My son wants to swim at college. He’s visiting a range of schools with good swim programs. His times are good–any advice? We want to make sure he does this well so he ends up at a good fit with a good swim program. Thanks.
Consider role of money – are his times fast enough for D1 programs that offer scholarships? As a “headcount” sport, D1 swimming spreads the scholarships across the entire roster/team, so for a freshman, there may not be a lot of money even if there is an athletic scholarship. Then there are D3 programs, some of which offer merit money for academic achievement, leadership etc., which an athlete can be eligible for, same as other students. Being a strong athletic recruit can be a “hook” for admissions, with a coach supporting a student’s application. Many of the more competitive D3 teams expect a recruit to apply ED to hold a spot on the team, which means a family cannot compare the costs across different schools.
The best advice we got during recruiting was to identify schools where the student would be happy to attend if they were injured on the first day of pre-season and could never participate in their sport again.
Thanks for the great advice. I think the key is to get a good list from sure bets to a reach, and then give it his best.
Great advice. Although swimming scholarships can be divided into partial scholarships as stated above, that is the description of an equivalency sport and not a headcount sport.
Does he have his information on collegeswimming.com? My daughter is only a junior, so we are hardly experts, but collegeswimming.com has been invaluable in helping her identify schools that are good swim matches for her. She is looking for colleges where she could score at conference as a freshman, and that’s easy to find using their “where do I fit” feature. She’s also received a number of emails from schools that have found her there; she’s been interested in a couple and not in others. Most of her contacts, though, are from schools where she’s completed their questionnaire and then followed up with an email. She’s received responses from all or nearly all of the coaches she’s emailed. Over spring breaks her sophomore and junior years, she’s taken unofficial visits to 7 or 8 schools and met with coaches at most of them so they each know whether to spend an official visit on the other this fall. All that is to say that where her times put her in the top 1 or 2 on the team and in the top 8 in the conference in her 3 focus events, her overtures have been quite positively received. Coaches from schools she has not visited have set up calls with her (though they email to arrange a time for the coach to call her, since she’s not yet a senior), and two coaches watched her at a meet and then contacted her. My daughter has mid-major D1 times. If you’re top-tier D1 material, you probably don’t have to be nearly as proactive–I imagine the coaches find YOU. But for the rest of us, especially if you are willing to go outside of your state and the surrounding states, you probably need to be the one to ask for the first date.
My son is a freshman swimmer at a lower level D1 program. This thread from July 2016 was really helpful to us when he was going through recruiting. Some veteran swim parents gave great advice and other parents on the thread had kids who ended up swimming in college this year.
Actually the thread was from July 2015. There was another thread about swim recruiting in July 2014 that I found very interesting too.
Our daughter went through this a couple of years ago and is at a Power 5 school, still swimming. Definitely read through the two “July” threads above, they have a ton of advice. A couple of things we learned in retrospect:
- Video can be a big help to the coaches. It's one thing for them to look at times, but to see how your son moves through the water will make a bigger impression. Usually this is emphasized with soccer or lacrosse, etc., but don't underestimate it for swimming.
- Your son really needs to decide if he wants to be an impact swimmer on a slightly lesser team, or a secondary player on a slightly better team. Don't assume he will get faster! He might, but others will, too. In all likelihood if he comes in as the 5th best 100 flyer, he will stay there. Then pick the schools to visit based on that choice.
- Good luck! Feel free to PM me.
Great advice above.
What year is your son? Make sure he emails all coaches prior to visits with his best times and SAT/ACT scores
Set up times to meet with coach at pool.Most recruits will have to apply ED so get all test scores etc done by end of Junior year. These Unofficial visits are great so you can eliminate schools from the Official Visit list. If you like a school, coach etc let coach know you would be interested in an official visit
Best of luck
Been lurking here awhile, loving the fantastic info on the “July 1” threads.
My D19 is interested in swimming and it seems like she should get started on researching programs now. However, at this point, just finishing sophomore year, she has not taken SAT/ACT, will not get her official GPA until August, and spent much of SC season in PT.
Is it worth contacting coaches now, or would she be better off waiting until she has a more solid resume? FWIW she is looking at D3, non-NESCAC schools.
@Acersaccharum , my daughter was in roughly the same spot at the end of her sophomore year, e.g., coming off of an injury, no ACT score, etc. With one exception, she looked at a few schools where she thought she might fit but did not contact coaches or fill out online questionnaires. She focused on getting fast, healthy, tapered SC times in December of her junior year. She also took the ACT the summer before junior year (with no prep) and then again in September (with prep), so we would know about where she would fit academically. Once she had good times under her belt, she spent time on collegeswimming.com and started filling out questionnaires and emailing coaches (always follow up the questionnaire with a personal email). We visited several schools and talked to their coaches spring break of her junior year. This timeline seems to be working so far; she has had a lot of positive responses from the mid-major D1 schools she is targeting. So, that is a long way to say, “I would wait until she is more of a known quantity,” but not later than January of her junior year.
@Seekwise , Great advice above and on the referenced threads. My older son is a DIII swimmer and my younger son is hoping to swim DIII. Both like the idea of being a student first and a swimmer second, something that is much easier at a DIII program. There are no DIII athletic scholarships, but if your swimmer is fast enough and has high stats, merit money comes into play. My sons have many friends from their home swim club that went D1 and neither wanted/wants that experience.
FWIW, S is a wrestler not swimmer, although I don’t think that matters. He did have a very successful sophomore year without serious injury. We are going by GPA that I calculated and class rank that isn’t on his transcript but was verbally given to us. Our school doesn’t give either out officially until after sophomore year. He sent out an email and athletic resume to several coaches and received very positive responses from about half, silence from the rest. He told them he was taking the ACT this fall.
We did follow up emails to 4 coaches at top academic programs asking for meetings, all 4 agreed to meet with us in June, and at least 2 have a pretty full day planned. I’m sure if he scores a 25 on his ACT this fall then they will be done with him unless he improves substantially, but they were all interested so far. They probably are assuming/hoping that his ACT will match his GPA. So I don’t necessarily think you have to wait for test scores. Although if the athletic results aren’t there yet then waiting might be good.
Thanks for the help/reassurance. She may contact some coaches this fall before fall break so that we can start unofficial visits (to try narrowing the list) But, I will make sure she focuses on schools that we assume are academic fits. She will wait on reach schools until she has better stats.
I think she is in the position of being a little better swimmer than student, so as NCSwimmom points out, we need to aim appropriately in the hopes of merit aid!
My son is zeroing in on a few schools for Fall of 2018 where he can swim and study. His top choice is a division one school that’s an academic stretch. His coach has received favorable reports from the D1 school, but son hasn’t heard anything yet. In terms of early reads for places on college teams, what has been your experience?
He’s heard from other schools with “yes, we’d like to have you” and “sorry, we don’t have a place for you.” So he has some choices and has weathered the rejections as well. Any other thoughts, stories that will help us navigate so that he ends up with a good fit for swimming and studying. Thanks for your help.
@Seekwise, now that it’s after July 1st, conversations should be happening now as pre-reads are in process and Fall OV’s being set up.
Thank you for your response. He recently heard from the D1 school which is trying to set up a visit for him. Since the school is a bit of an academic stretch in terms of getting in (I know he’ll do fine if he gets in, but the entrance scores for the school are competitive), I’m wondering how he should navigate this. I don’t want him to miss out on good opportunities to attend competitive schools that are telling him to apply early if he has a shot at this school which is his first choice.
I suppose it is a step-by-step process, any thoughts/advice on navigating from this point on? Thanks I appreciate all the advice I can get since this is our first crack at this and he’s not associated with a recruiting organization.
Thank you!
@Seekwise I have read here many times that ED applications are encouraged for athletes, but can also mean that any merit aid might be off the table. Not sure that it affects athletic scholarships for D1.
Wondering where all of these swim kids stand now? My D19 has had some good, though modest, time improvements so far this SC season. She has gotten some attention through collegeswimming and has filled out questionnaires and met with a few coaches. She struggles with SAT/ACT, but her GPA and course rigor is solid. Her favorite school/coach so far claims no input to admissions (Div3), so we are still biting our nails a bit. This school says it highly values talent/ability/performance, so we’re hoping that includes athletics. She could contribute to the team immediately in freshman year.
Most of the unsolicited interest comes from schools she’s never heard of. One school is pursuing her quite vigorously, but we went for a visit and the academics just don’t fit her wish list.