Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Your all crazy, every sport that offers money has early recruiting...The only difference is that other sports continue to recruit kids that have already verballed, thus making the verbal meaningless. That is exactly what will happen in lax over time.

If you don't like the club scene, don't try out and play PAL. Stop telling us the world of pain clubs have caused and don't tell me what a mistake I made by having my 9th grader commit verbally.

Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it is the wrong choice for me. open your mind and think--different strokes for different folks--not exactly the black plague.

My kid plays 2 different sport, because he loves to play, and yes, he also gets great grades. Football in football season, lax is pretty much all year round.

Having a great time with club teamates--if I am willing to spend the time and $, why do you care?


Sounds like a guilty conscience to me. Worrying did your child make an informed decision in 9th grade. Congrats you get to brag around the water cooler and on the summer circuit. Time will tell if you made the right choice. And speaking of "why do you care", why do you? Last I checked this board was anonymous.


Well, well well, good morning to you.

Nice comment to my post, not going to take the bait this morning and call you names, but perhaps later after my meetings...That said, I will share a few thoughts that might be helpful to others below.

For you specifically, I will say, no to the guilt part but yes, I have a little angst that my kid only got 50% scholarship for lax, we were praying for 75%. But on the bright side, if his grades stay where they are and he scores 1800 on sat, he will get 25% more for merit...

For all the other people thinking my poor 9th grade kid was forced to grow up too quickly and choose his college (top academic school), perhaps the economics of school haven't been properly analyzed in your mind? Do you guys all know what school costs? Unless you are staying in your State, you are looking at between $50k and $60k per year.

Of the roughly 65 D1 lax programs, about half offer little to no athletic money and little to no merit money. That also applies to some great D3 institutions like Amherst and Williams...

If you don't make too much money (in this one area of life not making money actually makes you money) the need based aid can help tremendously and is much better than lax money because you are likely to get the same award all four years.


However, if you are reading this board you are probably not going to qualify for need based aid, which means either, you can pay the $50k per year without concern (great for you!) or you and your kid are borrowing a ton of $.

So when someone says I made my kid grow up too quickly and choose a college too young, I say at least this way he has a much better chance of graduating without huge $$$ in debt hanging over his head or mine. Yes, I know the verbal is a verbal and anything can happen...

Would JH have been a better fit than Michigan or Ohio State or Penn State or syracuse or virginia? Should we have waited for the IVY or Duke? Ivy and Duke are not giving me any money otherwise we would have waited.

Who knows how this will all turnout, but if my kid stays healthy and works hard and graduates with little to no debt, I really don't care which one of the above...He doesn't know what he wants to do for a living but how many people knew what they wanted to do for a living when they were 18? How many people changed majors after getting experience in something that excited them? Isn't that what you are supposed to do in college? I tell mine, find something you are passionate about and you will be successful...

If you were all being 100% honest, you would be thrilled to have your kid attend anyone of the schools mentioned above.

So, no, I don't have guilt over this particular decision. I have made more than my share of mistakes, but after much careful thought and consideration, I really can't see any downside.

Perhaps the person that thinks I feel or should guilt can share with me the reason why I should be feeling guilty?