My son is in his junior year (class 2021). He has junior national cuts but he’s not the top top swimmer in the country. His SAT super scores at 1490. SAT2 Math II 800. Plan to take US History and Physics around the summer of 2020. In a CA competitive public high school he has 4.8 WGPA and UWGPA 3.96. He would dream to be recruited to Ivy but it’s not easy. Among the top D3 elites, because his SAT score is kinda average, how much chance will he have to be accepted, if coach gives him a spot? Thank you.
It varies a lot between schools, but your son sounds like a competitive recruit at the top D3s. Some like MIT will want higher scores, but most schools will be fine with his stats.
Check out collegeswimming.com for comparing his times. I’d strongly recommend creating an account because it’s only about $25 and that allows you to compare schools a lot easier. Ideally your son needs to be competitive in the conference championships.
If you can tell us the schools he is interested in or similar schools we can give you better advice, but the basic advice is to make contact through each schools recruiting questionnaire and then follow up. It’s not unusual to hear very little back until after the short course season.
My daughter (class of 2020) was recruited to several Ivys and top d3s with winter junior national cuts and a very similar SAT/GPA- so very similar to your son. I think you are in a ballpark for many strong academic schools, both Ivys and D3s.
Once you establish a connection with a coach, you can ask him/her how much influence they might have for admission process. All the coaches were very honest with us.
I fully agree with @shishamo. With JNAT cuts (plural), solid scores and another year to improve on both you should definitely not close the door to looking at any Ivy as well as the top D3 schools. Reach out over the next 6 months to every program that interests your son by filling out their online recruiting questionnaires with his best times and SAT scores as well as emailing the coaches expressing interest in their school and swim program. Most will then get in touch with reply, but since they are in season it might take a while. Either way come April have him reach out again via email with updated times, grades, and scores.