<p>my d has been informally invited to come to a college--one that she would love to attend-- and meet the coach this summer. what questions should I put to her? when can the real discussions begin? when can they start talking about a likely letter? she doesn't want a sports scholarship but to attend.</p>
<p>Come over to the Athletic Recruits subforum under Specialty Admissions, under college Admissions. All of your questions have been discussed in the various threads. </p>
<p>And for official NCAA guidelines for the timing of coach contact, go to the NCAA Clearinghouse website.</p>
<p>thanks. i will.</p>
<p>etondad, that’s a great spot to be in. We do need a little bit of aid, athletic or otherwise, and there are a couple of schools who would probably get our daughter in but without aid, which sort of makes me sad!</p>
<p>As for timing, as fauve said, check out the NCAA rules because some sports are slightly different than others. In most, as in my daughter’s no contact can be initiated by the coach until July 1 before the senior year. Emails and letters are OK, I believe, during the junior year but no phone calls until after that July date. At that time you can start having more open dialogue. </p>
<p>We just came back from visiting coaches ‘unofficially’ and I found the conversations sort of followed the coach’s styles. One school was very guarded but full of technical information, and guidelines and businesslike details. Another was very open about all sorts of things, and very easy to talk to about anything, and the third only sent the assistant coach who basically sat and looked at us to lead the entire interaction. This was very awkward and I was ready to get up after five minutes. we managed to stretch it to an uncomfortable 20, but it wasn’t easy!</p>
<p>Needless to say, although this one would have been the academic leader, it’s now the underdog as far as the way she (and I) feel about it. And it’s an amazing school that’s very hard to get into. I don’t know if the problem was that she isn’t a top recruit so much as that this is how they do things at that school in that sport.</p>
<p>Good luck to you daughter! Sounds like she is in one of the sports where the coaches do start their recruiting a little sooner than the others … I know there are some in my daughter’s school who already claimed to have been promised spots at certain schools, as of last year.</p>
<p>^ thanks. She is a swimmer and water polo player so at least in swimming there are objective measure from which to judge performance. The other aspect is that she is at a school which does not permit her to be part of a club team during term time and limits practice days and times–so her times while quite nice could be much better had she remained home and did “doubles” year round. How much do they take that into consideration?</p>
<p>I think they would base that on the individual swimmer. Depending on how well she’d respond to the increased # of practices and things like that. Depending on the school, the practice schedule could be very rigorous and that could work in her favor or have an initial period where she might even be overwhelmed. From what I understand it’s pretty common for the freshmen to have major adjustment issues that first semester anyway, especially if they aren’t used to doubles. Will she swim or play water polo in college, or both? </p>
<p>As I said before, it really depends on the coach and the school and the fact that she’s not looking for any money helps too - although some schools don’t offer any money for swimming and have only a limited number of athletes they can push through admissions. Also, next year will be her most important as those will be the times they’ll be watching. I assume her school has a year-round team if they won’t allow club swimming. Not all club teams do doubles. It’s what the kids make of the practices they are offered, I’d think.</p>
<p>^ Year round? I wish. No she has to “swim” during the rec swim i the fall and they refuse to allow her or others to have a lane for serious swimming. Otherwise no pool time until swim season. She has done 10000 meters/day with her club team before she left for school at 13 and will do them during the 7 weeks during the summer season after she finishes school… She would like to do both WP and swimming (in fact she made the Olympic Devel Program in water polo-- and if push came to shove would chose it over swimming.)</p>
<p>Interesting … that seems unfair if she wants to swim. I guess she is living at the school, then? I’m only familiar with one such school in our state and they’re the best swim program around, so I don’t really understand your situation. Do they have a water polo team? And is this the swim coach or the WP coach at the college you’re planning to visit?</p>
<p>^^^etondad, I think that the amount of swim time she has access to will be considered by the coaches she starts to interact with as she begins this process. My daughter also attends a boarding school, and the sport she is being recruited for (crew) is a spring sport for her school, along with many others in its league. However, there are plenty of schools and club teams that do row throughout the whole school year. If all continues well, she will be rowing for a D1 program next year, and definitely every coach has taken into consideration that this sport is a one season sport in her school - therefore, I believe there is consideration given to the potential shown, and that they think of what level of skill can be developed when the student is performing in this sport for the full school year.
Her recruiting process really began in October of her junior year (although initial contact was made to her coach by ivy coaches who had seen her row in her sophomore spring) via emails, letters, and planned phone calls (call had to be made by the student - as noted above, that changes once you reach July 1st in the summer before your daughter’s senior year). The whole world of Likely Letters will be in full swing by the autumn of your daughter’s senior year. They cannot start to be generated by any Ivy admissions office prior to October 1st of the athlete’s senior year. There is a lot of discussion of Likely Letters right now in my daughter’s recruiting process, but until she and an ivy agree to commit to one another, and the admissions office agrees, nothing can happen that is tangible until after 1st October.
Like your daughter, she is not looking for an athletic scholarship - just the opportunity to attend an excellent school that feels like the right fit, and be the best student/athlete she can be!
Good luck with this journey! You are in the right forum for unlimited information on this topic :)</p>
<p>^Completely agree with Mayhew about things beginning Oct. of junior year. DS toured all target schools and interviewed coaches junior year, which made senior year process a breeze.</p>
<p>You’ve come to the right place. We like to help. Ask more questions.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>