<p>My son has gotten a few of these "hey, please send me your transcript and test scores, we want you!" emails from a few really small schools. I'm sure many of you have seen them, they basically want him to commit today to a JC program that has three majors...</p>
<p>He just received a similar looking email, but it is from a NESCAC school that has his program and he has had some interest in. I don't want to get his hopes up, but I am wondering if he should pursue it even if it seems too good to be true.</p>
<p>Is there any reason to be suspicious other than mommy paranoia?</p>
<p>Nope, you are just being paranoid Make sure he realizes that there are many steps in the process, but if he has interest in that school, then responding to a request for information is the way to get moving forward.</p>
<p>Hearing from a coach/school you actually have interest in can be scary and exciting all at the same time, especially if they reach out to you first, but take a deep breath and respond!</p>
<p>I would suggest that your son ask the coach where he saw him play. This will help you sort out legitimate interest from a school from the blast e-mails schools send out. We got all the recruiting e-mails from the NESCAC schools last spring, and are still getting them from some of the more elite non-NESCAC schools. Virtually everyone on his team got the same e-mails. In the case of my son’s team most of the serious contacts go through the club coach, who is a college coach himself. Pursue this school, but don’t let your son slack off of his pursuit of other opportunities. </p>
<p>I agree that sometimes this ‘high’ interest was sent by a coach to a group of students from the same team. My daughter had several of these from colleges in the area. The coaches were interested in a group of kids from that high school and from her club team. It was more a general recruiting of good players. We went all the way down to a school, 3 hours away, and were basically told “sure, come, but we don’t give athletic money to freshmen.” Without money, it was a no-go for us. Others on our team heard the same message when they visited. My daughter would have received merit money from that school, but the others would not have.</p>
<p>But nothing is lost by following up. If there is a recruiting questionnaire online, complete that. Send a text or email with your interest.</p>
<p>I think that’s what we’ll do - have him email and ask where he saw him. There actually was no “so please pay a few hundred dollars for our recruit camp!” attached to it, so that shocked us a bit.</p>
<p>He is a bit excited, and it spurred him to contact other coaches.</p>
<p>rhandco, assuming your son is a senior, he should call the coach and start a conversation. If the coach is interested, he will take your son’s call or call back quickly. Talking with the coach will give your son the best chance to determine if the coach is truly interested. If the coach doesn’t call back, he’s not that interested.</p>
<p>My son is also receiving some new interest (following a showcase). He’s a senior so it’s a bit late as we were narrowing down his list with the goal of applying ED. However, he doesn’t have a clear favorite and it’s very tempting to explore his options at these other schools. I’m wondering if they might just be fishing and we’d face a long road before they’d decide whether they really want him. The language seemed very complimentary and almost as they they want an opportunity to sell themselves to him. Could that be true at this late hour? They are mostly D1 and I thought those schools would have their rosters nearly finalized. Would they really make an offer after only seeing him play once? Phone calls are coming so S will ask, but if anyone has experience with late recruiting, please share. I’m anxious and feeling the pressure of the ED clock…</p>
<p>I know with the D3 schools my son is targeting (and a few are top 25 in D3), they seem to imply “we don’t care about ED” and that it was coincidence that they added a few players through ED. </p>
<p>My son is being recruited by a D1 team that has finalized players as late as February and even June of their senior year. If it is not a top D1 team, there may be spots available. There also can be top recruits who don’t want to play their hand until February when they have to sign a NLI. Even the Ivy my son is looking at has recruited after their season was over but before February of athletes’ senior years.</p>
<p>Lots of schools fight over top players, and won’t drop trying to recruit them until they commit elsewhere (and sometimes still try while trying to get their second and third choices).</p>
<p>Except for academy and ECNL players in soccer, most colleges can’t see players more than a few times, maybe once in a showcase and once at a recruit day. </p>
<p>Just wondering - if the coach doesn’t specifically ask for “official” scores and transcripts - does that mean he or his staff are doing their own “pre-read” or can admissions do a “soft pre-read” for non-official documents?</p>
<p>Or does it all have to be official in order for a pre-read to happen?</p>
<p>PRE-READ:
I thought it varied for the pre-reads by school.</p>
<p>Some of the schools just had my son send his GPA by email himself
and other schools wanted the official transcript ( which my son emailed himself, but it was stamped unoffical).</p>
<p>However, the SAT and SAT 2 scores were sent by College Board to the schools in case they needed that officially. And my son noted his SAT and SAT 2 scores in his email.</p>
<p>He also needed to send his senior year classes that he was going to be taking.</p>
<p>And the pre read is often done by the athletic liaison who can do it himself
or he/she might run it by admissions for extra clarification.</p>
<p>ADMISSION READ:
The admission read ( not pre -read) needs the official transcript and that is sent by the school.</p>
<hr>
<p>To Twoinanddome:</p>
<p>Financial aid/Scholarship money - I think the coach needs to know up front.
Otherwise you might waste a lot of time talking to a coach/visiting and then find out later, there is no money. And you just wasted time on a school that could be better spent on a school that has money for you.</p>
<hr>
<p>Rhandco - </p>
<p>I think the mass group letters are sent more junior year when they are trying to haul in a lot of fish before deciding what to throw back. I think that you got the letter senior year shows more interest.</p>
<p>None of the Ivies we dealt with requested any official documents for pre-read. In some cases coach did a pre-read himself based on athletic/academic resume. In other cases we sent a copy of unofficial transcript and print screens from CB website/ACT pdf score reports. We did not officially submit test scores to any of the schools until after the commitment although we did submit them to NCAA so the coach could probably see them there.</p>
<p>With a few coaching changes since my kid’s junior year, some schools have gone cold recruiting while other that we so-so have turned up the heat. Got offered an OV by a D3 LAC out of the blue after they hired a position coach from our region. Previous recruiter took a job at a conference rival, leaving kid cold.</p>
<p>It is dangerous to follow a coach. My daughter was heavily recruited by one coach. She is really nice, made us feel welcome and then some. Unfortunately, the school was too small for my daughter’s academic interest. We played at a tournament last week and learned that the coach had to leave for family reasons in July, they moved an asst coach up and she left, and the current coach had only been hired two weeks previous. No one could have foreseen this or prevented it, but I felt sorry for the players. It’s going to be a long year for them.</p>
Make sure he realizes that there are many steps in the process, but if he has interest in that school, then responding to a request for information is the way to get moving forward.</p>