<p>Hi there, I am the mother of a 15 year old girl, practicing saber. As a 6 year old child she started with epee then moved to foil and for two years now she is training in saber. As a foilist, she had promissing results in the national championships, ranking second with the team and third in the individual competition. So far, in saber, no great results yet, but she has been selected to train with Mihai Covaliu and Alexandru Chiculita (Covaliu's former trainer), so we are really looking forward to some notable performance in the next 1 - 2 years. For 3 years now she trains at least once a day.
Now, concerning the school - she entered this year in highscholl, mathemtatics and informatics stream. She studies at a German school and her general grade for the last 4 school years is 9,51 out of 10, while her adimission grade was 8,86 out of 10. In brief - she is a good student, with consistent high grades.
Hoping that in the next years she will deliver the expected sport performance and that her school results will remain solid, we would like to know / understand if there is a realistic chance for her to study in one of US universities based on a sport scholarship.
I read many of Sherpa's postings where he adviced US highschool students what to do, how soon in the process to start and contact the coaches, etc. But I still do not understand if the application process for Eastern Europe children is the same.
I would really appreciate your opinions and any piece of advice on this matter. I thank you in advance.</p>
<p>I can’t offer much advice, but I’m curious as to why she has been switching weapons. She did so well in foil why would she start over in saber? What US schools are the other kids from your club going to. That might be a good place to start. Perhaps reach out to the parents of those kids first. Also, your coaches may have some ties to US colleges coaches. It’s a small group.</p>
<p>Also, FYI, the 40 or so US fencing colleges seem to generally shake out in to three basic groups:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The NYC schools - NYU, St. Johns, and Columbia/Barnard which tend to attract elite fencers because of the proximity of NYC private fencing clubs. </p></li>
<li><p>The other seven Ivy League schools (Harvard, Yale etc…) which do not offer athletic scholarships, but provide generous financial aids to families who qualify. These schools have league-imposed minimum academic requirements for acceptance (grades and standardized test scores)</p></li>
<li><p>The large universities, which do offer fencing scholarships - these include UNC, Duke, Notre Dame, Stanford, NU, Penn State and Ohio State etc… There are very few scholarships per team offered and those are often split up and allocated to team members based on talent and ranking. It would not be unusual to get a 1/2, 1/4 or lesser scholarship.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Note: There are a few US schools that don’t fit the above groups.</p>
<p>Dear arwarw I thank you very much for both comments; well - to answer to your question, she changed weapons due to opportunity - the two top saber coaches we have in Romania have seen her fighting and offered her a place in their saber junior team, subject to weapon change, of course. Now - out of her colleagues, no one dares to think that he/she could go and study in US (it is a matter of financing first of all), so I really can’t share our plans with anyone there.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but this is what I understood, we (parents + child) have to do to:
- to prepare a “CV” of the child with both sport and school results as well as an introductory letter
- to prioritize the universities we are targeting and find out whom they have as fencing coaches
- to initiate a correspondence with the coaches with the aim to raise their potential interest in this child
- and finally, to keep our fingers crossed for her.
Once again - thank you! </p>
<p>That sounds like a good plan, but I have not been through it, and I would not be able to give you proper advice. You may want to send @Sherpa a message with your questions. Maybe he will see this post and advice. Best of luck with her search! She sounds like a great athlete and student!</p>
<p>Also, you may want to repost your question on Sherpa’s thread here: <a href=“A new fencing thread - #61 by sherpa - Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/1363017-a-new-fencing-thread-p5.html</a></p>
<p>If she keeps getting top grades and works with the new coach to become an excellent sabreur, then her chances for being recruited will be good. Rather than focusing on getting a fencing scholarship, which are very few and competitive to get, I’d focus on one of the colleges that recruits fencers and meets full financial need for international students. Harvard and Princeton come to mind first, maybe Stanford too. Yale meets full need for internationals, but their current coach doesn’t recruit much. But that might change by the time your daughter is ready for college.</p>
<p>fencing seems scholarship for some people. But it is not!</p>
<p>maybe it was the case many decades before!</p>
<p>I’ll be frank and keep it real, most of the coaches that recruit from Cadet & Junior World-OSU/St. Johns & Wayne State usually find a few fencers so having a passable TOEFL score is a plus. PSU and Cleveland State have also pulled people via this route also. Now as far as scholarships, I think you only have a very, very select few schools that have the financial resources that clear demonstrate they will fund elite foreign nationals OSU/PSU–Notre Dame not as much and St. Johns another good tip might be to look at programs where the current coach still has ties to his former Eastern Bloc country…</p>
<p>There are very few scholarships, and even if her saber results improve in the next two years, it’s still very competitive for those scholarships. @sherpa has good advice. Her best bet is to focus on schools that meet full financial need. Those schools are some of the most selective, so she needs to keep her grades as high as possible.</p>
<p>There are many wealthier schools that might make a decent starting point, providing she has the GPA, SAT, course rigour, etc. In Division 1: Boston College, Brown, Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Northwestern, Notre Dame, U Pennsylvania, Princeton, Stanford, Yale. In Division 3: Brandeis, Haverford, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Tufts, Vassar, Wellesley. </p>
<p>You would have to do more research into which of these schools are likely to provide the required financial aid (money for international students is tight). And as sherpa said, most of these schools won’t “recruit”, per se, but it doesn’t hurt to contact them. Your D can still get admitted with good finaid, without being recruited, but her grades have to be excellent.</p>
<p>She would require an athletic scholarship at other schools like Ohio State, Penn State.</p>
<p>@schoolhouse has good advice too. There are eastern European coaches at a few of these wealthier schools. A quick check reveals… Brown & Princeton: Hungarian; Stanford: Ukrainian; Notre Dame: Georgian; MIT: Polish. So when you decide to initiate contact, one of these eastern European coaches (if still there) might be a bit more interested in her ROU background. Also, the Tufts University coach, Ariana Klinkov, is a former world top 30 fencer (saber) and a very highly rated referee. I believe she’s American. She might be a good contact for you.</p>