<p>Hello all,
I am trying to help my daughter focus on her high school academics but she really loves track. She is a smart kid and did well on early talent search testing with a 28 ACT as a 7th grader and a 2010 SAT as an 8th grader. She prefers math and science and is taking the most challenging curriculum offered at her pubic high school and is doing well. She does peer tutoring in Geometry and coaches the middle school varsity academic team. She has joined Junior Classical League and Academic team and is on varsity swim team and will be on varsity track in the spring. As an 8th grader, she began training with a private coach and she went to state for her middle school team and placed 5th overall in two of her events. She wants to focus on heptathlon and has been told by this coach she has natural talent and the right build for it and that colleges are offering more scholarship $$ for female track athletes with multi-event talent. His last student ended up with a full ride to Rice University and his grades/scores were good but not stellar. The coach only takes on kids he feels he can get scholarships for and he is a very low fee/low key type of guy. My daughter will have to travel to AAU and USATF meets during track season and in the summer and I anticipate a fair amount of expenses associated with that. We can afford any state school in Florida as we bought a full pre-paid program and she can easily qualify for Bright Futures but she has her sights set higher. We will have to start focusing more on track soon and I am trying to keep this all in perspective.</p>
<p>Should I encourage the track to the full extent knowing it may not come to fruition? Should I save the $$ and just allow her to compete on her high school team in just a few events ( they don't even have a coach yet!) knowing she will not be able to truly shine as our county only has a few track events. She wants to try for the Air Force Academy, Rice University, Georgia Tech, FSU, and is thinking about Astrophysics as a major. She has also looked at Johns Hopkins, Cal Tech, and Stanford but these may be far reaches! </p>
<p>Thoughts and your own experiences are very welcome!</p>
<p>If she continues to look at the service academies as possibles there is a forum here on CC for just the service academies. The posters there will help with the many numerous requirements for an appointment to one of the academies…senatorial/congressional nominations, DODMERB, physical fitness tests, GPA, SAT/ACT and other requirements. If she stays interested she could also apply ROTC/scholies and take those with her to schools other than an academy.</p>
<p>My sons were both admitted to USMA, USNA and USAFA. One also received 3 ROTC scholies to Princeton, MIT and Duke. And their sport activites (varsity football, wrestling and track) all came into play.</p>
<p>Daughter was a recruited D1 swimmer and diver and scholie money also came into play. However, she opted for an academic scholarship as that it covered much, much more than an athletic one. And she had several schools to pick from. She did participate in public school sports and club sports, USDiving and USSwimming. While she turned down the athletic scholarship it did help with acceptances to some ivy’s (Penn) but she opted to go with a school whose coach was an olympic gold medalist in her sport. Makes a difference for regionals and nationals.</p>
<p>One son ended up at an academy and the other at princeton (turned down the ROTC in lieu of some other scholarships). But the sports did help in many ways…son at princeton ended up not disclosing his wish to play ball rather was accepted first and then walked on the team his first semester there. He wanted to base his decision to matriculate on academics rather than sports unlike his sister.</p>
<p>Worked out well for all. Son is now a first year med student on a full tuition scholie.</p>
<p>I would have her try out the club sport and see how she does and if she enjoys it. My kiddos did and still have friends years later from their respective sports.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I know two boys from our high school who have gotten into Stanford and FSU, in particular, as recruited track/cross country athletes in the past 6 years. They were solid but not spectacular students. I don’t know their class rank, and I don’t know anything about their SAT scores, but they were in honors/AP classes. </p>
<p>There are not a lot of track scholarships out there. The boy who went to Stanford ended up doing so with an ROTC scholarship. The boy who went to FSU transferred after one year because he did not like the school. </p>
<p>Both boys (one after the other) held state records in cross country and/or long distance track events while they were in high school. Both ran at the Penn Relays, and at other national events, which gathered a lot of attention from coaches. I don’t believe either one worked with a private coach, but I may be wrong about that. </p>
<p>Being an elite track athlete absolutely helped in getting accepted (to Stanford, in particular), but it didn’t help pay for college.</p>
<p>I’d suggest contacting the Rice athlete. Ask him 1) what’s it like being a Div I athlete? and 2) what was it like like under the personal coach? </p>
<p>Then, if you like what you hear, examine the financial side. I think full ride track scholarships are very rare. Very. So you should investigate the restrictions of taking the pre-paid plan out of state or to a private school, just in case you need it. Also, as you say, many of her dream schools are high reaches. Don’t bank on merit aid from them, even if she has great academic stats.</p>
<p>Since your D doesn’t deparately NEED an athletic scholarship, I personally, wouldn’t go all out pursuing one. I’d let her be the big-track-star-fish in her little high school pond and enjoy all the success that comes with that. If she’s as good as the other guy says, then she’ll be noticed. Plus, some of her HS meets are bound to be AAU qualifiers. She might still get into a national meet, even if she competes for her school. </p>
<p>By the way, what grade is your daughter in now? If she’s serious about the AFA, she should start looking into the application process and contacting your US Rep in the spring of 11th grade, if not sooner. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>(My D is a ranked pole vaulter. She has no interest in competing in college. But, we get dribs and drabs of info from other parents and coaches that call the house.)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! Daughter is a freshman now so we do have time but being really good in heptathlon takes several years and her hurdles and high jump need work. She is thinking about Civil Air Patrol or ROTC for next year and yes, we are planning to talk to 2 college kids we know to see how they like actually competing at the college level. We know a girl at Georgia Tech who is running cross country and did not get a dime and of course the boy decathlete who received the full ride to Rice. The personal coach is wonderful and all the kids who have trained under him adore him. He has gotten scholarships for them all but the Rice scholarship was the best yet. He admits my daughter will probably not need one as her academics are very strong but he feels she could be a great multi-event candidate with proper training. She starts back with him next week after 3 months off for swimming so we will get a feel for it. Sadly, track in our county is not very strong at all so I doubt she would actually get to any true qualifiers unless she goes unattached which is what she did for the Junior Olympics and the middle school state meet.</p>
<p>Your post raises several questions:
Can you afford the coach even if your daughter doesn’t get a scholarship later?
Do you have younger children as well?
What does your daughter want to do?
Will your daughter feel pressure to go to the college with the best athletic scholarship if you go down this path?</p>
<p>I’m writing from the perspective of a mom whose D chose not to pursue her sports in college and whose S is looking into DIII colleges for his sport (and therefore won’t receive athletic scholarships). I’m glad my D played three sports in high school, and I don’t consider the costs of those sports to be wasted in any way; she was happy doing it. The costs of my son’s sport (for which he trains almost daily) are more than the costs of my D’s three sports put together. He’s happy, he’s healthy, and I enjoy travelling with him for his sport. The fact that he will not receive an athletic scholarship doesn’t bother me at all because this is what he loves doing.</p>
<p>You are smart to gather all the info you can now, but the good news for you is that this is not an all-or-nothing proposition. If you can afford it, you could let your daughter begin training with the coach this year and see how everything works out. She might have more or less natural ability than anticipated, and she might enjoy it more or less than anticipated.</p>
<p>Again, thanks so very much for your insight! My daughter began training with this private coach about 9 months ago and with his help alone, ( her middle school coach is 84 and while knowledgeable, cannot really show technique) she ended up winning the county meet in discus and her relay 4x400 team also won. She went on to state with 5th place wins in discus and shot put. Her first big meet was at the Club Nationals at ESPN and she loved it! She took 2nd place and qualified but wanted to skip J.O… She got a feel for how meets should be run and saw the nice facility and really enjoyed herself. She said she really wanted to continue in track and with her coach. </p>
<p>She wanted to swim for her high school coach but chose not to swim in a year round club. There are no track clubs here so this private coach is the closest we will get to that. He likes coaching the “underdogs” and sees her as very coachable. He has introduced all the heptathlon events to her but I am concerned it may be too much for her along with her academic rigor. This is the first time she has had to really “work” in school and I don’t want her stressed out. Missing school for swimming at districts as well as for a 2 day research project dive for her gifted research methodology class has put her behind and she did not like that at all. I will see how it goes but I am already starting to think the sports may be the added plus to have on her high school resume rather than the scholarship grabber. She is an only child. The coach charges very little compared to what a traveling soccer team or swim team would cost and she works with 2 high school senior girls who are training in the same events. Bottom line: she really seems to like it right now.</p>
<p>Sounds like you have a wonderful, talented daughter, and you are in great shape because you are thinking ahead. Things can go a lot of ways here.</p>
<p>Check this thread for info on college recruiting, there is a tremendous amount of help available. [Athletic</a> Recruits - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/]Athletic”>Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>(check under College Admissions/Specialty Admission topics/Recruited athletes.)</p>
<p>Wow! Thanks so much for that link! I am certainly trying to think ahead. I have been helping many friends who currently have seniors and are scrambling to get apps completed and essays written. I have learned so much from this site and all the helpful people here!
Lots to think about. Our school has changed many classes to AICE rather than AP and outside the state of Florida, not many schools seem to recognize AICE but that is for another thread.</p>
<p>I think it is good to look ahead, but I will tell you that a LOT can change for athletes in the next couple of years. Females, especially, are subject to body changes and injury due to low body weight and fragile bones. It is a little soon to count on a track scholarship, as you know. Rice has a very competitive program and is an excellent school. I would encourage looking at Rice- track or no track. I know several former Rice track/cross country athletes and they had a good experience, except for one who transferred to Williams due to academic interests and one who didn’t agree with the coaching philosophy (for him) at Rice and wound up at UHouston. I think at the end of soph year/ start of junior year you will have a better idea. I don’t see any harm in working with the coach now, if your daughter enjoys it.</p>