Hi I am a swimmer looking to swim at a Nescac school. I sent out five pre reads (Colby Wesleyan vassar Hamilton grinnell) in early September and am still waiting. I am wondering how long these take and how much of an impact they have. I am probably not a top top recruit but in the mix. How should I press forward? What is the best way to maintain communication with the coach?
Hello, First thing is to send an email to the coaches and find out where you stand. Recruiting trips are happening now. If you have not been invited to any from those schools asked if you can do s recruiting trip
If these schools are not interested then you might need to expand your options. Coaches are generally pretty direct at these D3 schools
Best of luck
Did (a) the coaches ask you for your transcript, test scores and senior class schedule and tell you that he/she was sending these on to the AO for a pre-read, or (b) you voluntarily send this info to the coaches assuming they would ask for a pre-read? If (a), email/call the coaches directly to see where you stand in the process. They could be waiting themselves for an answer from the AO. If they got an answer, and it was a “no”, you will not be recruited (and you will almost certainly be rejected as a non athletic applicant). If the answer was positive, the coach may have recruits ranked ahead of you that they are waiting on. If you are a top recruit and got a positive pre-read, they would have contacted you quickly.
If (b), you are not being actively recruited at this time, and no pre-read is being done.
Make sure you cc the asst coaches. You are up against the wall right now. Call if you don’t hear back if you are really interested in a particular school.
I actually just got a response from the Wesleyan coach who said the admissions office is quite busy right now. He said from his perspective i should not submit my sat score or retake it (possibly apply ED II?) but transcript looks solid with good rigor (some B’s freshman year was only bad part) but again this is from a coach’s perspective as he said the pre-reads are taking long. He did invite me on a recruiting trip but I do know that this may be nothing as nothing is guaranteed.
You need to have a discussion with the coach, ether on the phone or email, and ask specifically if he would “fully support” your application if you don’t submit the SAT score. Have you taken the ACT? If you haven’t taken the ACT and plan on submitting a test optional app I’d ask the coach what kind of experience he has had with athletes submitting apps without test scores. but having his full support during the ED rounds.
Good advice above. It would be helpful if you answered questions a and b from post #2.
Also, some test optional schools DO want/require test scores from recruited athletes. Regarding recruiting trips, some D3 coaches don’t do OVs at all (I don’t know specifically about swimming)…of course unofficial visits are ok.
Be prepared for this to go down to the wire (Some NESCACs and other D3 schools have a Nov 15 ED deadline)…as student-athletes start/continue to commit, the chain reaction starts. You have to decide how long you will wait and whether you will forego applying ED to a school as a non-recruited athlete that has a deadline prior to Nov 15. Good luck.
If the coach said EDII then most likely he’s not going to give you support.
Not necessarily true, and it’s an easy thing for OP to ask. There is certainly some proportion of D3 recruited athletes that do not apply in the ED round…sometimes coaches aren’t even done recruiting by the ED app deadline.
@Mwfan1921 That certainly depends on the school and the sport but not with our past experience with the Wesleyan swim coach.
Wondering what the outcome was? Looking for swim as well 2021, at some of the above colleges. GPA 3.5 UW 3.7 W, mix of honors and college level classes. Coaches are mentioning pre reads. Thank you!
In my experience with my D in a different sport, she had contact with the coaches Jr. year, prereads were done in the summer and she was given the green light to apply ED1 with coaches support in early Sept. Well, except for the school she finally ended up applying ED1 to, where the coach was juggling several players and did not give D the support til the very end of Sept. The OP seems to have been behind the usual timeline.
@WG2021 sorry I just saw this post as I have been off college confidential for a while. My pre-read for Wesleyan which I applied ED1 was about average as the coach said I was on the lower end for the profile but that I should still apply. I was deferred and was not too hopeful for regular considering Wesleyan regular decision acceptance rate is around 14-15%. I eventually did ED2 to Vassar (not NESCAC, Liberty League) and got a slightly better pre-read. I was accepted into Vassar for ED2 which is where I will be attending next year.
Stats:
91.78 UW, 93.75 W GPA
6 AP’s ( I think taking 4 AP’s in my class rigor senior year helped)
1400 SAT (took in August, Wesleyan is test optional so coach told me not to submit, Vassar is not test optional)
Asian male
Reason I chose Vassar was it was pretty similar to Wesleyan as both are around a small city and approx 2 hrs away from NYC. Hamilton gave me a similar pre-read as Wesleyan but It was too rural for me.
Hope this helped
Congratulations! That’s great!
@Unattswim56 My D19 is a swimmer in the Liberty League (different school). We went to the championships this year and I must say Vassar has a GREAT team with so much team spirit! Congratulations!