Although rare, I’ve heard of some pretty creative financial packaging to sweeten the deal to induce a recruit to commit. I don’t think the packaging would have been possible if the student was not a coveted recruited athlete.
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Well that explains it (to me at least). You’ve been had. Or the kid seriously misinterpreted some correspondence.
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Quite possible, again, not my student. I’m not going to share more, nor do we yet, to my knowledge, have the letter/communication.
I have “heard” of this as well, especially around the gyms and fields with travel teams, and even had someone once tell me my kid was getting full ride to a HYP. They said that they heard that, but certainly not from us.
This is just my opinion, but I am skeptical of creative financial packaging to induce a recruit. It get’s thrown around a bit with D3s, D2s and even the Ivy’s. I don’t doubt that they are getting financial aid, or merit, but I believe for the most part it is the same type of package as for other non athletes meeting the same criteria.
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I heard of a player getting recruited by a school that doesn’t give out athletic scholarships. The player did not qualify for need-based financial aid. The player was somehow offered a significant academic scholarship.
Unless you saw this FA package with your own eyeballs, including the family’s FAFSA/CSS, I wouldn’t believe it.
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I know the family very well. I’m certain they did not qualify for significant need-based financial aid. The coach offered the academic scholarship AFTER being told the player might look elsewhere. I heard this in real time.
Thanks for the clarification. Good to know a coach wasn’t involved.
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@BKSquared, the Amherst Report is very helpful, particularly because it explains the difference between what we call slots and tips. However, it does not say that tips are soft support, nor does it say that tips are less likely to get in than slots. It does say that tips (coded athletes) are admitted at a higher percentage than the similarly situated, general applicant pool. That simply means that they are recruited athletes.
As mentioned, if you are number 6 on a list of 5 recruits, you might receive “soft support” - a note from the coach to admissions that the coach would like admissions to give the recruit a second look. If the recruit did not have a pre-read done or specific offer given, I agree that the chances for admission are not as great, but that is not the case with tips. They are recruited with full coach support.
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This is for Amherst, but I’m not sure which (if any) other NESCAC schools use the same terminology and have similar practices…this is why the process can be so confusing to potential recruits.
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@Mwfan1921, the terminology used may be different, but the practices are similar for NESCAC schools.
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Just updating that this thread was helpful to me and my son was admitted to his D3 west-coast college through early decision with support from the coach. Based on my son’s experience (with running anyway), I would encourage students to try connecting with coaches if they want to continue the sport in college, even if they don’t have record times. My son was not the fastest, though a strong runner for a very small school team, but he wrote to the coach at this school (in the location he really, really wanted) in June, submitted materials for a pre-read and passed that in late July, and went for a 1-day official visit in late August. His academics were fine (and he ended up with a nice merit scholarship in addition to need-based aid), but he always comes across well in talking with adults, so I knew the in-person visit would help his application. It also helped him – he felt so welcome and could see himself in college there. He never heard any specifics beyond the coach saying he would write a letter “of support,” so we weren’t certain he would get in. He’s had a very hard year at home doing early college classes online – very isolating – so I’m relieved that he will have the support of team members as he starts college.
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@maplemel thank you. Was interested in what school you had that experience.
this is a pretty precise (but NOT comprehensive) list of junior swimmers who declare. not sure an advisor would recommend that a junior publicly states this commitment on social media, but it certainly would demonstrate early commitment to the coach. with that said, and with nothing signed, nothing stops subsequent poaching by another school coach
if you scan through the list, it’s very understandable for stellar athletes (very low number power rating, single digit), but somewhat surprising for swimmers whose times are not national level (20+power rating) and announce for HYP schools with the toughest admission
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Definitely not recommended
Generally coaches and recruits keep their verbal commitments. Swimming is a small world at highly rejective schools (which i know isn’t what the swimcloud link commits are, although I didn’t look at all) , so wouldn’t anticipate much poaching. This isn’t Power 5 football recruiting lol.
From what I understand the PI algorithm accounts for supply and demand in a given class (standards are reset each summer) and the numbers can be somewhat deceptive. Right now it appears that a lot of weight is being given to distance swimmers (at least on the men’s side) and maybe that will ultimately prove true but if you drill into those commitments with higher PIs you will see that virtually all of them have attended Summer Jrs by the of their sophomore year.
as a more general question for athletes in the initial coach email/response process, amongst D3/Ivy schools with demanding academic requirements, does each web platform allow for continued updating, or is it a one time submission (because some platforms have no login/password)?
I’m not sure what web platform you are talking about. Are you referring to some that power the recruiting questionnaires, like Recruit spot? I wouldn’t rely on completing recruiting questionnaires.
Best to email coaches directly. Once a relationship is built some might move the communications to texting, some will stick with email.
If you want to do recruiting questionnaires go ahead, but immediately follow up with an email. Many coaches literally have no idea where completed recruiting questionnaires end up.
Coaches will ask for updates, this information will flow naturally as part of the relationship building and ongoing communication.
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This varies a lot by sport and coach.
I usually recommend filling out the forms and immediately following up with an email to the coach indicating that you’ve filled out the recruiting form and you’re interested in learning more about the program and the recruiting process. That email should include the key athletic and academic stats.
Some coaches use the questionnaire software and some don’t. In larger programs there might be a recruiting coordinator who handles the database and an event coach who doesn’t use it.
Some of the systems allow updates and others require a new entry for every update. You can ask the coach how they prefer this be handled. If the coach never responds, I’d update the forms on occasion when there is a significant change to marks and follow up again with an email.
Generally, coaches don’t care too much about academic changes. They want recruits who meet the academic standards they need but after that they care about athletic marks. So I don’t think I’d rush to update anything just because of GPA or an improved test score. You can package those updates with any update of athletic marks.
am exactly referring to recruit spot type of applications.
in D24’s case, it was the coach who asked her to go them immediately after the initial email. So I assume the correct follow-up would be:
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complete webform, re-iterate content by email to coach. ask the coach if he prefers updates to webforms and/or email updates going forward. then update with new swim times
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How early do they conduct campus visits, or is it an ongoing process throughout junior year? we ask because D24 is an international student, so ideally would concentrate these visits into one US visit
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