Being an accomplished athlete through high school is an EC, and for many schools an impressive one. Athletes, whether intending to play their sport in college or not, are valued at many schools for the characteristics that they typically have: perseverance, team player, effective time management, leadership, resilience, etc.
I’m not saying that means they get into the reaches if they are unrecruited (so as an unhooked applicant), just that AOs recognize the time commitment that many athletes have put into their sport, which can limit other ECs (which is ok).
Anywhoo, if OP wants more school suggestions at any point, I am sure they will ask.
I strongly agree with you, but do feel the need to point out there is a great diversity of AOs, their inherent and overt biases (not a negative), and what they are looking for. Some are less inclined to give credit to athletic accomplishments and are a bit more SJW. It’s a bit of a lottery who one gets.
international students with proper academic credentials and from well developed and resourceful countries can consider the following options
near free domestic education at a well recognized university
attending US universities full pay at a cost of U$400,000
In that context, it is understandable that without special considerations such as athletics, many qualified international students focus almost exclusively on stretchy schools when considering US colleges
So you are willing to spend $400,000 just to have your D swim at a small LAC in the U.S.? LACs being colleges which I assume you don’t view as “stretchy”.
@NiVo so you are trying to be a hooked candidate to one of those highly selective schools? Hoping her times are fast enough, but they may not be.
Hope that being shut out of them isn’t the driver for failure (your word, not mine), when there are many other options.
While there are AO that value athletes, they also look for success - captain of a team, all-conference honors, conference/state championship awards. I know the worst athlete may work harder than the best, but the reality is - they look for success. Not saying this kid doesn’t have that success - I just don’t know.
I don’t think you are going to get a number exactly of where ranked. It seems you’re trying to use some objective formula for all of this. Coaches may offer support and won’t likely know until close to November exactly who ends up applying ED. There is no 1-8 etc in an exact order. You have to remember that it is not D1. Kids are not signing. The coach will get an idea of what he or she wants and support some athletes. There may be a fall visit. I feel for you, but it’s just not that objective.
Is there a link to the list of US colleges which she would receive a discount/free tuition? Is this by the Hong Kong government?? I know that throughout this thread, there has been discussion/statements that if daughter attends certain selective schools on some list she can go for a large discount?
If people on here could see the list of 50 or 75 schools or whatever the number is, maybe they could do some deep dives into the swim programs.
It’s usually the opposite. US schools are generally less generous to internationals. Often admissions is need aware for internationals (i.e. ability to pay is considered), and even if an international gets in, they will not qualify for need met aid (school supplies support they calculate that the student will need in the form of grants, loans, work to meet financial obligation). An international from a low income situation may get very generous financial aid if they get into certain US schools, but if they are wealthy, they will most likely be full pay. International sources of aid more likely come from within their home country based on some national award. You may be thinking of grad school programs, which for many PhD programs are fully funded, but that is for every successful applicant.
OP stated (about 1000 posts ago) that the government in their country funds local students’ tuition at a number of prestigious US (and presumably other prestigious non US) institutions. This is what was recently requested.
@BKSquared I believe this is being asked because the OP mentioned that this kid was eligible for a payment on college costs from their country, but only for schools internationally ranked in the top 100, I think. They aren’t talking about aid from the colleges here directly.
I’m certain this applies to all families on this thread.
You are no different with the high standards than many of us here as well. My son only wanted to look at highly rejective schools; he was also a high achieving academic kid in school, yet we knew the admissions boost would come from the fact that he was a priority recruit. He had the hook so it was worth pursuing.
You created this post to seek advice from knowledgeable people who went through this process, yet at every turn, you seem to ignore our advice and know better.
McGill seems to be the academic safety, but it is not a swim safety. Your daughter needs to be certain what she wants from her college journey. My son wanted the highest academic level, coupled with competitive swimming. Swimming was a deal breaker; he was absolutely NOT willing to step away from it yet. It worked out for him that he got his perfect fit, elite school. If that dream hadn’t worked out, he would have had to make some hard decisions and step down the academic ladder to get all that he wanted from college.
We are all highly invested in this thread-so cannot wait to see the final result and will we top 2000 posts?
Nobody on this forum “knows better” than OP about the daughter’s preferences (other than the daughter herself). This forum is filled with unbelievable knowledge about athletic recruiting. The OP has taken lots of advice and not taken other advice.
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I have read though this entire thread (!) and have learned a ton in the process (my daughter has similar swim times but is not going through the recruiting process). Every day I check in thinking, “i wonder how OPs daughter is doing!” Excited to see the results of this journey.
