Congratulations! Coach Walker had an interesting recruiting strategy, that is for sure. Your daughter sounds like an excellent student and player.
Long 2021 Recruiting Rollercoaster Ride Pays Off FINALLY!
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Congratulations! Coach Walker had an interesting recruiting strategy, that is for sure. Your daughter sounds like an excellent student and player.
ABSOLUTELY! All of her coaches over the years have said no one on their team works harder than Alex which is all you can ask and then leave no stone unturned looking for the right opportunity.
Thanks for the kind words and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Agreed MIT is the best of the best when it comes to computer science which is why she pursued it in the first place after asking me several years ago who had the best computer science programs since I was one.
Also, coach Kalman is a great coach. We have no doubt that she will eventually win a DIII championship soon!
The problem with MIT is that they are so elite that they only accept about 1,400 out of 20K+ applications per year (~7%) and this year they already received 63% more early action applications than usual (15K+). Plus, MIT is $73K+ per year, is DIII, so offers ZERO athletic scholarships and is one of the few universities that offer ZERO merit scholarships due to their billions endowment. So they only give needs-based scholarships for which my daughter does NOT qualify since I make too much money.
And even though MIT is *test optional* this year only due to COVID-19 cancelations of SAT/ACT exams last year, the AVERAGE SAT score that MIT accepted previous years was 1550 out of 1600! So, out of the 15K+ early action applications this year MIT only accepted ~700 early and deferred to regular decision (March) 10K+ other applicants including my daughter who already had been accepted at 15 other schools most of which with major merit scholarships in their honors colleges.
So, although coach Kalman offered her a roster spot IF she got accepted, my daughter already had more than one DI offer on the table with major merit scholarships and did not want to wait until March for a MIT decision.
Plus, computer science graduates in this area with ZERO experience are getting $80K+ starting salaries and those with internship experience and security clearances are getting $100K+ starting salaries for which my daughter already has lined up for this SUMMER, so we will see how much summer ball she can squeeze in.
So, she is already set up for life with or without MIT.
Thanks for the kind words and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thanks! Yes! After 30+ years in the field I have been proselytizing computer science being THE BEST ROI of ALL MAJORS from the time my daughter was born and am happy she has listened to me! My only concern is that you can probably count on one or two hands the number of DI student athletes that are computer science majors due to the workload.
Thanks for the kind words from you and your wife and we wish you both a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Yup. This is good synopsis for families looking at ultra high academic route. It takes the mucho patience to wait on the process for the Ivies, Little Ivies and MIT. And the problem for many families is the money situation. If you are poor they will give you LOTS of money, if you are upper echelon you don't need the help and there is the rest of us which we could use some help while we still have to support our household. My DD's school competes for those students and they give LOTS of monies to those types of students that are of that academic caliber which has nothing to do with FAFSA qualifications. It's all about that SCORE! This makes it very difficult to recruit. The budget for the chess team and Esports team is higher than any sports team. Since those teams are not under NCAA they can give scholarships. I knew I should not have gotten rid of my game consoles.Agreed MIT is the best of the best when it comes to computer science which is why she pursued it in the first place after asking me several years ago who had the best computer science programs since I was one.
Also, coach Kalman is a great coach. We have no doubt that she will eventually win a DIII championship soon!
The problem with MIT is that they are so elite that they only accept about 1,400 out of 20K+ applications per year (~7%) and this year they already received 63% more early action applications than usual (15K+). Plus, MIT is $73K+ per year, is DIII, so offers ZERO athletic scholarships and is one of the few universities that offer ZERO merit scholarships due to their billions endowment. So they only give needs-based scholarships for which my daughter does NOT qualify since I make too much money.
And even though MIT is *test optional* this year only due to COVID-19 cancelations of SAT/ACT exams last year, the AVERAGE SAT score that MIT accepted previous years was 1550 out of 1600! So, out of the 15K+ early action applications this year MIT only accepted ~700 early and deferred to regular decision (March) 10K+ other applicants including my daughter who already had been accepted at 15 other schools most of which with major merit scholarships in their honors colleges.
So, although coach Kalman offered her a roster spot IF she got accepted, my daughter already had more than one DI offer on the table with major merit scholarships and did not want to wait until March for a MIT decision.
Plus, computer science graduates in this area with ZERO experience are getting $80K+ starting salaries and those with internship experience and security clearances are getting $100K+ starting salaries for which my daughter already has lined up for this SUMMER, so we will see how much summer ball she can squeeze in.
So, she is already set up for life with or without MIT.
Thanks for the kind words and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Unfortunately, GMU softball is only partially funded so when coach Walker found out she was a *high-academic* pseudo-local recruit I'm sure he was hoping she'd get a major merit scholarship like she did so that he could stretch his athletic budget as far as he could especially for the west coast girls. Plus add that the head coach of 16 years stepped down in April and then add COVID-19.
To be honest when my daughter reached out to coach Walker in the fall, he said he wouldn't know until the spring whether or not he would have any open roster slots since he did not know how many of his seniors would be returning.
So, while my daughter had another DI offer in hand (St John's) with another great merit scholarship and was waiting to hear if she got accepted to MIT, my wife told her to text coach Walker one more time to make sure he didn't have any open slots. This was the Monday 12/14 before the Tuesday when MIT was supposed to announce early action decisions. Well, Monday MIT sent an email saying early action decisions were delayed until Saturday due to the 63% increase in applications. Well THURSDAY coach Walker finally replied that he wanted Alex's current travel coach's number and called him then called her with the offer. You couldn't write that script!
Let's just say that ine of the greatest truths in recruiting that you will hear is that the higher academic achievements a recruit achieves the greater opportunities it will be create!
Thanks for the kind words and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
IMHO, the Patriot League schools are excellent choices for high academics since they are like the Ivies academically and DI but offer both athletic and merit scholarships.
Alex pursued Bucknell early and often camps-wise and communications-wise but unfortunately not only did the head coach step down this year but the recruiting coach left too
So another lesson learned is to cast a wide net and you can't start too early going to prospect camps!
Best wishes!
This is excellent information, as we are in a similar boat. DD (2022) is interested in high-academic DI and DIII schools (Bowdoin, Williams, Furman, etc...), but we will not qualify for needs-based money. Her ACT is good, but not super-elite stellar to get her a mega-merit scholarship. It's hard to know where to aim in her situation. She attends an outstanding parochial/independent school in the South and is doing very well GPA-wise with a number of APs and Honors Classes. I'm just afraid she falls in a "blank" spot for scholarship money, at least for the ultra-expensive DIII schools.
Many of the elite schools already went test optional even before COVID-19 hit; e.g. Bucknell.
That said the elite schools want high GPAs, lots of AP classes, and lots of extracurricular activities esp. service related.
As far as merit scholarships it appears that most schools offer a max of 50% off tuition only but there are many other types of other scholarships; e. g. St. John's gave my daughter an extra $3K/year on top of her merit scholarship for graduating from a Catholic high school.
So my best advice is to pursue the highest academics as possible, pursue the merit scholarships, and get accepted by as many schools as you can to see what softball opportunities develop which is what my daughter did.
Best wishes!
