<p>Can anyone provide advice on what to believe when a very zealous coach contacts your kid repeatedly, making offers no other coaches are making, really selling his program as the only place you could possibly want to attend. This is a very selective school, known for its academic rigor, not necessarily for its athletics. My S is graduating with a 4.0, #1 in his class, very good test scores. But he really wants to play the sport he is interested in, not be a GPA raiser for the team. He is only interested in academic programs, wants to get a good education and also continue to compete at the D3 level. Other coaches have been more realistic, not making promises regarding PT, offering a spot on the team if interested, but not nearly as aggressive. All this sales technique makes me suspicious.</p>
<p>Go over to the College Admissions forum and there’s a subforum for Athletics-related stuff. There’s lots of good info in there. My son is a freshman athlete at a D3 school.</p>
<p>As far as the “enthusiastic” coach, is your son considering that school? Does it have his major? Has the coach seen him play, either in person or YouTube highlights or whatever? Have you been to visit the campus? I think probably a lot of D3 coaches, particularly ones at fairly rigorous academic schools, have to be fairly enthusiastic in recruiting because, frankly, there may be lots of athletes who can’t get admitted. So, I wouldn’t necessarily see anything suspicious in his contacts, just yet.</p>
<p>My son was recruited (goes back a few years now) by many of the top academic LACs for his sport. I found that it REALLY varied how much pull the coaches had. Many of them were unwilling to guarantee admission, especially if you couldn’t do ED. A few were much more “connected” to admissions and would get you an early read which was pretty close to a likely letter. So- I guess the answer is it depends on the school, the coach and the sport.</p>