There are 400+ NCAA D3 Colleges with a wide range of basketball standard. In general though, D3 schools tend to focus on their academics and are less serious about their basketball than your average D2 school. Consequently they tend to have shorter seasons, less training, less travel and more study. Some of the worlds best (academic) uni's are D3 eg MIT and Caltech. Getting through admission is a bigger challenge than getting on the roster for many of these schools. Many D3 are private universities and some of these have some financial aid but generally expect to pay (ballpark $40k-100k pa). There are YL players at good D2 conferences so I would expect a good YL player to be D3 standard. Hope this helps.

Plenty of good div2 schools and even lower grades div1 schools that could provide a full ride scholarship, wouldn't be even concidering a div3, not unless it's purely for academic, and the reality of that is the academic qualifications these kids get from USA are hardly worth the paper they are written on back in Australia. Harsh but true, yes might be free education, but they still will have to complete any course subjects here in Australia should they be following any career path that requires a university degree. Even in America the college degrees they get still require a post grad to complete for any decent degree. So you pretty much have to consider the level of the basketball they get to play as well. So many factors, it's not just " get a scholarship and then you can say you played usa college". Even in the Div1 schools, the standard varies so greatly, depending on 1/ the college, 2/ the conference, 3/ how the USA coaches see you.
Lots of players you see with huge stat lines, but you then look at the teams they play and those same kids would struggle in stronger comp in Aus, and vice versa.
Take away all the glitter and glamour of the games in the USA and it can be pretty basic basketball.
So if your really only thinking Div3, and you already have either a uni place or your not really interested in the uni side just the USA by all, maybe save yourself some money and stick with bigV, work hard and go through the Aussie ranks.

^ Not so sure you're on the mark about the academic merit of the US college degrees not being worth the paper they're written on.

I think Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia and dare I say another 50 or so colleges might disagree strongly with you.

Who invented a lot of the current technologies (Transistors, Silicon Chips, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc)? Who lead the world in medical research? Who put a man on the moon and pioneered that space research? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think you'll find it was the Americans!

Having said that I wouldn't consider attending a Div 1, 2 or 3 college if you have to pay your own way. The costs to attend a US College are astronomical. If you can't get a full fee scholarship, then stay here and rack up a HECS debt.

However, if Dad &/or Mum are loaded then why not, go for the life experience, play some good basketball, meet some new people, network for later life and have a genuine life experience.

Sorry Luke didn't answer your question - State representation is not necessary for Div 1, Div 2 or Div 3.

However, it helps to have played for a State Junior team, but it is not the be all and end all.

There is way too much politics in the State Junior Team Selections. Coaches prefer kids from their own club, kids they know, kids that have a 'reputation', sons/daughters of coaches or past players or administrators and the best one - State Coaches Personal Choice.

There's been many kids get to college including DIV 1 that never played in a State Junior Team.

Kieran Hayward has signed to play at LSU (Ben Simmons' College) next year. I don't think he has ever made a NSW State team. He might make the NSW U20 team this year!

Dexter Kernich-Drew went to Washington State (Div 1), I don't think he ever made a Vic Junior State team.

Declan Soukup & Bosko Kostur never made a Vic Junior team, but went to Div 1 (Bryant).

re: Skill level required for DIV 3 US College
^ Not so sure you're on the mark about the academic merit of the US college degrees not being worth the paper they're written on.

I think Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia and dare I say another 50 or so colleges might disagree strongly with you.

Who invented a lot of the current technologies (Transistors, Silicon Chips, Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc)? Who lead the world in medical research? Who put a man on the moon and pioneered that space research? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think you'll find it was the Americans!

Having said that I wouldn't consider attending a Div 1, 2 or 3 college if you have to pay your own way. The costs to attend a US College are astronomical. If you can't get a full fee scholarship, then stay here and rack up a HECS debt.

However, if Dad &/or Mum are loaded then why not, go for the life experience, play some good basketball, meet some new people, network for later life and have a genuine life experience.




Yes of course those universities are all top notch and you can get degrees from their that are re ignited world over , however with the exception of Stanford, the rest are what they call "Ivy League" and as such cannot and do not offer basketball scholarships, any scholarship to one of those is purely academic.

So my point that any degree an athlete may attain at a USA college is not really worth the paper it's written on, is correct for the majority who attend college . Unfortunately the australian academic system fails to recognise few if any of the courses these kids take, which means they still have to finish off degrees in Australia if they want to complete them. And that is due to the USA system, their first year is basically general, and so too can be their second if they can't choose a major. Many courses they may want to do they cant, because they are either not open to international students or they clash with training and travel commitments ( athlete first student second when they are on athletic scholarships, even when they preach student first athlete second).
So if your wanting to actually get a degree, think long and hard before committing. If your going for the basketball and are happy to just get a basic degree, then again choose wisely the standard you will play.

It's a great life experience, and no you certainly do not need to be state or even national level to find a good college, just make sure you ask the right questions before you commit, and make sure you watch lots of their game tape to see the standard your about to commit too for 4 years.

Anon above - "So my point that any degree an athlete may attain at a USA college is not really worth the paper it's written on, is correct for the majority who attend college"

I agree that there are many US Colleges whose degrees are not recognised in Australia but I think it is misleading to suggest there is not a big opportunity for Australian students to play their sport and obtain a recognised degree in the US at the same time.

If you look at the Center for World University Rankings (Saudi based) top 200 for 2015, you will see 86 from the US and 6 from Aust (Syd, Melb, Queens, NSW, Monash, ANU). So they rate 86 US Colleges as highly as the best in Australia. Take out the 8 Ivys (who, incidentally award financial aid on need not academics)and you have about 80 schools with scholarships. If look at the next level of uni's you have a couple of 100 recognised US Colleges offering sports scholarships.

I know rankings are not perfect and easy to criticise but they do provide an indication.

I do not believe the majority of Australian prospective graduate employers are going to select a graduate from RMIT (ranked 873) or Adelaide (335) ahead of a graduate from San Diego (21), Virginia (41) or UCLA (15) who has experienced living in the US for 4 years, everything else being equal.

I think there is opportunity (especially for girls) for Australian students to play their sport and get a good degree in the US but they have to really want to do it, do their homework and go to school that best offers what they wish to achieve.

Forget top 200....You don't mention that 5 Aust Uni's are Top 50 in the world.

Anon- " the FACT that the degrees they get in the US still usually require extra courses to be done here in Australia for them to be recognised"

Recognised by who??

If you want to be employed in Aust in a profession that requires admission to a professional governing body in Australia then you may need additional qualifications here. Do your homework here b4 u go to the states and do the right subjects at the right College and you may not have to.

For the majority of graduates entering the workforce their degree from a top US College will stand as well as any from here. I'd rather have business degree from Wake Forest or Duke or Santa Clara or UCLA or.... than one from Deakin (no offence meant to Deakin).

And many graduates from Australia also need to do post-grad to get a better job - no different to the states (including me).

Thunder Jam - the rankings I see usually have 2, 3 or 4 Aust uni's in the top 100 (good effort in the world) Never seen one with 5 in the top 50 in the world.

Opportunity is there - just got to go the right Uni and get a good degree. The value of US universities' degrees is greater then you are portraying.

my son returned from college in the USA and went straight into a high school teaching position in NSW.

#572629

I think you need to look at :
http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/

12 Pennsylvannia
13 Brown
22 Duke
31 Davidson (Steph Curry)
35 University of California - Berkley

Shall I go on?

As far as I am aware Engineering is not 100% recognized by the Institute of Engineers or Accounting is not 100% recognized by CPA. So additional studies will be involved if you pick those study areas.

However, to maintain membership to the Institute of Engineers or maintain certification as a practicing Professional Engineer you have to undertake Professional Education courses/study every year. So for an Engineer, the studying never stops.