A high school junior asks about college soccer recruiting for ACC programs and JUCO options. Two advisors say students with a 3.5+ GPA should target four-year schools first, where academically strong players can get $20,000-$40,000 scholarships. JUCO recruiting stays open through senior year, but it's a backup plan if academics are solid.
At an ACC level, when do their recruiting processes stop? Because you've been talking a lot about the NCAA division and then also NAIA. I was curious about that as well.
Junior college and NAIA, what is your GPA?
I have a 3.6 as of right now. I finished my semester with a 3.5.
And what grade are you in?
I'm a junior in high school.
Junior. So here's what I would say, and this is where I disagree with the coaches, and you guys get to pick who you listen to. The coaches are the ones who you should listen to probably more than me, but I don't think that junior college is a good route. For a couple reasons. One, all of you guys have too good of grades. None of you should be going to junior college. You guys have good enough grades to go to school. I don't think you should go to junior college just for the off chance that maybe you'll be recruited by a college soccer team. Academics should always come first. So you have a 3.6, you should not be going to junior college.
I wanna like go 'cause I wanna knock out my like generals.
Amazing. If it's a budget and general, she wants to knock out her general ed, then it's awesome. But even then, I would still argue You can get huge scholarship academically with a 3.6. And the main thing too, without knocking JUCOs, college is an experience, right? You're not really gonna get a job, most of you, because of your major. Unfortunately, most of you are going to be studying— unless you're going to be bio or STEM, in which case you got to go to grad school anyways. You're going to college for an experience, not even education at this point. You are going to make friends, be in an environment you'll never get to do again. I'm 32. And I remember not a single soccer game I played, but I do remember when one of my roommates stole the guitar of their roommate and we chased them all over campus. That's what you're there for, ultimately. And then of course, because you're soccer players, you get to be, in Hogwarts terms, the wizards. You know, it's very fun. You're not a muggle, you're not necessarily normal. You get to be a wizard and be in an environment that's very special, hence why you're all studying right now to go become wizards. So, to that end, to your question, If you do want to pursue the JUCO route, in terms of when they're done recruiting, they're not done till the end of your senior year. So you have lots of time, which is also why you should not pursue that option until the very end. You should be focusing much more on the process from a 4-year school. For you guys, if you had a 2.8 or something, or even a 3.0, that's different. But if you have above a 3.5, there's no reason to go to junior college, even financially speaking. Most of you, if you play soccer, will get an academic scholarship between $20,000 and $40,000 if you get recruited, which you do have to get recruited to get an academic scholarship.
There are plenty of people who have made it out of junior college and on to the next levels, but my students who I work with tend to be high academics, so I really don't think you guys should ever go to junior college unless there's other circumstances. If you want to know which camps you need to go to, comment the word top academic and I'll send you a list of those top academic schools and those camps to go to.
