Call me link in bio

With this other student, he had amazing grades, similar to your son, and he got interest from multitude of different schools, but he ended up getting like a really amazing scholarship from NC State— sorry, North Carolina University. And like amazing, meaning full ride academically. He's a physicist. So he was like, you know what, this is the school I want to go to. But because we had gone to that school's ID camp earlier in the summer, he gets to walk on now in the spring. Does that make sense? So if August is saying, look, I really want to be part of a team, I really want to play college soccer, and we're not getting the interest we want from D1 schools at showcases yet because of the MLS Next thing, or because of the emails we're sending but we're not getting a ton of feedback, which we've started to dive into the D1s but not as much as we have the D3s, it doesn't mean he still can't play soccer there, but it will mean he has to go to their ID camps. Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, so in saying that, the first thing what we need to do is we need— and this is healthy that he should do— like, soccer is going to make him do it earlier than he might have otherwise, which is a good thing. You know, how does he know what schools he does and doesn't want to go to? And I will help him with that, but it's based off school size, location, and the soccer part helps too. And he's also learned a lot about schools in this month and a half together, or almost 2 months, because we've researched a lot of schools together and he's gone, I like that school. And I read about that coach. And then therefore I read about that school. And that's, that's why I like soccer as kind of being the carrot to encourage kids to start looking into what colleges they want to go to. Because if you said to them, hey, you should think about colleges and without soccer, it's kind of boring. With soccer, it's a lot more exciting. So my question to you both is over, I would say this weekend, because the biggest camps are going to be like July to August. So we're going to have to pick like 2 to 3, plus he's got the tryouts. And one thing that we created last time is like a calendar so he can keep track of like all of the ID camps he has. And I pulled that up here at the top. So in saying that, from my perspective, we now want to take steps into what schools he wants to approach, quote unquote. So August, from, from your perspective, today we can work on it, but maybe I'll have you finish it tomorrow because we have some other stuff we need to do is you know, picking 10 Division I schools, 15 Division III schools, and then seeing— we will also then, just so you both know, we are going to send a follow-up email to those Division I schools that he puts on his list. And I'm going to add a couple, like Bucknell. I want them— I want that to go on his list, and I will add a few. And then based off their feedback, we will pick ID camps. Um, you know, this is now crazy scheduling stuff— flights, travel, staying here, staying far. Like, Occidental is one of those that's like that's far away from you guys, but they do have a camp. There are some other schools at that camp, none of which are really of huge interest to us, but Occidental's a great school that I think your son would enjoy, and that coach is a great human being. So like, that ticks a lot of boxes, and they've shown some genuine interest. Does that make sense?

Yep.

Okay, um, so let me ask your father a question. I've said a lot there. I'm gonna go through that with your son. You had mentioned you wanted to message me. Was there a certain question you had specifically?

Uh, yeah, so, uh, basically I had a list of questions I was going to ask you. Is that, you know, um, we've done, uh, so far I was keeping track of things that we've done. So we've done D3s and next step is doing the D1s. I think you answered my question. Um, so what's the, uh, the MLs next gonna— how is that gonna play into the, into the equation? Because he has a tryout— he had a tryout yesterday, there's one more on Thursday, so by Friday we'll know whether he's gonna make on the team or not. Okay, so, um, so even though he makes on the team, the college application times December, maybe even October. Is it even worth to do it? I just did the question. I'm not—

yeah, no, it's a good question. I mean, if you want to play college soccer, you definitely need you need to be doing your part to play MLS NEXT. If they make him an offer and he says, if he himself says, hey, I don't want to miss high school and I'm not going to enjoy soccer, then you should not do it. But if you're like, I want to have the best chance of playing college soccer, MLS NEXT, even if we don't go to like a ton of events this summer, us emailing schools saying I'm on an MLS NEXT team will change everything. Now, if he doesn't make it, which is also possible, it still doesn't mean, as you can tell through the emails we've received, that it's done and dusted by any means. It may mean that it'll be more difficult for some Division I schools, but the Division III schools, it's— he's got great grades and he's a good soccer player. So it is realistic. So I guess that my return—

I've already sent all the emails to all the Division— top Division III schools. Yes. That's all done. Yeah. It's completely done. Yeah. So, so far I have a list that you have heard back from Occidental, uh, Harvey Mudd, Carnegie Mellon, and Pomona. Those four. There's a lot more. Those are the schools that you might— Yeah, yeah. So I made a list. I did the, I did the D3, the D3 list on our, on our agenda from the schools I heard back from, and the only ones that I really considered were, yes, Occidental, uh, maybe Harvey Mudd. It's really small though, so I don't really think that would be an option, like my top choice. But yeah, Carnegie Mellon, Pomona, and NYU, those were the only schools that we heard from that I would really— so we should be targeting those camps.

Exactly, perfect. That's perfect. Good, perfect.

And, uh, my next question is, now the next step is to, to do D1s, right? So assuming, I don't know, when are we gonna send the D1 mail? Like This week.

So good question. So the only reason we hadn't done it yet was partially because of the MLS Next trial. If he makes it, our email template will be very different to if he doesn't make it. So there's an argument since 2 days aren't gonna kill us, we should wait until Friday night, or I have a hard time believing they're gonna tell you. Are they, did they say specifically that they will tell him an answer on Friday night?

Yeah. They said like Friday offers will be made on Friday.

Okay, great.

There were only like 40-something kids at the tryout, so it was pretty small.

Great.

That's amazing.

So, if that's the case, what we're gonna do is we, just so you know, we've already done this. He's gonna send, there's two ways to do this, and we can decide which one we want. Now, since he's done with finals, I'm gonna tell you my opinion. One August is if you want to get the most responses from D1 schools, we're gonna email almost every single Division I school, even schools that aren't in his academic range, because when we follow up and he says, hey, I've already gotten responses from other D1s, it's really, really helpful. On the flip side, if you say, hey, you know, we don't have time for that, obviously we're still gonna email our favorite schools first, and we may not get through the whole list. But we say there's 15 Division I schools, and we only email those 15, and they don't respond to us, you're dead, unless you're willing to email some other D1s, then go follow up to those top 15 and go, here's my situation, I'm playing at this level, but this school likes me, especially if you're not playing MLS NEXT, then the coach goes, oh, that school liked you, "Let me read your video again. Oh, oh, wow. Okay, now I'm going to consider you. And just so you know, regardless of if they respond or not, because your son has such good grades, we're probably going to go to those. We're going to pick 2, maybe 3, probably 2, because we want to err on the side of Division 1 schools, probably, that he's going to go to ID camps for, at least 1 or 2." So that now, that means we're picking of the D3s. If Harvey Mudd's a no, which is California, Now we've got Carnegie Mellon, which is in July, Pomona, NYU, and Occidental. All of them are in July and August. So we'll see, we'll have to split them up. So those are great. That's a great job. Those are the schools soccer-wise that fit both categories, and that's why we did all this work to get to that stage. And we got responses from them. If there's another D3 school August though that you're like, I never got a response from them and I'm frustrated, and you want to go to their ID camp to get seen, like Washington and Lee, then we can do that still as well. Does that make sense?

Any other D3s that you're considering? Uh, UChicago?

Yeah.

Okay.

We've emailed them, and University of Chicago is only a tough one because they won the NCAA tournament last year, so they're picking the best kids that they— they get to pick anybody they want this year. Um, so it's, you know, it's a competitive environment. Now, if you go to their ID camp, That is the best chance to have a chance. Um, now we have to look, which is what we do with your calendar, what matches. You know, like, we— they, they all happen on the same dates because they don't want you going to other camps. They want you to have to pick, and there's only so many days in the summer as well.

So yeah, all right, so, so the, the immediate next steps, we got to work out the camp dates for D3s.

Yes, for D3s, and I would say camp dates also for the D1s, regardless, you know, our favorite D1s. Because even if they don't respond, we still— if he wants to potentially play at that school, he's going to have to go, right?

Because there's D1 schools you can apply for no matter what.

Exactly.

You're going to apply for no matter what.

Exactly. And those— that list is what I want. Because what we're going to do is once we have that list, we're going to email those schools specifically saying, I'm thinking about coming to our D camp, are you looking for a my position for the class of such. If they say yes to that, then we'll prioritize maybe that Division I school's camp over another one, but you'll still apply to all those. Then you came, you came up with a really good point that is a problematic thing in the recruiting