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Best College Softball Programs No One Talks About

What's on your mind?

by Els489 » Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:25 am

Hey There,

Just curious. Wanted your opinions on the best college softball programs that fly under the radar.

Hope everyone is well.

Thanks!
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by jonriv » Fri Aug 07, 2020 1:03 pm

If you are not stuck on DI...………

There are several DIII Schools in the Northeast that have great programs and outstanding academics

Here are a few:

Tufts - NESCAC
Babson - NEWMAC(my Daughter graduated from her)
MIT- NEWMAC

Softball might be the way to get into a great school that grades alone won't get you into
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by xyzdude » Fri Aug 07, 2020 2:09 pm

More Northeast DIII schools to consider...

Sometimes good to look at Conferences as well as individual schools.

Centennial Conference - generally very strong academic schools; pretty good competition as well with a manageable schedule for student athletes. Includes: Swarthmore, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Haverford and more. Maybe not quite on par with Jonriv's snooty New England schools - but not far off.

Capital Athletic Conference - may be more reachable for average to good students, strong athletic traditions with two very excellent softball programs (and nice schools) in Salisbury and Christopher Newport.

NJAC - made up of NJ schools, good variety in academic range from easier to get in to fairly stringent and difficult (College of NJ). Good conference for athletics and an unusually deep group where from year to year there are five or more strong teams with a chance to play for a national championship.

The Northeast has the advantage of density - there are more good/great colleges in close proximity than probably anywhere else in the world. Just look in Boston - Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston University, Leslie, Tufts, and more. Pittsburgh is a very under-rated college town also. University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Robert Morris and more. Of course, Philadelphia has a density of good and great schools with softball programs too: Villanova, Drexel, St Josephs, LaSalle, Holly Family, Eastern, Philadelphia University, University of the Sciences and more.

The Northeast has a good variety of DI schools too mostly State institutions that have a wide range of programs of study, and may offer some decent softball too. None of these schools are likely to be playing in OK at the end of the season, but that is true of most schools: Maine, University of Rhode Island, University of Connecticut, Hartford, University of Delaware, UMBC, Towson, Delaware State, Buffalo, and many more.
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by Schmick » Fri Aug 07, 2020 9:05 pm

If youre looking at D3 schools the SCIAC is right here in So Cal, has some of the best universities anywhere in the nation (Cal Tech, Mudd, Scripps, Redlands, Claremont , Chapman, Occidental, Whittier....) and you dont have to send your kid to the nations butthole in the north east where they will be surrounded by new yorkers, chowds and awful weather
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by texmex45 » Fri Aug 07, 2020 10:36 pm

Schmick wrote:If youre looking at D3 schools the SCIAC is right here in So Cal, has some of the best universities anywhere in the nation (Cal Tech, Mudd, Scripps, Redlands, Claremont , Chapman, Occidental, Whittier....) and you dont have to send your kid to the nations butthole in the north east where they will be surrounded by new yorkers, chowds and awful weather


Chowds? Lol, that's awesome! :lol:
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by TheTownUSA » Sat Aug 08, 2020 9:45 pm

Keep in mind that D3 and Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships. So having excellent grades and SAT scores, along with half-way decent playing skills, will make your really popular with the coaches of some of the schools.
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by jonriv » Sun Aug 09, 2020 4:47 am

Maybe no Athletic scholarships, but excellent return after college. My daughter’s school Babson is well known for its ROI and many companies openly recruit its students pre-graduation. It’s a business school that is famed for its entrepreneurial program. All freshmen go through a “shark tank” like program where they start and run their own company. My daughter had internships her sophomore and junior summers. She and her fellow seniors had jobs lined up with major companies before their senior seasons. My daughter graduated a few years ago and now makes more than me.
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by Schmick » Sun Aug 09, 2020 6:01 am

Academic Grants, Athletic Grants and FAFSA and you can get through D3 schools pretty well. Co-worker paid less per year for his daughter to go play at Pitzer than he spent to send her to Santa Margarita High School
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by TheTownUSA » Sun Aug 09, 2020 9:39 am

jonriv wrote:Maybe no Athletic scholarships, but excellent return after college. My daughter’s school Babson is well known for its ROI and many companies openly recruit its students pre-graduation. It’s a business school that is famed for its entrepreneurial program. All freshmen go through a “shark tank” like program where they start and run their own company. My daughter had internships her sophomore and junior summers. She and her fellow seniors had jobs lined up with major companies before their senior seasons. My daughter graduated a few years ago and now makes more than me.


I agree with you 100%. Education, education, education and THEN sports. I never expected my daughter to be the next Jennie Finch, but if she can maintain her 4.1 or higher GPA and scores well on her SATs, she has plenty of softball experience/skill to get her on the team of the college she chooses. The way we see it, her athletic aptitude will be the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.
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by dusty » Mon Aug 10, 2020 10:09 am

D3: Va Wesleyan. Won back to back natty's in '17 & '18. Coach Elliot is a young guy that his players love playing for. During my dd's recruiting years he was the only coach to send hand-written notes and postcards to her.

D1: Lehigh. D1 recruiting is usually a nightmare dealing with the revolving door of incoming and outgoing coaches but not here. Coach Troyan has been there over 20 years and is the second coach in program history following his wife who left to coach the Lehigh women's bball team. My dd would have ended up here but they couldn't come up with enough money as a private by the time the school she committed to came along as a in-state public with a similar academic profile.

Lehigh's financial aid is similar to the Ivy's but unlike them they do offer some athletic scholarship money. As a general rule of thumb when applying for financial aid at schools like this money in your dd's name (529, UTMA, trusts) hurts her ability to qualify while money in yours or dw's name (roth, IRA, 401k, Life Ins) will at least not count against her ability to qualify.
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