<p>I just posted but it occurred to me that it might help if I explained my sport. I scull. I'd love to row, but that takes 4 or eight people so I can't. I don't have my own scull. We live near a lake and friends of my parents have one and let me use it.</p>
<p>Well it is great you have been noticed! </p>
<p>Is it possible the notice is purely academic, or is it sport related? If you are hearing from coaches definitely do respond. Ask them what a kid in your situation should do. Perhaps there is a program you could enter this summer, say a clinic at at a prep school or college, that would give you some exposure to good coaching? I know there are all sorts of summer sports camp,s so you'd have to know which ones "mean something" to your sport. Or maybe one of the coaches who is interested in you runs such a program?</p>
<p>Two questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>What sort of college appeals to you?</p></li>
<li><p>What is your sport? </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Maybe people could help more if we knew.</p>
<p>Thanks for your response, SBmom. To answer your questions: I'm not sure yet what sort of college appeals to me, a good one, of course, but I guess that is pretty vague and my sport if sculling.</p>
<p>I will follow your advice, since it seems sound to me. I'll write back to the coaches (or should I email?) thanking them for their letters and explaining my situation (lack of coach and lack of team) and ask them what I should do. I guess the worst that could happen is that they say goodbye and good luck and then at least I will know where I stand and at the best they may have some suggestions for me. </p>
<p>The one problem is that if they suggest a summer sports camp as you have, although that sounds like a great idea I'm not sure how it will fly with my parents. They are very supportive of me but this summer I am expected to be earning money, not spending it on sports camps! Thanks again.</p>
<p>If you are in any sort of rowing or crew, the university programs are very open to walk-ons. They will take a 6' tall girl with no experience over a 5'3" girl with lots of experience, as they know what they need in the boat and can train people- therefore, if you are pretty good AND actually have experience, you may have a good chance to join a program where they are happy to see you.</p>
<p>coldcomfort,</p>
<p>Sculling is cool. At least you <em>can</em> do it solo. You'd be out of luck as a solo football player. :) One thing I know about rowing is you need to be in great aerobic shape. There was a hill near my college called "Crew Hill" that the team had to jog up; absolutely punishing.</p>
<p>To answer your Q, I would write or email coaches, and then call them to follow up after a few weeks if you have not heard anything back.</p>
<p>Would you only do single sculls or would you do crew as well?</p>
<p>Is there a University in your area that offers this? If so, could you sidle up to the coach and see about working out with his team? (In my D's sport, tennis, top HS players hit with college players routinely.)</p>
<p>As for the summer program-- maybe your parents would rethink this, if it turns out you could get a big boost into college or even a scholarship via better exposure in your sport. Talk to the coaches and they will tell you what you need to do and then if this sort of program is useful you could make the case to your parents. Most of these camps are $ but they are probably only a few weeks, not the whole summer. If finances are a big issue, look for colleges that give merit or athletic cholarships for this sport, unless you are sure you will qualify for ample need-based aid.</p>
<p>You can do some research online re: which schools have this sport, which are the best teams, what are national-caliber times, etc-- and also where top summer events or clinics might take place. </p>
<p>IMHO, the teams that are down about 20-25 in the national rankings of each Division (or about 3-4 in the regional rankings) are the teams that are actually trying to get better in this sport and yet not so intense that a kid with minimal experience would not get recruited. The #1-10 national teams pretty much have their choice of the top athletes and might be less interested in developing someone like you. And the totally unranked teams may not care about the sport enough to care about you. This is just my opinion though.</p>
<p>There may be some regattas (?sp) (like "Head of The Charles" in Boston) coming up this spring, where you could meet lots of the coaches and see the teams competing. A trip to a big regatta involving many schools you like could 'kill a lot of birds with one stone' in terms of meeting coaches.</p>
<p>As time goes on, you also want to get a clear picture whether or not the coach has a great deal of interest in you (i.e. you are top recruit, 2nd, etc) and whether or not you are a strong candidate for admission even without the sport aspect. If you have SATs and GPA that would get you into the upper 25% of the freshman class, you may not need the recruitment and could get on the team as a walk on.</p>
<p>Finally think about which "good" schools would be a match for you academically, socially, etc. (There's a big difference between UC Berkley, Yale, Colgate or Duke, but all are great schools.) I would cast a really wide net at this point; you should have about 20-30 places to investigate. D-1, D-3, Lg & small, several regions. Be aware that many coaches may already have recruits "picked out" so you'll want to talk to enough of them that you find some coaches who will really support you.</p>
<p>Keep us posted and good luck.</p>
<p>If you can scull at all you will be a great asset to any crew program. Sculling is much more difficult than rowing in a four or eight because it takes a lot more balance. There are very few high school students that have any rowing experience at all, and even fewer that can scull. </p>
<p>Even the top Div 1 programs depend on walk-ons, so the fact that you are getting these letters means that you are very desirable. I would definitely contact any of the coaches of schools you might be interested in and go on official visits. You don't have to go to rowing camp. You can work and continue to scull on your lake this summer.</p>
<p>I have three kids that row, and my S will be rowing for Princeton next year. PM me with any questions.</p>
<p>Including in winter, in their state-of-the-art indoor tank....might be worth a try to look at universities.</p>
<p>talk to universities and if any other schools in your area have programs you shoul dbe able to row with them ( for example, my old school's crew team has people from other towns with no crew team).</p>
<p>UPDATE:</p>
<p>Now that the bulk of ED 2 decisions are in I can announce that my D was admitted to her ED2 school (without it being obvious which one it was.)</p>
<p>We are overjoyed. Everything the coach told us panned out. It is a top LAC, a great school; she'll be very happy there and she will get a great education-- plus enjoy 4 more years of her sport.</p>
<p>Good luck to all!</p>
<p>Congratulations, SBMom. Did her sport help her get into the school in your opinion?</p>
<p>Thanks dstark!</p>
<p>Yes, I believe it was very helpful. It is one of her 2 hooks, the other is music. Both are strong, but we certainly didn't have any music teachers phoning us. :) </p>
<p>Her personal qualities are great and I suspect her teacher recs were very good. All the most challenging classes. Her GPA & rank were the weakest part, 3.5 ish & roughly top 15%. Academically qualified but not stellar. SATs just under median.</p>
<p>The school she got into does turn down kids with higher stats than my D, thus I am sure that the sport was very important.</p>
<p>That's great. Congratulations again.</p>
<p>Nice to end the week on a happy note. Congrats!!!</p>
<p>SBMom, Congrats to your daughter, and to you!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! It has been quite a process and I am happy it turned out so well.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Congrats, SBmom! I am glad that it all workied out. Time to celebrate, and I mean you. It's such a relief to know that they are set for next year.</p>
<p>I have not been on the board since son was deferred early. I am happy to report that our process is over with Son receiving a likely letter from a top IVY. The process was very frantic over last month as everyone came out of the woodwork. Several coaches were even puzzled as to why he was not taken early. Now that the process is over I can honestly say that it has ended with better results that we could have imagined. I will say however that we did learn from our negative experience early and took more control of the situation for regular decision. For his part, son did not give up hope and continued to work even harder in his sport and academics. I hope for those that will read this thread in months to come that they read carefully all the advice that was given here. More importantly, keep pluggin away at all your options and of course keep them all open. As the expression goes, "one man's ceiling is another man's floor". You just don't know what these coach's needs are at any point in time. Just have faith that everything will work out. Best of luck to everyone's S/D and I will see you all in three years when my other son goes through this mess. Hopefully three years will be enough time to recover.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son Speedcoach on getting the likely letter (if he's going where I think he is in good company with some fellow CCer's kids who will be in the class of 09).</p>
<p>I hope you don't stay away long because you will still have to send son to college and there is still a lot of good information to be shared.</p>
<p>Congratulations Speedcoach! I agree you shouldn't disappear for 3 years - lots of kids on this board could use your advice as they try to navigate the same process you just successfully completed.</p>
<p>Speedcoach, will you PM me and share your son's sport? I know you wanted to keep it private before. I am especially interested if it is a "timed" sport as opposed to a field/team sport. Thanks a lot.</p>