Sure, but would they typically going after a completely different type of school? Why do small LACs drop off the list?
I merely pointed out that they could still potentially be a walk-on at those schools if swimming is as important to their college experience as they have previously stated.
As far as “doing the right things recruiting wise,” many posters have pointed out for months that continuing to target swim programs at the pointy end of D3 that appear to be too fast and that have shown little to no interest actually isn’t the right thing recruiting wise.
You are working with 10-20 recruited athletes per year who are targeting the most selective-admissions LACs in the country but who have no interest in attending those schools if they don’t get coach support?
In that case OP seems to think that those schools don’t have enough prestige. This is misguided in both approach and impression but to each their own. At this point (this was addressed quite a while ago) all we can and should do is agree to disagree, like @Mwfan1921 Said.
bit of confusion / miscommunication regarding the “prestige” that D24 sought in her dual list of schools.
Her swim list was initially built targeting schools that were academically selective, offered her intended major, co-ed, not pure STEM and required competitive time improvement on her part in the course of her 2022-23 season.
Whilst her time improved, for many schools that improvement wasn’t sufficient to attract coaches, who politely but explicitly told her. With the advice of many on this thread, she added other schools and discussios, until she received positive feedback and interest from some.
agree with many of you that having at least some positive feedback is critical to the mental health and drive of a teenager who otherwise keeps hearing no’s
in the course of those discussions, she also looked not so much at prestige, but rather at the actual academic programs being offered, because the offerings for her major vary very widely from school to school, and can be much narrower for certain very small LACs. As a result, certain schools dropped because she wasn’t fast enough, whilst others dropped because they didn’t offer the necessary strength in her major.
Non swim recruit list:
Because she may not be recruited as a swimmer, her second list includes schools where she would be a club swimmer (Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA), or a potential walk-on (Tufts, Pomona, Claremont, Swarthmore, Washington, John Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon), and she’s maintained contact with some of those coaches, including upcoming visits
that second list would need to be curated to a high school restricted maximum of 9 + UCs (because the UCs count as one application)
Her journey is now going through pre-reads, actual visits, and a team practice. D24 will undoubtedly rerank some of her preferences in the course of the next 3 weeks.
the ED/REA ticket is pretty priceless. If D24 isn’t recruited by a school she likes, my guess is she would most likely allocate that ticket to Stanford over Washington, and apply to Washington ED2/RD
“Foreign families seek highly reputable academic institutions and deeply prioritize this, probably more so than US families. If D24 is a solid admit in Canadian schools ranked Top50 in the world, this sets a high bar for the schools in her US list, which is why both her swimming recruit list and non recruit list contain a majority of reach/stretch schools which she would love to attend, even though the percentage of getting in is low.”
Did this supposed focus away from prestige shift after late April? I didn’t see it in a change in the list of schools being considered. There seems to be a discrepancy in the narrative here.
One main problem is that the list of top 25 D3 schools in rankings/prestige is in high accordance with the top 25 strongest D3 swim programs. What’s needed is a “moneyball” strategy to target places where there is coach interest outside of the strongest swim programs but still with strong academics (not necessarily the lowest acceptance rates as a proxy for quality though)
I don’t see evidence that strong academic schools in the target program (environmental science, I think?) were considered if they weren’t also high in overall prestige/name (maybe F&M is the outlier there, but I thought they were added because of some specific connection?). Indeed, a number of worthy suggestions by numerous posters were not taken seriously. In contrast, the fast NESCAC programs, for example, have remained on the list despite no evidence of real coach interest.
we’re very grateful and thankful to contributors (you know who you are) who have spent time to help D24 in her journey, from being a part of a family completely ignorant of the intricacies of college sports recruiting 6+ months ago. Your advice has been invaluable, and we’re hopefully moving towards when coaches will express support.
In her journey, D24 took on counsel, her decisions evolved, she started to consider certain schools for their potential as a walk-on instead of a recruit, or dropped her interest in other schools after carefully looking at the strength of the academic offerings in the major she’s interested in. We believe this is not atypical in an athlete/recruit’s journey, and there maybe other future changes after she visits schools, town and coaches.
With great luck, the missing coaches at some of the schools on her list have been nominated/identified, with one publicly announced, and two who will be announced in June and July respectively. D24 will be incredibly lucky to visit most of the colleges and meet with coaches in person.
I saw above that your daughter is a Stanford double legacy, I just assumed that she wants to swim. If so and if a fully supported slot/tip doesn’t work out (hopefully it will!), I would be looking at 2 things: 1/roster spot (not all schools on your list above will have one) and 2/boosting her application in any way possible. That means ED where it provides significant advantage (this will vary by school) and since you are full pay, I would also check to make sure that whatever school you choose for the ED routes is need aware for international applicants.
I have an older daughter who chose not to swim past high school. The application process was a lot of work but she was able to get herself into a top 10 engineering program. Several of her high school teammates also did very well, one is now at Cornell, another at Notre Dame - neither went through swimming. US swimming has a lot of depth and your daughter would certainly not be the first to deal with having to pull herself through admissions without coaches’ support. It’s difficult but it can be done (if needed).
I have my own kid to get settled but very much cheering yours on as well! These kids have worked so hard; let’s hope that they will be rewarded with a successful outcome!
@Eve17 thanks for your recommendation. Indeed she hopes to be recruited and it certainly looks better than 3 months ago, but nothing has been formally confirmed yet. Some teammates have formal offers, and we assume pre reads/ support offers will play out over the summer.
if the recruiting route doesn’t open up, she’s committed to apply to her second list as a normal applicant seeking best academic fit, which includes some of the schools in her swim list. In that process, she hasn’t thought out the REA/ED1/EA/ED2 yet, but doesn’t want to prioritize a school where she maybe able to walk-on over a school which has a better academic fit. in that sense, she would likely prefer applying to Stanford, irrespective of legacy which itself isn’t a significant hook.
D24 has passed 4 pre-reads (excluding Canada where she’s made the admission requirements for her major), and the remaining coaches have all received her pre-read reports and she’s asked them to confirm whether she’ll be invited for pre-read, after which the teams without pre-read will formally be dropped from her list. She expects the funnel to narrow down to 5-10 schools, and will likely narrow down further to 3-5 schools after visits/coach meetings.