So I guess to summarize, visits, whether official or unofficial, can take place before or after offers. Or not at all. I do know a D3 athlete that committed in late spring who hasn’t stepped foot on the campus yet.
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To add to my perfunctory analysis above, I noticed that Pomona-Pitzer already has two 2024 recruits announced on SwimCloud. Looking at the times for one, for her fastest five events (200 free, 100 free, 200 back, 100 back, 50 free), her best times this past season would rank as follows relative to the best times for P-P and the conference (SCIAC) this past season:
-
P-P: #2, #2, #2, #1, #6
-
SCIAC: #2, #3, #3, #2, #6
That’s an example of the level of the competition: swimmers who could come in and immediately score a lot of points in the conference meet in multiple events.
ETA: the team also has an extremely high collective GPA. They all likely had outstanding high school academic stats.
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** 6 pre-reads passed, green/no conditions, 4 conferences
** 3 pre-read in progress, expected completion with 7 days
** D24 expects 2-4 teams to drop because they are too fast, even with passed pre-reads
** she intends to apply to
- one ED school from her swim list with coach support
- McGill rolling admission & 1-2 EAs as backup in case
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Fantastic - she must be thrilled that her hard work is paying off!
Has she verbally committed to the application process?
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Your message is not clear to me.
Are you saying she has explicit coach support from 1 team on her list?
Or she expects that she will get coach support?
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Why would she ask that question and how would the coach know or care? Coach only recruiting for own school team. Scratch that question.
After the “green” preread results were shared with your daughter, what was the ensuing conversation? This is the point where next steps and offers of support are made.
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I wanted to ask the same question as I am uncertain if prereads were explicitly asked for and processed. The devil is in the details here. 
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Strategically, I wonder if getting a legitimate offer from peer school with a lesser swim program like:
- Brandeis
- Bryn Mawr
- Carleton
- Dickinson
- Macalester
- Mt. Holyoke
- Oberlin
- Rochester
- Skidmore
- Smith
- Trinity College
- Union
- Wellesley
- Whitman
would have given the OP’s kid the ability to call the coach of the programs she is waiting for (truly wants), and let them know they are her top choice and would accept an offer if given. This would be better than waiting by the phone for a coach who probably thinks he/she holds all the cards.
Negotiation, momentum, competition…all part of the college athletic recruiting process.
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Such a negotiation tactic when one is not the top recruit will invariably result in the following counteroffer: “We wish you well at Brandeis.”
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The suggestion didn’t seem like a “negotiation tactic” to entice faster swim programs, but rather to appropriately target swim programs (if I’m not mistaken, all of those listed are outside of the top-50 fastest D3 programs) where the potential recruit would be a higher priority.
That would seem to be a better route than focusing on programs like Pomona-Pitzer (ranked #10 last season in D3), where the potential recruit’s time in their fastest event is bettered by 10-12 current rostered swimmers and where even a walk-on position is unlikely at best.
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While this may be true, it would still mean in one more offer than the OP currently has…
For example, while we know the OP doesn’t want a woman’s college, if they had an offer from Wellesley, they would have at least some reason to call more desired programs for a conversation about how important being a coed program is to the swimmer. Now? waiting for the phone to ring…
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D24’s journey went through various cycles of discovery, learning protocol (thanks to both cc contributors, teammates and parents!), facing both reality and disappointment.
She’s very keen to receive the full feedback from every remaining pre-read in the coming days and learn from it. She fully understands that coaches/schools that have not yet reported her pre-read results are probably less likely to prioritize her recruitment, though one coach in particular has been extremely supportive and could well be waiting for hers and other pre-reads to come back.
Then will come the difficult time to finalize her commitment, and update other coaches.
Couple questions she raised were:
- is there a practice where coaches reconfirm their full support in writing and copy admission?
- is there a standard protocol for updating coaches where one decides not to pursue the recruiting process
The wording here is confusing. Who is “one” in this sentence? Are you asking if your daughter needs to let a coach know if she decides to not accept an offer? Or just if she decides to drop them from her list of possibilities?
If she is given multiple offers to choose between, the protocol is to have a “break up call” where she informs the coach that she has decided on another program.
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She is unlikely to receive anything in writing from a D3 coach at the schools we are talking about (and never from admissions). Even if she did, it would be meaningless as it would offer no greater assurance than the verbal offer of full support.
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That seems like a insulting request to make: signaling to the coach that you don’t trust them.
These are verbal commitments on the coach’s part (that they will provide support with admissions) and the athlete’s part (that they’ll submit an ED app and enroll if accepted).
If you don’t trust the coach to that degree, don’t commit.
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Once your daughter has decided, have her send the coach an email Like this: “Thank you for your help during the recruiting process and in particular for offering your support of my application with the admissions office. As discussed, I will submit an ED application and hope that everything moves forward smoothly.”
OR
“I am ready to commit to the application process at __________ college, and as we have discussed, I will apply ED. Thank you for supporting my application with the admissions office.”
As noted, these are “verbal commitments,” which means that they really are nothing at all. The recruit can back out, as can the coach. If there is any quid pro quo at all, it is that the coach will support the application in exchange for the recruit applying early. Admission is not a part of the deal.
I will say that we did this kind of email and received confirmation back from the coach. Admissions was not copied, and I wouldn’t expect that. I would stay away from communications between the coach and admissions (or any communications with admissions about being an athletic recruit).
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@gointhruaphase Thanks for you detailed and pointed feedback, exactly what she was looking for with her questions. as all of you who have been through this journey, she’s excited and looking forward to pursue her academic and athletic journey with her team and at a great school.
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@superdpmestique interesting your mention negotiation tactic, which raises a question:
D24 is in discussion with coaches across 4 different conferences: one would assume that if a coach cared, it would be mostly about athletes being recruited by schools in the same conference? The Claremont coach would have little care that a recruit joins a NESCAC team, no?
Probably because she swam in the US this summer, or maybe because it’s very late in the recruiting process, D24 suddenly received an inbound email from a very selective girl’s college head coach win she has never previously contacted. This very much validates the usefulness of being associated, training and competing with a US team. In retrospect, and for other international swimmers, she should probably have done it at the end of sophomore year. This would have helped her recruiting journey (not that it would necessarily have lead to a different outcome)
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The Claremont coach would have little care that a recruit joins a NESCAC team, no?
If the Claremont coach really wants your daughter as a recruit on his team, then yes, he would care that she was going to any other team, even if it wasn’t direct competition in the same league.
@SuperDomestique has been telling you for months to have your daughter look into the women’s colleges. Now that a coach has reached out to your daughter, is she possibly open to such a school now? It must make her feel good that a coach has been the one who extended interest, not the other way around.
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This!
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