Recruiting Tips & Blog

Properly evaluating and comparing schools during your college search process is vital. Choosing the wrong school can lead to costly consequences, both financially and academically. Studies show that the 4-year graduation rate in the US is approximately 41%, meaning most students take longer to graduate—or don’t graduate at all. Additionally, 38% of students transfer to another college during their academic journey. What causes such alarming statistics? The answer often lies in selecting colleges that don’t align with a student’s academic, social, and personal needs—also known as their best fit college.

Why Choosing the Best Fit College Matters

Finding the right college is more than just a decision about academics or athletics.

Over the past several years, we’ve received an increasing amount of questions from parents about the college process. How do I help my son or daughter to get seen by colleges? When should I start visiting schools and will colleges pay for his/her visit? How many scholarships are available at the NCAA Division 1 and 2 levels and are they hard to get? Does SAT test prep really help raise scores? Parents in the process have all these questions and some many more. In response to these questions, last year we started the Future 500 Parent Education Seminar. The feedback was so overwhelmingly positive – that this year we are expanding it even further!

Did you know there are over 2,000 4-year colleges in the United States? With so many options, how do you find the right college? The Future 500 ID Camp staff finds it helpful to talk about “Fit”. Fit considers many variables, including: • Location • Size • Major • Academic reputation • Public/private • Scholarships/financial aid • NCAA Division (1,2,or 3) or NAIA • Quality of the soccer program • College program’s system of play & how the coach sees you fitting into it Clearly, there are more variables – but these key variables will go a long way in helping determine if a college might be a good fit.