<p>
This is very good news for a lot of athletes.</p>
<p>āwho have concluded their competitionā. Does this mean the fencerās competition for the day, or competition for the entire tournament? If you have events on Wed, Fri and Sat, can you talk to them after your event on Friday, or do you need to wait until the end of your event on Saturday?</p>
<p>My understanding is that youād need to wait until youāve fenced your last bout of the tournament.</p>
<p>Can anyone recommend a college consultant that is knowledgeable about fencing? The recruiting process seems like a potential minefield. My Dās coach knows many of the collegiate coaches, but since english is not his first language, I often find myself frustrated by our conversations. </p>
<p>I donāt think there are any paid college consultants who know anything about fencing. But I know a lot, and Iām free. How can I help you?</p>
<p>My DD had a poor showing in Columbus (coming off ankle injury) and has dropped in the rankings. Academically, she is very strong and has tremendous test scores, but so do a number of other girls above her in the rankings. She wants to go to an Ivy and she wants to fence, but realizes spots at Princeton, Harvard and Columbia are probably out of reach unless she is in top 10. We just donāt know how best to counsel her on where to focus her energy. Obviously she needs to keep up her grades (full IB courseload), but since she will not be a top pick, do we encourage her to focus on doing her best at NACs? Lay out the money to do international competitions where she isnāt likely to get many Group II points, but at least she can say she did them? Work on strenthening her application in other ways with ECās outside of fencing. [She is a junior this year, last year to fence Cadets.] Any advice you have will be greatly appreciated. </p>
<p>Youāre right; her top focus should continue to her academics. As far as her fencing, she needs to let her ankle heal and get back to work so she can be ready for NACs and JOs. In my opinion, thereās nothing wrong with skipping the international events. Her junior will be busy enough with her IB courseload, NACs, and standardized testing.
It sounds counterintuitive, but she can lay off her other ECs. As long as sheās a recruited athlete, her other ECs arenāt going to matter AT ALL. And if sheās on the points list and is academically strong she will be able to be recruited by a selective college. Maybe or maybe not P, H, or C, but schools such as Duke, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Haverford, Northwestern, and possibly Penn and Brown will be interested.</p>
<p>One other thing: Iād advise her to make a few junior year unofficial visits, where she can tour the colleges meet the coaches and speak frankly with them about how they view her as a prospect.</p>
<p>I hope this helps and Iām happy to answer any more questions you have.</p>
<p>Sherpa - Thanks for the words of encouragement. We do plan to do unoffical visits in Feb. after JOās.</p>
<p>When do you think it the best time to start filling out recruiting questionnaires? I know coaches must be very busy now with this yearās seniors. Should we wait until November or December? All her standardized testing was completed last month, so she has scores to share at least. She did them early because of the SAT dates conflicting with fall NACs and so that coaches wouldnāt have to wait to see if she would really be able to meet the academic requirements.</p>
<p>PolarMama - My son just finished his Junior year. He never filled out the recruiting questionnaires (because we thought that the coaches didnāt really use them for recruiting). We met with coaches during college visits in March and one or two said that if he was still interested in the school, he should fill them out. </p>
<p>When we met with them in Columbus a few weeks ago, they all asked for them. (these were all DIV III schools)
I think they use them once the recruiting season starts (for rising seniors) as organizational tools/quick reference during meetings. </p>
<p>Thanks Epeemom! Thatās helpful information to have.</p>
<p>As I recall, S filled out a couple questionnaires early junior year and never heard back. After that he changed course and began emailing coaches a one page resume summarizing his academic qualifications, his fencing rankings, and notable results. This was more productive, but it might have just been a question of timing. D followed his lead, and never filled out a questionnaire.</p>
<p>In the end, we learned that the most effective way to contact coaches is to pick up the phone and call them. Most if not all of their unofficial visit meetings were scheduled by phone.</p>
<p>Try Www.tier1recruiting.com - they work with student athletes in all sports and specialize in elite tier 1 schools. </p>
<p>IMO, the world of fencing is so small that any kids who have a shot of being recruited are already known to āelite tier 1ā schoolsā¦no?</p>
<p>Itās all over the map. Iād say only two or three head coaches are fully dialed in on the prospects in all three weapons. Several coaches donāt actively recruit at all but will support qualified applicants who seek them out. A couple seem to recruit haphazardly or sporadically.</p>
<p>DS (a rising senior) visited Vassar and met with the coach last spring (I believe he is on their radar because we initiated the contact/scheduled the meeting). He recently received an e-mail stating that the coach is starting to send information to admissions for preliminary review. Heās the first DIVIII coach weāve heard from since Columbus. I really liked Bruce Gillman when we met with him, and think heās one of the most organized fencing coaches weāve met with; he knows his stuff and is on his game. </p>
<p>
Iām glad you shared this, Epeemom. I had assumed that Bruce Gillman/Vassar were in the category I described as ādonāt actively recruit at all but will support qualified applicants who seek them outā but I didnāt really know. Some other schools that fall in this category (more or less) are Cornell, Brandeis, JHU, Haverford, Lafayette and, surprisingly to me, Duke and Stanford.</p>
<p>Iāve only spoken briefly with Bruce Gillman, but Iāve observed him in action at countless national events, and your observations are consistent with mine. He seems intelligent, organized, knowledgeable and, to an extent uncommon among fencing coaches, always calm and reserved.</p>
<p>Hi Everybody,</p>
<p>I know you all are extremely knowledgable about fencing, and I wanted to ask you a question. I will be taking a gap year before attending Harvard next year. I was wondering if it would be possible to train/learn how to fence over the year and then walk onto the Harvard team? I am 5ā8 150. Obviously, I am just trying to make the team and I am completely okay with never starting. I read in Harvard publications (5-10) years old that they accept walk ons with no experience. Is this still the case today?</p>
<p>Thank You!</p>
<p>My first question to you is āWhy do you want to do this?ā</p>
<p>If you just want to take up fencing, there are a bunch of clubs in the Cambridge area that could satisfy that needā¦Iād recommend Olympia in Cambridge, especially if you are taking up epee.</p>
<p>My next question (a mostly rhetorical one) is āWould you ask the same question about football, basketball, squash, or any other sport contested at the college level?ā Because Iād assume the answer is āNo.ā So what makes you think you could ācramā for a year and make the team for fencing?</p>
<p>Iām most familiar with the womenās side of fencing (my daughterās a fencer) and last time I checked, the Harvard team had quite a number of national team members and international level fencers on their squad.</p>
<p>That said, I do know of someone who was a walk-on at another Ivy team, but IIRC, had fenced all through high school in a relatively good program.</p>
<p>If you are truly curious, it wouldnāt hurt to simply ask Peter Brandā¦</p>
<p>Harvard has a very strong team. Iām sure theyād let you give it a try, but I think you should expect that with only one yearās experience you wouldnāt be close to competitive with even the weakest members. Iād estimate youād need at least 4-5 years to get close to their level. They might have a more informal fencing club too. That might be more enjoyable for you.</p>
<p>If you want to see what kind of competition you might be up against, register (or at least observe) for the November NAC in Louisville that includes a Junior (U19) event. Or if you have time on shorter noticeā¦the NAC in Portland next monthā¦most of the people who would be considering fencing for an Ivy (or any competitive D1 school) would be Div1 or Div2 level fencers.</p>