So my daughter is a junior in high school. We have been working on trying to visit schools for a couple of months now. I am feeling a little overwhelmed as is she. For her, she hates the idea of having 10 schools to choose from while for me I am worried she is missing out on something by not expanding her horizons. I am not sure how this works when asking for help (this is my first post) but here goes.
She wants to swim. She is a decent swimmer and has spent a lot of her time doing plays and chorus as well. She is on a club team and is a breaststroker. Her times are 1:21 in the 100 and 2:58 in the 200. I know how swimming works, I realize she isn’t getting a big scholarship. She just wants to swim.
She wants to be an animator. We are not ruling out good art schools that she can swim at and then do animation in grad school.
She has a 3.8 GPA in all honors classes but opted away from the AP classes. She tried one for a week and she just did not feel comfortable. It was AP Human Geography. She has taken the ACT twice. 23 first time and 25 last month.
So far we have visited SCAD and LaGrange College in Georgia. We are looking at Oklahoma Christian and a few others as well.
One of the biggest frustrations is the lack of communication from swim coaches. I realize my daughter is not the best swimmer out there but looking at collegeswimming.com these are definitely schools she can help. Is it too early?
Any advice, suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated!
Its definitely not to early. During Easter vacation/spring break coming up is when you should line up some schools that she likes that also fit her swim times.Email both the head coach as well as assistant and try and set up a visit with coaches while you are on campus. Look at the times for those schools and make sure she can contribute but definitely reach out via email with best times , gpa and test scores. Also, go on each schools site and fill out recruit questionnaire. Good luck
@fleishmo6 Thanks so much for the response. We have another visit lined up for the Easter Break and we hoping to get one more before then. I have sent probably 20-25 emails and have gotten some great responses and some non-responses as expected. I guess I am just surprised at the “laziness” of some of the college coaches. Again, she is not a superstar but I don’t get things like emailing back that you are going to call at a certain time and then nothing. I am not sure if I should keep bothering them or if I am hurting her chances by doing so.
problem is these past two weeks and next few are all conference championship and ncaa so coaches are busy
give them a bit of slack and reach out again after ncaas
big thing is make sure the swim times are a match for the school she is interested in if she wants to swim
well make sure that she is the one that emails or at least it is her name on bottom of email
coaches want the students to own their interset as well as their swimming. they will view a parent as a helicopter and that can scare off some coaches
@fleishmo6 Good point about Championships. I knew that conference championships were going on but I forgot about NCAA’s. She is definitely involved in the process, first thing I do is give all coaches her cell phone number and email address.
FYI Oklahoma Christian’s swim team is brand new, so they may still be figuring things out. I have little doubt it will be successful, though, as Josh Davis is fantastic.
@ShrimpBurrito He is amazing! Actually where our trip is to over Easter Break. If they were all like him, they would all have much better programs. I am just doubtful she is good enough to swim for them. Otherwise, they have a great gaming/animation program and their cost is reasonable. Pretty much the perfect school for her.
If your D goes to a good school for animation there won’t be time to swim. Literally.
What goal does she have for her animation degree? Movies? Games? Motion design? (all of these are a bit different which may send you to different schools and open up your options).
@gouf78 Interesting. She loves to draw comic/cartoon type characters and wants to do movie animation. The gaming intrigues her but more than anything I think she leans towards the cartoon animation/movie animation style.
@twoinanddone She liked the school from everything she had read and seen but honestly the campus being in the middle of a big city (Savannah) threw her off. She didn’t like the idea of having to go miles across town for class. We very much enjoyed the visit though.
A couple of suggestions: First, let your daughter write the emails to coaches. It allows her to have some skin in the game, which she is going to need. After all, she will be doing the swimming. I felt that it was okay to proof an email to a coach, but I daresay the email should never be sent on the email account of a parent. I have heard some coaches say that they do not respond to emails not sent by a student.
Second, tell you daughter to hold her nose and take the ACT again (and maybe again still) – you get 6 tries. Quite often the reason for scores improving on the ACT is related to finishing the test, not to getting correct answers. Ask her if she finished all sections. Try to devise a strategy that allows her to finish every section.
Third, I wouldn’t assume that the coaches are lazy. Incidentally, I am not saying that they aren’t lazy. However, I remember hearing that one division three coach starts the process with 1500 recruits for one sport. The process of whittling that list to 5 is going to take a while. Typically, a division 3 coach may only have one or two assistant coaches to help out during the season. You may be surprised to learn that at some schools the coaching position is part-time.
Finally, remember, there is not very much (if anything) in the line of budgeting for recruiting. Let your daughter be persistent. She will not be a pest. Coaches want kids who want to play. One email to a coach is not enough.
Good luck. Cast a wide net and look at a lot of schools. As time progresses, objectives and how they will be achieved will become more obvious.
She probably wouldn’t be able to swim there, but Texas A&M has a fantastic Viz Lab/ Animation program. You should look it up. If you are in Tx it would be a fantastic deal.
@gointhruaphase You rock! I agree and I was being a little rongue and cheek about that lazy thing. I think more than anything I am worried about how much contact on our part is too much? Let’s be honest, schools in this part of the world with a swim team she can compete on and an animation program are hard to come by. I worry our lack of options might be perceived as desperation.
