I need college/university choices that have amazing academics but also an amazing swim team

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My times:
50 free: 20.6</p>

<p>100 free:46.7</p>

<p>100 Breast: 58.3</p>

<p>i have a 3.9 unweighted gpa and a 2330 on the sats my act is 35 and i take multi variable calc, ap physics, ap chemistry, ap Latin, and ap English. i am mostly a breastroker/freestyler. What school would have rigorous academics but also a very good swim team that could hopefully enable me to go to the olympics?</p>

2

<p>One suggestion is the University of Michigan. The current men’s swimming coach is Mike Bottom, a non-participating 1980 Olympian himself (the U.S. boycotted the Olympics in 1980 to protest the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan) who has coached many Olympians. Michael Phelps trained there briefly when his own swimming coach, Bob Bowman, was there from 2004-2008. The associate and assistant coaches have mostly coached Olympic swimmers, too.</p>

<p>Cal (Berkeley) also has a great swimming team; the women’s head coach was the head coach of the women’s 2012 Olympic team, and coaches a lot of national and international champions. The men’s team is really good, too, with their head coach having mentored 3 Olympic medalists in 2012.</p>

<p>Another suggestion is USC; it appears that several Olympians have trained there (although not necessarily gotten degrees there). </p>

<p>UGA’s swimming team has a long list of Olympic alumni. The head coach, Jack Bauerle, was the head coach of the U.S. women’s swimming team in the 2008 Olympics. He went to UGA himself. HOWEVER, I will say that he was suspended from his duties in late 2013 (for allowing one of his swimmers to pass his class without doing any work). Not sure what the outcome of that is.</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.collegeswimming.com/division/1/rankings/]Here[/url”&gt;Division 1 | Swimcloud]Here[/url</a>] are the rankings for collegiate swimming programs in the U.S.; you can browse the athletics webpages of each and look at their coaching staff, then do some internet searches on the staff (that’s how I found the information above. I know nothing about swimming lol). You’ll note that the vast majority of the top teams are going to be large state universities in Division I swimming. Exceptions are Stanford and USC (and maybe Harvard and Penn on the men’s side; depends on how far down the list you’re willing to call “top”). However, that doesn’t mean that they’re not good - Berkeley, Michigan, UVa, UT-Austin, and Minnesota (just for example) are some of the top universities in the country.</p>

3

<p>Are you a junior? If a senior, it’s awfully late to be asking these questions. </p>

4

<p>I’m hardly an expert when it comes to college swimming, but the teams that come to mind off the top of my head are Berkeley, USC, Michigan, Stanford and Ohio State.</p>

5

<p>Junior</p>

6

<p>I too know nothing about swim rankings, but I googled the team rankings.</p>

<p>UT Austin may give you an out of state scholarship for swim, and its academics are quite strong, especially if you don’t mind large classes your freshman year. The University of Alabama, a well ranked school for swim, would automatically give you a full tuition scholarship, and athletic scholarships might further reduce the cost of attendance. UPenn is another exceptional school with supposedly a strong swimming program. </p>

7

<p>If you would consider a LAC Kenyon.</p>

8

<p>what about any ivy league schools? i think i could get into some those. i dont need financial aide and i think my times make up for a lack of a 4.0 gpa.</p>

9

<p>You must be a competitive swimmer. You need to talk to your coach. You need to look at USSwimming materials. You also need to be more specific about what you want in an “amazing” swim team. Are you looking for swim scholarships? You have close to national time cuts, from what I can see, so it is possible for you to get an athletic award from schools that offer them and are seeking swimmers with your times. It looks like you are good for D-1 schools.</p>

<p>If you want to use your swimming as a hook, becoming an athletic recruit, go to the athletic seciton of those colleges that interest you and see where your time is with current swimmers and fill out the recruit form for the coach to have you on radar. Often they will ask for test scores and unofficial transcripts to see if you qualify as a recruit and so the process begins. It all depends on how much they need a swimmer with your times, and how many are out there seeking a spot just as you are. Start reading up about athletic recruitment, google it, ask around. There must be some swimmers on your swim team who have gone through this. </p>

10

<p>Kenyon or Emory.</p>

11

<p>Also ask on this subforum: <a href=“Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;