SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Playing college soccer

Bebe Le Strange:


Not knowing much about Newberry, Limestone, etc.. My point is simple, most students change there majors several times. Asking a 16 or 17 year old to choose a college based on a specific major just doesn't make sense at that age.

sweets, you've got it wrong - they're not playing to focus more on studies, they're not playing to enjoying the full experience of being a college student and all that comes with it. they give up a big part of the college life experience when they decide to be a college athlete.

Sweet, it sounds to me like you are betting on failure (the failure being a student picking a major, then changing his/her mind one or more times). From the get-go, you are assuming that your child will make a mistake when choosing their major.

How about this example – a child decides they want to play soccer in college, and they want to be an engineer. They decide to attend Clemson, based on the reputation of their engineering program, and they were also offered some amount of scholarship monies to play soccer there. They declare their major to be Mechanical Engineering (for those of you who know how it works at CU, I do realize this may be a little off). A year later, they change that to Chemical Engineering. A year later, they change it yet again, this time to Electrical Engineering. Heck, just for S's and G's, let's say they one more time change their major, this time to Environmental Engineering. So, they chose the school based mainly on the academic program they wanted to pursue, they changed their major a total of four times, but they have still graduated with an excellent degree, and from the college of their choice.

Granted, that example may be a little unusual, but I think you are going to the other extreme.

Sweet, you're also assuming that the academic programs for athletes at schools other than those such as at USC (with their new, athletes-only, multi-gazzillion dollar facility) and Clemson, have all the same programs that those two do. I seriously doubt that to be the case.

I hate to say it, but I agree with Sweet Feet. Most kids IMO do not really know what or who they are going to be. Being an athlete is just a continuation of what they already were, and also maybe a means to an end. Some kids can afford any school, some can scrap by, some have to do whatever it takes (playing their way through -instead of an hourly job). I played football because I did not know how to do anything else with my life, it was a 24/7 obsession for me as a kid. When I had to quite, I felt like I lost a family member. After a while I figured out how easy school was, and had a pretty good time of it.


The most important thing is they are in college, heck the average life expectancy is 100 for the girls. They have time to figure it out. It being the big IT.

...and my point is simple - larger schools like Carolina or Clemson offer many majors within which one can pick from if they do want to change. Smaller schools simply do not have the same number of majors. Therefore, if you do end up going to a smaller school on a soccer scholarship (which is reality for the majority of even serious soccer playing SC kids) you need to keep in mind what majors they offer and make sure you are not going to find yourself between a rock and a hard place if you decide to change majors. Don't find yourself picking a major just to pick something or the consequences may follow you long after your soccer playing days.

Like the NCAA commercial says - there are 360,00 (or something like that) college athletes and almost all will turn professional in something other than sports.

College is about education.

Hard Headed,

Your daughter is "the exception". We don't have too many girls from our state that play a couple of years on the R3 ODP Team and get an invite to national camp. Those girls get their pick of the litter.

They can......."have it all".

For the most part, the rest of our daughters have to decide between playing at a small(er) school, or, attending the big-time D1 school, enjoying all of the amenities and NOT playing college soccer.

HH - thanks for the update on your player's experience and glad she is doing well.

SF - what about your player and how is she doing at alabama?