With all the turmoil in the PAC12 athletic conference (which Stanford is still part of), will the loss of TV revenue for the football program lead to a renewal of calls for cancellation for Stanford’s non-revenue sports?
Hope not, but this is material adverse change…
After they briefly cut 11 sports a couple years ago and then resurrected them, aren’t a few of those sports self-funded now? (I’m not sure, so am asking)
I would be curious to see if Stanford athletics is still operating at a deficit (post-pandemic) as well.
Of course they have to make a conference move (assuming the 4 schools left in the PAC 12 can’t add at least two more schools to make the conference viable per NCAA minimum rules), should be interesting what they choose to do.
It hasn’t been made official, but I am pretty sure the Pac12 is done. I just can’t see how it comes out of this. It’s still not clear what Standford and Cal will do, but there is talk of them joining the ACC. Sports like swimming and track/XC aren’t driven by dual meets, so their costs won’t be affected too much. The team sports that will be part of the new conference will become very expensive and very demanding on the student athletes’ time if they are expected to travel to the East coast for regular games.
Both Stanford and Cal have talked about dropping some sports recently. I think this is going to be an inevitable result of the conference shakeup.
Hopefully Stanford’s next president will be more sports friendly.
Hi there! My son is a high school junior and going to October NAC in two weeks. He’s planning to attend College Fair and mostly relying on questions provided in the Official cheat sheet, that is posted on USA fencing website. What questions do you think is important to ask during the fair? Also, what can he do, besides good results at the NAC, to make coaches do not forget about him? Does he need to have kinda fencer’s resume to pass to the coaches with his achievements, school grades, GPA and class rank? Thanks in advance for your answers!
Welcome to the thread, yutaro. There is a tremendous amount of information on threads dating back years. Not that much has changed, particularly when it comes to your questions. Please look back and more thoroughly research your questions. Speaking for myself (and I am sure for others on this thread), we have posted many times answering these questions. We are here for follow-ups, but please try a lookback first.
As I understand it, college coaches can’t speak to a recruit until the summer after sophomore year, for example at tournaments. My question is: how do the coaches know which athletes are sophomores and which are juniors? I ask because my fencer’s birth year is not the same as most of his grade and if coaches are going off of the birth years listed in the points standings, they wouldn’t arrive at his correct class year. Or is this something where the athlete should already be in email contact with the coach and be on their radar that way?
They should be contacting coaches at schools they are interested in and should be including their HS graduation year in the introduction email.
Most coaches will be going by birth year, while knowing that might not be a perfect indicator. Your fencer will want to be proactive and mention graduation year when talking to/communicating with any coaches.
Even then, in our experience, your child may need to reiterate their grade when chatting with coaches. One college coach, even after discussing the issue of age with our daughter’s club coach, still asked her to verify her grade before sitting down to chat.
The eyebrow raises and questions may not fully go away in college. When our daughter switched to the discounted collegiate membership with USA Fencing, they sent an email reiterating that membership was only for those currently in college. 
Congratulations. I have been away from this thread for a while and missed your last message. Belated apology and congratulations!
Thanks so much, it is a relief now that our fencer is a senior and their college decision is made. Seems like the parents of HS Juniors are very quiet on this thread. This thread was a very helpful resource for us last year, hope others find it so as well.
Activity on the thread ebbs and flows. The Fencing Parents website and Facebook page also receive a lot of traffic.
I like to think that our little thread, started way before any of the others, remains a somewhat “intellectual” beacon in terms of the breadth of knowledge and experience to be found among its resources. The thread is not flashy, does not go for endorsements, and relies on its participants to do at least some of their own research when it comes to the plethora of questions that regularly circulate.
In any case, the more resources the better. The more research done by parents and fencers on their own, also good. But above all, the continuing promotion of an open forum where parents and fencers can access solid information, sound experience, and just nice people paying it forward.
Onward!
Hi all,
My S has applied ED to an Ivy after speaking to the coach, who did not offer her a recruited slot but would “strongly support” her application. We have no way to confirm that this coach did indeed support the application, and he is anxiously awaiting the decision. Is there any insight as to how much support he might have? He loves the school, and has stats and other ECs (published work, president of some school clubs, successful non-profit) that match other non-athlete students.
Thanks!
Was your fencer in communication with the coach after that initial conversation and before they applied. The suggestion I have is for your fencer to reach out to the coach asap and let them know they applied ED and ask about whether they were able to assist with application support. I haven’t heard of anyone doing it this way (usually if a coach offers to support the application there’s some ongoing communication about it but maybe I’m wrong?) I’d guess that clear communication and expressing how much your fencer wants to go to that college might be a good start. Good luck-
I wholeheartedly agree with @2023_2 regarding follow-up with the coach. In what was my personal extensive experience with Ivies when my fencer was engaged in the process, there are no guarantees when it comes to support as opposed to a firm commitment. I think the best you can hope for is a 50/50 shot. This is probably true at a couple of the Ivies. I know that at others support is more of a tie-breaker, sometimes during the regular admissions process, more often if the candidates is deferred. In some cases, I don’t think support means all that much. If you feel comfortable, you should perhaps reach out to people on this thread privately to get more insight into experiences with your fencer’s specific Ivy. Good luck!