Researching colleges

[wconn1979]

I think it can help just to have her close her eyes and imagine the type of school she sees herself at. Big or small? In an urban, suburban, or rural setting? Close to home or far from home? Type of weather? These kinds of questions can help you narrow things down quite a bit.

One of things that has helped us the most is just informal visits to the schools. As someone mentioned above, we have crossed some schools off the list just by driving around them. When we are traveling for tournaments, I try to make a point of getting to an informal visit or two with prospective schools.

Seems like I was just having these kinds of conversations with my DD and she’s a HS Junior this fall. It goes quick.

How do you line up an informal visit?

 

[Traps71]

How do you line up an informal visit?

Nothing fancy. Just go to the campus, preferably when the students are there, but they don’t have to be. We tend to drive around the campus and the surrounding area to get a feel for everything. Then, we usually park and spend an hour or so walking around the campus. For my DD, it’s about getting an idea of whether she can even see herself at the school before we start investing more time in camps and formal visits.

Typically, you are going to start with a longer list of prospective schools than you can realistically manage. These informal visits (in addition to web research) can help you start knocking schools off your list and get down to a list of, say, 6-12, which you can actually manage.

The above combined with a realistic sense of what kind of student your DD is (or what kind of major she wants) as well as what kind of softball player she is can help you narrow the schools down even farther. For example, my DD likes the University of FL and the Gators softball program. But she’s not going to be able to play for Tim Walton, so we’ll keep moving and cross that one off of our list…If she ends up going to a large state school, she’ll go to one right here in VA with in-state tuition.

 

[wconn1979]

Tonight my daughter received an email from a small NCCAA D1 Christian school inviting her to come to a one day combine. Is something like this normal or is it a money making thing they do? I have researched the school and it looks like 2022 was their first year with a softball program. Below is the link to her sports recruit account any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you,


https://sportsrecruits.com/trinity_conn

 

[softball dad 6]

Read the email carefully. If it looks like a generic email that all they did was change your dd's name at the top, it is probably a cash grab. If it is an email that looks like it was written specifically for your dd then they are interested.
College coaches only get paid so well and these camps help them to both recruit and make extra money.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[Jaysus]

Tonight my daughter received an email from a small NCCAA D1 Christian school inviting her to come to a one day combine. Is something like this normal or is it a money making thing they do? I have researched the school and it looks like 2022 was their first year with a softball program. Below is the link to her sports recruit account any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you,


https://sportsrecruits.com/trinity_conn

it was dallas christian college, wasn't it? I can not help but shake the feeling that the CSB camps they are asking kids to go to are for nothing other than fundraising.

 

[wheresmycar]

Get the book "Preparing to Play College Softball at the Collegiate Level" by Catharine Aradi.

It contains a ton of useful information. More importantly, the last 50 pages of the book contain a listing of every College/University with a softball program in the country, sorted by State, with contact information. An updated version of the book is released every year. Texas has 53 schools with softball programs (according to 2019 edition I am looking at right now).

The list includes the following info:

College Name
Mailing address
Public/Private
School Size
Setting (Urban/rural)
Estimated cost instate/Out of state
Fees, Room and Board
Scholarships offered (Yes/No)
Athletic Affiliation (NCAA-1, NCAA-2, etc...)
Coach's Name and phone number
email address


Preparing to Play Softball at the Collegiate Level