top half academically or swimming championships?
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Reached out to see where she has landed or reached out with an offer of support? Make sure you get clear communication regarding level of support because I can see a lot of coaches seeing the value of offering a spot to a full pay swimmer with strong academics.
Also make sure she has clear understandings of timelines because in our experience offers if support have expiration dates at many schools and coaches will love on if you don’t commit because they don’t want to be left empty handed
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As suggested, prior to final commitment, we plan to seek an all hands on deck zoom call with the coach to confirm everything is very clear, with the coach confirming that AD/AO have approved x swimming recruits for 2024, that D24 is ranked xx amongst the coach’s recruits, and that she has strong coach support going through the ED admission process, and that her international status will not hurt her case. We’ll reconfirm to the coach that she’s full pay.
Anything we’re missing?
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It’s irrelevant how many slots the coach has, also irrelevant where your D is ranked among recruits. You want to hear that your D has full coach support through the admissions process (that your D is being offered a slot, the most common nomenclature). You might also ask what proportion of recruits with the same level of coach support have historically been accepted.
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No need to know # of recruits. Not relevant.
No need to know ranking. Not relevant.
Yes, confirm that she has full coach support regardless of international status. I would also ask if coach has ever had a student that he has supported, with successful pre-read, who was not admitted.
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I would hope you already know these answers from the two schools you have offers at - if not then are they truly offers? The only questions you need answered is if your daughter had full coach support through the admissions process and clarify that your daughter is an international full pay applicant. Then get a date by which the coach expects your daughter to apply. Everything else is irrelevant. Additionally, the soon er you get that info the better because this is stretching a bit late into the ED time frame for coach support - at least in my experience. We were dealing with a different sport but many similar schools and all wanted commitment and application within the first week or two that ED apps opened.
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@gardenstategal “I would also ask if coach has ever had a student that he has supported, with successful pre-read, who was not admitted.”
This question can take a bit of time for a new coach.
The questions have generally been asked by D24 in zoom/emails, and we just want to do a final confirmation before committing, ideally aim to commit before the OV cycle.
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I think you’re out of your lane, though, in asking that AND I doubt you will get an answer that will be helpful. Who’s going to say, “I am allowed 4 recruits, and you’re the 4th in terms of how much I like them.”?
If it’s a new coach, you can ask if admission has confirmed its support for the swimmers he’s asking for.
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The reason that this thread is so long is that there is more than one way to skin a recruit. I always asked how many on the list and where we are on the list. If you are no. 5 on a list of 5 and a D1 recruit drops out of the sky, well I’d want to be aware about that possibility. Different approaches for different folks.
You may not get a specific answer, but if you listen closely you will get helpful information. If the coach doesn’t or it is too early to say, you may want to ask whether anything will fall through, i.e., what are the chances that your D will not be accepted.
Ultimately, you need to be comfortable with the questions and listen closely to the answers. For example, I learned from two different NESCAC coaches (different sports) that the team “slots” already had been taken. This may not matter much, so long as your kid academically is well within the average admitted student range and/or the pre-read went well. It can, however, tell you some information about admission odds. Get what you can as far as assurances go, all the while knowing that it is non-binding on both sides.
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I agree with others here about not being too pushy. You have offers, don’t mess it up asking unnecessary questions. Coaches don’t like to deal with helicopter parents. Ask what time line of the offer is, and stick to the deadline if they give you one.
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I agree. As long as you are still waiting for an offer, they are still evaluating your daughter (as well as the family) to determine whether she is a suitable match. And until you accept their offer, you are doing the same with them. Good luck!
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@gointhruaphase , she has offers though.
I think those other questions are good to ask in order to assess likelihood of offer. But at this point, those questions imply that they don’t really believe the coach has the ability to extend an offer or might rescind it. Frankly, if that’s the case, there’s no offer!
We’re just all wanting to see Nivo’s D commit after all this effort and to be happy.
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Maybe a matter of wording, being that D24 & family are going through this process for the first time, it’s fair to ask the coach to confirm our exact understanding of the protocol after passing pre-read and being supported by the coach:
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D24 commits to team A and submits her ED application as soon as possible (with coach confirmation of whether to submit SATs)
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Coach provides strongest form of support with Admissions (which has historically resulted in XX% admission, hopefully 100%)
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D24 is admitted through ED announcements
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D24 participates in ongoing zoom team events with other recruits through the 2023-2024 season
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D24 continues to improve and produce PBs until the start of school
Coach can’t give you no. 3. Your agreement - if you can call it that - is that kid applies ED in exchange for coach support with admissions. The arrangement is not binding on either party.
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For #4 - After coach support and ED admit our recruited child heard pretty much nothing from coach except recommended summer workout ideas and nothing from
team until late summer prior to arriving on campus.
Continued with senior year of HS and HS team and college team continued with college - no connection at all. Different sport - not swimming.
One freshman set up Zooms mid summer for all the incoming recruits - but don’t think it was official. Going into college jr year now and just had 1st call and met the incoming freshman over Zoom (met some last Fall at OV - but they quickly become out of sight out of mind) a few weeks ago - they were not involved in anything over the school year.
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My D’s coach said that they could not connect incoming recruits until after acceptance.
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It really is up to the coach and sport. My daughter was in constant contact with her coach and teammates (to be) all through senior year. The summer right before arriving on campus may have been a little less contact with the coach because summer is a big recruiting time for her sport with 3-4 major tournaments for hs kids, and a lot of camps. My daughter really liked her contacts with the coach but in the long run, ended up not liking the coach that much . You just can’t tell that much from texts and emails about the coaching style until you are living it. D loved the asst coach, most of her teammates, the school, the uniforms (this was very important to my daughter!) got her favorite number (also very important). No matter how mature, these are still teenages making these decisions (mine was 16).
And honestly, at this point I don’t think there is a wrong decision. OP’s daughter likes all the schools, will have 2-3 colleges to pick from, and will do fine at any of them.
Good luck.
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Good question!
Top half of NESCAC women’s swimming this past season is: Tufts, Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, and Middlebury.
Tufts, Williams, and Middlebury have already been described months ago as too fast (with Tufts explicitly stating there was no walk-on space either). Bowdoin was recently described as having rejected the athlete in the admissions pre-read after initially greenlighting . Amherst was on the short list of targets and is one of the top 3 most prestigious LACs on most lists, so the athlete would likely talk to them if the coach reached out.
None of those seem likely.
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They also have a brand new coach who is playing catch-up.
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Congratulations everyone! We made it to post 2000!
Hoping for good news for OP’s daughter soon!
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