@Happylife4: Welcome to the forum! Not a bad idea to read this thread from the beginning. IMO, the most important thing for your daughter right now is to continue to enjoy and grow in the sport!
@SevenDad , Exactly! :))
Been away from the PC all day so just catching up…
I think we all can get a little deep in the weeds when it comes to the recruiting process.
Whatever the school, the process starts with a sense of the prospective recruit as a talent and as a ranked/rated commodity. The Junior Points List is the standard indicator although, as Seven points out, unusual success at the Cadet level (e.g., a World Team or even a World Championship) can weigh-in. Clearly, while a top program may start in the rarefied air of the top 5-10 junior fencers in each weapon/gender, less competitive programs, however elite the school, will often go much further down the points list. There is also nothing barring a top program from venturing further down the list if the program absolutely must fill a recruiting (or even an academic) need unmet at the top of the list, or if a particular fencer is of special interest to the coach. Btw, my personal sense is that elite schools with less competitive fencing programs often look more to rating than ranking.
Once a fencer is considered viable solely from an atheltic perspective, academics, standardized test scores and the normal spectrum of college application expectations come into play. No matter how stellar the fencing, there are testing and academic levels below which no school will go and below which no college coach can help. So whether you are looking at very competitive fencing programs, very elite academic institutions or trying to parlay both of these, you gain attention through your fencing, but you ultimately gain admission based on your academic record. Yes, there is often leeway for desirable recruits. There is no question that hot recruits can get into elite colleges with lesser statistics. But it only goes so far and, to Stencils’ points, you should think twice about putting your child (or to fencer-posters, yourself) in the position of struggling to stay afloat in an unsuitable academic setting.
I also think that Chelsea makes a very important point. The coaches are not there to trick or to mislead. If you listen carefully and closely, most will be very direct as to their intentions regarding particular fencers. Some will not even take a meeting with you if they are not recruiting in your weapon/gender or if they perceive you as below the cut-off at which they will offer recruitment. As Seven points out, be realistic. This does not mean that you give up or write-off schools, but try to have as accurate a sense as possible as to where you are most likely to be recruited. Above all, listen.
Finally, to Chelsea’s point about the wasted ED. I think that what she is referring to is using your one shot at early admission (arguably a valuable commodity as schools take a higher and higher percentage of admits from the ED/EA apps) in a less than productive manner. By all means, if you have the academics, are dying to go to a particular school, and feel that fencing may perhaps provide a tie-breaker, go for it. But be wise in playing your ace. If the school is not recruiting you or you do not have strong coach support (where it actually matters), you are a regular applicant subject to all of the extreme admissions statistics of elite school admission.
Question for parents of college fencers/graduates: when your kid’s school is in exam week, are there practices/meets? Does it depend on the school/program?
I can only speak for my son’s program and there are absolutely no mandatory practices during exam periods. There are also no meets. This does not always apply to vacations. For instance, just this past weekend, many schools are in the final week of their Winter Break and there was a major NCAA meet at Penn State. This also does not apply to conflicts between international events and exam periods. Almost every year there is a major international tournament that overlaps exam periods for one or more weapon/gender. It falls to the student to coordinate this with professors as far in advance as possible. My son developed a very streamlined process both for introducing himself and his fencing to his prospective professors each semester. He is then able to work with them to move around testing dates, get assignments in advance, and to work with due dates to accommodate his fencing schedule. Am always willing to share for all who are interested.
@SevenDad Pretty much the same here. There were no tournaments scheduled during or immediately prior to exam week, and no practices during exam week. However, there were two tournaments scheduled for the weekends post-New Years before school started, so she had to go back to school a couple of weeks earlier than most students. Classes start back up this week.
@SevenDad - At her small, D3 LAC, my daughter had no practices during finals week, and voluntary practices the week before finals week. No meets scheduled - but on the trimester system, finals week was the week of Thanksgiving.
Thanks for chiming in, all!
As a parent of a class of 2022 recruit, I’d like to report back with highlights of our journey which had recently concluded with our fencer getting recruited by a Div 1 fencing school. We’ve benefited tremendously from this (and the previous) forum and suggest all fencers/parents to read through every post. Our journey was unique and I am sure that each recruited fencer has his or her own special story, Below are some highlights of ours.
As every parent should, our priority for our fencer has always been academics. While our fencer has had decent results (podium finishes), ranking was not high enough to attract top-tier Ivy coaches’ attention. We focused on schools that have strong academics and good fencing programs. Our fencer figured that if recruitment doesn’t materialize, he can always go through the regular decision round.
The Div 1 schools that we contacted fall into two categories:
Super competitive fencing schools that are looking for top 20 fencer on the Juniors Points List (think Columbia, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, ND)
Competitive fencing schools with super strong academics. (Yale, Stanford, Duke, Brown)
All coaches that we’ve contacted were very professional. We were particularly impressed with a couple of them for their responsiveness and attention. We can see why those two programs are at the very top in the past few years. Below are some details:
- Our fencer went thru a list of interested schools’ rosters to try to project their needs
- Our fencer sent an introduction email along with the 1 page resume to each
- Response rate was around 80%. Some coaches are harder to get a hold of than others
- We arranged visits with coaches at a few schools, with results ranging from just ‘thanks for dropping by”, to “I think you will be a good fit for our team”.
After the NCAA fencing season was over (around April), the coaches seems to be more ready to focus on future recruits. Our fencer regularly updated the coaches with both fencing and academic results (approximately monthly)
We got a verbal commitment from the coach in early summer, and went ahead with the early application process which resulted in an acceptance letter from the admissions office.
For fencers wanting a spot in the top-tier Ivies, keep in mind that there are lots of people chasing very few spots every year. For every success story that’s posted, there are numerous others that moved on with acceptances to other excellent universities.
One last thing, each schools has a ‘Common Data Set’ that we found to be very useful. It lists attributes that are important to each school (class rank, standardized test scores, couse work rigor), which helped us target certain schools.
Good luck to all fencers/parents that are currently going through this journey.
@Stickdude: Congrats to your kid and thanks for sharing your family’s recruitment story…it just adds more info to the thread, making it even more helpful. I agree very much that everyone’s journey is different, especially for recruits outside of the top tier.
Recently a few of the OGs and I were wondering how many families have benefited from this thread since its reboot back in 2016? It recently went over 50k views!
One more question about NCAA fencing, this time about fencing decorum at a university meet.
When my daughter was at a USA Fencing tournament, she refrained from cheering whenever anyone from her home club fenced anyone from her university, but what about when she is at an NCAA event and there happens to be some fencers there from her home club? The university in the same city as her home fencing center is sending its club team to the same NCAA meet my daughter will be at and there will definitely be some fencers she knows. I would be inclined to think, during the NCAA season and at an NCAA event, she should probably cheer on her university team, but I’d hate for her to make a faux pas.
Thank you again for any advice,
–S.F.
S.F., although it can get blurred, there are actually pretty distinct lines as far as fencing affiliations: NCAA meets belong to your college team; National meets belong to your fencing club, and International meets belong to USA Fencing/Team USA. While it is never considered good form to root for your clubmate’s opponent at a National event, or for your Team USA co-member’s opponent in an International event, at NCAAs it’s all about your college team and teammates. My son’s best friends each fence for a different college program. Whenever they meet in competition, there is a very friendly rivalry among the parents and teams, but we all root for our college team regardless of the opponent. NCAAs are really fun events. They should be enjoyed with all of the rah-rah, and go-team fanfare you can muster!
@BrooklynRye Thanks for the confirmation. I was hoping she was free to be pro-university team all day, but I’ve been around fencing just long enough to know it has some of its own quirks.
I figure we’ll politely root for the local university’s club team whenever they are not facing an opponent from my daughter’s team.
We’re really looking forward to the fencing events this weekend. Though it still seems a little surreal to think of our daughter as an NCAA athlete.
Thanks again,
–S.F.
Do most parents attend the NCAA events, as they do at the NACs? In reading the above posts, it seems they do. Are parent and family member attendance encouraged by the coaches and the athletes, or is it the opposite?
I do not believe that most parents attend NCAA events but am sure the schools, coaches and fencers (at least most of them) would love if the parents attended. I think part of the reason parents are less likely to attend (at least the regular season events) is that it’s kind of not about their kid and more about the team. The regular season events also mean relatively little to the team or individual fencers. The regular season is really a warm-up for the big post-season events, including Ivies, Regionals (some call these “Divisionals”), and for the National Championships. To the extent to which events may be further away, it can also be a lot of travel and time to watch your kid fence a handful of 5-touch bouts. During my son’s freshman year, I attended every NCAA event. I just wanted to experience the full college season. This year, I will be attending my first event this weekend, already into the 2nd half of the season. In any case, it’s a matter of preference, but I do believe parents are most welcome (especially if you bring snacks!).
I know my wife and I plan to attend as many NCAA events as we can next year. With snacks.
So… why kind of snacks do people bring and how much? S has scheduled an admitted students visit to coincide with Regionals next month, so we are planning to stay to watch the competition over the weekend. I’d love some snack recommendations!
I’m going to the NCAA event this weekend and I plan on bringing a mid-day margarita. No sherpa job for me! Just a fan and happy to cheer without my kid giving me the death stare/eye roll, as he won’t be competing till (hopefully) next year.
@chelsea465: I also fear the side eye from my kid this weekend… 
I have a question for the veteran parents.
I know there’s all sorts of stats that are collected and managed for collegiate fencing… the number of bouts, fencer strength factors, etc. It seems these aren’t published anywhere though – at least I can’t find it. It’s also nearly impossible to find results from duals beyond the weapon-level total results. A small number of collegiate teams put scanned PDFs of actual bout results on their websites, but most don’t.
Is there some hidden clearinghouse of NCAA detailed results and fencer stats I’m missing?