<p>We are struggling with this issue also. My daughter has a demanding schedule with a difficult courseload. On top of that, she is in a fall varsity sport and the club sport she is being recruited for. I don’t want her to limit her choices nor do I want her to become overwhelmed by the recruiting process. In my best case scenario, she will take her official at MY favorite school, receive an offer and be done. Of course, I realize this is not very likely to happen as there are several schools that she is very interested in. So I am going to support her in whatever decisions she makes regarding official visits, but I am hoping for only two or three.</p>
<p>Well, I’m a big fan of taking all 5 visits. Even though the student may have unofficially visited the school, talked quite a bit to the coaching staff, and even met a few teammates, for my D there was no substitute for the OV. She was able to make observations then that had escaped her notice earlier. And frankly, the one school she would have left off her schedule if she had been pushed to pare down, is the school she ultimately selected. And the “best” school on paper when rating all the criteria on a spreadsheet, ended up being a definte “no” after the OV.</p>
<p>However, there definitely was a downside to taking all 5 visits. D got run-down and eventually sick, and that did mess up part of the fall and some of the winter sport seasons. But since she had been reruited based on her junior year performances, it didn’t seem to matter to the coaches.</p>
<p>I too think that official visits offered a glimpse of what life would be like at a school and in an athletic program that our athlete didn’t get from unofficial visits. Those earlier visits were helpful, but the official visits clarified perceptions of programs in ways we hadn’t expected. He too was in a fall sport with competitions on Saturdays that often involved travel. It was tricky to schedule the official visits, but he usually flew out on Saturday evening and came home Monday evening - that seemed to work pretty well. Good luck everyone!</p>
<p>Regarding OVs, I’m sure you can ease my mind. I have this vision of DS going off for a weekend with the team and it’s just a big party blow-out. The decision would boil down to which school was most fun and had the most fun teammates. Yikes! I remember reading about last year’s seniors’ OVs and every single one of them (it felt) said they were taken to parties. Their advice was to be prepared to be offered alcohol and have your response ready, ie “No thanks” or “Just one” or whatever. Still true? Inaccurate? Other than participating in a practice or two, do they do anything other than party? I’m sure the partying will be in full swing, being the beginning of the school year… </p>
<p>How far off base am I? Is this an unfounded worry? Be honest!</p>
<p>Wiggle, </p>
<p>I guess it depends on the school. If it is a D1 or D3 school, you are not allowed to practice with a team per NCAA rules on Official Visits.</p>
<p>Funny story…my son had an OV to a Patriot League school last year. The coach has all the host athletes and all guest athletes (recruits) in his office for a discussion about the OV rules and specifically partys. According to my son, the coach stated no more than a few times that they should NOT take the recruits to a party. No more than a few minutes pass from the end of the coaches’ meeting to their next stop…an off campus party. They had walked straight from the coaches office to an off campus party that eventually gets busted by the police. My son and host athlete had the common sense to leave before the law enforcement community showed up that night, but I don’t think all recruits made it out without being caught. We had no other issues at other OVs. My son is not a drinker, so I wasn’t too worried. We laugh about this today, but it wasn’t funny at the time. I really wonder how that next team meeting with the coach went? My son crossed that school off his list fairly quickly, and I’m glad he went. Sometimes it is easier to determine what you don’t want versus what you want.</p>
<p>Every school is going to be different. The OV is part of the process that helps sell the school or cross them off the list.</p>
<p>Our student was asked to come to a recruit weekend --as a soph–we paid for our student to visit the university. There was to be a host teammate–an info session and school tour, attend a football game etc etc…</p>
<p>This recruit weekend got rained out–literally–the city had severe flooding and the recreatin plans etc had to e changed. Prior to flying out-- our student emailed the coaches and asked about the weekend–because we knew there might be trouble because plans were in flux. Coaches assured kiddo all was wel and to come.</p>
<p>The host teammates had a blow out party --just obnoxious. Our student and a couple of other recruits left to go do something else with some other recruits in the nearby dorm that wasn’t partying. Our student returned to the dorm–and had to wait until a resident with a key card could let kiddo in. Kiddo had to pound on the dorm suite door until someone woke up. </p>
<p>We were all disappointed.
The school is not on “the list”…for many reasons (locaole, kiddo’s sport etc)
which is too bad because academically is would be great.</p>
<p>We were really disappinted too that the coaches didn’t have a better plan–especially when sophmores are invited!</p>
<p>My son ruled out the only school that offered him a full-tuition merit scholarship because he saw so many kids on the team drinking. He just couldn’t get over that athletes would do that! I tried telling him that drinking goes on at all the schools, but he said it wasn’t nearly as bad at any other school he visited.</p>
<p>Wow, fogfog! 15-year-olds on campus…parties…locked out…wandering around alone…yikes! I’d be disappointed in the coaches, too!</p>
<p>^^ I know
and believe me–its not in the safest area…</p>
<p>Lets just say kiddo decided that the team was the wrong fit–even if the academics are great.</p>
<p>I shudder to think of kiddo–alone–waiting for a student to show up and use their keycard so kiddo could get into a building–at like 2:30am!!! and then having to bang on the doors to wake up the passed out suitemates–</p>
<p>at the party-- kiddo was getting harassed…thats why kiddo left–it was getting ugly that kiddo wasn’t partying…</p>
<p>I was glad kiddo went with some other recruits and left the party scene for a nearby dorm to hang and talk…
I told this story to an adult (older than me- no kids) who told me that kiddo shouldn’t have left—that it was running away…!! We have taught kiddo to not stick around scenes that are likely to go bad…</p>
<p>Observations of the partying or non-partying habits of the team was a deciding factor for our D. She ended up choosing the team that had done party-free activities with the recruits like going to a sporting event together (not their sport). Even though some members of the team did attend parties afterward and recruits were invited, that was not the primary activity planned for the visitors. D also asked questions designed to get a feel for how the kids spent their leisure time. If she decided to not party once she came to the school, she didn’t want to be the only one on the team who didn’t drink.</p>
<p>^ Exactly!
Kiddo wants the choice…and to also not be somewhere–where the only leisure activity is getting slammed!</p>