<p>I was sent an Admissions Application from an NAIA school. They also sent me a waiver for the application fee due to the fact that I am an "Athletic Recruit". This sounds really nice and makes me think they really want me to go there. Is this anything substantial, or is this pretty generic?</p>
<p>Is it a coach you have been in regular contact with?</p>
<p>No not really. I submitted a questionnaire to the school and he emailed me. He said we would be speaking in the near future, and then this arrived in the mail today. I haven’t had much contact with the coach, but I suppose it just started earlier this month anyways. </p>
<p>If it helps, I’m a junior in high school and the sport is track and field.</p>
<p>I think the fact he emailed you after you submitted the questionnaire is a good sign, I am not sure why he would send an application already as you are still a junior. I would suggest you email the coach, thank him for sending you the application and ask him if he would like you to submit it now because the normal timeline for apps. is senior year. Perhaps he is trying to gauge if you have the academics needed to get in? Anyway, any attention is a good thing. Keep the communication open and make sure you do what he asks to show you are interested as well.</p>
<p>I would tread carefully here, so you don’t look foolish. Lots of small liberal arts colleges will waive application fees to kids for any number of reasons - just having top grades can do it. And some are known to literally send a completed application to a kid by email and then waive the application fee so that he just needs to hit reply to apply to the school. So, all of a sudden dear old CloseCoverBeforeStriking University has 15,000 applications for their entering class of 350, and thus they can now claim [for purposes of the USN&WP ratings] that they reject 85% of their applicants. Wow - that’s selective, right?</p>
<p>So, here, it’s possible that the school’s system is have the coaches pass along to the admissions office the email address of everyone who fills out their questionnaire, and the offer to you may be entirely a marketing tool. But, you’re involved in the one athletic endeavor that doesn’t require a video - if you can run a certain time in, say, the 100 meters or pole vault a certain height, that’s all the coach needs to know to determine that he’s really interested.</p>
<p>So, if you talk to the coach, you might mention that the school’s admissions sent the application with the “athletic recruit” tag and ask him what that means, if anything. But, the better course may be to assume that it means nothing and continue your contact with the coach and read directly from what he actually says to you in order to determine his interest. </p>
<p>The evil, eggnog-drinking side of me can’t help but wonder what would happen if you had a friend who has no interest in that school fill out the athletic department’s questionnaire with details that make it clear that he or she has no skills (“I ran an 11.0 hundred meters!”) and see if he or she gets a fee waiver as a ‘recruit’.</p>
<p>this is just the beginning of a long courtship. even if school is not ncaa, they probably adhere to the guidelines and coach can’t initiate contact with you yet but, i think, he can reply. if you are seriously interested in this program, do your research and stay in-touch with the coach. good luck</p>
<p>NAIA schools are governed much differently than NCAA schools, contact is fine and unlimited at this time. My daughter plays a sport at an NAIA school and she did receive apps etc during the process. It is important to do the necessary steps if you are truly interested in that school. However some schools that we thought were interested in her were not or she was too low on the totem pole and they did send her emails and apps, just don’t get over enthusiastic about anything, its too early to do so.</p>