<p>Heading out tomorrow a.m. for OOS showcase. Will check on this thread tomorrow night. I find it very interesting as to how different the process is for different sports and individuals. Good Luck everyone!</p>
<p>Happy surfing, NorthM ;) It would be great to hear how your D's team does with being seen by the coaches they're interested in. I really wish my D's team would go to these really major showcases, but they're not that ambitious as a group.</p>
<p>We know of many student athletes in our area who used collegiate pathways. It is a husband and wife team with 30 years experience including working with student athletes in tennis, golf, baseball, soccer, basketball, crew, swiming, equestrian, and even fencing. I think they take only about 20 individual clients a year and friends tell me they are priced to be affordable. They tell me the counselors really focus on what is the best school for each kid -- not just a meat market deal.</p>
<p>GFG: My son was a highly recruited athlete in a revenue sport. He was at the top of the academic pool compared to other recruits in his sport at the high Div. I level. He signed an LOI early in senior year, after having been offered by the coach a early in his junior year. He still had to fill out an application and write the essay, etc. At Stanford, he was told to fill out the application completely (it's a huge application and requires multiple teacher/principal recommendations) and then be sure to send it back in the pink envelope (or whatever color it was) that (obviously) identified him as an athlete so it would be routed correctly. I remember telling him to make sure he did a good job on his essay and to represent himself as a serious applicant! He was always asked to give his PSAT, SAT & SAT II's, and an unofficial transcript by coaches who were serious about him. When he first started to be recruited, he sent a follow up note to coaches who attended his games and included this information.</p>
<p>The NCAA pushed the official visits back to reduce the pressure on recruits but it has had the opposite effect. Now, since the recruiting cycle begins and ends earlier and earlier, all it does is force kids to pay for their own visits so they can commit (verbally) earlier and earlier. The only athletes who this policy helps are the tippy top of revenue sport athletes (maybe 5 - 10 per year in the entire country) who are so good that a coach will make room for them to commit later in their senior year. </p>
<p>Another question to ask is how many kids will be on a team (regardless of how they are identified: walk ons, scholarship, or non scholarship), how many will travel with the team to competitions, and how those traveling will be chosen. Some of my friends kids have committed to non revenue sports like water polo only to find out that 49 kids practice as part of the water polo team... enough for 6 or 7 full teams! And, the kids who were not starters who got to travel didn't always know they would be traveling until the day before, leading to some disappointment.</p>
<p>bessie- good post.......your explanation on the official visit dates makes sense. never really thought about it in that way but i can see where it does make a difference. i recall that in d's sport, it seemed that d1 recruits were extended offers by the end of the summer prior to senior year.</p>
<p>balletfan, from what I understand, one of the difficulties of being recruited for tennis is that they have, relative to other sports, very few slots ( 4 or 5 a year). That, plus the intensely competitive nature of tennis (I'm from So Cal so I have seen the kids who have been playing USTA tournaments since they were tiny!) make it a very hard road for a potential recruit to travel.</p>
<p>Balletfan...don't know what part of the country you are from but research Gustavus Adolphus in MN. It is a small, Lutheran LAC with a very good reputation. They have a long history of very good tennis teams. It is a beautiful campus and the profs are just excellent! I attended a great tennis camp there many moons ago that was uplifting, competitive and just plain fun. It was called Tennis and Life Camp. They have really good placement stats for kids going on for med school, dental school, etc.</p>
<p>just a comment. D received a group email to invite her to official visit at ivy at which she has already committed. No one was invited who is still "thinking about the school" All others on the email have also given verbal. The 2009 recruiting class is done(yes, I KNOW, admissions has final say but pre reads have been done) Coaches are already evaluating 2010. school wants application submitted by September 1 so likely letters can be prepared. At least in one sport and one IVY, this is the timeline.</p>
<p>nightsky, how many kids got the email?</p>
<p>five. which is exactly what team coaches have consistently said they get from admissions( assuming certain standards for grades, tests, etc)</p>
<p>Do you know if they do official visits for kids other than the ones they have put on their list? This is so interesting. I guess, as you say, each sport and each school is different. My understanding with my S's sport is that most (but not all) Ivy coaches have somewhere between 10 and 15 slots. The bad news is that they will bring upwards of 35 kids for official visits, but not all will apply and not all that apply will get in. The good news for the kids is that they get to check out all the possible partners at the dance.</p>
<p>The recruiting experiences shared here are very helpful. There seems to be great variation from sport to sport, and perhaps division to division, as far as the timing of verbal commitments/finalization of recruiting rosters - with some/many coaches already finalizing their rosters of '09 recruits before senior year even starts!</p>
<p>About official visits: if a coach invites more (perhaps considerably more) athletes to "officials" than there are potential spaces on the roster, what does this mean for the student? How many official visits should an athlete plan to make, if the goal is not only to find a good match (from the athlete's perspective) but also to "ensure" the athlete ends up on some coach's final list? If the athlete is in season in the fall, more than 2 (maybe 3) visits could be logistically difficult. Are two official visits enough?</p>
<p>For crew, try sparks consulting - Our son went to their camp last summer, but their main thing is recruiting counseling. The lead guy was a coach at Yale. I think they’re also moving into a few other sports.</p>
<p>[Recruiting</a> Counseling| Sparks Consulting](<a href=“http://www.sparksconsult.com%5DRecruiting”>http://www.sparksconsult.com)</p>
<p>Three year old thread… I doubt anyone is checking it anymore.</p>