<p>please check out my new thread! <a href=“Fencing Recruits - #3 by Epeemom - Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums”>Fencing Recruits - #3 by Epeemom - Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Don’t forget to look at places with club teams - they offer the benefit of the team, fence many of the same teams anyway, and offer a lot of flexibility if your fencer finds they need/want to take a day or a year off to explore some of the other wonderful opportunities in college. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or Tufts might be a fit? Case Western, Oberlin…so many. Tufts has a women’s team but men is club, RPI offers generous aid. A lot of the student run clubs have a stronger sense of ‘family’ and fun.</p>
<p>Sherpa, I know this is really late, but I’ve just been looking through these forums and found your replies to be very insightful and beneficial. Do you think you could help me out? I’m currently a 16 y/o Asian male in his junior year. I have a weighted GPA of around 105 (I don’t know what that is in a 4 point scale, but I can tell you that I’m rank 30 of 798 in my class). I just took the SAT so my scores haven’t been released yet, but I received a score of 235 on my PSAT. I fence epee, and I just started in March of 2014. I’ve put my heart and soul into fencing, practicing 4 hours a day every day, and at the past Dallas NAC, I placed 3rd in Div II. Also at the 2014 Summer Nationals in Columbus, I got rolling points for placing 42nd in Cadet. I’m looking into such colleges as Yale (primary choice), Johns Hopkins, MIT, Cal Tech, etc. and I hope to fence on their respective teams. Do you think it’s do-able? Could you give me some insight as to what the application process/talking to coaches is going to be like? Thank you so much!</p>
<p>Yes, it’s very realistic that you can compete for a college. Third place in Div II at a NAC with less tha one year experience is very impressive. Unfortunately, the coaches at CalTech and MIT have very little influence with admissions. The Yale coach is very unpredictable. JHU is a realistic goal.</p>
<p>Are you a junior?</p>
<p>Sherpa,</p>
<p>My son is a B-rated Y14 fencer who is in the top 32 Y14 rankings. This first high school year is very demanding academically but he still manages to pull straight As in the pre-IB program. This comes at the expense of missing practices tournaments, but his fencing is still improving. </p>
<p>Does HYPS or Columbia admissions care if he stays with the more intensive IB program, or should he just take the AP route to allow him more time for fencing practice? His goal is to earn his A this season, be in the top 30ish cadet rankings while maintaining 4.0+ gpa and hopefully a high SAT score.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>In general, I’d advise any HYPC hopeful to take the most rigorous course load possible, for two reasons: 1) to help with admissions chances, and 2) to be well prepared once admitted. That said, if your son maintains a good GPA with an AP heavy schedule, he’ll be fine for any of those schools if their coaches want him.</p>
<p>Sherpa,</p>
<p>Make sense.
For a coach to want him, does he need to be in the top XX in either Cadet or Junior points list?
How important is international competition (FIE Cadet circuit) experience?
He fences epee.</p>
<p>It’s impossible to say what ranking it’ll take. It comes down to supply and demand and varies as team’s needs evolve year to year as their athletes cycle through the college. Of course higher rankings are better, but rankings can be deceptive. For example, one ranked #20 on the Junior points list might be the highest prospect in a given year, since those with higher ranks might not be HS seniors or might not meet the high academic standards for those schools.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think international points are a big deal for recruiting. An athlete who has done well domestically will get coaches’ attention and will be watched at NACs, JOs, or SNs. The coaches recognize skill, and understand that schoolwork and/or finances keep some from competing in Europe.</p>
<p>Thanks Sherpa,
Always looking forward to reading your insightful comments.</p>
<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>I have been reading the posts for a while and I appreciate your very thoughtful and knowlegeble posts.
I have a few questions to ask… Your comments and opinion will help my son to make decisions on his college selection…
Here’s some information on my son.</p>
<p>Male,
Junior in high school,
Epee,
Years in fencing: less than a year in competitive Epee, two years of recreational Foil.
B14 (from U to B in 9 months)
Notable results: Top 3 in Div II NAC, Top 64 in Cadet NAC
No ranking in Junior or Senior
Enthusiastic to continue fencing in college, hopefully in Div I
Dedicate 3~4 hours on fencing everyday</p>
<p>4.0 unweighted GPA
2290 SAT
233 PSAT
No SAT II has been taken yet.</p>
<p>My son desires to go to one of the Ivy schools.
I believe he accomplished a lot for less than a year in fencing, I understand he is not quite there yet to well qualify for one of the Ivys.
I believe he has strong academic, but not quite good enough to get in the Ivys without pulling in fencing side.</p>
<p>Here’s my question…
- Do you think he would be one of the good candidates of recruiting for Ivy coaches?
- Should he focus on fencing to get higher ranking/rates or academics to get higher SAT and good SAT II scores?
- Maybe the better question is: Should he go to NAC and JO to give a shot to get some Junior points (realistically top 64 or 32) or stay home and take SAT ot SAT II tests. Most of the SAT dates and fencing competition dates coincide…
- Are Ivy schools even realistic?</p>
<p>Thank you…</p>
<p>anxiousepeemom </p>
<p>@axiousepeemom - Is your son @stabbykorean who wrote post #202?</p>
<p>He did not tell me but it must be my son…</p>
<p>Hi everybody,</p>
<p>I have a question about the recruiting process, especially for NYU. I have just received an email from the NYU fencing coach about the recruitment form that I filled in. I hadn’t expected their response at all because I just had less than 1 year experience at my school club and haven’t taken part in any major tournament. The coach said “We would love to have you at NYU and on the fencing team” and told me to send her a pdf copy of my application to mark me as a recruited athlete and follow up on my application progress.
Could anyone tell me what it’s supposed to mean? Am I actually getting recruited by them? How much would it help in admission decision?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>NYU fencing is very aggressive in sending lots of letters to USFA members, but it doesn’t appear to be working, as they don’t field a very competitive team. Maybe it’s their bad financial aid.</p>
<p>If the coach is telling you they’d flag you as a recruit, I’d be inclined to believe them. If you have the stats for NYU, you’ll probably be accepted. Good luck.</p>
<p>@axiousepeemom - Your son definitely has a future fencing in college.
Doing well at NACs and JOs will help a lot with recruiting, but he also needs to have his testing under control. His 2290 is fine, so there’s no need to take another SAT. Some of his target schools require Subject Tests, so he’ll need to schedule those.</p>
<p>Here’s an alternate strategy if the NAC and SAT dates conflict: Take the ACT. Some schools, such as Yale and Duke, don’t require Subject Tests if you submit an ACT score.</p>
<p>Speaking of Duke, that’s a realistic target school for your son. The Duke coach would probably support your son through admissions and, if it’s important to you, Duke is more highly ranked than several Ivies.</p>
<p>I find it surprising that NYU doesn’t have a stronger team, given its NYC location, coaches (especially Kornel and Ed), and the proximity to top clubs. Another one of their assistant coaches, Lauren Willock served as the Cadet/Junior Women’s national team coach recently, and the team did pretty well under her guidance. Lauren herself is a very strong fencer and represented NYU in the NCAAs back in the late 2000s.</p>
<p>Yes, I am a Junior in highschool right now. Also, how good of a shot would you estimate I have a shot at Duke? Also, yes @axiousepeemom is my mom… hahaha</p>
<p>A fairly good shot. The Duke coaches take an interesting approach to recruiting. They don’t seem to seek out potential recruits, but they’ll support good fencers who are academically strong if those fencers reach out to them. Your rapid progression should get their attention. Good luck!</p>
Thank you! One last question… How do you think my shot at Yale is?
Are you competing at the NAC this weekend? If you are maybe we can talk there.