<p>If you have been through the process already, I would be curious to know what you would do differently if you had a second shot at it.</p>
<p>P.S. If there is already a thread on this, please just direct me that way.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>The biggest mistake I made in the recruiting process was not sending questionaires to all the schools that I might have had the slightest interest in.</p>
<p>TBH, the recruiting process is stressful, confusing, fun, exciting, different, informative, and revealing all at once! Schools that I thought I would love turned out not to be so impressive, while places I’d overlooked seemed more fitting than expected.</p>
<p>Just know that hindsight really is 20/20.
You might think you know something, but in reality you don’t…</p>
<p>Just go with the flow and take advantage of every opportunity. Enjoy your official visits, ask tough questions, meet current students… You only go through this process once!</p>
<p>I really have no regrets. I feel that my experience was comprehensive and enjoyable. In the end I got exactly what I wanted. If I were to do it over again I would probably make some changes, but in reality some of the mistakes I made allowed me to realize what I wanted and become completely satisfied with what I ended up accomplishing.</p>
<p>Good luck future recruits!</p>
<p>PM if you have any questions… haha this is getting lengthy!</p>
<p>The biggest mistake we made in the recruiting process was not taking enough control of it ourselves. My daughter had a very controlling coach who insisted he would take care of it… things ended up okay, she got a scholarship and is at a good place for her but I feel like if we had been involved there would have been more options available to her. I would definitely change that.</p>
<p>This is a great idea for a thread.
I would say an early mistake was assuming there was some sort of correlation between the number of direct mail pieces received and the interest of the coach.</p>
<p>Don’t limit your contacts to the schools who have been filling your mailbox.</p>
<p>I have to echo mirrorimages response in addition to not keeping them(the schools) all at bay until we were ready to make our decision. It just seemed that the coaches that we were most interested in didn’t seem as vested and it was an after thought. I mean we ended up at the school that won the national championship in her sport and there was only three recruits that signed on (total) versus another school that was the previous national champion that recruited Olympians, National Champions and a few other highly rated competitors where we would have just be fodder.</p>
<p>Great thread idea!</p>
<p>I agree with Momof2010. You should not rely on your current coach to make contacts for you. Do your homework, fill out questionnaires, email and call those coaches on your own. If you have a coach who will actually reach out for you - great! But my experience has been (with S currently swimming at a D1 school, and D trying to), that any real interest demonstrated by college coaches was due to my kids making contact and their club coach really had nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>Also, once your athlete is on an OV and is having that one on one meeting with the coach, be sure to ask the hard questions, and be direct. When we were new at this and more naive, when my S went on his OV’s, he never came out and asked what kind of scholarship money the school was willing to give him. The result was after OV 1 he had no idea whatsoever as to their level of interest in him; OV 2 offered him a spot on the team and a week later called and said there would be some money but they had to wait until all of the OVs were finished; and then finally on OV 3, the coach came right out and made him an offer at the meeting -whew! OV 3 is where he ended up going, not because of the straightforwardness of the coach, (although that helped), but because it truly was the place he felt the happiest. My D now knows no matter how uncomfortable it is, she needs to come out and ask.</p>
<p>Don’t burn your bridges.
S got lead on by number 1 school(“I can pretty much pick my recruits”)when he was a junior, had to force him(thank God I did)to look at other schools and be polite, then school A drops him at the last minute(day before ED deadline). It wasn’t due to ANYTHING on his part, he had the same test scores and a 4.0.
I can only assume someone better didn’t get their LL…
So keep the options open, and remember, all the coaches are casting a wide net. It’s no skin off their nose if you don’t get in and he has someone better.</p>
<p>Take the time to respond to each school that contacts you. While my children always responded with a personalized email, many of their teammates did not. Beyond the issue of courtesy, coaches at schools that you are not interested in may end up at your top choices.</p>
<p>Still in the process, but know a few who’ve been thru it. One observation I have made is that sometimes recruits do not take advantage of their connections at a school (previous teammates who now compete in college). We know a recruit who showed up for a visit without even letting her former teammate know she was coming. What a missed opportunity, not to mention the college athlete was insulted. The current college athletes oftentimes have A LOT of pull with the coach and can really help you out. Even if you didn’t know them well when you were teammates, reach out to them. It can’t hurt. They are usually excited to help.</p>
<p>The other thing I would say is that some recruits start the process off kind of cocky and turn their noses up at some schools. I know one recruit who blew off a school that would have ended up being her best option athletically, academically, and financially. She was sure she would get a better offer. She didn’t.</p>
<p>Lead with what you are good at and define your goals. We looked at all kinds of baseball programs & levels (D1 and D3) and then tried to match the academics…this was the wrong approach for us. If we had led with acadmemic schools that had good baseball programs we would have saved ourselves a lot of time, money and frustration. In the end it worked out fantastically for my son, but the journey was a lot “bumpier” than it had to be.</p>
<p>It has all worked out-- he writes as the car is packed and tomorrow we are off to deposit D at college. But for the longest time there was another coach in an associated sport in a D1 program who had been tell us–first through the club coaches and then to us that D was a definite recruit-- which messed with her mind–was she a swimmer or a water polo player-- while they at first glance seem very similar in reality they are not-- thin and lithe for a swimmer, big and powerful for a polo player–she tried to do both. Then at the end of her junior year her high school coach called the college coach to confirm all that had been said for years-- and he denied everything–he wasn’t interested in her–that if she got in on her own she would certainly walk on but that was it. </p>
<p>So now the mad scramble to get in touch with swim coaches --thankfully she had made and maintained contacts with these coaches–but all of them wanted to know-- are you going to devote yourself just to swimming? It was a doubt she had to over come in their minds. She did, especially for her future coach who is a gem-- so as I wrote, in the end it has all worked out better than we could have hoped–she will receive among the finest undergraduate educations and swim for a close knit, competitive team with a mensche for a coach.</p>
<p>But the take away–coaches are like teenage boys on a date-- take everything they say with a grain (or a shaker) of salt-- because most of them are less than trustworthy. Listen closely to the grapevine (read these threads) as to which as great people and which are–more morally lax.</p>
<p>I have to agree about the coach contacts, make as many as possible early on. Things change through the process and what may interest a coach to start, might be pushed out by another recruit or coaches move to other programs, etc.</p>
<p>Always ask the question “if you didn’t play (insert sport) would you go to this school”. Make your decision based on that first, then the sport program.</p>
<p>Try to evaluate all the aspects of the athletic program that matter to you and compare and contrast among the favorites. But don’t eliminate any school based solely on one factor. Based on a number of data points yes, but not just on one. We did that, and we ended up being wrong in how we understand that one aspect, or else that one thing changed soon after (eg. coach).</p>
<p>The recruiting timeline varies greatly by sport, gender, level (d1, d2, d3) and ranking (national conteder, mid major conference, also rans). Don’t rely on your friend’s or teammates to give you an accurate timeline.</p>
<p>An example from this thread. People are talking about getting (or not getting) offers at OVs (SR year). For girl’s soccer, many players get offers the summer before JR year - top players at top programs are even earlier (summer before Soph year is not unheard of).</p>
<p>Fortunately, my daughter did not make this mistake, but we know others who chose their school based solely on athletics and are now miserable at a school that is not a good fit for them. I know this has been said umpteen times on this forum, but school FIT is most important. Things change with athletics, injuries happen, coaches leave, the team does not live up to the rosy picture painted at the OV, etc. If the student-athlete is not completely happy with the school itself, these athletic problems can become unbearable. Choose a school that you will be happy with, even if your sport is out of the picture!</p>
<p>Son’s very talented travel ball teammate, a 2014, signed during his FRESHMAN year with a top local program. Since then he has gained 30 lbs (not muscle), gotten a LOT slower, and his grades are abysmal. If he can still get admitted to the college he committed to, it will be a miracle. Apprently he is putting all his eggs in the draft basket.</p>
<p>I won’t say biggest mistake but the best advice is dependent how talented your child is and what level of interest exist. In any case take control of the process and be proactive in your research. You would be amazed how much you can find out about a school and program without ever talking to a coach. Whenever we took unofficial visit’s to a school we always scheduled them so we could also take a group tour with the Admissions department on our own if available. The presentation given by the Admissions department to regular high school students and their families presents a different view of a school than a tour given by a coach who’s goal is to get you to sign.</p>
<p>Understand that there are a limited number of spots and a limited amount of money or scholarships. The money and spots available in September may not be there come December or January. Most coaches wont give you a date to make a decision but know that no matter what they tell you there is always someone else in the pipeline. </p>
<p>If you kid is not a blue chip prospect you need to market them yourself, don’t rely solely on their coach or the hope that they will be spotted at some camp or clinic. Start by identifying schools they have interest in and filling out the questionnaire found of the athletic site for prospective student athletes. </p>
<p>Make contact with the coach, their ability to contact your child is restricted at certain times but you can contact them pretty much anytime. Don’t be afraid to ask what their interest is in your child and where your child stands in their recruitment plans. Finally, don’t waste your time or the coaches time if you really don’t have any interest in a school.</p>
<p>Receiving “coaches support” at an ivy is absolutely not a guarantee. Cover your bases. Do not put all eggs in one basket. S did. Thought the process was easy. Didn’t get in…</p>
<p>However, at other “better fit” school and now playing a different sport as a walk on… so it does all work out, even if it wasn’t the original plan.</p>
<p>In addition to all the great advice above, Get Everything In Writing. Bird in hand worth 2 in bush==signed committment worth offers in the pipeline</p>
<p>The biggest mistake was that DD started recruiting process late on his senior year.</p>
<p>The other advise is “Don’t let your spouse answering coach phone call.” - it is joke.</p>
<p>One time during dinner time coach called, my wife misinterpreted which coach/school was calling so coach thought DD might not interested in his program and move on to the other players. At the end DD went to this school and doesn’t play soccer at all. It broke my heart.</p>
<p>DD just called and he made the cut for tryout and he will be playing school soccer team while study aboard in UK this fall. Couldn’t be better than that.</p>