Great. So has she been in contact with any coaches? They won’t support you if you don’t already have a relationship. Athletic recruiting is a whole separate process. If she hasn’t already, she needs to be building relationships with coaches from every school she’s interested in.
Her swim times will hopefully continue to improve. At present, she would be 2nd-5th swimmer in two strokes for 1/2 the teams on her target list of 15+ schools, and she targets 1st-5th in 75% of her 15+ target schools by summer 23, improving further in her senior year. She hopes to secure full coach support in a swimming program where she’ll be 1st-4th in her two strokes
absolutely agreed, the email contacts have started to get established, and she is filling the standard academic forms requested by coaches to go along with her swim times which they already track
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For a basis of comparison, this international student, who appears academically similar to your daughter, was denied recently by Grinnell: Comparing Liberal [Arts] Colleges for study in Biology. To feel confident about getting into a college on this level, your daughter may need the interest of a swimming coach. If the that process proceeds successfully, it may be reasonable to expect an admission to Dartmouth (or a similarly selective school).
Thanks for the comparison, D24 absolutely understands that full coach support is a big differentiator compared with a normal application, and that selection by a coach will be driven by a combination of swim times/fit with the team/grades/SAT/
My advice: figure out the strongest schools academically with the weakest swim teams. Target them now. If your daughter’s times improve, she will attract attention at stronger swim programs down the road.
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she’s contacting all the coaches where she currently would rank in the team, and hopes that as her times evolve, the coaches who want to support will emerge, and those who don’t need her will automatically slow down communications. we fully understand that.
one of her teammates wrote to Stanford without response, and now swims for Princeton. another one of her teammates was recruited at a D3 school with very strong academics and subsequently turned down as a walk-on in a D1 school
What are your times like? Jrs? winter Jrs? Futures? Sectionals? It’s hard to say anything about swimming without this at the very minimum.
Times for Dartmouth support would be wildly different than for Wesleyan. JHU would probably require faster times than Dartmouth (and a higher SAT score - the coach will not support without this).
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Depending on OP times, Bowdoin might be a good academic/swimming option.
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This student’s current SAT score (1480) would place her comfortably near the top of Bowdoin’s middle range (1330–1510).
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I agree it is a good academic fit, which is why I mentioned it. It is unclear how fast OP is. The schools listed represent a very wide range of competitiveness. If on the slower side, it could be a great option given the academic interests.
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because she’s an international student, the race classification is different. D24 competed in national junior championships, national championships, and age group meets.
her yard equivalent times would be
100Y Free SC <53s (corresponds to Dartmouth’s current #1 points swimmer out of 15)
50 Y Fly SC < 27s (corresponds to Dartmouth #4 points swimmer out of 15)
of course, we hope both her swimming times & SAT score will improve in the next 6 months, which should better clarify her case for coaches/early read
You can refer here for time standards - all are published in LCM.
50 Fly is not an NCAA/USA Swimming event at this point. Make sure you are looking at conference championship times not best times for this year. You had to be in the low 51s to make finals in the 100 Free last year. Dartmouth had two swimmers in the range. Ivy League Championships (W) - 100 Free Women Prelims
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Thanks for clarifying re the 50 Fly event, and providing the LCM time standard reference from USA swimming. both very helpful.
is the main reference of comparison the previous conference championship times, or the collated list of each swimmers Personal Best times?
you referred to the times (100 Free Yard Short Course) of two Dartmouth swimmers who have since graduated. shouldn’t the current team or potentially the current team with the declared recruits be the best reference?
What I have gathered is that the earlier in the process the higher the standards coaches are looking for. As faster kids commit to faster schools, things change.
This is mainly the reason why D3 does most of their committing in the summer/early fall of senior year. They are waiting to see what great swimmer did not get snagged by a D1 for one reason or another. Ivy focused kids in particular seem to opt for a high academic D3 as a second choice. The caveat here is that, as I have seen stated in this forum, to be an Ivy recruit you have to be an excellent athlete who is a good student but to be a NESCAC (sub other high academic D3) you have to be a good athlete who is an excellent student.
Dartmouth (or any school) will be happy to have a freshman on the team that can score at a dual meet - many pools are 6 lanes so let’s say top 3, but what they all really want is someone that can make finals at the conference championship meet, and that is where they will focus their energy as long as it makes sense. If you follow them on social media you probably saw they flew to Texas to attend/recruit swimmers at Jrs this weekend, as did many other colleges.
Regardless, I would think a young swimmer in the top 3 in a couple of events would garner enough interest to get a response. Has she had any calls? Most of the 24s probably started communicating with their target schools in the summer. As a sprinter she will be valuable bc she can contribute to relays, and if you are not familiar with the scoring system, they are worth a lot of points.
Most importantly, she should focus on the right SCHOOL fit. No one knows when their athletic career will end, often times for reasons out of our control. She needs to find the school where she will be happy without the swimming, not the highest ranking team/school that makes her and offer.
One last note: Ivies and most NESCACs are need based only but there are many great schools in both divisions that offer very generous merit aid.
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Two schools in NESCAC offer merit based scholarships, Trinity college and Conn college.
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Thanks. I corrected.
Thanks for your detailed color and advice. she’s a little behind on coach communications, which is being ramped up now to cover the entirety of her target list, with email & competition of their respective online academic file/major/etc. She targets faster times in swim meets in Jan/March, to hopefully reach USA Swimming College Championship Cuts times, which should further engage her discussions/raise interest with coaches
You should always be looking at the top 16 prelim times in the Conference championships.
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To answer your question, I think, as you have noted, that her chances really hinge on her being recruited, and much of this depends of the state of the team after the reversal of their swim-team-cutting decision. It could have created an opportunity for swimmers, and you may not be the only one trying to make the most of it. Swimming is a relatively straightforward recruiting sport as it is about times, so everyone has time to see how much times can improve.
There are certainly NESCAC teams that could be worth targeting, and you will be able to see in a few months what the top times at this year’s conference finals look like. Colby is a strong overlap with Dartmouth in terms of vibe, has a top notch environmental science program, and is not traditionally a swimming powerhouse (although one of their current top swimmers may swim your D’s events.) . Unfortunately, no merit either.
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