Actually my son just reminded me that one LAC coach did ask him for a personal essay -it was her own requirement to vet a recruit’s interest in the school and team, so I stand corrected!
It was not a front runner for him, so I forgot.
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I’m pretty sure we must be referring to the same coach/school that I just remembered-it was a Centennial team!
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Thanks for clarifying, Swarthmore / Standard Essay Prompt
FYI, WashU isn’t in the Centennial Conference.
I think given the responses here, the main takeaway is that every school is different regarding timing and requested items for pre reads. This is information your daughter should be asking on her phone calls.
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My daughter was asked for two short essays this past summer. She is a 2023 grad
Thanks all, the map is pretty clear. Realistically D24 odds of getting recruited are low because the distribution of her swim times (ie same stroke, she’s fast in one event and slow in the others) is the death knell for a swimmer seeking to be recruited. This is unlikely to be fixed within weeks.
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Maybe her odds at being a top recruit by the fastest D3 colleges are low but there are plenty of other strong academic colleges who would be interested in her.
I am not sure if you know that swimcloud.com will rank swim teams by division. Here is a link to women’s D3 swim teams.
There are a few strong academic colleges that have decent swim teams that you might consider contacting, e.g., Vassar, Bates, and Hamilton are all stronger academically and are higher ranked swim wise than Franklin & Marshall.
I know rankings aren’t everything but you could compare US News LAC rankings to swimcloud’s ranking to identify some more schools.
As I am sure you are aware of, LACs are all slightly different so thinking whether your D24 wants rural or suburban, warm or cold, etc. can also help identify/eliminate some colleges.
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As an exercise, at the very least you should find a school where she would be a top recruit, just so you know, and have that as a back up.
College admissions without the athletic recruiting hook is a complete crap shoot.
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There are also schools like Bryn Mawr that have pretty weak teams yet excellent academics.
I like F&M, btw. It’s a school that does a lot really well.
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And their pool is great.
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If you are looking for either a scholarship or athletic hook, you should consider some top schools that are known for their swim programs, like Stanford, Duke and UofM?
Not necessarily. Is your swimmer a boy or a girl? I don’t think Duke offers men’s swimming scholarships (but I could be wrong). There is not much money in men’s swimming anyway.
If money is of a concern I’d target schools where you are likely to get academic merit money. I know kids who were recruited but the coach wanted them to be a preferred walk on since the academics were strong, leaving more money on the table for other recruits that didn’t meet merit criteria.
Athletic hook is a matter of speed of the swimmer in relation to the conference.
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I don’t believe the OPs daughter has the times needed to be recruited at those options.
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Oops. I thought they were asking. If it’s advice it’s misguided in general.
for further clarifications, as some of you may not be reading the early parts of this thread
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D24 is a girl, and uninterested in attending a women’s college (cross out Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr), and strictly targets Ivy/D3 schools (delete Stanford, Duke, Michigan)
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D24 is a foreign student, and can only access Merit Scholarships. Funding is not an issue
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D24 is confident in her verified ability to gain admission to Toronto/McGill (Canada) for environmental science and swim there, this sets a high academic bar for selecting other schools into her list
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As continued coach discussions identify that she’s “too slow” for several teams, or “not fast enough yet to be in their top3 recruiting spots” for other teams, D24 is looking at engaging in emails/zoom with other team coaches as suggested by @swimmom1922 & @superdomestique; bearing in mind that Bates & Hamilton wouldn’t necessarily rank higher than Toronto/McGill academically, and that Wesleyan and William & Marry (team ranking 49/50 in D3 nswimcloud) is already on her list
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Parent of a senior swimmer here. My daughter is not swimming in college (would prefer club swimming), but having been involved in USA swimming for many years, we have known several swimmers go through the recruiting process. The kids that didn’t have futures cuts and maybe had sectional cuts (though not all) found homes at Vassar, Hamilton, Bates, & Middlebury. I knew the mom of the Vassar swimmer very well and her ds was also looking at Wesleyan. She told me that they wouldn’t even look at him because he did not have a high enough SAT score. I can’t remember the specific score (maybe high 1400’s or maybe 1500). She said that he was fast enough for them (no sectional cuts), just not high enough of an SAT score. This was for 2019, so pre covid. Not sure if that’s still the situation.
Wesleyan SAT scores are 1300-1500, so it’s unlikely they require the whole swim team to score 1500. in any case, D24 has SAT 1480
That may still be true for Vassar, but the NESCAC conference has become very fast. Bates and Middlebury getting kids with National cuts (YMCA)-Hamilton a slower team.
only coaches and upcoming times can dictate whether D24 will be recruited into one of more of these swim teams.
in case she’s not recruited through the normal ED / recruit process, do coaches have any leverage/sway with admissions for swimmers applying in the EA, ED2 or RD rounds? Asking this question because D3 coaches typically have 2-3 swimming recruit spots each year, yet their team require 8-12 swimmers every year… are the other swimmers all coming through as walk-ons?
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