<p>Congrats @ahsmuoh for your S! That is fantastic - see he is a fabulous swimmer:) The past few days have been an eye opener for us - in a rather nice way too, and so I am even more torn about my role here. I hope it is going well for everyone else too. Happy 4 July!</p>
<p>@Researchmum so are the possibilities of coming to the U S increased? That just complicates this process so much more for you. Is he looking at D1?</p>
<p>@Lovemyswimmer congrats too, for some reason, I saw @ahsmuoh 's post of yesterday, replied and didn’t realise there were more posts on this page - clear evidence that my brain is fried!</p>
<p>@ahsmuoh, the possibilities are much the same, I think, but 2 have without S bringing it up, spoken to him about $$ and that can really confuse a bit. Both of these are D1. He has also been offered 2 OV - one was partial costs paid and the other was to be fully paid but I am not sure they even realised where he lives. It is not a school he would attend, so he was able to say no immediately. No point in them wasting money flying him out. One other school also very kindly said they’d pool resources with other local schools - but I don’t know how that would work. S didn’t ask, and so we are none-the-wiser…</p>
<p>@ahsmuoh, we have sent transcripts to many schools; I am not even sure how many. But, I also don’t think it’s unusual at this point to not have them ask yet. I would think that they can’t judge his grades unless you have a recruiting website somewhere that they can access the information. Even top high schools have students who don’t do well, but on the other hand, if his swimming is top notch, and the school has admissions pull, then maybe it’s not as important to them? Or maybe he mentioned in an email at some point what his grades were?</p>
<p>@Researchmum, congratulations to your son–it sounds like he must have some talent in the water! I will be interested to hear if they are aware that he lives abroad. Maybe they know and don’t care? That’s more than a weekend trip, I would think!</p>
<p>@Lovemyswimmer Yes there are definitely kids at my sons school that struggle. He is in the top 25% and has good grades and test scores (good not great) but at the top of the middle 50% for the colleges he is looking at so it will not be a problem just wonder what kind of risk they can take. Maybe he should offer to supply the information, it might help with the recruiting so they know he wouldn’t be an academic risk. Of course, most swimmers aren’t academic risks!</p>
<p>My children sent swim resumes, which contained grades and test scores, to the schools that they were interested in at the beginning of the recruiting process. Because my children took most of their standardized tests as Sophomores, they were able to provide enough information to confirm that they could be admitted during the fall of their Junior years. Our belief is that if the information is positive, letting the coach know early that they aren’t wasting time on someone that is unlikely to be admitted can’t hurt. For recruits with weaker test scores or grades, it is probably better to know earlier that they are unlikely to be admitted than during their senior year. </p>
<p>Thanks @Lovemyswimmer. My last post wasn’t clear - the partial costs one is aware of where he lives, and he hasn’t given an answer yet because it is a school he likes; it was the fully paid one that he has said no to. I’m not too sure about OVs just yet, so the chances are that he won’t take any. Once he is admitted, I think maybe he can then visit to eliminate/ decide if he really wants this. I think it might be best if we paid for any such trip (maybe a week over Easter) which will be more of school visits than team trips TBH. </p>
<p>@ashmuoh–that is one of the things I love most about swimming–I really feel like it is full of great kids who also are really good students. I would definitely have him give his info to them–it certainly can’t hurt, and it will be something proactive that he is doing. </p>
<p>@handNthere hmmmm a swim resume. I guess that has grades, test scores and times? My son had sent his times but not grades etc. maybe I will suggest to him that he sends the academic stuff. He plans to take the ACT one more time in September - do you think he should tell the coaches that? Again, his test scores are fine for admission just trying to possible get academic merit aid too</p>
<p>When my son first emailed coaches he did include GPA, test scores. ap scores, etc., although not a separate resume, but with the same info. my d did the same back when she was looking at schools. My s updated the coaches every time he got a better act/sat 2 score, too. It helped with Ivies and NESCAC for sure, and in terms of merit aid, one div I coach was able to tell my d early on that with her grades/scores, she would qualify for x merit money and he could give y athletic aid, amounting to a full ride. That was helpful to have in her back pocket as she looked at other schools.</p>
<p>In my opinion, a swim resume should be a one page summary of what your child wants a coach to remember. My children’s was organized as follows: contact info for the athlete and coaches, academics, training, personal best times, and accomplishments. Coaches receive so much information from so many recruits that we wanted each recruiting coach to have all of the tangible information on one page. </p>
<p>Thanks. I will see what my son wants to do. He wants to drive this but has been pretty good about taking advice from us. </p>
<p>@ahsmuoh, also I think test scores etc. can be found as part of a school looking at your S’s NCAA eligibility registration. When you log in, you can see how many people have done a search on him…</p>
<p>Oh I didn’t know that @Researchmum He did that on his own so I will have to ask him if he knows that. My friend that is our “advisor” through this said that it is a very good sign if they ask the swimmers to send test scores and grades. He suggested we wait for them to ask because it is a good gauge for us to know how interested they are in my son. </p>
<p>Does anyone know if coaches are allowed to text recruits? @1HappyDad @Researchmum @hangNthere @LivesinHobbiton @Lovemyswimmer </p>
<p>…S hasn’t received a text from anyone, but I think there is something that governs the use of texts. The only thing is that I can’t remember if they are treated the same as emails, or as calls; sorry…</p>
<p>I hope that a coach hasn’t texted your S in breach of the NCAA rules, and if he has, that he is from a school that your S is not too serious about (fingers crossed).</p>
<p>@ahsmuoh - The NCAA is decidedly unclear about text messaging swim recruits. The last I understood things they could text as much as they want, but only with head and assistant coaches. I thought that rule was under consideration, so I don’t know that it has been changed yet. I guess I’d ask the coach with whom he’s texting, because everybody that I trust that I’ve asked so far has given me a different answer, and the NCAA website is exquisitely unhelpful.</p>
<p>@Lovemyswimmer - Great post a page or so back. Great list of schools too! From a college swim recruiting perspective, if you could pick one thing to be, it would be a sprint freestyler. So your son chose well! Unfortunately, our son looks at sprint freestylers with envy. He’s adequate, but B sprint free relay material at most schools on his list. </p>
<p>I really liked the end of your note. It expresses so well how I feel about the process so far too (FWIW - Like the head coach, but not sure I fully understand the Cornell approach so far either…). I share your optimism that when we really step back and look, our kids may not have every choice that they’d like to have, they still have a very high class problem on their hands, choosing from some fantastic schools. I have faith that in the end, there really isn’t just one perfect school, and they will be happy with their chioce. They’ve worked hard to put themselves in this position. </p>
<p>Please remind me of this post later in the process when it feels depressing.</p>
<p>@Researchmum - In one of your earliest posts, you shared that your son has at least one LCM US Senior National Cut, so I’m not surprised in the least that your son is getting a lot of attention (and when you wrote that there was a coach out there that didn’t really want LCM times, and wouldn’t recruit based on them, I was thinking to myself the coach was kind of a dope…). There aren’t that many HS kids that have US Nat times (Summer qual times are faster than winter, and to be fair, the SCY qual times are a little faster than the LCM qual times – but no matter, it is a small pool of high school swimmers who qualify no matter how you slice it).</p>
<p>I’m sure you know this, but just in case you don’t, getting a swimming scholarship is a possiblity for your son, and I think I remember you writing that it would be very helpful (but my memory plays tricks, and I’m too lazy right now to read through the whole thread). What I understand about that process is that swimming scholarships are not plentiful, and for the most part, coaches want to have their swimmers that will be receiving them committed by Nov 1. The only reason I mention this is, if your son is to receive a scholarship, it may not be possible to wait to visit the campuses until after he is accepted…</p>
<p>@1HappyDad thanks for your note. My son just got a call from a coach on our home number and when he returned the call he used his cell. He got the coaches voicemail and left a message. Very shortly after he left the message the coached texted something like “hey I’ll call you later can’t talk right now.” My son wasn’t sure if he could respond via text with a good time. It almost seemed like the coach might have thought he was someone else (a friend or something) because he probably didn’t even have tome to listen to the voicemail. Not a big deal. This is the first coach to call our home number though. All others have called son’s cell.
@researchmum - yes if your son has a LCM national cut then he will be highly sought after I think! Such a hard decision to do international school without visiting. I don’t envy the process for you - best of luck and enjoy!</p>
<p>The NCAA has limited information available about texting. However, to the extent that the texts are informationsal or instructional (like the one above–“I’ll call you later, etc.” ) it is generally considered acceptable practice. However, to the extent that texting is the primary communication and/or detailed private information such as where your athlete stands in the recruiting for that school, scholarship or FA discussions, and the like, it is considered to be against good standards of recruiting practice. </p>
<p>For the highly sought after recruits, tomorrow represents the first time the coaches that called you on July 1st can call again, exactly 7 days from the time they last talked to you. Therefore, you may hear from some coaches again this week as the conversations continue. Many coaches are known for calling their highest ranked recruits exactly every 7 days–to the half hour.</p>