TIP #3 Start to make a list of schools & Start to take action
CREATE A LIST OF SCHOOLS & START TO TAKE ACTION
Did you know there are over 700 opportunities to play lacrosse at Division 1, 2, 3, and club level??
There is a place for everyone if you really want to play. The number of programs is growing each year. I was surprised to see there are over 110 division one programs, over 135 division two schools, and close to 280 division 3 schools. There are also opportunities to play club WCLA Division 1 close to 80 schools, and WCLA Division 2 almost 150!!
Do your homework and research! So many opportunities! If your club team uses Sports Recruits they have a way to search all schools at every level. It’s a great resource!
As you start to create your list of schools use this checklist to help you educate yourself and narrow down your options.
1-DO YOUR RESEARCH
Educate yourself on the different divisions and conferences. Does competing for championships matter to you? Does the conference you are in get an automatic bid into the tournament? If you are looking to compete for championships this is an important question. Again- we are all different if this doesn’t matter to you then all good!
2- CREATE SPORTS RECRUITS/CONNECTLAX PROFILE
Update sports recruits and connectlax page to include video, any academic progress, any fall sports updates. Many coaches use this to watch videos, get your contact information, etc, especially right now while we are all quarantined at home. If you play a fall or winter sport, put a highlight video of that up there! If coaches are interested they will dig to find out more information, so be creative.
3-ACADEMICS
Start to analyze your own academic profile
Freshman year is extremely important! It is tough to pull a GPA up by junior year so start strong and stay consistent. GPA can help in opening doors to schools later in the process.
Start to think about what major you may be interested in.
Start focusing on and understanding what areas you are strong in academically. What do you like to study?
Most importantly, focus on getting the best grades you can! I can’t stress this enough!
GREAT ARTICLE BELOW
“Which year of high school is most important for college applications”?
https://blog.prepscholar.com/which-year-of-high-school-is-most-important-for-college-applications
4- LOCATION & SCHOOL SIZE
Another factor that comes into play is the location of a school and if that will matter in your decision later down the road (do you want to be close, can your family afford to travel far for games, think of financially getting home for holidays, etc if far).
Think about the size of the school, and classroom size. Do you like more attention in the classroom or are you okay with having 500 students in a class?
5- FINANCIAL AID & SCHOLARSHIPS
Also, start to get an idea of your financial situation. Talk to your parents and see what plan they have for you and attending college financially. Full rides (athletically) to schools are rare. Typical scholarships for a division one freshman lacrosse player is 20 percent of the total bill IF that! The NCAA limits Women's Lacrosse programs to 12 at any time and that's just for schools that have fully funded their varsity teams. ( so not all 122 schools are fully funded). Given a roster size of around 30 players, simple math can show the unlikelihood of a prospect earning a full athletic scholarship- or any athletic scholarship at all. According to scholarshipstats.com, the ratio of high school athletes to college scholarships is 48-to-1 in women's lacrosse. The same site reports that 82 percent of all Division III Student-athletes get some form of aid or academic scholarship. Even better, those awards average 17,000 a year, which exceeds the average $15, 162 in athletic scholarships offered to.
This isn’t to say that there isn’t money out there to help pay for college, but there’s actually more money out there for academic scholarships than athletic.
I know of players who accepted an academic scholarship freshman year and earned some athletic scholarship over time. They were able to combine both over their time. (Some schools accept “stacking” others don’t so make sure you check that out).
But coaches look at the success in the classroom, improvement on the field, and being a good person and citizen outside of the field as ways to increase scholarships over time.
These are all important skills that as a freshman you can learn and develop over your time.
TAKE ACTION:
FILL OUT LACROSSE QUESTIONNAIRES
Fill out questionnaires at each school you may be interested in.
If you haven’t already-make sure fill out school questionnaires (that way you can be on their mailing list). Questionnaires are used as coaches' main database for recruiting. If you don’t fill it out at schools you are interested in, they may not even know you are interested. They are usually on their website. If not you can email the coaches and ask them to send you information on camps, clinics, etc. It is legal for them to respond to you about general interest questions.
COMMUNICATE WITH COACHES
Use Sports Recruits/Connectlax to send emails-
If your club has access to these resources use them. Club coaches can see activity and it helps keep them up to date on where you are and whats going on.
TAKE CAMPUS TOURS/ VIRTUAL TOURS
When traveling with family if there are schools along the way. It’s nice to see the campus and start to see what factors are most important to you! When going to tournaments see if you can stop by campus. Start to get a feel for it all.
Since this is not accessible right now, many schools offer virtual tours of campus. Make sure to take the time to check these out!
CHECK YOUR ELIGIBILTY
College-bound Student-Athletes should create an account through the eligibility center. You need to be certified by the NCAA Eligibility Center to compete at an NCAA Division I or II school.
Here is the link to get started: https://web3.ncaa.org/ecwr3/
FOCUS ON AP EXAMS
Looking for some additional support for your AP Exams?
@APforStudents has a YouTube channel with live video support:
https://youtube.com/user/advancedplacement?SFMC_cid=EM292356-&rid=47492191…
Use this time to help you navigate your way through the process. We don’t know when we will be back on the field but when we can, make sure you are READY to go!
Here to help you through it all!
Crysti