I’ve known students who have received offers of coach support after prereads during early spring of junior year at NYU, Emory, UChicago, Swarthmore, Colorado College. Different sport.
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I highly recommend the book Know My Name by Chanel Miller, to parents and students, before going off to college. She’s the Brock Turner/Stanford rape survivor, and a courageous young woman and gifted writer. (And the rape occurred behind a fraternity house dumpster, not on the front lawn, not to belabor the point.)
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we appreciate the great amount of help, counsel, and support from various posters over the past several months. at the same time, D24 wants to preserve her most basic right of choice in her decisions, which we respect as parents, and agree other posters should as well .
Co-ed: Wanting a co-ed school is a preference. She’s not objecting to what others may prefer, nor to the quality of Women’s Colleges. This case is closed.
Safety: D24 has many friends attending school in NY, it’s a lifestyle choice. Indeed, she appreciates your advice and understand there are safety issues on every school campus, and most often not from guns. Thanks for the book recommendation! Case closed.
Confidentiality: we have received multiple PM advice, and she insists that confidentiality be maintained in the thread about which schools are at which stage of discussion, except in cases where it will not impact her current coach discussions. This is the reason why the names of certain schools is posted, including where she’s secured grade based admission (McGill), where she may potentially walk-on as a regular applicant (Dartmouth, Brown, JHU, CMU), where she would apply as a regular applicant and not be considered for walk-on (Tuft, JHU, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA), and where she’s dropped the schools altogether from her lists (Swarthmore, Washington St Louis, Chicago).
@GKmom23 : your post raises exactly the questions running in D24’s head, as she’s forming a view of the schools where she is committed to ED if she receives strong coach support, and the list of 10 schools (9+UCs) she would rather apply to if no coach support comes through where she wants to go. You will appreciate that for the reasons outlined above, the name of these schools will not be posted until there is (hopefully!!) 1 or more confirmed strong coach support on hand and she commits to accept it.
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I would never advise someone to publicly list schools they were in recruiting talks with/gotten prereads from until the process was over.
That said, something doesn’t add up with the OP’s situation.
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@cinnamon1212 Agree, on both points.
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As the title of this thread is Swimming Recruiting for Intl Jr Targeting Highly Selective Colleges, I was trying to help the OP think more broadly about his approach to achieving his family’s goal.
It should be obvious to anyone who has experience shepherding a student thru the college athletic recruiting process, the OP’s kid is getting very little traction on the recruiting front. At this late stage in the process, he needs to think outside of the box. While considering schools with slower swimmers is obvious, perhaps they are not prestigious enough for his kid. With schools like Wellesley, while it is single sex, it has a lot of fantastic attributes that are important to the OP.
If the OP and his kid had a wealth of options, I would not have resuggested it. However, as appears they will be completely shut out of the varsity athletic recruitment process, I thought the consideration of previously unconsidered options was warranted. The OP should ignore it at his peril, the alternative may be being a student (no swimming) in a cold northern country.
Personally it would be a no brainer to attend Wellesley over Grinnell or F&M for an international student. Same for McGill. Of course YMMV.
If this is truly a thread about college athletic recruiting, I was offering a suggestion and trying to address why a student’s reluctance to attend a single sex school may be too narrow a focus if recruiting is a priority.
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Doubling down on your objection is not a strategy
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Your comment vis a vis Wellesley women seeking mates at Harvard and MIT was beyond offensive, and was correctly flagged.
And to be clear, I am not the moderator of this thread.
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I agree that it is possible to already have pre read results but more likely coach saw academics and said they look good - but the schools the OP has listed are very selective and highly rejective and have strict pre read processes.
My daughter was submitted for a pre read at one of the schools the OP mentions passing and it was a standardized process. My daughter was offered a conditional roster spot assuming she would pass pre read and was told by coach she was #1 so I would think my daughter’s experience was about as accelerated as possible at this school since they clearly were seeking a commitment and had been talking to my daughter for months. (This was Grinnell and she did not end up committing despite me thinking it was a great fit - couldn’t get over location)
There was first a preliminary application that was completed in late June/early July and then all documents submitted to admissions July 15. Formal letter from admissions with results and financial details was physically mailed. It was a very detailed and prescriptive process so I can’t imagine it is that different for a soccer player vs swimmer.
Things like this Makes the info shared by OP on this thread a bit questionable
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several of you have referred to our process not making sense in places. I can only say it’s reported as we live it. Maybe it illustrates the intricacies of a recruiting process that can be quite different from school to school, conference to conference, country to country. In fact, it is even hugely different from one athlete to another in the same year, same sport, and same coach. We know that because DR and her friend are in one instance both talking to the same school, with her friend ranking within the very top of the coach’s list.
With regards to pre-reads in particular, we rely on direct communication from coaches
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who confirmed passed pre-reads in writing. Where passed, we hope upcoming meetings will confirm either strong coach support and/or her specific ranking in the coach’s list.
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who have confirmed the process and are awaiting her essay/response from admission
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who haven’t yet invited her for pre-read, including a school where she definitely expects one
In any case, the coming 3-5 weeks should rapidly clarify whether she’s lucky to receive strong coach support in a school with strong fit.
A number of posts edited and restored to realign with ToS.
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The information does seem to be changing. A little while back, there were supposedly four pre-reads passed, but now it’s apparently down to three. From June 15th from the OP:
“D24 has passed 4 pre-reads (excluding Canada…”
It’s difficult for respondents to provide useful advice when the info is unclear and where it appears there are misunderstandings about what has actually happened.
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I’m not sure why I have become oddly fascinated with this thread. Maybe it’s because my DS was a good young club swimmer with a couple of sectional cuts when he was 12 and we briefly researched what it would take for him to swim in college. He decided he did not want to swim and went in a completely different direction (music performance) which has a really similar recruiting process.
I do know that the swim recruiting process is complicated, as I have followed along with some of his swimming peers. However, this thread is so convoluted and seems so much more complicated than it needs to be.
Perhaps I am over simplifying, but those swimmers I know who navigated this journey did the following:
Chose schools/programs where they wanted to attend and swim and where they were at the top or close to the top time for several events. Their times were the determining factor.
Their academics were important, but without the time standards appropriate for that team, their academics seemed to have little impact.
I will say that all of the swimmers we know are good students. And I know a certain academic standard needs to be met. But a 4.0 will not get you onto Cal’s swim team. My son’s friend who now swims for Cal was in the top 2-3 for his stroke/events in the nation in HS.
Those friends with more modest PRs targeted schools where they were again the top of the potential recruit pool. So ended up very happily swimming at community colleges or small privates.
I do know that there was still some uncertainty and a lot of back and forth in the process. But nothing as complex as what I read through these posts.
Am I missing something here?
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I am sorry there is no coach support yet.
It is clear that you have written very different statements about receiving coach support which leads me to think there has been some misinterpretation about communication from coaches.
Sometimes, coaches want to be encouraging and not disappoint which can leave room for a recruit to think there is support when there is none. One of the valuable points I have gleaned from CC threads - and that has been reiterated on this one- is clarity is vital. I have read how experienced posters on CC have helped interpret situations and increase understanding for those new to the process. Several here have asked questions of you in order to gain information (without disclosing identifying data) in order to assist you. I am not sure why you do not respond to those questions but instead continue to present vague and inconsistent information.
If your D is truly ok with attending McGill without swimming, then you can pretty much disregard the advice here.
I hope your D does find a school where she can swim and be happy at.
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Many coaches, including at all NESCACS, have not yet offered any athlete, in any sport, their full support. Others still have unfilled/unoffered slots. Lots of time to go for class of 2024 potential recruits.
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Yes there is still time and hope for getting support but the OP states that the level of enthusiasm from coaches for her D has not been high and that they are aware of the kind of communication a sought after recruit receives from a coach even before a preread is done.
This is hard for a kid and I feel for D24.
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The clarity /lack of clarity in communication may come from a coach who had seen her grades, communicated that pre-read isn’t an issue, and subsequently resigned, so we kept that count not knowing that a new coach will re-run the process entirely.
in terms of specifics, using “strong coach support” as her ultimate goal, D24 currently has zero strong coach support, irrespective of how many passed/in process/expected pre-reads.
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@anotheroboemom We wish the process was much simpler indeed. You referred to top athletes whom the coaches wanted, and who were able to enjoy a simple and straight forward recruiting process. D24’s case outlines the journey of a hopeful athlete who isn’t amongst coaches top choice. Her friend literally wrapped up the process in 2 weeks with a coach who reached out to her directly by email (my daughter hasn’t experienced one single such email in 8 months), organized 2 zoom calls with him and athletes, took her through pre-read approval, and received strong coach support with no in-person visit/meeting/school tour…all inside 2 weeks in June of Junior Year, for a selective school (sub 10% admit rate) which ranks #1 in their conference
Unfortunately your situation is the one most recruits experience. With likely only 4 supported spots (±) and the top recruits in play for multiple schools until they make a decision (many in mid to late October), the majority of recruit hopefuls are in the game of musical chairs. Your daughter should remain persistent, but remember this is about finding her best fit as a college. Being on a swim team should be taken in that context. Is it about swimming? You just need a pool, not a team. Is it about camaraderie? There are other groups where kids can find their tribe. Is it about competition in swimming? If you are not at the top, are you even going to be given a chance to compete?
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interesting you brought up 4+/-, as D is hopeful for a school where the coach confirmed he will be recruiting 8 swimmers for '24 as he only recruited 4 for '23… at least she’s gotten lucky there. hopefully it’ll payoff