Colleges/Universities with high academic standards (engineering)

[vicimus]

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?

Well, the prior player's mother's issue is with the lack of physical training support with regards to injuries et. al. She didn't care about press boxes, lights, et. al.

Kudos to Coach K, but as far as 3 time conference championships, everyone knows it's on the back of Coppersmith so it should be interesting to see what they accomplish after she leaves.

 

[nikkilugi]

Well, the prior player's mother's issue is with the lack of physical training support with regards to injuries et. al. She didn't care about press boxes, lights, et. al.

Kudos to Coach K, but as far as 3 time conference championships, everyone knows it's on the back of Coppersmith so it should be interesting to see what they accomplish after she leaves.

Coppersmith is amazing for sure. Matter was pretty amazing as a freshman last season. All ECAC Team, America East Rookie of the Year, 2022 Schutt Sports/NFCA D1 National Freshman of the Year Top 25, & 2022 Extra Innings Freshman Team. Of course he has incoming pitchers in his signed 22 class and committed 23 class so we will continue to hope the cream will rise to the top of the AE conference

As far as training support I guess we will see - or I should say I hope we don't have to see.

 

[DonnyS]

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.

Thanks. We have access to a couple of programs that do the same. I think one was mentioned above if I remember. Part of this exercise is so my daughter can take the list, dig in and do some "old fashion" research and reading up on schools. But I also think it will be helpful for others to have a compiled list posted. Maybe not?

 

[DonnyS]

Coppersmith is amazing for sure. Matter was pretty amazing as a freshman last season. All ECAC Team, America East Rookie of the Year, 2022 Schutt Sports/NFCA D1 National Freshman of the Year Top 25, & 2022 Extra Innings Freshman Team. Of course he has incoming pitchers in his signed 22 class and committed 23 class so we will continue to hope the cream will rise to the top of the AE conference

As far as training support I guess we will see - or I should say I hope we don't have to se

Well, the prior player's mother's issue is with the lack of physical training support with regards to injuries et. al. She didn't care about press boxes, lights, et. al.

Kudos to Coach K, but as far as 3 time conference championships, everyone knows it's on the back of Coppersmith so it should be interesting to see what they accomplish after she leaves.

Love hearing this type of inside information (there was more above that I haven't gone through yet). This type of knowledge will never be memorialized in any school website or 3rd party database.

Please keep it coming.

 

[Vertigo]

.

Kudos to Coach K, but as far as 3 time conference championships, everyone knows it's on the back of Coppersmith so it should be interesting to see what they accomplish after she leaves.

Hard to say that when Coppersmith and Matter nearly split the same amount of innings they pitched this year.

15-3 as a freshman pitcher is pretty darn impressive.

 

[GKCO]

RIT, Florida Tech, and UCF. The latter two are within 40 minutes of NASA and have a great relationship with the space program.

 

[_MIA_]

I used to know a few of the Aerospace professors at UF..maybe I can get them to put in a good word with Tim

 

[Vertigo]

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.

Triple the stress of a D3 program? Yes, D3 will play less games in a season and have less “required” hourly commitments in a week but believe me, it still isn’t the cake-walk you are making it out to be.

They still have team lifts, team practice 6 out of 7 days per week (in-season), individual practice sessions with coaches (hitting, pitching) and individual work on their own (pitching, etc). Many times they are starting lifts and practices at 6 am or 9 pm depending on how their indoor facility/ gym time pans out that week. There is a lot of community service they do in the fall, as well as “working” at the fall sport home games.

That being said, DD’s conference is reverting back to no “official” team practices in the fall. She loves this idea because it enables her (bio major) to take a heavier lab load then and ease up in the spring. However, this upcoming season, they will have a lot more travel as they will be playing every team in their conference as opposed to just their division.

Less stressful “softball-wise” than D1? Yeah, absolutely. But that’s where it ends. Since it is a high academic school and many of the players also double major (dd will be one of them), academically it is extremely stressful.

 

[vicimus]

Triple the stress of a D3 program? Yes, D3 will play less games in a season and have less “required” hourly commitments in a week but believe me, it still isn’t the cake-walk you are making it out to be.

They still have team lifts, team practice 6 out of 7 days per week (in-season), individual practice sessions with coaches (hitting, pitching) and individual work on their own (pitching, etc). Many times they are starting lifts and practices at 6 am or 9 pm depending on how their indoor facility/ gym time pans out that week. There is a lot of community service they do in the fall, as well as “working” at the fall sport home games.

That being said, DD’s conference is reverting back to no “official” team practices in the fall. She loves this idea because it enables her (bio major) to take a heavier lab load then and ease up in the spring. However, this upcoming season, they will have a lot more travel as they will be playing every team in their conference as opposed to just their division.

Less stressful “softball-wise” than D1? Yeah, absolutely. But that’s where it ends. Since it is a high academic school and many of the players also double major (dd will be one of them), academically it is extremely stressful.

That's just it, in the fall DI has 20+ hour weeks although less travel but at least the DIII programs that my DD's former teammates are in are no comparison workload and stress-wise and we're not talking P5 here.

 

[Vertigo]

That's just it, in the fall DI has 20+ hour weeks although less travel but at least the DIII programs that my DD's former teammates are in are no comparison workload and stress-wise and we're not talking P5 here.

Workload and stress-wise regarding softball, no - and I stated as such. Academic-wise, I beg to differ. I assure you the same college course at one school can be much more difficult at another. For example, Calculus at MIT will be on a different level than at “State U.”

And your post is what a lot of players and parents need to hear. It is very, very difficult to take a hard core major and also play D1 softball. Obviously some do it and succeed - but in the end, is the stress of both worth it? Usually one has to give, and the player has to decide which one trumps the other.