College eligibility

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Can a graduate student play college soccer if they are under 21?

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Yes, they can.

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I apologize.

I looked for the eligibility rule but I can not find it.

Is eligibility based upon age or is it based upon degree/academic pursuit or is it both?

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I apologize.

I looked for the eligibility rule but I can not find it.

Is eligibility based upon age or is it based upon degree/academic pursuit or is it both?

It is not based on age.

Usually players have five years to play four years of a sport. So, in your example, if your kid finished undergrad in 3 years or did not play one year (red shirt), he may be able to play as a grad student.

Eligibility rules are tricky. Best bet is to check with the compliance persion at the school.

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Can a graduate student play college soccer if they are under 21?

See NCAA Manual for specific division you are interested in (I - II - II), although I don't think the rule differs with respect to eligibility. In the Div. I manual eligibility is covered in Article 14 and 14.2 "Seasons of competition" covers the "5-year rule." In general, you have 5 years commencing the date you enter college to compete for 4 years. Age, grade, degree have nothing to do with it. So, for example if you don't compete as a freshman (for whatever reason) or redshirt later due to an injury, then you would have a 5th year available, whether that's an extra undergrad year or a first year as a grad student. In VERY rare cases the NCAA may award an athlete a 6th year (e.g. an athlete redshirts as a freshman and then can't compete during another year due to injury).

My daughter's team has 2 grad students on it now that lost a year of competition for various reasons.

The definition of "competition" is another big factor. The NCAA regs never use the word "redshirt" the only question is did the player "compete." For soccer, competition includes any game other than inter-squad scrimmages during the season that ends in the NCAA championship (fall) - so if you compete for 10 min. in a scrimmage against another school in preseason in August and do not play in any other games you have still burned an entire year of eligibility. (Soccer has an exception for spring season games.)

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For the sake of discussion, what if a student starts taking courses at a community college at 14, does that start the clock ticking?

Or let's say a child starts college at 16 instead of 18, is their eligibility based upon that time?

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For the sake of discussion, what if a student starts taking courses at a community college at 14, does that start the clock ticking?

Or let's say a child starts college at 16 instead of 18, is their eligibility based upon that time?

Again, age has NOTHING to do with it. So the clock starts ticking in both of your examples

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For the sake of discussion, what if a student starts taking courses at a community college at 14, does that start the clock ticking?

Or let's say a child starts college at 16 instead of 18, is their eligibility based upon that time?

If they finished HS and enrolled in college, then "yes" the eligibility clock starts ticking. The age does not matter.

However, there is an exception for joint HS-college coursework. E.g. my daughter took an on-line freshman college writing course that counted both towards her HS graduation and earned 3 college credits that transferred to her college the following year. That does not start the eligibility clock ticking.

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For the sake of discussion, what if a student starts taking courses at a community college at 14, does that start the clock ticking?

Or let's say a child starts college at 16 instead of 18, is their eligibility based upon that time?

In the first case they haven't graduated HS so they don't lose any eligibility.

In the second case their first year of eligibility is the year their start college after graduating HS.

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For the sake of discussion, what if a student starts taking courses at a community college at 14, does that start the clock ticking?

Or let's say a child starts college at 16 instead of 18, is their eligibility based upon that time?

The NCAA Manuals are free PDF downloads. Go to NCAA.org and download the appropriate version to answer your questions. Article 14 is basically what you want to focus on. If your not used to reading this stuff it can be a little confusing, but all the info is there.