Our son is a 2022 swimmer. He loves the NESCAC schools and is in the recruiting process for about 3/4s of the teams.
He is also interested in some of the academic D1 schools but is not fast enough to be recruited and would most likely be going the club swimming route at a D1. This appeals less to him but the bigger school environment with a larger variety of courses/majors does appeal.
Have any swimmers on this site made a choice of NESCAC team vs Ivy/D1 club and could you share some insight/regrets etc looking back on the decision? Thank you.
If he makes it to the spot where he actually has the coaches support in the admission process, he would be trading a high percentage outcome for a very long shot. Unless he has an interest in a major that isn’t offered at the smaller schools (e.g. Engineering), having the extra majors/classes doesn’t get you anything. I am assuming that the D3 coaches will require ED to get their support. If one doesn’t, that greatly changes the analysis.
It has been a while, but I was exactly in this spot. If he really enjoys swimming, I think he may regret not going somewhere he can be on the team. And the academics are as good (if not better) at top NESCAC schools and Ivies. So, as the previous poster said, unless there are specific majors like engineering that he’d want, I think going hooked to a NESCAC would be an amazing opportunity. He can always go to an Ivy or D1 for grad school (the path I took).
And the smaller D1 schools in the Patriot League may be a good option, too.
I always say schools need to be chosen for the school because injuries happen or sports get cut from budgets. If something happens on day 1 and he can’t swim, where would he still be happy?
Excellent point helping mom. However, may not be that simple. My child chose his school for the academics, strong engineering, great coach… then was the injury. Now my child can’t imagine being at the school next year without being around his team family. Maybe unique to covid - where interactions were limited. I was thankful for the support/comraderie of his teammates. So, being resilient, to have options, my child applied to transfer at 3 good schools, got in and recovery will be 8 months. Decision to stay or leave. Its tough. Make decision for both, if possible.
We have a friend whose son was recruited for D1 basketball, came with a nice scholarship. Midway through the first season, he started having ankle issues and needed surgery over the summer. Rehab was really tough and he missed the next season. He ended up losing the scholarship because he couldn’t play and then parents ended up being full pay at a very high priced private school. Nice group of friends, true, but the $70K+ price tag was a really bitter pill when he had academic merit money elsewhere as a freshman. There isn’t any money in swimming so that isn’t an issue here but always best to look at the whole picture.
Even if Engineering is the area of interest, one doesn’t have to look away from NESCAC entirely. Trinity has an ABET accredited engineering major. There are also non-NESCAC but very similar LACs which offer ABET accredited engineering majors, i.e. Union and Swarthmore.
First as mentioned above is admissions. If it’s the difference between Harvard unhooked and Williams as a recruit, you’re deciding between a lottery ticket and a VIP pass. Iow, you may be deciding between an option and a non-option. Getting to the front of the line because of coach support is nothing to sneeze at!
How much do you want to keep swimming and what is the commitment you want to make to it? Most athletes who are recruitable at any level cannot imagine their lives without their sports simply because they have always had their sport in their lives. While many college athletes do persist through senior year and some even find ways to continue post grad, many do not. And many find that quite liberating. So ask yourself what you would do if you had all that swimming time for something else. How would you spend it? And think about study abroad, etc. in this context as well.
Where would you go to school if swimming weren’t part of the equation and why? This is key. If the reasons for the big D1 school are compelling- from program, location, environment, cost - that’s important. Or consider the flip side of what the D3 school looks like if there is an injury or other extenuating circumstance that makes swimming undoable? How appealing are those D3 schools?
My kid was recruitable in his primary sport only at the D3 level by schools that were not his top choices. He decided to forge ahead to his top choices (still D3) unhooked and was fortunate enough to be admitted. He ended up walking on to a varsity team (less of an option at D1), having a great season and then having a serious injury. It was heartbreaking but he wasn’t feeling that he was at the wrong school, just not as connected to his teammate friends as he had been.
There is no generic answer – depends on your kid and the schools involved. But I think that with some serious reflection, you can probably come to a decision that feels right.
S was recruited with full support at 6 D3’s (4 pretty much guaranteed admissions if he ED’d, the other 2 were 50/50 schools). He wanted the big college experience though and SCEA’d an HYP. He had admissions in our flagship honor’s program so he felt secure taking a chance. He was offered a walk-on position at the Ivy after he got in, but he decided to play club baseball instead. Much less time commitment, he got to start as a frosh playing his positions and batted top of the order vs probably being at the far end of the bench, so overall an optimal outcome for him.
D played and started all 4 years at a D3. The LAC atmosphere was better suited for her in the first place and the team served as a social anchor for her.
In your case, will your son have a good program safely in hand by next fall prior to the ED deadline? If so, if he really wants the big school experience, then taking a chance with an academic D1 could be an option. I would go ED or EA in that case and maintain an active dialogue with the D3 coaches who recruit him if the D1 ED or EA falls through. Sometimes the D3 coaches can still support the athlete in the ED2 or RD round. If he does not have something safely in hand, I’d go with the sure thing.
Since this is a very old thread, but the OP is still active on the board, I’m going to leave this open to allow a window for a response but, I’ve set a timer to close the thread this weekend.