Division 3 does not offer the luxury of athletic scholarships. My only tips would be to make sure you qualify academically to the university and check out the majors the school offers. Other than that, be proactive and contact coaches and academic advisors to the schools you're looking at
Our experience with D3 schools is that they are either looking very strongly or not looking at all. GPA and SAT/ACT requirements vary widely, but if a player is great academically, they can get merit aid at many D3 schools.
If you care about the game, find a school that wins. Many schools have terrible records and just recruit kids to fill out their enrollments.. no great honor there. But some D3 programs can compete with the big boys. Also, think about your resume after graduation.. will that school be something that will help you get recruited for your life?
Do your research and get a list of 5-10 possible schools you'd like to go to, without worrying about the soccer program. From there, email the coaches with a background of yourself, academics, and where they can go see you play (if you're playing at a tournament). Some might not answer, others will. As some said, D3 varies from kids who just play because the team needs numbers to other schools who will get kids who turn down D1 schools to play for them and can compete (and many time beat) with the smaller D1 schools.
I imagine the OP knows this, but if not, there it is. This is also one of the biggest "who cares?" in my book. The reason why DIII schools compete well (and financially) is because they can offer nice financial aid packages. Who cares if they don't have the "luxury of athletic scholarships?" Honestly, with the way that many schools are funded in men's/women's soccer...I wouldn't call it much of a "luxury." This matters for some DIII schools, at many others, it doesn't. Great advice here. I wouldn't say "without worrying about the soccer program" though. I have no issues in saying someone should pick a school to play athletics at. There's absolutely nothing wrong with choosing a school based on athletics. Just understand, academics are a priority too. If you don't stay eligible and don't work toward something, you may be wasting precious time and money. As much as people change majors/career paths, higher education can offer a variety of different options. Choose a place you want to spend 4ish years at.
Regarding the "some will answer and some won't", my son sent out a bunch of emails to coaches attending a tournament he'll be at, from D1 to D3. The only coach to respond so far is from Harvard. At least we think this means that his email was 2300+ SAT quality LOL.
Difficult to get into a good D3 program unless you are very good since most players at a good D3 program could have played D1. A lot of D3 coaches can be found at Premier tournaments and will contact you if they think you can contribute to their program. Think D3 players get a lot more out of the overall College experience than D1 players. Also think they bond a lot better than Prima Donna D1 players. If you want to play D3, identify a couple of schools, as suggested before. Then attend one of their summer soccer camps or clinics between your sophomore and junior years. Try to make an impression and get noticed there. Then email the coach that you attended his camp and tell him which tournaments your travel team will attend during your junior year and that you hope that he will come to your games. Then hope that you get positive feedback from the coach after the camp/games. Just sending emails or sending films has only a very small chance of succeeding.
My son is headed off to play D3 soccer, so I figured I would add my 2 cents' worth. Sorry if any of this is repetitive. They don't recruit you; you recruit them. Make a short list of schools that interest you (your student/athlete). What I did was go to the NCAA web site and download the list of all schools that offer men's soccer (all divisions). Then I went online and downloaded the US News and World Report lists of the top 200 universities and top 200 liberal arts colleges (so 400 schools total). Any school not on both lists (i.e. soccer + good school) is out. Note that my son is a good student. If you are willing to (or must) accept a less prestigious school academically, then skip this filter and go to the next. Interesting note - this filter eliminated almost all D2 schools. Your next filters are: Geography - If you have any limits on what part of the country you are willing to send your young scholar/athlete, this will eliminate a lot of schools. If you don't want a state school where you would pay out of state tuition, that also eliminates many schools. Academics - What schools offer the academic programs your child is most interested in? Every college has English; many do not offer mechanical engineering. Depending on interest, this could narrow the field considerably. Other filters to consider - I threw out any school that offered a "good Christian education" because we are not Christian. School size/location matter. Does your child want to attend a small school or a larger one? A school in a large city, a suburban setting, or a school out in the woods or a corn field? This narrows the field quite a bit. How generous is the school with financial aid and merit scholarships? OK, now you have a list of 30-50 schools for your child to consider. Give them the list and have them check out the web sites and see what grabs them. Hopefully, something will. For the schools of interest, be sure to fill out the online recruiting questionnaire. I never saw a school that didn't have one. Then, contact the coach by e-mail. If you have a video, send them a link (I don't think anyone uses DVDs anymore). Unless the high school team is very good, coaches care much more about club play than high school; they can see the level of competition in the video. Let them know what tournaments you will be playing in. Some coaches will get back to you, others won't. Don't read too much into it. Check out the coach's biographies, too. If he/she has been at the same school for 20 years, they must be doing something right. Go to the camps. Any coach with a camp will suggest that you attend, because that way they can evaluate you over several days and you get to know them. And they are right. Lots of coaches have one day "college ID" camps during the school year, too. It's basically a quick tryout, plus a campus tour and you get to meet the coaching staff. The fee is reasonable. This is a good deal for any place within driving distance. Ask the coach whether he/she does this if you can't tell from their web site. My son will be attending a university that he fell in love with when he went to camp there last summer. The coach told him if he could get in the school, he would be on the team. Talk to your high school guidance counselor. This depends on how good your counselor is. My son went to a prep school, so his counselor was great. She knew lots of inside information. For example, my son was miffed when he contacted a coach that he knew would be attending a tournament, and he even mentioned that he had visited the school already and was interested, but the coach did not even return his e-mail. Counselor said, don't worry - they saw your academic record and knew you would never go there. She also told the story of a tennis coach who doesn't bother to recruit because he just gets everyone who is not quite good enough to get a scholarship at the D1 school across town. Counselor also suggested looking at everyone's schedule - are away games a short bus ride, or will you be traveling long distances? I hope this helps. I agree with everything posted above, also. Good luck to your young athlete!
Agree with most of what you wrote except this statement. My eldest was recruited and my rising HS senior is being recruited. Everything else is very well detailed and correct. Thanks for giving your 2 cents!
Yeah, that's a bit of an oversimplification. The coaches do go to college showcase tournaments and such. My point was mainly that kids can't just play in a showcase tournament and expect to be discovered. My son actually knows a young lady who was a couple years ahead of him in school. This is a small prep school, so not on any coach's radar, but she (like my son) played on a good club team. When she was visiting colleges, she stopped in to see the coach at one school. He/she had actually seen her play at a showcase tournament (and had notes on her performance!) and wanted her on the team, even though he had never actually contacted her. Not a big name school, but she decided to go there and is now on the team. I think that is an outlier, though; I doubt that happens very often.