My son is an athlete at a pretty highly rated high school in Northern NJ. He currently has a 3.4 GPA and has just recently taken his SAT’s. He is worried that his GPA is not high enough but we told him that athletes ( fortunately but unfortunately) have lesser stringent requirements academically to get in. He is a 2 sport athlete ( Varsity as a freshman in both sports) with track and field being his so-called “Ace in the hole” ( One of the better 400m and 100m kids in our county). Gloating aside, he had recently mentioned that the bar has really been raised across the board with acceptance to Stevens. He is hearing a minimum of a 3.7 GPA and 1300 on his SATs…even for athletes. That is a cause for concern. Even if he hits a 4.0 every semester, he will still come out with only a 3.67. If any parent, student, or student-athlete could weigh on this issue and give us some insight, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
If he’s one of the better sprinters in the country he’s not going to end up at Stevens Tech and he’ll have no problem getting into a major university with excellent engineering or CS program…you didn’t mention major.
You don’t just want to get into school. It’s hard when you get there. Maybe it won’t be his dream school but if he’s a top athlete he’ll be found and admitted.
The coaches at his school of choice, in this case Stevens, should be guiding you …not the CC….and btw the school is test optional.
Good luck.
He said one of the better in the county.
Is this what the Stevens coach said? They are the only one who can answer your question.
Look here as a starting point to see if his times are competitive, and where.
County. Country. What’s an R:) thx for the catch. Still, if he’s going to run track he should be talking to the coach. If they have interest they will guide him, even get a pre read. And the SAT is still test optional.
As an athlete with a specific school in mind, it’s best to see if that coach has interest.
The other question would be, if that coach didn’t have interest, does he still want to go there or does he want to run track in college ?
The GPA is greatly under their average (3.86) so while I don’t know the major, it’s definitely a reach. Likely even with the coach’s push.
This is where you run the old adage of never fall in love with a school. There’s lots of schools out there for the OPs son, Stevens or otherwise.
Athletics is only a help in admissions if your child is a recruited athlete at a particular college. Otherwise being a varsity athlete is a nice EC but nothing more.
County. Country, yes we would not be looking at a D3 school. We really haven’t spoken with the coach, because 1) He just put it on his radar 2) Because of his GPA being 3.4 we are going to wait for the SATS to come back and hopefully bring his GPA up his Senior year. His intended major is Engineering. Which disciplne he chooses in that field, is entirely up to him. Don’t get me wrong, he is exicited about Stevens, but won’t be heartbroken if he doesn’t get in, like some of these Ivy fanatics. Also, if you are familiar with the 400m or 100m, he is under 52 seconds for the 400m and mid to low 11’s in the 100. So he does have some schools that are showing some serious interest ( Fordham, NJIT, TCNJ), despite his GPA being a 3.4. If you are saying its a long shot, then we’ll still apply, but take it with a grain of salt. Thanks.
I’m basing it on your comment of a minimum 3.7. If Fordham is showing interest, they are D1 and they will get him in.
And again, the SAT, if it’s not up to snuff, no problem - you just don’t submit it since most everywhere is test optional…99% of schools- not Georgia and Florida public schools.
There’s definitely a school out there for him - I was commenting on Stevens - and I still think if a coach there wants you, you’d get in…which is why I said you need to reach out to a coach.
Good luck.
I assume your son is a rising junior? Its the right time to start reaching out. You might get more traffic on the specific thread for athletic recruits.
Most coaches will be very up front about what they need in terms of academics from recruits. There is a broad range of how much pull coaches will have from one school to the next, and a coach will pull harder for a faster recruit. You can’t base your thinking on what other people tell you, only what the coach tells your athlete.
Once SATs come back, fill out the recruiting form on the school’s website and send the coaching staff (program director, head coach, event coach, recruiting coordinator) an email telling them you just filled out the form, give grades, scores, events and times. Mention the other sport. End with a call to action (ask what it takes to be recruited, e.g.).
You might need to cast a wide net early, and then dial it back in. One of the best pieces of advice my son received was that if he was interested in a school, he should reach out to at least one other school in the conference. Even if coaches don’t write back immediately, update them as things progress. Fall grades, end of fall season, beginning of indoor season, etc. After the fact we realized coaches were reading letters and tracking my son before they were responding. Until you get to the very last step of committing, all of the communication needs to come from your son, but he should not send anything out without a parent proof reading it.
Good luck.
I read country as well LOL. Interesting he is 100 and 400. Usually it’s 100/200 or 200/400 or 400/800.
I thought similarly as one is pure sprint Abd the other not.
Actually, he is better in the 200 meters. Did it for the first time this year and ran close to sub 23.
Joe…thanks. This whole recruiting process just hit us like a ton of bricks. He was really nothing special sophomore yr and just made HUGE drops this year. So now we are trying to get up to speed with the whole recruiting process.
Is he a Senior or Junior this year? It is difficult to tell by your prior posts.
Senior
Are you still going through the recruiting process? This is already September and the ED deadlines are early November. If he is already Senior, there is not much you can do now.
I assume your son has already completed the pre-reads.
After our son’s sophomore season ended prematurely due to the pandemics, he trained himself, but he injured his hamstring. It took 3 months to heal his hammy, and his hurdle time dropped from his freshman time. We expressed this concern to several college coaches. They said that it is expected that kids’ time will drop this year after missing one season. These coaches also told him that do not worry about time, just concentrate on the recovery. They will evaluate his time from his freshman results.
No. Going into his Senior yr.
I have been involved in my son’s training for almost 10 years. A lot of trial and error. I don’t want to divert from the subject at hand, but I have spent many hours, studying track and field. Being a former D1 Athlete and brief pro athlete, I learned techniques, timing, and nutrition. Reasons being that for some odd reason, the coaching world for sprinters is riddled with very unreliable, greedy and even sometimes discriminatory coaches. They had kids like my son with tons of talent but looked at only the financials. So, I decided that if he was going to make that jump, the only one who would show a true interest would be his father. I’ve kept him relatively injury-free ( cross my fingers) and he has a profound understanding and work ethic that he needs to constantly adhere to in order to get to that next level. There certainly aren’t any Mickey Goldsmiths from Rocky out in the track and field world.
If he has interest in Stevens, I suggest that he reaches out to the coach soon (tomorrow). At least see if the coach would have any interest.