law; e.g. 80% for some like UNC as I recall.

 

[vicimus]

Check out UMBC in Catonsville, MD - D1. It is a STEM Honors College in the University of Maryland system. The softball team had a senior engineering student. It isn't a large campus - probably 10K students overall including grad students.

Just be advised that the UMBC athletic facilities leave a lot to be desired; one of DD's travel teammates had a sister that recently graduated there and her mother ranted about how poorly the facilities were as far as injury rehab, etc. Also, my DD went to a softball camp there as was extremely underwhelmed as compared to ALL other camps she attended including UMD which is 30 mins away.

 

[nikkilugi]

Just be advised that the UMBC athletic facilities leave a lot to be desired; one of DD's travel teammates had a sister that recently graduated there and her mother ranted about how poorly the facilities were as far as injury rehab, etc. Also, my DD went to a softball camp there as was extremely underwhelmed as compared to ALL other camps she attended including UMD which is 30 mins away.

We are well aware of the facilities. DH and I give our DD loving crap about how they aren't the best all the time. However, keep in mind Coack K is fairly new to the program and he is working hard on improving them.

He has already had new dugouts installed along with a new pressbox. They will also have lights starting in 2023 - new LED lighting system for the field. Not a lot of mid-major D1 schools in the NE have lights. They are going to be upgrading the batting cages and bullpen area as well this year. I would like for them to figure out seating but TBH he probably likes having no fans up against the fences......chairs on the top of the hill far away is probably every coaches dream.

Slowly but surely they are fixing the neglected facilities. The camp my daughter attended was one of the most well run and organized camps she attended. We were beyond impressed with the programming those 2 days while there which is one reason she loved the program as much as she did. I heard other parents say the same thing while there including one of DD's teammates. Also - who can argue with committing to a 3 time conference championship team with an exceptional coaching staff?

 

[krazykat]

The University Athletic Association (Brandeis, Emory, WashU, NYU, Case Western, And Carnegie Melon) is a good place to look for high academic schools with good softball programs.