Brockton Youth Softball League For Girls: College Bound

ACT Test
The ACT test is similar to the SAT but is more subject based.  Most colleges will accept either the SAT or ACT test for college entrance.

NCAA Guide for the Student Bound Athlete 2006-07
This is the official guide from the NCAA on what you need to know about getting recruited for college.

The link is now working.

NCAA Clearing House
The first step for the college bound athlete is to register with the NCAA Clearinghouse. You fill out an online form with various information that can be accessed by college coaches from schools you are intereted in. The cost is $50 but every athlete must register. You can fill out an online form giving schools access to your high school transcripts or download a form to give to your guidance counselor.

College Listing by Region and Division
This is a link to a list of colleges by region and telling you what division they are in. Division I is the highest, followed by Divisions II and III.

Division I colleges have more scholarships than Division II. Division III schools are not allowed to give athletic scholarships.

National Fastpitch Coaches Association Camps
This site give you a listing of all camps administered or endorsed by the NFCA an organization of college coaches. Attendance at these camps gives you exposure to the greatest number or college coaches in a single setting.

Camps are broken down for pitching, catching, offense and defense and allows the college bound athlete to demonstrate her skills before college coaches.

Division I Colleges by Conference
A listing of Division I colleges by the conference they play in. Colleges in this division offer more athletic ...

Division II Colleges by Conference
A listing of Division II colleges by conference. These schools offer fewer athletic scholarships than Division I

Division III Colleges by Conference
A listing of Division III colleges by conference. These colleges cannot offer any athletic scholarships

NCAA site for women's softball
The official NCAA for women's softball. If you look along the left hand side of the page, it will give you details on which teams played for the championship in each division, regional divsion brackets and regional division rankings.

This is helpful in determining which schools have a decent softball program in each division.

Ultimate College Softball
This site is a great central point for gathering information on college softball teams, coaches, pictures and more.

There is a softball forum where you can get answers to all your questions regarding college softball and a separate discussion on recruiting.

The bottom of the page also has several links to other sites regarding the college recruiting process.

College Rankings  

This web site also gives you the college rankings during the season. Click on the "Stength of Schedule" area to see the rankings.

It also gives you their winning percentages and lots of other great information.

This will also give you an idea of the strength of the softball program for Division I schools.

College Checklist
This is a list of items you need to do when looking at colleges, questions to ask the softball coach and more.
Handout: College Checklist

Princeton Review
The Princeton Review gives you detailed ratings of colleges in various categories. You can search my region or category.

You can even answer a variety of questions and they will give you a choice of schools based upon your answers.

US News & World Report College Rankings
Each year, the national magazine US New & World Report gives a ranking of colleges and Universities. Click on this link to see this year's rankings by category or region.

A great resource in helping to choose a school.

SAT Test Preperations
Another site to help you prepare for the SAT's.

National Letter of Intent
Over the years, some of the terms of the National Letter of Intent agreement have changed, yet the program's basic goals have remained the same:

To reduce and limit recruiting pressure on student-athletes; and
To promote and preserve the amateur nature of collegiate athletics.

By signing a National Letter of Intent, a prospective student-athlete agrees to attend the designated college or university for one academic year. Pursuant to the terms of the National Letter of Intent program, participating institutions agree to provide athletics financial aid for one academic year to the student-athlete, provided he/she is admitted to the institution and is eligible for financial aid under NCAA rules. An important provision of the National Letter of Intent program is a recruiting prohibition applied after a prospective student-athlete signs a Letter of Intent. This prohibition requires participating institutions cease recruitment of a prospective student-athlete once a National Letter of Intent is signed with another institution.

College Data
Search for the right college by using  a variety of criterea such as location, size, cost

Tuition Finder
Check the costs of going to a particular college through this site.  It gives you the cost of tuition, room and board and fees.

Fastpitch Recruiting Web Source
This is the web site for Cathi Aradi who has written a book on the college recruiting process.  Here is a sample from her web site:

IF THAT IS THE RULE, HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN?" 

By Cathi Arad

I'm going to address the rule portion of this question, and then do a bit of editroializing about the issue itself.

The NCAA rules state that college coaches may not have face to face contacts (meetings) with players (or their families) off campus until after the player completes her junior year.  (June 15^th for Div. II coaches; July 1 for Div. I.) 

That means until those dates, college coaches can, phone you or  talk to you at tournaments or games, visit your home, have dinner with your family, etc.  And, official, or paid for visits are not allowed until after you start your senior year. 

Coaches may, however, email or write juniors and send sophomores a questionnaire in response to a player's letter.  There are also no rules that prohibit players from visiting college campuses at their own expense.  Once there, they can meet with the team coaches.  There are some distinctly gray, areas within the NCAA rules that touch upon discussing scholarships and so on, but there are ways around these gray areas.