<p>Congrats on the contact with the coach. By getting your NCAA number, the coach can look at how your approval process is going, and doublecheck to see if you’v kept up with the paperwork.</p>
<p>Good news, Jared. Let us know if you get that visit!</p>
<p>Jared, Just a tip …please make sure you check all correspondence before you communicate with coaches and “push the button” on emails etc. I know you were typing fast in your thread title, but there is also an error in the last sentence of post #18. We don’t care here on CC, but coaches will take note and you want to always make a great first impression with them.</p>
<p>Mini Van funny you should mention that. I always read the emails (and letters) that coaches send to me daughter. If I think they are poorly written, that tends to turn ME off from that school …goes both ways!</p>
<p>recieved about 50 letters from coaches from around the country who would like to have them swim for me.</p>
<p>Jared-</p>
<p>You must be the next Michael Phelps if you’re getting 50 coaches say they want to swim for you, because it’s usually the other way around. Congrats on that. </p>
<p>Son, if you communicate like this to schools and coaches the closest you’ll get to a pool in college is the life guard stand.</p>
<p>Here’s the deal–
There is too much conflicting info in the posts of the OP…who, with so much “recruiting experience” of being a hot prospect, would be done—this would have been a done deal last spring as a JR</p>
<p>…the initial questions here on this thread wouldn’t have been asked…</p>
<p>Our HS’s best swimmers are locked up/verballed by spring of Jr yr and “done” already. </p>
<p>No coach needs a NCAA # to talk with you–they’d ask for faxed transcripts, test score reports etc long ago…and would have called the hs coach…had the swimmer for visits etc.</p>
<p>Maybe a ■■■■■?</p>
<p>I’m going to come to the defense of the OP. I think he’s legit, because I’ve been following his posts on another forum for a college I’m familiar with, and where I think he’s most interested in attending. I don’t know much about swimming, but I think he’s from a state where swimming is huge, so being average on a club team is probably quite good. The school he’s looking hard at is NOT in the top 30 DI swimming programs, nor is it outrageously academically selective. I do get that he’s a little unsophisticated about the recruiting biz, but I think he’s a real kid trying to make a college swim team. At least I’m willing to take that chance. Ask more questions, Jared, if you’re still around!</p>
<p>I agree with riverrunner, and perhaps he just got a late start. With swimming, it’s really easy to fall through the cracks. An equivalency sport with very little respect in most places, only the elite get the visits without a lot of footwork. I’m a fan of Jared’s! </p>
<p>Plus I like seeing “did this interview went well” at the top of the list every time I log on. ;-)</p>
<p>On the other note, I reread my post about typos and it has one too! Ha! I guess we should be careful while in our glass houses ;-)</p>
<p>And along those lines, my daughter (NOT ‘me daughter’) got a letter in the mail today from a school she isn’t interested in. It was supposed to be a nice (handwritten) personal card, but the girl wrote, “I hope you are enjoying you senior year.” I threw a nice rock out the window of my glass house when I read that!</p>
<p>Just a comment on the 50 coaches thing: Out of curiosity after I read this, I checked my daughter’s profile on berecruited. She has had 84 “interested coaches,” and I would bet that close to 50 of those as well as some others who saw her elsewhere did send letters to her at home or through her coach.</p>
<p>She is mid-level with her abilities, good enough for D1 but not the best D1s.</p>
<p>This isn’t to say they all offered her spots or official visits, or that they are schools she would even want to attend. I just think the 50 letters is not a red flag.</p>
<p>OP</p>
<p>fwiw, one of the posters here on this thread IS a swim coach and gave you good advice.</p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>Don’t worry, on here there really is no reason to double check whatever I post, obviously. I always make sure to check and re-check anything I send to a professional. Whether that is a coach or a teacher, but it’s a bit different on an internet forum so don’t worry if I make mistakes lol it happens to the best of us =p</p>
<p>Trust me it isn’t much. By 50 letters I’m also including emails but that’s not important. One of my team mates, who is around the top ten in the nation has recieved TONS of mail and emails from coaches. Easily over 100 for him. It’s not like a lot of other sports, swim coaches have to work harder to recruit good swimmers so they recruit harder. Even though most of my letters are from small up and coming schools it’s irrelevant, a letter is a letter isnt it? I’ve only been contacted by like 2 respectably and recognizable swim programs. I’m not saying that the others aren’t really cool or interesting, but I’m just not that interested. Don’t worry though, I would never talk like this with a coach. I don’t feel that I’m typing that badly though.</p>
<p>Thanks! So you found my school of choice eh? lol. Anyways, right now I’m probably the second fastest on my club team, but would place in the mid of the college team. Granted our team is fairly small but we have some quick kids. Yeah recruiting just hit me out of nowhere once our college swimmer’s came back to train with us for the summer. Since than it’s been kind of hectic and confusing because there really isn’t a definite way to get these things done. </p>
<p>I do have a question now though. Would it be a bad idea to apply for early decision to the school? I really want to go their because it’s pretty much a perfect match academically.</p>
<p>^If you have the money, and it’s your first choice, go for it.</p>
<p>Whew, I’m glad I’m 95% done with the recruiting process this year…tough decisions…</p>
<p>Jared, is the coach at this school offering you a scholarship? Is that something you want to negotiate for, or just accept whatever comes through in a finaid package? If you can swim with the current competitors on the team, it seems like you should be getting a money offer.
And yes, if it’s the school I’m thinking of, ED is going to increase your chances of admission. Architecture and Engineering are particularly difficult to get in to, so an early application to those departments is a good idea. If I’m guessing wrong on your school, ignore me. I’ll PM you :)</p>
<p>Jared,</p>
<p>If tuition isn’t an issue, definitely apply ED.</p>
<p>Also as an aside, a lot of swimmer boys that I know are not looking to sign early. Many of them feel that they can improve their times for the April signing, possibly getting more money or getting into better schools. </p>
<p>They are going on visits but not really interested in committing yet. Or so they say. High school season around here isn’t until winter, so there really aren’t any big meets coming up until December, which is the first and only ‘big’ USS meet before the championship season starts in March and April.</p>
<p>Are those swimmer’s years round on a club team too? Unfortunately I only have 3 weeks off a year lol. Signing is coming up in November for us, I’m really not too interested in being the “best” and getting tons of money, I just want to have a decent spot and be able to improve greatly over my college years.</p>
<p>jared
my son is also a swimmer, but only a junior. the recruiting process is very time consuming but interesting as well.
if you are a fit with a specific college both academically and athletically and the coach has given u the green light then applying ed is what you should do especially if being a swimmer might enable u to get into a school which you might not have been able to get into without that athletic hook.
the other issue that occurs with swimming is that there is only a small number of scholarships per boys team. so if u are looking at d1 programs the earlier u sign the more likely u are at getting some of that money. once all the scholarships are given out the well is dry. look at how many seniors are leaving a specific school since that will help u see the availability of swim monies. there are either 8/9 scholarships available for the entire boys team. those monies are generally divided up amongst the swimmers
the girls have i believe 13 scholarships to share
as others have posted u need to email the coaches at the schools you are interested in and get the process started.
any questions u can instant message me</p>
<p>“If you have the money, and it’s your first choice, go for it.”</p>
<p>“If tuition isn’t an issue, definitely apply ED.”</p>
<p>Money/tuition is generally not an issue when applying ED (but ask each school for its policy). For schools that use the Common Application, here is the ED financial aid rule:
So if they don’t offer you enough, you say thanks but no thanks, and apply RD elsewhere. But apply ED only if you have that one dream school above all others, where your only question is: can I afford it? You lose the ability to compare financial aid offers, and it’s a looooong time from November to September to be committed to a school you’re not in love with.</p>
<p>Jared,</p>
<p>Yes, year round - is there really any other kind? ;-)</p>
<p>I once read an article that said girls tend to sign in November more so than the boys. Here is one on the topic, but it’s not that one: [Tuesday</a> Tip: Sign in the Spring or Fall?](<a href=“http://www.collegeswimming.com/news/2008/jul/15/tuesday-tip-sign-spring-or-fall/]Tuesday”>Tuesday Tip: Sign in the Spring or Fall? - Swimcloud)</p>
<p>Well, I can’t find the other article but I remember reading that. I just assumed it’s because it’s a lot harder for girls to improve as much in their senior year as it is for boys.</p>
<p>Anyway, I stand by my original thinking: it sounds as if you really want this one school and you already know it. In that case, if they offer you a spot, you should take it and apply ED (do they offer the non-binding early application option?)</p>
<p>I don’t completely understand the process of ED/LOI, etc, but I won’t let my daughter apply ED anywhere unless I’m absolutely sure we can afford it if she is accepted.</p>
<p>And to vossron: another thing I always wonder, is this: who determines what award makes attendance possible? Because so far, the colleges and us have not seen eye to eye on this at all!!!</p>