<p>My daughter is in her Jr. year of h.s. We are pretty much just getting started in looking around at colleges. She doesn't really know what she wants to major in, nor does she have definite schools in mind. (She is the laid back, go with the flow type!). She has 7 Jr. Nat time cuts and 2 Sr. Nat cuts. She has not yet had her biggest meets of her Junior year where hopefully she will drop some more time...those come at the end of March. She says she wants to swim D1, and she wants to swim somewhere where she will continue to get better.
From nosing around on the internet, we feel fairly comfortable that she could get D1 offers, but with her goals, she wants to reach for high D1 (perhaps lower ranked programs in the SEC or ACC??)
We have a reservation to take an admissions tour at a lower ranked SEC school over spring break that sounds appealing to her for various reasons...probably her "first choice" if there can be such a thing w/out yet stepping foot on a single campus!
This is all so new to us, and we are all somewhat reserved, so haven't mentioned to the swim dept that we will be on campus on that particular day. Should my D go ahead and send in her times, tell them she will be there and ask if someone might be available to chat that day? We are nervous that she might be a bit "borderline" with her times right now, and wonder if perhaps she should wait until after her big meet to contact the school with hopefully new best times. She is nervous about turning them off if she makes contact with less than her best foot forward. But, this meet will only be about a week before our campus tour date.</p>
<p>What is the most important thing she should be doing right now? Our thought is that asap after her March meets, she just pretty much starts emailing and sending in her times to any and all schools she would consider? From what we've read, its a funnel process and you need to have A LOT at the beginning to end up with good options by the end.</p>
<p>Hi, I am not dialed in to swimming specifically but I do have a D1 athlete and if your daughter is a junior you are probably late in the process. D1 schools generally get their picks of the litters first and early. (unless swimming is different). You should definitely get in touch with the coaches of programs she is interested in. Help her to make up a resume with all the pertinent info. I am sure there are swimming recruiting websites to help you with that. Have her email all of the coaches (a personal email to each one) and express her interest in their program and why. Attach the resume, let the coaches know if you are coming and when. Also she should let them know what is coming up. With so many athletes trying to get spots on teams in all sports it is very competitive and you can’t sit and wait and hope to be discovered. If she is not receiving recruiting stuff currently she is not on any radars most likely. You need to get busy!!! Good luck… :)</p>
<p>We had pretty much sent all of her times into schools she was interested in by March of Junior year. Did a round of visits over spring break jr year. Made sure coaches knew we were going to be on campus. No hurt getting your name on their radar. We then updated times through the summer and then went on official visits in the fall. Now is the time to get them out there. We might have waited until after Spring sectionals and then filled out a bunch of recruit questionaires. Can’t quite remember</p>
<p>When I think back, while daughter was inundated with emails and letters from coaches interested in her, the schools that she went on officials to and ultimately applied to were ones she made the first contact through recruit questionaires and not the other way around. That may not hold true for higher level D1 but there is no hurt in filling a bunch out and seeing who is interested. </p>
<p>Absolutely let the coaches know you will be there over spring break. It will be a missed opportunity if you do not meet them then. Just hope they are around when you are there and not at Nationals, which did happen to us a few times.</p>
<p>We have a junior who is a DI candidate in a sport and we have met with several coaches during our campus tours. Our game plan was to contact the coaches for the schools she is interested in attending before the season started. We also set up a “BeRecruited” account-online recruiting site so coaches could “find” her. She just emailed the coaches for the schools we were going to visit and set up meetings with them. Some wanted her to send a resume over as well, some didn’t. She is not ruling out DII and DIII programs though. In many sports the DIII programs are just as competitive as the DI programs after the top 25 or so. The DIII programs she is looking at would beat the DI programs she is considering in head to head competition. The difference is the commitment level. She does not want to go to college to be an athlete. She wants to go to college to be a student that happens to be an athlete.</p>
<p>I agree that you are a little late in starting but not out of the question by any means. I would have your D start emailing her information to schools she is interested in attending. I would also become very familiar with the NCAA recruiting rules as they will determine when the coach can contact your D directly. For swimming that would be after her junior season (HS). You can contact the coaches now and they can answer you and you can meet with them on campus with not problems.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info! I’m new to this forum, and by accident I must have deleted a personal message someone sent me b/c its no longer in my in-box…so sorry I haven’t replied as its gone! If the person that sent it could send another that would be great as i have couple questions.
Thanks again!</p>
<p>Swimming runs a bit later than others because so many of the championship meets are around now and college coaches want to see junior times. But as soon as she has those times fill out the questionnaire and start the process. Also, if your D is on a major club team, the coach of the team has long standing relationships with college coaches and probably has ben talking about her for some time. it is critical that you have a meeting with the club coach ASAP-- get her/his advice as to right schools and what contact he/she has had…you might be surprised that, for example, the coach as been speaking with Auburn about your D for a year already.<br>
As she is looking for a swim power rather than an academic powerhouse (Stanford being the intersection of the Venn diagram) your D’s SAT scores don’t have to be back before serious conversations start (but they will before the coach can go to the Admissions office).</p>
<p>Again, speak with the club coach, you may be surprised how much has been discussed over the years without you or your D knowing about it.</p>
<p>Thanks etondad, that makes me feel a bit better. It did seem logical to me to wait to see how she does at the big spring meets in March. On the other hand, the time b/t July 1 and the early NLI seems like a short period to time to do all the visits while still juggling AP classes, swim practice, etc.
She comes from a smaller club team (at least for our area where there is pretty much one huge “gold” team and then many other smaller teams). Her coach has said he would write letters to sort of introduce her (if that is helpful), but I’ve only heard him mention that he spoke about her to a couple coaches at a Grand Prix…but I think he was shooting too high at that point as I think he said it was UofFlorida!! Our hope is that she could go SEC or ACC, but probably not one of the top teams at this point. Those really top teams seem to have most or all of their recruits walk in the door with numerous OTrials cuts. That is her goal, but she is not there at the moment as jr in high school.
Any suggestions of programs around that level with a good reputation (and hopefully happy swimmers!) are welcome. Her preference is east coast, and school that also has a guys team (preferably one that has some connection to the guys team…ie one head coach, some practices and meets together, etc). I would say she is somewhat “smart” b/c she tested into and was in our county’s GT program up until h.s. and since then has taken mostly Honors and APs (I think 7 of them by graduation). She has only taken the PSAT so far and no prep classes…her PSAT CR was pretty good at a 690 but her math was lukewarm to say the least (I think it estimated to 520 or something…ack!). I think her current gpa is 3.9 but will hopefully go higher as more of the AP courses kick in. She volunteers with a swim program for underpriv kids and works summers as a paid coach. So, probably smart and a hard worker but not ivy-league brilliant. Oh, and she doesn’t have a clue as to what she wants to do in life or major in! I would describe her as hard working, calm and “chill” (doesn’t like drama) as far as teenage girls goes, but perhaps at times can be a bit too reserved and not good at promoting herself.
Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>With her nat cuts, I would fill out those recruiting forms now-and tell the coach you are visiting.</p>
<p>She won’t be attractive to the Ivys with her standardized testing results.</p>
<p>I don’t know much other D1 swimming, but swimmers are recruited late-coaches will be starting now due to their season just finishing up, tho Nationals are still ahead.</p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman swimming in a D1 (“lower tier” although wow those times were fast at championships this year!) school. I don’t think you have to worry that you haven’t contacted coaches yet. You’re a little behind, but only in terms of being able to get out and tour the schools themselves. Since swimming is all about times and no contact is supposed to occur before July 1 (in my experience swimming is nothing like soccer and other sports where the kids have verbal commitments by the time they start as junior) you can submit her times after the big meet in March. However, if she has a couple she’s really interested in, complete their forms and/or email the coaches, and that way the coach can keep an eye on her times during the meet.</p>
<p>If you wait till fall, then you will be too late because official visits will already be set up and money may be given out. Also keep in mind there are Maryland swimmers shopping around for new programs this year.</p>
<p>Since my daughter didn’t have Jr National cuts, I can’t really suggest schools because at that level there are so many others, so it would probably depend on who needs what. Also, some schools put more money into their swim programs than others, and it depends on where their weaknesses are going to be when she’s a freshman. A good place to start is collegeswimming.com, and check the results of the champ meets to see where she would have placed; then look to see which schools are weak in that area, or who have juniors and seniors that will be gone when it’s time for your daughter to start.</p>
<p>Try not to stress over PSAT scores. Anything could have happened that day. Hopefully she will do better when she takes her first SAT and if the coach wants her badly enough, they will get her in. It sounds like she is going to be a pretty strong candidate, even if the math comes out a little on the weaker side. (I think you said she wasn’t looking at the academic powerhouses)</p>