The athletic recruitment process IS that hard. These are kids who need the support of their parents during the process. I agree the process should be student driven, but these kids are young, have never done this before, and this is an adult led process by coaches and admissions staff who do this every year. I say this as a parent of three college kids, the youngest just went through the process for football. He talked to 30-40 coaches over the last two years, went to camps, college visits, did everything well on his own. He had four offers, selected his school based on merit based scholarship at a high academic D3 football program. It was a tough, tough process and he is happy with his decision and how it played out, but he definitely needed adult level assistance on a regular if not daily basis. I have followed this forum for the last few years and it really did help!
college visits can also raise another challenge. in a perfect world, an athlete’s #1 academic fit school is where he/she is recruited with full support. But in many more border line cases, there is a small/significant gap between the two… in that case, it can even lead a recruit to ultimately opt for a strategy of applying ED/RD as a normal student later seeking a walk-on spot.
Fwiw, @NiVo , my kid did exactly this. Different sport. It resulted in deferrals and WL. The boost from recruitment is real.
This is indeed an option, but not without its perils.
True. There do tend to be walk-on spots in sports like swimming, XCTNF, crew, sailing and others, but may not be an option in other sports like basketball, golf, baseball.
Of course, walk on is both school and sports specific, and even that can be competitive. D24 just met with a NESCAC head coach where her team ranked #1, and coach confirmed clearly they had no space available for walk-ons
I was trying to get my daughter to make all the calls, have all the contact with both the coach and administration and one day she looked at me and asked, “Can you just do the money part?” She was 16 and very confused about all the moving parts. She was talking to all divisions so there was athletic money at some schools and not at others, and she didn’t know what we could afford and not afford.
So I did and it allowed her to focus on the athletic piece and the academics.
That’s not an application strategy, it’s more likely a circumstance…”I didn’t get recruited, or don’t like the recruiting situation (school, coach, roster, location). If I am very fortunate, perhaps I can still walk-on somewhere I am admitted, but I have to be realistic and prepared to say goodbye to my dream of college varsity athletics.”
Agree. This mostly occurs when schools that “offered” are not first choice in terms of academic/social fit of the recruit. The strategy then is to EA or ED the first choice school and either hope to walk on (or play club), or if they are rejected or deferred, see if the “offering” coaches will support them in ED2 or RD if those schools while not first choices are still desirable. That is what S did. He turned down several D3 offers to go to take an SCEA shot at Yale, but did not burn bridges with the D3 coaches by giving them plenty of notice prior to the ED deadline (a month or more). He ended up playing club at Yale where he started as a frosh and where he mostly just played games. If he had tried to walk on at Yale, the best that would have likely happened would have been riding the bench and still having a sport as a full time job.
Which school is this?
@Tufts, #1 NESCAC women’s swimming.
D24 loved the school, would have considered ED2 apply & walk-on option, which is not a possibility. In her case, it wouldnt impact her recruit strategy, but would impact her non-recruit strategy/college list
Tufts women’s swimming finished the 2022-23 season ranked #4 nationally in the CSCAA D3 NCAA college poll. Their roster has over 40 swimmers listed.
This should give you an idea of the depth of talent/speed on the top D3 swim rosters.
Even if they had a walk-on op at Tufts…ED2 unhooked acceptance rate there is less than 15%, so is a competitive swimmer really going to use ED2 there (or a similarly select school) without coach support? Perhaps, but it’s a lottery ticket.
As @gardenstategal suggested, do not underestimate the size of the ED boost from recruitment vs. being unhooked. Apples to oranges.
ED and ED2 don’t grow on trees.
Oh! I thought is was a different team bc it sounded like you were referring to a female coach.
I am sorry to hear that, but surprised that is so given the size of Tufts team. Even so, knowing she loves Tufts will help her narrow her college search.
completely agree with the ED/recruit hook, don’t mean to underestimate it at all, but if a coach confirms there is zero potential of recruit/walk-on, then D24 can and should only consider Tufts for it’s acafemic fit and vibe in a normal school selection context without any hook, assuming there is no ED recruit scenario at another school
The Tufts pool is very small (25yards, 6 lanes) and they have a very large contingent, with 3 daily training sessions made available. With such a busy schedule, is fully understandable that the coach cannot entertain walk-ons.
It was really a casual visit from a swimmer with zero recruit potential seeking to inquire about walk-on possibilities, and the coach was both gratious and clear, which is very helpful for her recruit/application strategy. Down to 6 NESCACs. D24’s assessment is 1-2 likely, 1-2 stretch, 2 unlikely pre-read
Likely offers or likely pre reads? Hopefully you are still giving a lot of thought and visiting the schools where she has already passed the pre reads and not just putting all her swimming hopes into these nescac schools
this is her own personal best guess of pre-read and offers. it’s is very hard to evaluate objectively given several coaches are not yet announced/in place, and she’s awaiting visits and in-person meetings with others. So far 2 NESCAC schools too fast, and 2 academically ruled out.
every visit to date has been very instructive about both the school, and how much D likes it, thereby helping her address her priorities/strategy. Within a week’s time, would expect 2-4 NESCAC schools to drop out.
It’s not clear why you are spending limited time on a trip to the U.S. visiting programs that apparently didn’t have recruiting interest and that could have likely confirmed on-line whether or not a walk-on was a possibility.
Hopefully you are visiting the (4?) schools that have provided a positive pre-read already and that might extend an offer, rather than chasing other schools at this late hour that haven’t shown that interest.
(And shouldn’t this news be posted in your own discussion thread rather than here?)
I’m inclined to agree
More to the point, I’m unsure why the user bumped a thread that a) hijacked another user"s thread and b) was dormant for 2 years
Since the user has a thread with 1200 posts and counting, any further discussion should be held there.
Closing.