We have a rising high school senior getting serious interest from Centennial league coaches (F&M, Gettysburg, Dickinson). We are weighing the benefits of playing soccer for one of those schools or attending Penn State and NOT playing soccer. We get a large discount at PSU since we are staff. He is interested in a Business degree. The D3 colleges would be a significantly larger investment and all the Net Price calculators say we will be paying $35K-$60K per year, depending when a sibling is in school and some other factors. We know these are great schools academically, top 50 liberal arts schools in the country. But having him play soccer could cost us $130K-$150K more than PSU over 4 years. We are seeking as much information as possible before making a hard decision in the fall.

My question is directed at parents of D3 soccer students past or present... As we weigh these options- what are some of the benefits to playing D3 soccer at these schools or others like them that we might not be aware of? Did D3 soccer help your student excel academically by having to be more structured around soccer? Did he develop leadership or other skills that maybe he wouldn't have not playing college soccer? Was the team a positive social network? Do these types of smaller liberal arts schools do well developing athletic students into well rounded adults?

Thoughts?

Thanks!