8 Infographics to Help You Understand College Athletic Recruiting

An orangutan scratching its head is pictured in a forest setting with text on a banner below saying "Infographics to Help You Understand College Athletic Recruiting.

confused primate needs information on college athletic recruitingIf you’re a high school athlete or the parents of an athlete who wants to play at the college level, the sooner you understand the college athletic recruiting process, the sooner you can use the process rather than have the process control you. And while the chances of being paid to be an athlete in your particular sport may be minuscule, it can’t hurt having a grasp of some of the issue of paying student-athletes. I think the following infographics on college athletes provide a good place to start your education.

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What’s Wrong with These 135 Colleges…and Does it Matter?

searching for Affordable collegesYou may have missed the excitement last May when Ronald Nelson announced he was going to attend the University of Alabama. This was a big deal not because Alabama had grabbed the top football recruit in the nation. It was a big deal because Nelson was actually accepted at all eight Ivy League schools, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, and Washington University in St. Louis. He turned them all down to attend the honors college at the University of Alabama.

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50-50 Highlights: Is Your College Degree Worth More Than a High School Diploma?

man grabbing money representing How much is a college degree worthSomething happened this weekend that most families trying to figure out how to pick and pay for college missed–and most colleges are probably good with this. This weekend the government released a revised College Scorecard that lets users filter schools based on graduation rates, average annual costs, and graduate median salary. Better yet, all the data collected (although not necessarily used) by the College Scorecard was also released for downloading. Guess what I’ve been doing since Sunday?

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Is it too late to get recruited for college baseball if you are already a senior?

Player wondering it it too late to get recruited for college baseballNo. It may not be ideal but it’s still possible. Even if you have already graduated from high school, it’s not too late. Between the MLB draft pulling players from teams to players at the D3 level not receiving enough financial aid to attend the college, there are plenty of reasons why it’s not too late to get recruited for college baseball if you are already a senior.

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10 Things You Should Know About the 2016 US News College Rankings

Horse race representing US News College RankingsDespite the newly revised federal College Scorecard released this weekend along with new data elements for evaluating schools, US News College Rankings probably isn’t too worried about losing its fan base. After all, you can’t find out what THE BEST college is in the nation with just a click. And let’s face it, everyone loves a horse race–no one cares what the trainers are actually doing. But for those who might actually be interested in how the schools achieved their rankings, you should be aware of the following:

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50-50 Highlights: Schools in The Washington Monthly College Rankings

fish going different way like Washington Monthly college rankingsWith the increasing number of college rankings available, it’s easy to forget that the US News Best College Rankings reigned without competition for 20 years. In 2005, The Washington Monthly published its alternative college rankings designed to evaluate the value of colleges as a social institution. For 10 years, The Washington Monthly College Rankings have been asking what can colleges do for society rather than ranking them on the quality of their students.

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50-50 Highlights: Colleges in the Top 100 of PayScale College Salary Rankings

PayScale college rankingsAnother week and another set of college rankings-must be back to school time. This week PayScale released its College Salary Report. As far as rankings go, it has several features to recommend it. The primary advantage is that it really is exclusively focused on outcomes. No national reputation score, no attempts to measure the qualities of the students. It’s strictly based on income of graduates.

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