<p>Wow, thanks everyone for all of the great info. Since my daughter is a very strong fencer, but not at the top of academics, I will have her take a good look at Ohio and Penn. I did find out that at Lafayette you need a 2100 for merit money, and that at the top academic schools like the Ivies, Barnard, Haverford and Vassar they do not give merit money, because everyone gets in those schools is smart. Starting to look into the financial aid options. Someone told me that schools can give fencing money disguised as need money. Does anyone know if this is true? I think that would be against NCAA regulations, and wouldnāt think schools would take that chance. Will keep you posted. Thanks again.</p>
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<p>Hi nycbees,</p>
<p>I expect my son to apply to Yale, among others, and am very curious to hear more details re the above, to the extent that you can share.</p>
<p>Fencers, </p>
<p>If you are on fencing.net and have recruiting questions, this site and these fencing recruit threads are an excellent start. </p>
<p>pass it along, before/during and after your recruiting experience.</p>
<p>Sherpa,</p>
<p>I was wondering who you would consider the class of 2015 menās foil recruits to be for college.</p>
<p>FYI folks, I attended a session with the coaches from Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and NYU, held at Fencerās Club a couple weeks back. The Princeton coach, Zoltan Dudas, said he typically has 3-4 recruiting slots per gender, and that below that level, he canāt be of help with admissions.</p>
<p>Sysdawg is correct. Zoltan once told me that once heād met his quota, heād even be unable to help a 2400 SAT valedictorian national champion.</p>
<p>On another note, I recently received a PM asking what boarding schools have strong fencing programs. The short answer is:</p>
<p>None.</p>
<p>I donāt believe there is a single boarding school fencing coach who has trained a nationally competitive fencer.</p>
<p>Culver - isnāt a boarding school but they did train a National competitor -Saber Desiree Major at Princeton and a USAFA appointeeā¦</p>
<p>she graduated culver Military Academy(forget the coaches name, but he was an assistant under Auriel with Zoltan at Notre Dame and she trained out of Heartland Fencing Center where V. Nazylmov at OSU started, so Iād say some pretty deceit fencing fedigree for a boarding school attendee.</p>
<p>Hi folks.
There is a boarding program at Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon. The school rents space to Oregon Fencing Alliance, home of many world champions. Any boarder can train with Ed Korfanty, the US Womenās Saber coach.</p>
<p>Note that Culver IS a boarding schoolā¦though not in the traditional New England sense. The boys side is the military school and the girls school is called āCulver Girls Academyā.</p>
<p>I second sherpaās POV that there hasnāt been āa boarding school fencing coach who has trained a nationally competitive fencerāā¦but thatās different than saying there havenāt been nationally successful fencers who also went to BS.</p>
<p>Recent examples: Stefanie Wolf (Dana Hall) is pretty strong in the Junior WE rankingsā¦she trained at BFC in addition to fencing for the school team. And on the current Princeton roster, Christina Efthimion fenced at Lawrenceville.</p>
<p>7D/Sherpa I think Iām gonna disagree: and this is right out of Igorās coach vitae:</p>
<p>In 2011 Desirae Major (WS) became the first under 20 Junior National Champion in Culver history and the first fencer to ever win the title coming from the High School program. Culver is also the only High School fencing program in the country that has had 4 fencers in the top 8 at the Junior Olympics in the last 10 years (Jennifer Sawicki (WS) - 2005; Gene Shmurak (MF) ā 2007; Marvin Hargraves (ME) - 2008; Desirae Major (WS) ā 2009, 2010, and 2011). In addition, over 100 Culver fencers have qualified and fenced at the Junior Olympics. 25 fencing graduates have enrolled in NCAA fencing programs; 10 have been placed on the Cadet/Junior/ and/or Division I National Point lists; and 2 (George Blackburn IV and Desirae Major) have earned spots on the FIE World Junior point lists.</p>
<p>and I know Oregon F.A. should have the same based on my daughters discussions with her team mates. Also, I believe the Master School has boarding, but the fencers may train at their respective clubs near NYC/Connecticut.</p>
<p>[Fencing</a> at Oregon Episcopal School in Portland, Oregon](<a href=āhttp://www.oes.edu/fencing/]Fencingā>http://www.oes.edu/fencing/)</p>
<p>@schoolhouse: I guess Iād ask (being admittedly unfamiliar with Ms. Majorās career) if she came to Culver already nationally ranked in the youth NRPS ā before I could say if it was the school coach or her club coach who had the greatest influence. FWIW, Iād say that Culver has always struck me as being saber-centric.</p>
<p>FYI, Masterās School program is run by US Olympic Captain Francisco Martin. Oh, and I forgot to point to Princetonās Arden Youngblood (Hockaday) as another example of a BS fencer.</p>
<p>One issue with many BS is that they have Saturday classesā¦which puts a damper on going to SYCs and NACs. Also, in the case of something like Lawrenceville, until very recently, the school made it hard for elite fencers to train outside of the school program (they had an athletic requirement where you had to play on one of the school teams every season).</p>
<p>My daughter is a soph. this year and is academically very strong (4.0 UW gpa, 2100 SATs). She is in the top 20 on the Cadetās point list in saber, with another year to compete. However, there are several girls even higher up in the rankings with similar GPAās and test scores. Is there anything she can do to help distinguish herself from her similarly talented fencing friends? (She is a little on the shy, nerdy side and has difficulty promoting herself.)</p>
<p>Thanks for the PM. I appreciate your assessment of the situation and suggestions on where to focus our energy. Gracias!</p>
<p>That Oregon Episcopal School program sounds great ā especially for high school saberists.</p>
<p>OK, so it looks as though at Princeton the coach canāt be of help to athletes beyond the number of recruitment slots he has. Anyone know how this aspect looks at other elite colleges? I noticed that the menās roster at Columbia is noticeably larger than at HYPSā¦does that reflect more help from the coach, or maybe just more walkons?</p>
<p>Often a new coach is allotted extra slots to facilitate the rebuilding process. That might help explain Columbiaās roster.</p>
<p>Thanks, sherpa, that makes sense.</p>
<p>well with any program depending on the caliber of fencer youāll have more or less, powerhouses like PSU/OSU/ND have six/seven specialist per weapon plus one of two that go both ways just to get floor time. Even at Johns Hopkins there is an overbundance at certain weapons, so donāt read anything more into it, otherthan they like the school.</p>
<p>This is a very helpful thread. Thank you!</p>
<p>My child (J)is an A rated fencer, high on cadet list with solid international points. Well known fencer. Top student. Just taking PSAT. J also skipped a grade, so competing for fencing team spots with kids a year older.</p>
<p>J has hopes for an Ivy, preferably H or P. My husband and I donāt want to send J to college at 17 so we would want a deferral for one year. Jās plan would be to train and fence competitively in the deferral year.</p>
<p>If J applies to Ivy League Schools requesting a deferral, will J be in competition for spots with fencers from Jās birth year or from one year earlier birth year? This makes a very big difference as there are far fewer strong fencers in Jās birth year.</p>
<p>Do all of these universities allow deferrals? Iām guessing it is better to apply in senior year and ask for deferral than to apply after graduation for the following year.</p>
<p>I would appreciate any insight you may have on this. Thank you so much.</p>