.

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 31, 2023 by Drama Llama

[silver]

You can find schools by ABET accreditation. The main programs that you'll find at smaller public schools would be civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering. So I'd search for one of those majors (often, but not always, a school will have all three), and then cross check that with a list of D3 schools.

Here's Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering programs in the US (411 schools, but some schools show up twice if they've changed their name):
https://amspub.abet.org/aps/category-search?disciplines=48&degreeLevels=B&countries=US

In my geographically limited searching for my own kid, I've found that private schools often aren't ABET accredited unless they're an engineering school (like Rose-Hulman or Illinois Tech). You could try matching just the public schools on the D3 list (81 schools) with the link above.

Division 3 schools:
https://www.ncsasports.org/division-3-colleges

[Frances]

Many D3 LACs are going to have 3-2 engineering programs where the student attends the LAC for three years and then transfers (usually to a D1 university) for the last two years. My husband started on this path, but changed his mind about engineering. His freshman roommate continued on the path and ultimately received his engineering degree. While I’m sure there are students who do it successfully, I would think being an engineering major and doing a varsity sport at a D1 school would be very challenging due to the time commitments needed for both.

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 31, 2023 by Drama Llama

[*LC]

A friend's kid played a sport at a D3 school with an automatic transfer to their state engineering school. However, when it came to transfer he was put into a lesser-known in-state engineering school than had been talked about during recruiting. I understand a 3-2 program isn't the plan, but just wanted to share a cautionary tale.

 

I searched D3 soccer. Below is a list of the top 10 D3 soccer programs from the first non-sponsored result. It says "To help student-athletes and their families identify which of the 410 NCAA D3 schools with men’s soccer programs are the right fit for them, NCSA has created our own Power Rankings. NCSA analyzes and ranks D3 schools that offers men’s college soccer based on factors that are most important to student-athletes, such as cost, size, location and academics. Below is a list of the top 10 D3 schools with men’s soccer programs.

With 410 D3 soccer programs, I don't think your ds will have problem finding a D3  school offering engineering majors.

This is the top 10 on the list.

Amherst College
Johns Hopkins University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Emory University
Franklin & Marshall College
University of Chicago
Tufts University
Carnegie Mellon University
University of California – Santa Cruz
California Institute of Technology

 

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 31, 2023 by Drama Llama

[catz]

Trying to rack my brain for smaller excellent engineering programs ...

Rochester Institute of Technology, Milwaukee school of engineering, Miami University (Ohio), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Colorado School of Mines, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 

Could look at smaller directional public U's?  One of our neighbors kids is having a great experience playing D3 sports and doing a specialized major through a midsize public school like that on the cheap.  

ETA - another popped into my head!  Case Western Reserve University

Edited December 31, 2023 by catz

[domestic_engineer]

Trine University

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 31, 2023 by Drama Llama

[dirty ethel rackham]

Not all D1 schools are going to be that intense.  Smaller to medium sized universities that have ABET certified engineering schools may have less intense athletic experiences.  Dd went to Saint Louis University.  Although she didn't participate in school athletics, she knew several engineers who played D1 sports and they didn't have big issues with academics.  Her bf was on the swim team and they both knew several soccer players.  Also, not all LACs are 3+2 programs.  Some do have 4 year ABET programs.

[Drama Llama]

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Edited December 31, 2023 by Drama Llama

[Lori D.]

disregard -- not helpful, and accidentally unintendedly hurtful 😢

Edited January 1 by Lori D.

[Drama Llama]

The implication that I'm not doing enough to help my kids heal is really offensive.  

 

[Lori D.]

I'm sorry.

To denigrate you and how you are guiding your children was not at all my intention in posting. I always try to post with the goal of being kind and helpful. I am sad that did not come through, and that my post offended and hurt you.

 

Edited January 8 by Lori D.

[Drama Llama]

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Edited January 1 by Drama Llama

[*LC]

For some reason the original topic has been running through my mind, and I want to address this from a different angle, based on years of watching my kid's friends talk about playing college sports. 

If this son thinks he wants to play sports in college, it is not too early to reach out. Nothing he does/says will commit him until he actually signs paperwork senior year.

If you think a highly rejective engineering college would be a good fit for him academically/financially/geographically, those are the schools he should reach out to now, because sports can be his acceptance hook.

If I remember correctly, this kid is academically advanced and will have great scores, that is helpful for these coaches when building their teams.

In hearing recruiting stories over the years, I understand that schools like great test scores to help overall team scores. Someone in my circle, who had a superscored 27 ACT, is currently playing a sport at an Ivy. Years ago, a sports acquaintance was told by an equally rejective school that a similar score is what he needed for acceptance there as a recruited athlete.

So, if your son wants to start the recruitment process, I would suggest letting him reach out to engineering schools that interest him that are known to meet financial need and not worry about acceptance rates at this point. 

[Frances]

Sports are definitely a hook at the Ivies. Per capita, they have far more student athletes than most colleges, so lots of admission slots that need to be filled with athletes. The Ivy League was a sports league from the beginning. Another possibility, although a whole other level of intensity, is the military academies. They also have a disproportionally large number of student athlete slots to fill.

Edited January 3 by Frances

[Drama Llama]

On 1/3/2024 at 8:14 AM, *LC said:

For some reason the original topic has been running through my mind, and I want to address this from a different angle, based on years of watching my kid's friends talk about playing college sports. 

If this son thinks he wants to play sports in college, it is not too early to reach out. Nothing he does/says will commit him until he actually signs paperwork senior year.

If you think a highly rejective engineering college would be a good fit for him academically/financially/geographically, those are the schools he should reach out to now, because sports can be his acceptance hook.

If I remember correctly, this kid is academically advanced and will have great scores, that is helpful for these coaches when building their teams.

In hearing recruiting stories over the years, I understand that schools like great test scores to help overall team scores. Someone in my circle, who had a superscored 27 ACT, is currently playing a sport at an Ivy. Years ago, a sports acquaintance was told by an equally rejective school that a similar score is what he needed for acceptance there as a recruited athlete.

So, if your son wants to start the recruitment process, I would suggest letting him reach out to engineering schools that interest him that are known to meet financial need and not worry about acceptance rates at this point. 

The people who are involved in this say that the beginning of the fall 2024 season is when to reach out, so having a list before Aug 1 makes sense.  Because my kid plays with kids who are in 9th, he's hearing all about those kids' lists, and because he is the kid who does his HW the day it's assigned, he has started looking.

At this point, the goal is just get on coaches radar, so they know he exists, maybe have seen a clip or stopped by a game, or had him at camp.  He's a strong student now, and his middle school test scores are very high, but puberty can do all sorts of things to a kid's brain.   So, I want the list to be varied.  I also want to make sure that he is thinking about D3 options.  His coaches seem to think he can play D1, and those schools are easy to find, but I want him to decide based on academics fist, and so I want him reaching out to D3, and to a wider variety of schools in terms of levels.

Because we will qualify for need based aid, and because finances matter, we'll put every in state school, and every "meets full need" school with ABET certification on the list.  But that leaves us with a list that's both highly rejective, and highly slanted towards D1 schools.  So, I'm looking to provide some balance, with some less selective D3 schools on the list.  

And yes, this isn't a list of where to apply, or even where to look.  It's just a list of coaches he wants to know that he exists.  I don't want to narrow it too much by things like engineering field, or geography, or size, because he's just too young to know.  

[*LC]

I understand. I thought you were meaning he was looking to start getting on coaches radar right now, and for immediate push for a strong student & athlete needing aid,  I would suggest starting with those highly rejective schools that meet financial need.

However, since we are talking about August. I would suggest your son go through the list of D3 soccer schools and prioritize which coaches he wants to reach out to first. 

In theory, below is a list of all D3 men's soccer teams. The school website is listed at the top of each entry, so he could simply click it to see if the school has engineering. If it does, then he can put on list to reach out to coach or to research about financial assistance and/or scholarships, whatever makes sense for him to help rank/rule out schools.

https://www.ncsasports.org/mens-soccer/division-3-colleges

Good luck..