u/tkdcondor

I just graduated high school and am currently preparing to play at the next level. I’ve been training with a private coach twice a week, going to the gym 3-4 times a week, and eating as much as I possibly can, but I feel like I’m not even close to ready.

I’m headed to a team that currently doesn’t have someone rostered at my position, and the only other recruit in my class who played my position decommitted at the last minute.

I’m genuinely excited to start college, but having to line up against people 4-5 years older than me in just a little over a month is absolutely terrifying.

Feel free to AMA about my situation. I’ll do my best to answer all questions to the best of my ability.

I just finished up my college recruiting process playing football, and I’m genuinely so glad it was so incredibly straightforward and fun compared to some other HS sports. I genuinely don’t know how people who play these sports deal with how insane the recruiting is, especially with how ridiculous of a time commitment you have to be prepared for year-round.

For those who don’t know, to get recruited to play in college in the US for specific sports, you can’t just play well on your official High School’s team. Instead, you have to try out for a club team in the offseason, play an extra 3-4 months worth of games and practices, and hope you get noticed by colleges.

Compared to football which is essentially all based on your performance on your High School team, with maybe a couple camps so coaches can see you in person, having to essentially give up your offseason entirely so you *might* get a chance to talk to a college coach seems incredibly stressful to me.

I know some people choose to forgo playing on their HS team entirely for this reason, but honestly that only exasperates the problems here, considering now you’re likely not going to be playing with your friends, there’s less rules around when and how you can practice, and there’s always an immense amount of pressure on you to perform at all times.

This kind of recruiting is just way too much to ask out of HS students. 16-18 year olds shouldn’t be skipping homework or being able to have a legitimate HS experience just so they might get a chance to play at the next level. I understand sacrifices have to be made somewhere if you want to separate yourself, but this just seems insane to me.

Please let me know what your experience was if you’re someone who went through this process with a sport that required you to do this. Again, I’m so happy football did not require this level of offseason dedication, though it definitely had its difficulties in its own right that I absolutely have problems with.

I’m headed to Macalester this fall after falling in love with the school and the Twin Cities, but I was really just wondering what are some things that are a “must know” for someone moving out?

I’ve lived in the San Diego area my entire life and haven’t ever really experienced a truly cold winter in my life, but I’m fully expecting it to be brutal, although I’ll be home for most of January.

What are the best spots to eat? What are some fun things to do when the weather is actively trying to kill you? What things might I not be expecting that I should know? I’m honestly just looking for as much input as possible to prepare for next month when I move out. I’m genuinely so excited to make the move!

I just graduated recently, and looking back on my time there, I can’t really remember a whole lot outside of football. I won’t deny that it was fun at times, but I was doing something football related for nearly 20 hours a week, even during the offseason. I never joined a club, volunteered, went on a date, or did any substantial summer program since my entire life revolved around my football schedule and homework.

The team I played for was good, but not nearly good enough to justify the absolutely insane time commitment. Since I was one of only a couple guys on the team who actually cared about their academics, I would sometimes be forced to stay up until 4am finishing homework after getting home from a game or ending practice at 9-10pm.

I think there’s a chance I would think about all of this so much differently if I genuinely wanted to be there most of the time, but my coaches were such terrible people and gave me so much shit for the littlest of things, even though I started every year I played and had to put in a million times more effort than anyone else due to a congenital medical condition.

I really enjoy playing football, and it gave me opportunities beyond HS I could never have dreamed of, but I don’t think it was nearly worth the effort I put in. Now beginning to play for a college team that genuinely respects their players and their time outside of the sport, it’s genuinely felt like a breath of fresh air.

It’s just insane to me that a HS football coach would feel the need to run their team like it’s the the damn military and force their players to quite literally choose between playing time and their academic future. I did not end things on good terms with my head coach, and I’m honestly so glad I didn’t.

Later this year I will be moving to Minnesota from an area considered to have some of the nicest and most moderate weather in the world. I’ve only ever lived in SoCal and never experienced a Winter below 60 degrees.

Almost everyone I’ve talked to thinks I’m insane for doing this, especially with how easy it would’ve been for me to stay, so I thought it would be fun to answer some questions!

Genuinely Chill Guys: OL, LS

Decent Enough: QB, LB, DT

Solid, but not guys I’d hang out with: DE, TE, P

Annoying: CB, S, WR, RB

Kickers: K

I’m gearing up to play LS in college, and I thought I’d hop on here and answer some questions NFL fans might have about the position since most people don’t really know all that much about it. I’ve been snapping for almost 6 years, am probably around top 20 in the country for my class, and have worked with some of the best snappers and snapping coaches in the country, so I feel decently qualified to answer any questions anyone may have. Ask away!

I was diagnosed with Kallmann Syndrome about 5 years ago and had to essentially go through puberty artificially. Im very lucky that I was diagnosed relatively early, but have still had my fair share of difficulties with my condition. Feel free to AMA!

I’m an American myself, but I’m just curious what cities people enjoy the most, really by any metrics you feel are most important. Here’s mine just to get things started:

1. San Diego, CA
2. Chicago, IL
3. Bozeman, MT
4. Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN
5. Ketchikan, AK

1. Chem (4)

I genuinely don’t know why I took this class, since I don’t want to do anything even STEM-adjacent in college, but this class literally broke me. I remember opening the FRQ booklet and legitimately having no clue how to do a single problem. I studied more than I ever had for this test, and I still felt unprepared coming into it.

2. Lit (Took this year)

Wasn’t as hard as I was expecting, but still a pain to get through. The MCQ felt long and the Q1 and Q3 legitimately made me want to throw my computer out the window. Again, much easier than expected, but still annoying.

3. Lang (5)

Meh. The last of the tests I considered “hard”. Not as hard as lit solely because the writing is more open-ended. I legitimately wrote about Baker Mayfield’s 97-yard drive with the Rams to beat the Raiders in one of the essays, and still came out of it feeling good. Still felt very long and my mind was dead by the end of it.

4. Euro (5)

Fairly easy overall, but was the first one I took and was on paper, so I had to deal with an insane amount of wrist pain from writing. I actually swear I don’t think I got a single point off that test, but still required a decent amount of thinking.

5. Gov (Took this year)

Much more difficult than I expected, but still decently easy. I want to be a lawyer in the future and I already knew 90% of the material, so this class was an absolute breeze for me, but I think I didn’t study as much as I probably should have which made it harder. Also the mock we took prior made me think the test was going to be a lot more straightforward than it actually was.

6. Psych (Took this year)

Just SO MANH TERMS. The test felt short but there were a lot of questions I had to guess on. Loved the class and the teacher, but the material was pretty boring and a lot more involved than I expected.

7. Environmental (Took this year)

I probably could’ve taken this test and done well without taking the class at all. I’m honestly surprised this was even an AP test since there isn’t a whole lot of complicated or advanced topics covered. All very surface level imo.

8. US History (5)

I don’t know how calling this class is easy is an unpopular opinion. A 5th grader could probably take this test and pass. As long as you knew the major events it was so straightforward it essentially made missing questions more difficult than getting them right. Yeah, the DBQ was a little annoying, but writing about US history was fun, and the test was essentially exactly was I expected it to be.

Please hear me out before y’all absolutely crash out in the comments.

To everyone who is starting their college application journey, this is truly something I wish I’d internalized earlier. Prestige is definitely an important factor to consider, but you have to remember that you’re not just making a decision about the academics, you’re making a decision about where you’re going to live for the next four years.

Actually consider where you feel like you would be happy living. You like Grinnell because it’s ranked high? Cool, how can you manage living in rural Iowa for the next four years of your life. FAU isn’t really top notch academically, but if you don’t want a stressful college experience and want to be in the nicest possible location, Boca Raton isn’t the worst option.

I’d also just take some time to think about what kind of opportunities are available to you in the surrounding area of your college. Are internships readily available? How easy is it to get to a district court or the closest hospital? Is there enough to do off campus so that you won’t be bored out of your mind for most of the year?

A lot of people really get so caught up in how high a specific school is ranked that they fail to consider the fact that they’re moving their life for the foreseeable future to wherever they’re going to college. I’m not saying that you should go to a terrible school over an Ivy just because it’s in a better location, but I really want to emphasize the importance of location when making your list of colleges to apply to.

I ended up picking a school primarily because of its location. I probably could’ve applied to more schools and definitely could’ve gone somewhere that was ranked higher, but I would’ve been splitting hairs academically just to end up in an area I would’ve been much less happy in.

Really just some food for thought. I know a ton of people are immediately going to run to the comments to tell me how wrong I am, but I hope at least a few people get something out of this post.

Edit: The numbers at the front aren’t the cost, it’s the student population (enrollment)

I’ve already decided on a school, but I’m curious to see how many people would agree with my decision given the same options. I’ll reveal what the schools are and what I picked later.

View Poll

I don’t know if this is just because of where I live, or if it’s just a general trend nationwide, but it seems like there’s a ton of well-qualified students who either completely disregard LACs or don’t even know they exist.

I think I’m the only person at my entire school going to an LAC. I genuinely don’t understand why they just aren’t deemed as a serious option by a lot of people, especially humanities majors, who would absolutely thrive at one. I even had multiple people ask me if I was referring to Cal Poly Pomona when I mentioned I was looking into Pomona College.

I understand the price can be a huge barrier to a lot of people, but even at the HS I go to which is in a relatively affluent area, with multiple people going to extremely expensive schools like Pepperdine and NYU with zero financial aid, not a single one has chosen a purely Liberal Arts school.

At a solid LAC, you aren’t competing with graduate students for off-campus opportunities or research, the professors are usually more focused on teaching than they are research, and if you plan on going to graduate school, you have the opportunity to get excellent LORs from professors who actually know who you are.

If you’re someone starting your college search, please take a moment and do some research on Liberal Arts Colleges. You definitely have to be careful with where you look, since there’s a lot of them that don’t have the best academic reputation and/or resources, and a ton if them, though not all, are in the middle of nowhere. However, there are plenty of excellent schools around the country that are willing to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need if you’re accepted, and have incredible job outcomes for alumni, often even better than most large research universities.

I know people might think this is insane, but at the very least try to understand my thought process. I’m not saying is one of the most difficult overall, just that it requires a ton of technical knowledge and experience to play at a high level.

Firstly, it’s the only motion in all of sports in which all your weight and power has to be directed backwards, creating a huge mental and physical hurdle just to get to a point where you could be even decent at it. You’re also placed in an incredibly unnatural position, so every intuition you have is going to be constantly forcing you to snap in a way that isn’t as effective.

Long Snapping form is also incredibly dependent on a person’s body size/shape, meaning that it’s impossible to reach your maximum potential by just watching or copying others. You have to find your own motion, and once you do, it’s extremely difficult to make significant tweaks.

It also requires a deep understanding of extremely specific mechanics and techniques that very few people in the world know, let alone are able to teach you. The fact the position has changed so much in only the last couple decades only exemplifies this problem.

Again, I’m not saying it’s a very difficult position overall, especially if you’re already familiar with how to snap a ball, but it certainly has the largest barrier of entry of any football position and requires more technical and mechanical knowledge than nearly every other position in sports.

After seeing the post and comments of the person considering liberty, what are some other nationally or regionally known schools that you wouldn’t recommend under any circumstances?

Here’s a few in my opinion:

- UC Merced

Pretty decent academically, but literally in the middle of the desert. You are not really going off campus if you go here.

- UC Riverside

Similar academically to Merced, if not a little stronger, and in a slightly “better” location. The only reason I wouldn’t really recommend it is because Riverside is perpetually 90F year round.

- Cal Baptist

Regionally well known in SoCal in my experience, but is fairly weak academically and has not historically had the best career outcomes. Also in Riverside.

BYU-Idaho/Hawaii

- I’m not Mormon myself, but even for people who are of that faith I’d be hesitant to recommend these schools. The main BYU campus is actually pretty decent in some aspects, and has a solid reputation, but is similar to Liberty in the religious presence/retractions on student activities. These schools basically take all the negative aspects of BYU without really any of the positives.

- CSUB

Just Bakersfield.

- GCU

Very low academic reputation and in Phoenix. I think there online school is decent, but I would never recommend going here in-person.

If there’s any others you could think of, let me know. I’d love to have a discussion about them.