Son is a rising Junior. He’s a Division 1 swimming prospect with not great grades (Bs and Cs mainly, average rigor, terrible standardized testing). Since June he’s talked to a bunch of coaches regularly, and is now scheduling overnight visits for this fall. These schools have requested and have been sent his unofficial transcripts. Can I assume that if the schools are willing to pay for official overnight visits that they are familiar with his grades and are still on board? Can I assume that if he is asked to an overnight the coach is pretty interested? Would you put any school that offers an official overnight as a ‘likely’ school? I just want to be sure that he’s giving himself enough options. But with unlimited overnights, I also don’t want him to miss buckets of school trying to attend all of these visits for schools that may not really be matches.
I cannot imagine a coach with a limited budget and even more limited time offering an official visit to a recruit he was not seriously interested in.
Yes, I think it’s fair to say there is strong interest if invited in an OV.
In my experience the burnout from this process can be very real, so don’t say yes to everything. He should figure out to some extent what he kind of school he wants and prioritize accordingly.
Given what you shared, one thing to look at closely, IMO, is the academic support and expectations at the swim programs. You want to make sure he is happy in the classroom as well, and not in over his head.
Yes. The dialogue your S is having with the coaches suggests that too, no?
Definitely not. There is still a long way to go. I don’t know what level of school you are talking about…selective, highly selective, not selective…the process is different among D1 schools.
The coaches will give more OVs than they have slots for swimmers. The final decision lies with admissions. He should be casting a wide net.
Some of the answers depend on what sorts of schools he’s talking to.
If these aren’t schools with low admission rates like Ivies, etc., then the grades probably aren’t an issue. I’d be very surprised if a coach would waste OV resources for a recruit they don’t think will be admitted. That doesn’t mean admissions has weighed in at all though (at many/most D1 programs they really don’t need to because the coach knows the threshold recruits need to meet). You could always have your son ask the coach how the admissions process works and whether his grades will be an issue. If he’s looking at schools with low admit rates the coach might have run him through a pre-read with admissions already.
As far as likely or not, I’d put it this way: coaches don’t bring recruits in that they don’t think might work for the team. At some programs they bring in a lot more for OVs than they’ll roster. At others they focus. That doesn’t mean an OV means high probability of scholarship, slot, roster spot. But if the OV goes well and the fit seems good I’d say the chances are pretty decent.
Some of this depends on what you’re looking for: just a roster spot, help with admissions, athletic scholarship?
Thanks everyone. As I figured, yeah the coaches are interested, but no we can’t assume much more than that. I know he’ll love going on the visits and I hope a couple of visits helps him figure out what he wants in a school and a team. You’re correct, a big question will be does he want a chance to be on the team, a more secure roster spot, or to be a big contributor. It just feels so early in the process to be taking weekends, but I guess we’re here.