<p>Thanks everyone for the info! My D is looking for a medium to large size D1 school. (If her times don’t come back down in the next 6-9 months, she will have to re-think this.) Unfortunately many or most of the Patriot league and NESCAC schools are on the small side. Does anyone have any experience with some of the “lower” level (swimming wise) D1 schools that are med/large in student population?</p>
<p>Oldbatesiedoc? Why do you say that about JMU? Their times are very fast, they have great team spirit, the school is affordable, and they won CAAs this year on the women’s side? Are you referring to them academically as not being in the same league?</p>
<p>The problem the OP will have with JMU is that they have no mens team. I believe this was a deal breaker.</p>
<p>momcub, do you have any schools in mind? Try collegeswimming.com. and check the D1 top times for the year - see if any schools catch your eye. There are other schools, like UConn, which are large and competitive and could be a good fit. </p>
<p>Someone mentioned going to a school where you’d win championships - you could go with a school like Fordham which is D1 but maybe not exciting enough for her. A lot will depend, as you know, on her times this year. What meet will be her season-ending meet?</p>
<p>My daughter “settled” for a school without mens swimming and actually, she loves it (not JMU!). The school also isn’t all that well funded for swimming so it’s tough for them to recruit against other schools sometimes. But they were thrilled to move from 8th to 6th in their conference this year and the girls all get along really well. Sometimes the boys aren’t all that much of a bonus, despite what the girls may think.</p>
<p>But if she’s set on that, she’s set on it. Does she know what she wants to study? My daughter did and she’s at a school that’s just a good fit for her (even if their housing policies are … well…not so good!!! 
) Unless she plans on swimming in the Olympics or beyond college - in my opinion, choose the schools first, then schedule the visits.</p>
<p>I agree with you, WB. The school is the MOST important thing-what if the swimmer/athlete is injured?One attends college for an education-except for a small group of elite athletes-</p>
<p>I only suggested George Washington and JMU because they are D1. I thought they both also had men’s teams. Rice and Vandy also D1 but no boys and times are a reach. University of Miami ranked in top 50 US n&w, similiar times, D1, with boys. No doubt Kenyon and Dennison would be great but they are D3. In all likelihood unless one of the parameters change, it will be difficult to find a school. When my DD was looking she started by going down the list of US News and comparing her times to the swimmers at that school. She also wanted D1 with a boys team. As she went down the list she found very few that would be a challenge academically and athletically that wasn’t too much of a reach in either area. She found a top 20 school with a swimming powerhouse and will push her to continue to improve but it is d3.</p>
<p>I don’t know specifics for swimming but, if daughter is desired for her athletics, her academics would probably make the Ivy cut UNLESS there’s another equally good or better swimmer with same academics…obvi. Yes, you only have to clear the AI bar for Ivy but, another higher scorer could help coach offset a weaker student who is more desirable athlete. No way to know for sure since these kinds of variables change year to year depending upon the rest of the recruiting class.</p>
<p>That said, remember that many Ivies also require 2 sat II’s. Basically, if you avg above 700’s on tests and A- in gap, you will make the academic cut. Also remember: without the offer of a Likely Letter, Ivy coach encouragement is NO guarantee!</p>
<p>How do swimming academic stats compare to say track, fencing, squash at top academic schools?</p>
<p>OldbatesieDoc and etondad,
Thanks for all your inputs. I’ve read quite a few of your posts. Help me a lot as I’m new at this recruiting process as D1 is the 1st in the family wanting to swim in college.
D1 has been contacted by Williams, Vassar, NYU, Pomona/Pitzer, Ithaca, BU, UCSD, Fordham, UR, Columbia and a whole slew of other D3 and lower D1/D2. We are leaning toward D3 even though her club coach think she should aim for D1. Some has asked for unofficial transcripts/SAT scores, some has mentioned they would like for her to come visit in the fall. While Williams/Pomona-Pitzer and UCSD are great D2/D3 schools (both academically/athletically), she does not like their locations. Vassar is a great LAC and close enough to NY, but does not have a good swim team. What do you think of NYU (with the new coach), UR, Fordham, Ithaca and BU?</p>
<p>To us Rice has a similar feel to a strong academic D3 but is D1.(daughter was wait listed there so point was moot for us, lol). </p>
<p>Your posts sound similar to what we went through the past year or so with our swimmer daughter. If we had to do it over again we would do some things differently. She should have applied to more schools where she was the top of the academic scale instead of to so many where everyone was the same as her. Merit aid is where it is at and she applied to too many schools where aid is mostly need based.</p>
<p>Oh sorry just noticed that about the men’s team. No men at Rice.</p>
<p>We are in a similar place with the search for the right college/swim team. It’s hard to find the right balance. techmom, we are looking at some of the same colleges you mentioned–the new coach at NYU sounds great and I agree that Vassar’s team would not be challenging enough. We regretfully put that one aside. Fordham looked good to us also. We considered BU but d is liking the D3 schools best although Fordham did look terrific, as did St. Bonaventure. We did the Tufts visit and really liked that one. Just not sure how much coach support you get with all of these different options, and my daughter isn’t a great test taker although she has stellar grades. And we are wondering about financial aid–how to compare when you are doing the recruitment process? I know you can get pre-reads but is it possible to compare them before committing? So confusing.</p>
<p>Really appreciate the open conversation here–we are on a new club team and my d is the first one who will graduate and the only one who wants to do the recruitment thing. So no help from any of the others on our team and the coach has no experience except her own from many years ago.</p>
<p>A little background:
She has a 2180 SAT (super scores), UGPA 3.7, WGPA 4.25. Her HS is a magnet, very tough. She is doing an internship this summer in her field of interest (Physical Therapy). She is a breaststroker so while she is very good at it (close to JN), her other strokes range from mediocre BB for back and decent in others (A-AAA). BU and Ithaca will be the perfect fit as far as major goes as they both have a 6-yr PT program. She probably would enjoy the city life of Boston more than suburban Ithaca and the weather is probably less severe in Boston than Ithaca (she is a CA girl through and through). Even though she said she does not mind the cold weather, I’m afraid when winter hits, reality sets in. She does not want to go to the south or in CA, so Rice is out of the question (which is too bad since I would love for her to go to Pitzer as we can get to see her swim and the coach has said she is his top 1-2 recruits). The main thing is to see that she can still be challenged with swim and have a balanced life to juggle academics with swim. Does anyone have any info on either one? She also likes Fordham and UR. JHU and Columbia will be a stretch. We will not have time to visit the schools this summer as her coach want her to focus on training. If we wait until the fall, we’ll not able to visit all the schools we want.Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>LivesinHobbiton,
We are also concerned about FA. From our conversation with the Pitzer coach, it looks like we’ll have his support for admission, not sure about FA. He did ask if we are going to apply for FA which we will definitely need a lot for these private colleges. I’ll see what he says to that. I am keeping my expectation low though. I think we would also not apply for ED if we don’t know which institutions will be able to give us the best package and have to wait to compare them all. Anyone has an opinion on this?</p>
<p>The FA question is so difficult! We had been hoping to have the college question all ironed out in the fall so that D could apply ED someplace and then relax. But it seems it isn’t going to be that easy.</p>
<p>techmom, I am originally from Honolulu and I got into Cornell but did not go…my sister convinced me that the weather would do me in. Fast forward many years, my husband went to Cornell Law School, and I realized my sister was SO RIGHT. Be aware that Ithaca winters are very cold and snowy! I’m so glad I didn’t go there for undergrad. So warn your dd! We are now in the Boston area and yes, there isn’t as much snow, but it is still very cold and the winter is way too long. Make sure your dd won’t be depressed because of weather! Why not go somewhere warmer? I went to Georgetown, in DC…MUCH better weather than Boston! :)</p>
<p>Will PM you on what I know about BU…we know a couple of girls who ended up there. Gorgeous pool! Great Asian food court down the street, too. :)</p>