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College Corner: Success On and Off the Field

  • sfiorenzo1
  • Feb 22, 2015
  • 4 min read

The polls are in and USA Today has finally pushed out the rankings of the best colleges to play women's soccer at to date. Now, this poll was done in the greatest way possible; The teams were ranked not only by quality of record and members, but also by the schools academia and those players successes at these schools.

Playing soccer my whole life helped me on a path to a less expensive education, stricter and higher standards for schoolwork and amore efficient path after graduation. Here is the list of the schools that are the best at it all:

University of Denver

1. University of Denver: Denver, CO

The University of Denver is known to be one of the best schools in Colorado, with a low student to faculty ratio and a higher than average graduation rate. Head women’s soccer coach Jeff Hooker has led the program since 1992. His team has won 77.4% of its games over the last four seasons and earned four straight Sun Belt Conference titles. The Pioneers’ women’s soccer program has earned a Graduation Success Rate of 95% or higher for ten straight years.

University of Virginia

2. University of Virginia – Main Campus: Charlottesville, VA

Steve Swanson has been head coach of the Cavaliers for 14 years. He has 24 years overall head coaching experience and 19 NCAA tournament appearances. In 2013 his team set school records with 24 wins, including a 19-0 regular season, and 78 goals scored. Their most recent GSR (2007) was 95%. The large public school just outside Washington DC has high ethnic diversity. Virginia earned over $218 million in research grants in 2012, primarily for astrophysics.

Boston University
3. Boston University: Boston, MA
Boston U ranks #11 of all the great schools in the state. In 2012, its graduates were ranked 17th most employable worldwide by human resources researcher Emerging. Its 30,000 students have high ethnic diversity and earn an average of $44,000 annually upon graduation. In nineteen seasons as head coach, Nancy Feldman has won nine conference titles and turned the Terriers into a national contender. The 2013 season involved a 14 game win streak and ended in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Their 2007 GSR was 95%.
University of California
4. University of California – Los Angeles

In her first year as head coach, Amanda Cromwell led the Bruins to the 2013 National Championship with a 22-1-3 record. They gave up only eight goals all season. Three of her players earned All-America honors. UCLA is a well-ranked public college that is home to an extensive healthcare program that includes the Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Santa Monica and twelve primary care clinics throughout the county.

Marquette University
5. Marquette University: Milwaukee,WI

Marquette is a private Jesuit Roman Catholic institution known as an excellent education value. Comedy, improvisation, song, dance, music and acting are strong throughout campus life. It is ranked #3 among Wisconsin colleges. Head coach Markus Roeders has led the Golden Eagles to 12 NCAA tournament appearances and 3 Sweet 16 showings in 18 years. His staff was named Big East Coaching Staff of the Year in 2013. They have achieved a perfect GSR for three straight seasons.

Stanford University
6. Stanford University: Stanford, CA

In over a century, Paul Ratcliffe is the most successful soccer coach, men’s or women’s, in school history. Under his leadership, the Cardinal has reached the third round of the NCAA tournament eight consecutive years. In 2011, they won it all. For seven straight years, they have graduated every player.

Stanford is the top ranked college in California, with high ethnic diversity and an average starting salary of $54,000. Biology, computer science and engineering are its most popular majors.

Furman University
7. Furman University: Greenville, SC

Furman’s 2600 students occupy 750 wooded acres of suburban southern beauty. Its liberal arts education promotes mind and body wellness, problem solving and experience-based learning. Business administration, political science and health are its biggest majors.

Andrew Burr earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors by leading the Paladins to a 17-4-2 record. In nine years he has produced 40 All-SoCon players and 115 SoCon Academic Honor Roll members.

Wake Forest University

8. Wake Forest University: Winston Salem, NC

Head coach Tony da Luz has led the Demon Deacons to the NCAA tournament in every one of his 17 seasons. In 2011, they captured the school’s first National Championship. The most recent GSR of 94% was the only non-perfect ranking of the last decade.

In addition to being a top ranked college in North Carolina, Wake Forest has one of the finest study abroad programs in the country with programs in Italy, Austria, England, Chile, France, Spain and Japan. Its law program is consistently ranked among the best in the nation.

Texas A&M University
9. Texas A&M University: College Station, TX

Texas A&M has a student body of over 60,000 with an $11.1 billion endowment. The 5,500 acre campus completes the big college experience in the great state of Texas. NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research all have on-going projects there.

G Guerrieri is the only coach in Texas A&M soccer history. He leads both men’s and women’s programs. He has helped build Ellis Field from a strip of land to a premier soccer venue.

Georgetown University
10. Georgetown University: Washington, D.C.

Dave Nolan has been with the Hoyas’ women’s soccer program for five years as an assistant and ten years as head coach. He has recorded a team-record sixteen wins in each of the last two season. His team has scored a perfect GSR for six consecutive years.

Georgetown has a racially and internationally diverse campus. Located in the nation’s capital, it is a great place to learn international law and world policy. It has auxiliary campuses in Italy, Turkey and Qatar.

Ultimately- if you're lucky enough to play in college, find a place where soccer and academic success are of equal importance. Because while it's fun to always win, it is more fun to have a career planned out and an educated mind when you leave your university.


 
 
 

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