A player without elite youth soccer experience needs Division III offers to attract top academic programs like Yale, Columbia, and Georgetown. The advisor suggests using Chicago's interest as proof of transfer potential, and recommends playing club soccer at Georgetown over committing to Division III if ED1 doesn't land a spot at a target school. Act now or risk losing a college soccer opportunity entirely.
You have no interests from D3s. That is a big problem. And the reason that's important is when you don't play MLS Next on a pro academy team, or you're not being seen in person 4 to 6 times every year since 8th grade, you have to have offers. So if you really want to play at Yale, which I think you might be capable of given your video, or you want to play at Columbia or even Georgetown, which Georgetown is obviously probably a little out of reach, I would say, at the minute. But if you want to play at these schools, because of your grades and your parents' budget, you can get into these schools academically. Like, you really will. Your high school is really good. So if the coaches know that, that's a big deal. So we have to write that in the emails. On top of the fact that if you say to them, hey, I've already gotten interest from Chicago, which is the best Division III program, and 5 kids a year transfer to Division I top academic schools from those 5 from a Chicago, these might be possible. And here's the big thing. If you do this whole process, and let's pretend November comes around, which is ED1, and you don't, right, Georgetown says we don't like you, and Yale says we don't like you, and you only have D3 offers, then don't do it. Go to Georgetown, play club soccer, and have a great time at Georgetown. But if you don't do this right now, like get very serious this summer and consider Division IIIs, you will not play college soccer at all. It will just— the opportunity for you will disappear.
