My child is a recruited athlete and we planned on seeing college this spring. Of course that never happened. He did the virtual tours but it’s not the same as an actual visit. He just submitted his materials for early-reads at several schools. He’s worried that he may have to decide on a place without ever stepping foot on campus.
Someone suggested we go visit the schools even if they’re shut down. We live close to one of the schools he’s interested in so we walked around campus this weekend. Luckily there was an unlocked door to the athletic center so we took a look around. But the place was a ghost town. The other schools we will have to fly to. I’m uneasy about flying and staying at hotels right now and think we should wait until he hears back about his pre-reads. My son disagrees and wants to make the trips. One of the assistant coaches said he would meet us and show my son around, but would not be able to unlock doors to athletic facilities or the dorms.
What do you think? Waste of time or helpful? Any down side to this? Thanks for your thoughts!
Any chance you can drive? I think it’s worth going to look around. A lot of the school is the school location relative to a city/town/other and the type of buildings ( Ivy clad, modern, large, quad etc).
My kid doesn’t want to do visits, but we’ll be going. Most likely driving as I can’t stand the idea of flying anywhere.
Could you wait until he gets an offer? Flying etc seems like a lot of effort and there’s a chance it will be wasted.
I would hope coaches wouldn’t put short time frames on offers especially this year. I have to believe the coach would understand you would need time to visit before accepting an offer.
That said, my son is a junior too, so my knowledge at this point is theoretical! Best of luck to you and your son.
The bigger question is whether athletics will be funded next year at whatever college your son is planning on attending…several schools have announced cutbacks or outright suspension of programs due to the anticipated lack of funds or state aid…my son was recruited to play baseball and just finished his freshman year at a Maryland state school…they sent an email 2 weeks ago saying no decision has been made as to future athletic funding for next year…not what we wanted to hear as he’s not thrilled with the school except for playing ball…as he’s a high GPA, Dean’s list student, he hedged his bets and applied elsewhere to better academic schools…cover yourself in case athletics don’t work out.
Some schools are in a dead period so the coaches can’t meet and can’t show you around. You can go, of course, but no athletic recruiting. Just check because you don’t want the coaches to be in trouble.
I do think it is a good idea for both you and him to meet coaches face to face. Also if any potential teammates are around it would be good for him to be able to hang out with them without you or coaches around for at least for a few hours if not overnight.
As to whether to do now or later, I’d probably wait unless you think you won’t have the opportunity later. The visit will be much better once teammates are all back on campus.
I generally like summer visits because kids and parents can get a sense for the campus, town, etc., without feeling the pressure of, or using up, an official visit. Ideally it’d be a chance to meet coaches in person but that’ll depend on the timing and the rules. And yes, that ghost town feel you mentioned is a bummer. But you can still learn some things.
I do think an official visit (or overnight for D3) during the school year is the best chance to get to know the team, school, coaches. But I don’t know if I’d be too confident of those happening this fall. Might depend on the school and what limits they’re placing on visitors.
If you do want to visit this summer, I don’t think there’s much urgency. You could have your son feel out the coaches, ask if they might be around in August. I don’t know that flying is going to feel much safer then though.
Rough year to be going through recruiting. Do remind your son to enjoy the process as much as possible.
Thanks everyone for your input. I was able to convince my son and husband to wait, and my son’s private coach also suggested waiting - ideally do an official visit or overnight visit once school resumes. As for getting an offer and feeling pressure to make a commitment without seeing the school, his coach said not to worry about that. Telling a college coach you wanted to visit the school before making a decision is completely reasonable and a coach would not say take the offer now or forget it.
My son has been on one official visit back in the fall and he loved the experience. Spent a good amount of time with the coaches and the team and got a real feel of the school. So, he understands the importance of doing these visits. But who knows if he or any athletes will have a chance to do overnight visits when school reopens. What a crazy time to be going through this!
Hotrin, you raise an important point re: schools doing away with certain sports. It sure was a shocker to see Brown downgrade so many Varsity sports to club status as well as some schools suspending all programs due to lack of funding. Is it just baseball at Maryland that is up in the air or all athletic programs? Would your son transfer?
Thanks again for everyone’s input. I feel better that my son and husband cancelled their trip - they were going to fly today. My husband was worried because he said he could not tolerate wearing a mask for the duration of the flight!