Having worked in admissions in college athletics I’ll just reiterate that that’s a terrible way to look at Pacific. I’m well versed in the mindset of the soccer parent and going to Berkeley as a walk on might be the better choice for someone, where getting scholarship money at pacific and getting on the field is a better choice for someone else. The narrative that you have to be at a UC or top private to be a success or as a road to success is just incorrect. I’ve had kids go from a JC to an insanely amazing career path and kids from Stanford work retail. It’s the kid and what they put into their college education not the college.
and there’s something to be said about being on the field and playing. For some kids that lights them up and makes their soccer experience amazing. So to get money at pacific and compete could mean magic for some student athletes.
and lastly Stockton is one of the fastest and largest growing cities for the tech and entrepreneurial sector. The amount of opportunity there has exploded and will continue to.
I’m not even a Pacific fan but to bad mouth a school and city based on perception is so short sighted. We should be encouraging our kids to be open to all sorts of schools and experiences. The right fit could be anywhere and the name on the sweatshirt or diploma matters less than the person wearing or holding it.
The only person being short-sighted here is the guy trying to argue that four years of middling soccer at a lower tier university in one of the most crime ridden areas in the United States presents better opportunity than hanging up the cleats and instead going to any of at least 100 different schools. Argue all you want, but we all know I’m right. That’s not bad mouthing UOP, which provides great opportunity to the right kid. But like I said earlier, that does not include elite girls soccer players. Or kids who can afford better schools. Because, duh, there are a s**t ton of better schools out there. UOP has never had a consistently solid women’s soccer program and it will never have one, ever, for the reasons I have stated. That is reality.
Never once in history has a truly elite women’s soccer ever gone there, and there’s a reason for that. And thousands upon thousands of girls who could get a free ride to UOP instead pay tuition to go somewhere else. In fact, there are probably 10s of thousands of kids every year who could play soccer at UOP but decide the better option is to quit soccer entirely AND pay more in tuition. If you think otherwise and that UOP is a better long term opportunity for any girl from outside the area than virtually any other university in the United States with a soccer team, it explains why you’re no longer in college athletic admissions.
That thing about Stockton surpassing the Bay Area, San Diego, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Portland, Seattle, Boston, NYC, Chicago, Phoenix, Orange County, Charlotte, Denver, Washington DC, Atlanta, Raleigh, and probably 50 other cities in the US for tech jobs is a good one. There must be 200 colleges in towns with more tech opportunities than mighty Stockton. When people talk tech education, UOP is always the first college that comes to mind, right?
But go for it and send your kid to UOP instead of UCLA.
