My son is a 2021 involved with D3 recruiting. I would guess that now is the most stressful time . . . certainly it is for us! I envy those families whose child gets an offer from their first choice school right away.
COVID also has thrown a wrench into the traditional recruiting cycle, and I’m trying not to be wistful over what might have been, and focus on what is, which lots of kids would be happy with.
Anyway, surely we aren’t the only ones feeling a bit of angst right now?
My D’s pre-read cycle has already yielded 2 solid offers of coach support at her #1 and #2 choices (I don’t mean to rank her choices - she’s pretty evenly divided on them). I can tell you that the angst of waiting for offers only gives way to the angst of decisions! (Okay, I’ll admit, it’s better to be on this side of things 
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For her the choice is between #1 higher ranked school, lower ranked team that she loves (based on their Instagram), great coach, desireable geographic location, higher cost; and #2 lower ranked school, higher ranked team that she likes (has communicated with a few teammates by text), great coach, school has her major and fantastic internship program, offers great merit aid. In-person visits would be very helpful in this tie-breaker, but not likely to happen.
I think Covid has made us all a little crazy and the waiting game seems both worse and inevitable. It would be nice to be finished with the decision, but then what would we do? At least it gives us something to think about now.
My son has a couple of offers, but not from a clear number one choice. One from a really strong team, and fantastic coach, but at a lower ranked academic school, and another from a mid tier school both from a sports perspective and an academic one. However he is hoping for an offer from a high academic school, which hasn’t happened yet. . . . hence the angst.
It’s totally true, but keep it in perspective relative to non-recruits. Athletic recruits get pre-reads, chances to talk to current students with similar interests, and although Covid doesn’t help here, more chances to visit campus. The recruiting process does a lot to narrow the field, and it’s not as transparent for non-recruits. If your son was a non-recruit, he would be trying to guess where he might get in only by grades and scores.
I wouldn’t say that this is the most stressful time. I feel rollercoaster is a more apt analogy. Your kid has a good camp, and is swarmed with coaches, leaving you feel like recruiting is easy street - going downhill. Four months later, no coaches have called, and you think your kid is all but forgotten - the uphill. For me, the worst pins and needles came after the ED application, but before receiving the decision from the Ad Com.
@cinnamon1212, recognize that different schools are on different schedules. In fact, different coaches for different sports at the same school may be on different schedules. If you were expecting to hear from coaches by now and haven’t, this is not a time to be shy. Ask for a pre-read. If a pre-read has been requested, ask about the status. If you have heard back positively about the pre-read, ask the coach what the next steps are. If your son wants it, he should go after it. Coaches want kids who want to be on their team.
Rollercoaster is a great way to describe it. My son is not shy about asking where he stands, and it’s clear that a couple of high academic schools where he’s had prereads have recruits ahead of him. So we were feeling down about that. But then there was a mini ID clinic with only 2 coaches there, but now both are recruiting my son hard, and he’s in the preread process with one of them, so the Rollercoaster is on a little bit of an upswing.
Getting swarmed st ID camps is what I’m a little wistful over as there were basically no spring tournaments and no IDclinics (except for the one with 2 coaches).
S22 has just begun his recruiting journey and we can’t help but wonder how the next 12-16 months will shake out. I usually look forward to roller coasters…but they generally don’t have this much at stake.
I used to love roller coasters -not so much anymore! My gray hair is coming at a must faster rate and I think my husband’s bald spot is bigger too - our D21 is appearing calm as a cucumber and wish we had her confidence
We are anxiously waiting too for our D21. She got a verbal offer/ support for Admissions from a D1 school but not our #1 choice. For our top choice, she already got a positive pre-read. Coach from this D1 school was saying she is still a strong candidate but he’s likely waiting for commits of his top choices. He asked us to wait until around end Aug!
Then waiting for pre-read results from 1 more D1 school and 2 other D3 schools. They all sent the pre-read early Jun and it’s August now so it’s been 2 months for these 3 schools.
My D21 and our family are going through the same process. My D is waiting on pre-read results from three T25 D3 schools. D’s #1 choice told D that her transcript is strong but that her component test score on the ACT was a concern because of my D’s desired major and college. This coach told my D that she could super score the component score. Of course, covid is making it difficult for my D to even take the ACT altogether.
Another of my D’s pre-read was going well until the coach informed my D that she was retiring this summer and that the recruiting process would handled by another school administrator until a new coach was secured.
All of the above just highlights the anxiety of the recruiting process in unstable times as others have mentioned.
My DS21 has received recruiting interest from mid-level D1 schools, including one high academic school which was high on his target list. The problem with Covid athletically is he hasn’t had a chance to visit many schools at all, so he can’t get a sense of whether he would rather go to a big school and be a mid-level contributor or go to a smaller school and be an important part of team which isn’t as good. His sport (T&F/XC) does allow him to do solo time trials, so despite the fact that the season is canceled he can still try to impress more coaches if he wants to.
The academic/social problem is he doesn’t know whether a small school will feel constricting or a big school will feel overwhelming (same problem for all 2021’s, athletes or not). And liking the team and coaching staff will be a big part of the decision, but it is hard to get much feel for those over zoom. Luckily, his attitude is that he will be happy anywhere, so he isn’t too worried about finding the perfect spot.
All in all, I think he is one of the lucky ones in the recruiting process since he already has interest from schools he would be happy attending.
Right there on the roller coaster with you all! I’m sure you’ve read her saga in the other threads.
Good luck all! Having ridden this rollercoaster a couple of years ago, I much prefer it over what I am doing now with non-recruited athlete D21. If the recruiting process is a rollercoaster, the process for a NARP is a black box. No feedback, no really good sources of information, at least compared to what S19 had. Just fill out a bunch of apps and cross your fingers. S was recruited by some places I thought were reaches, and ignored by a couple where he was good enough to start in HS. Go figure. That feedback was invaluable.
When he was doing this, his rollercoaster came to an abrupt halt early when he got an offer from the one school that checked all of his boxes. But I have seen lots of kids go through it differently. Most seem to end up doing well where they end up.
Again, good luck, both on the recruiting process and on having a senior season!
Right here with you too! D21 is considering her current offers but would like a couple more to be able to make an informed decision. We aren’t sure her fall sport will even happen for her to be seen by more coaches. She had been registered for a few ID camps this summer that were all canceled. Her team was all set to play in Nationals that a lot of college coaches attend, but that was canceled as well. She’s a bit frustrated. She realizes there’s really nothing else she can do. Recruiting videos can work to gain interest from coaches, but she also knows these coaches aren’t likely to make any offers without seeing her play in person.
Thanks for this! I think all of us on this recruiting rollercoaster need to hear this right about now 
My D21 is very happy and fortunate to have 2 offers of support from T30 D3 schools. She is also still in contact with a handful of T30 D1 schools - and some have told her that she is just outside of their top recruits, and they won’t know more until they hear back from them (by early September)… hoping we can hold out until then and possibly have one or more offers.
The problem is that she has never set foot on any of these campuses. We also live in a state that has increasing COVID test cases and are restricted from visiting at least the two that she has offers from. The virtual tours are great, but it’s not the same. I can’t imagine her having to apply ED before visiting the campus… but it doesn’t look like they are going to make their process more flexible (e.g. offering support for RD admissions so we have more time to visit).
college sports esp everything not football or basketball is 100% up in the air, IIRC over 100 teams were killed off this year alone, so I would be extra careful about what schools you are all looking at, use sports to get in but do not expect more after that as far as money goes , really does not matter if you D! runners for a D3 runner , everything is upside down this year.
Coaches my son talked to recently are leaning towards the NCAA dead period extending well into the fall. We’ll be self-touring two campuses 500 miles from home in the coming weeks because the best laid plans often go awry.
Good idea, @gkunion. My son and I are traveling 400 miles tomorrow to tour a school ourselves.
Fingers crossed there is soccer in the spring, which would be perfect timing for your son.
I know @GKUnion’s son is looking D1 which prohibits in-person meetings. We’re firmly in the D3 camp, and are still meeting with coaches on campus. Granted, no one else is there, but it’s still nice to be on campus and walk the field, etc. with the coaches. We also have some fall invitations from coaches, and I know many of those schools will have students around.
The NESCACs (D3) have also imposed a dead period on recruiting, so no in person (on or off campus) recruiting for those schools either, for now. Will be interesting to see how long this lasts, but with all the travel quarantine issues right now, it’s difficult to visit (and return) to certain states.