<p>Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and hopefully i'll be following this website for the next few years =). </p>
<p>I'm a Asian male going to a prep school around Philadelphia(The Hill School in the MAPL if some of you know), and I've been at the states for 6 years. </p>
<p>GPA: 3.666 freshman year and 3.488 sophmore year
SAT Math: around 750, Verbal: around 570 Writing: around 670, so total around 2000 or upper 1990's um</p>
<p>Classes taking this year:</p>
<p>Calc AB AP
Computer Science AP
Chinese 4 AP
Physics Honors
U.S. History
English 3</p>
<p>Volunteer: over 100 hours at Jefferson Hospital just last summer, will be doing more this summer or next smer too
Extracurricular : President of Asian Club, also in Receptions Committee(hopefuly Head when I'm a senior), and hopefully a prefect when I'm a senior too, orchestra</p>
<p>Sports: Varsity basketball nexttwo years, Varsity Tennis freshman year, switched to Varsity Track this year.</p>
<p>I know my stuff doesn't even sound that good. However, I can get recruited into college for track; triple jump. I won the PA prep schools track championship 2 months ago with a 42'3 jump. This summer I'm training in Taiwan with the national college so I'll even be improving a lot more. </p>
<p>I want to get into a top academic school like in the Ivy's but I also like Stanford UCLA and Berkley. With track records that I have, i should have pretty decent chances of getting in right? I don't really know the details of the process of recruiting athletes yet. Could somebody be extremely generous and explain that to me too? I know that i'll DEFINITELY get recruited, so maybe that will make it easier explaining? Thanks so much guys =)</p>
<p>Nobody on this site is very knowledgeable about how recruiting works for athletes. However, since my son's sailing partner did get into MIT and is likely to participate in the Summer Olympics, I'll tell you what I know.</p>
<p>Most schools have limited scholarships, and as such will pick out the few key candidates for recruitment that they are interested in. They will mail "interest letters" to these athletes during their junior year (I think they are not allowed to send them until the junior year starts). For certain major sports (like football), they will have the candidate sign a form indicating which school they are committing to once they have guaranteed them a scholarship and they have accepted (once this form is signed, other schools are then barred from contacting that athlete for recruiting purposes). With lesser sports, they may or may not guarantee a scholarship--and if they don't offer one, there is no reason to sign this commitment form referred to earlier.</p>
<p>Generally, your ability to get into a particular school is based not only upon your ability to do the athletic competition, but also upon your ability to graduate from the college successfully. In other words, an Ivy will not offer you a scholarship unless they also think you can keep up the grades in the classroom. The reason is simple: if your grades aren't good enough, the NCAA rules will prevent you from competing in your sport anyway.</p>
<p>So, the trick is to find a school that is a "slight reach" for you, and that really is interested in your athletic ability. I suggest you start with the following website:</p>
<p>to find schools that are active in track and field competitions. (Florida State was last year's champion--Ivy league schools that are active in track and field are Cornell, Columbia, and Brown.) </p>
<p>You should also consider which schools you want to go to--and if they don't send you an "interest letter", you can send them one--and see if they respond. </p>
<p>Wow, i've never heard of the Hill School and i'm like 30 mins. from Pottstown. I know Lawrenceville, which is awesome. I read the wiki article on it, looks like a pretty good school. Never heard anyone mention it here though.</p>
<p>I've been to Hill. One of Donald Trumps kids went there, good respected school. Anyhow, I was referred to a book called, "Playing the Game" which describes Ivy and LAC recruiting. I can't really tell you your chances, but my only advice would be to try to bring up the SAT Verbal.</p>
<p>42' 3" isn't really that good (for someone looking to be recruited). Are you going into your junior year? If so, you actually are in pretty good shape. I'm not sure about Ivies, but if you can progress in the TJ and bring your board scores up (especially in verbal), you have a decent shot at going somewhere pretty good. Again, if you are going into your senior year, you're not looking that hot, but going into your junior year I like your chances, coming from someone who knows a good amount about the track scene and about getting recruited at top-tier academic schools =)</p>
<p>Smytty - Yes, 42'3 isn't that good yet, but remember, i JUST started doing track. 42'3 is SOLELY based on my athletic ability, I pretty much knew NOTHING about the techniques. My first jump was a 38, and I improved about 1 feet every track meet. What I'm saying is that I have tons of potential to be good this up coming year and I'm pretty sure colleges will know that. Plus I'm training with the national coaches here in Taiwan, 45 or 46 won't be a problem for me in the spring. Actually I'm trying to jump 47 so I can get into Penn Relays next year. Nonetheless, if I don't get 47 this year, I'll DEFINITELY get it my senior year. And I'm sure you know, a 47 IS good enough. </p>
<p>All the SAT scores I said are worst case scenario =) so I'm actually hoping for a 600 for reading. I'll admit that's still pretty damn bad. =/ </p>
<p>Flopsy - I don't get ur comment? </p>
<p>I'll say that my first choice right now is probably UCLA, but my parents want me to go to an Ivy. I don't think anybody's gone to any of the UC scores for a LONG time. </p>
<p>From what you guys have said so far, it seems like I'm not within the reach of the top 20's yet. But I'll say some examples from my school that went to college for sports.</p>
<p>One guy had a 3.0 and about 1200 SAT and he's playing basketball at Harvard.
Another guy with nearly the same grade and basketball skills went to Princeton.
Another guy with grades somewhat worse than me went to Penn for football. </p>
<p>I can't think of anymore right now. From what I've known, it seems like people in my school get in Ivy's and pretty top schools with just mediocore grades. And I'll probably be better at track than they are at their own sports.</p>
<p>Would I have more of a chance to get in UCLA or the Ivy's? </p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys I know it's a lot of questions. =)</p>
<p>Btw sorry for the double post, when should I start doing this college stuff? Track is in the spring so I really only have one more season to show the colleges what I got. Should I be getting in contact with colleges now? 42'3 is not good enough to impress college coaches right now but by the time I jump good enough for them to notice me(which is probably the spring of my junior yeare), would it be too late?</p>
<p>I really don't understand how Ivy League schools do their recruiting for the jumps, because every year, every school seems to bring in these great high school triple jumpers who do terrible on the collegiate scene. I wasn't much better than you in high school and I only did triple jump for one year also (42'8.5") but I was getting recruited to some pretty decent programs because of versatility (I told every coach I was speaking with I wanted to do the decathlon - that piqued their interest). I suggest picking up another event - long jump/high jump/hurdles/sprints - and seeing how you perform in those. The more you're good at, the more coaches will like you.</p>
<p>Here are the results from Heps this year in the triple jump. Long jump was far worse than this, too(I don't think anyone was over 24 feet :eek: )</p>
<p>51-05.50, Rayon Taylor (Cornell)
51-03.50, Muhammad Halim (Cornell)
49-11.75, Ikenna Achilihu (Brown)
49-07.25, Jihad Beauchman (Yale)
47-10.00, Travis Hughes (Harvard)
47-06.25, Randall McKnight (Dartmouth)
46-06.00, Olakunle Saliu (Cornell)
45-00.50, Aaron Gadson (Cornell)
43-05.75, Lawrence Adjah (Harvard)</p>
<p>I run track but was def. not good enough to be recruited. I think with Ivies since they do not give scholarships here's what you can do:
My friend was a great triple jumper in this area like you are in yours and he won States junior year with a 45'8. He did not have good grades at all but he did have a lot of Ivies contacting him in the summer before his senior year. Since your grades are decent enough to get into an Ivy you should aim to improve your jump at least 6 ft. so you can seem competitive against others in the country. Then after your junior year colleges will be allowed to contact you. You should also try improving in other events so thatcoaches can see that jumping is not the only thing you can do. </p>
<p>Become a leader on your track team so that if the recruiting doesn't work out track could be something that would give your app a boast.</p>
<p>100 is my other strong event, i ran a 11.3 handtimed and 11.7 automatic timed. High jump I still haven't gotten the hang of it and only jumped 5'6 haha. 200 My best was a 24. Although I'm thinking about long jump, my coach said without any technique and just jumping I can probably jump in the high 19's. If I jump at least 45 and maybe 21 next year, would that make me an above average track recruit for the good academic schools? </p>
<p>Thanks for the info on the ivy's, but what do you guys know about like UCLA or Berkley? </p>
<p>BTW, wouldn't it be too late if coaches start contacting you after your junior year? Actually, do coaches notice athletes? or do athletes have to contact the coaches in track recruiting? Because I know in basketball it's pretty much coaches noticing athletes.</p>
<p>G-U-NOT is right they will find you if you're good. And the reason why you are contacted after junior year, in the summer is because there is some kind os rule that colleges cannot contact an athlete until his/her junior year is over.
21 and 45 are good but remember there are kids out there that long jump 23s and triple 48-50s. But with that distance you would probably be competitive. I was told since the Ivies don't give scholarships their sports teams are never all that good so that may help you a little. The problem is that track seems to be the sport where the athletes have better grades so you're competing against people who are good but also smart.
I don't know much about the UCs because I going to an Ivy they don't give scholarships. I know they will contact you in the summer and follwing fall along with the Ivies, but their process will be different and probably hard because they DO give scholarships.</p>
<p>Damn.....so I still have to wait one more year.....</p>
<p>But if you can jump 48-50, then you can basiclaly get top 5 in the ivies already right? </p>
<p>Do a lot of athletes improve a lot in college because the coaching is a lot better? So in high school they might not have such amazing records but they get to college they end up jumping like 52? </p>
<p>Now as I'm typing this I'm also looking at UCLA's track stuff. They have 3 guys that jump 50+ , their track is better than the IVY's, obviously. Would I actually haev a bigger chance of getting into the ivy's than in UCLA?</p>
<p>btw, I just sorta took a practice test at home today, and I got around a 670 for Reading on the SATs. 550 was a year ago haha. So maybe that would be more advantageous for me?</p>
<p>That 670 is great news if you can do it on a real test. Colleges can send you letters I believe starting January of junior year. Also, there is nothing to stop you from emailing these coaches yourselves and getting yourself on the radar.</p>
<p>As to the UCLA vs. Ivy thing, it's a matter of where you are as an academic/athletic balance, and we'd probably have to wait until midway through junior year or we see some offical test scores.</p>
<p>
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Do a lot of athletes improve a lot in college because the coaching is a lot better? So in high school they might not have such amazing records but they get to college they end up jumping like 52?
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</p>
<p>Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I personally improved a TON this year because in high school I hadn't fully reached my potential and colleges took a chance with me (went 21'2", 42'8.5" up to 22'6.75", 45'9.5" - and I only triple jumped in ONE meet this year) while there were other kids on my team that were great in high school that did TERRIBLE in college (we have a junior on our team that ran 15:10.xx in the 5K in high school never get under 15:20 in three years)</p>
<p>I see this more in the Ivies than anything, actually. I had a very good friend run 34.82 in the 300 in high school, go to Princeton and never get under 35.5 again (and was only under 50.00 in the 400 a handful of times where he was a 48.68 guy in high school). Like I said earlier, the Ivy League tends to bring in a lot of runners that burn out quick.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Now as I'm typing this I'm also looking at UCLA's track stuff. They have 3 guys that jump 50+ , their track is better than the IVY's, obviously. Would I actually haev a bigger chance of getting into the ivy's than in UCLA?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes. UCLA is one of the top programs in the country and unless you get over 49' you realistically have NO chance of going there. This year they're bringing in David Klech - the Gatorade Athlete of the Year.
Just to put it in perspective, other Gatorade Athletes of the Year were Alex Rodriguez, Emmitt Smith, and Peyton Manning. Kid's in some good company; ran 50.35 in the 400 hurdles and he won't even be close to their top 400 hurdler next year.</p>