Great choice! World class coach and consummate professional. Tremendous coup for the Yale Fencing program.
FIE 2019-2020 Calendar is up
Hello fencing parents, this is my first post so I’m a bit nervous. Our coach asked us to choose two schools. He said coaches don’t like it when athletes contact a bunch of schools but I just don’t understand this at all. The chances of getting in to an Ivy are extremely low so why wouldn’t we contact every single one? Aside from the Ivies there are also other excellent schools not to mention plan B schools in case plan A schools don’t pan out. How can we possibly choose one or two colleges? I can’t imagine anyone putting all of their eggs in one basket and certainly not us. We don’t have a national team member or world cup gold medalist. We have a good fencer and student and I think someone will want her but how can we expect any interest if we haven’t sent out any info? Has anyone else been advised against contacting too many colleges? FYI - our fencer is A19, top 25 JRP, 1450 SAT and 4.0 GPA - high school junior.
Rising junior or completing junior year? Has your fencer already contacted coaches or not? How many SAT attempts; one time or superscore after multiple attempts? Recommendations would strongly depend on the specific situation, but your description suggests your fencer should have good potential for recruitment or strong support. Almost all those that have posted here have experience with communicating with multiple coaches. The info in this forum is very valuable and in my son’s experience quite accurate. Certainly worth reviewing carefully if you haven’t yet. Many here would be happy to answer more specific questions.
@OldnTired I think that’s very strange advice — my son’s coach encouraged him to talk to lots of schools, and he personally helped S set up several meetings with coaches at Nationals. So I would definitely not limit yourself to only 1 or 2 potential schools.
However, regarding your question as to “why wouldn’t we contact every single [Ivy],” one answer to that is that it’s unlikely that every Ivy would be an equally good fit for your daughter. I would look at which programs are strongest for her major, which school “vibes” seem to fit her personality best, which coaches she would want to work with, and (perhaps most importantly) which schools seem likely to be recruiting in her weapon and haven’t already committed to another fencer. Have you looked through the JRP to see where she ranks in the current recruiting class? Top 25 on the list usually means top 10 for students in her recruiting class, and she has excellent stats, so you should have a lot of options. I would put together a fencing resume ASAP, if you haven’t already done so, and start contacting coaches right away. Try to set up some meetings at Nationals if you can.
helmut and Corraleno - Our club coach hasn’t mentioned anyone interested in meeting our fencer at Nationals so we’ll try and get it done now. Yes, I agree some Ivies are a better fit however they are all excellent schools. I appreciate the feedback, thank you for your comments.
@OldnTired : as @“helmut?” mentioned, there is a wealth of information on this thread. I would not pay much attention to what your club coach says (really, they don’t know as much as the people who have been through the process themselves) but rather rely on your own work and outreach. Start at the beginning of this whole thread and then more recent posts that summarize things. Sounds like you have a fencer with a lot of promise! Good luck.
@OldnTired I would discard that advice. It doesn’t make much sense on any level, IMO. Your fencer is a student athlete. The first priority is school. It wouldn’t be in your child’s best interest to narrow it down to 2 schools. I would advise seeing as many schools that draw your interest and your family has the stamina to visit. Coaches understand you need to meet them, see practices, talk to team members, in some cases do overnights, and tour the schools before you can really make an informed decision. In my experience they only ask for openness regarding any commitments you make.
As noted by others, what year your kid is matters a lot in terms of what advice you might get.
As for your coach’s input, I got the following advice from an Ivy coach when my daughter was just starting her recruiting process: Start by selecting (after some research) and reaching out to 7 schools, with the goal of meeting with 3 at the Summer Nationals before Senior year (this was during the old rules, which prohibited meeting off campus until end of Junior year), and then end goal of getting an LL or recruiting offer from at least 1.
If you are nervous about sharing any additional info about your kid/your situation, use the PM function to ask any of the more experienced parents from the forum specific questions.
My POV is that your kid has the stats to be considered viable by pretty much any program…the question is what programs still have openings/are you interested in the schools that have openings. Best of luck. If your kid is a rising HS senior, you need to get going ASAP. Heck, even if your kid is a rising HS junior you should be reaching out to coaches ASAP.
ShanFerg3, SpaceVoyager and downallunder
Thank you for your comments. Our fencer turned out to be a bit of a late bloomer. At the beginning of the season our coach told us we needed at least one podium result to grab the attention of top coaches. The math section of her SAT was also far too low. So, we waited for a better score and a good result before reaching out to schools knowing our coach wanted her to narrow it down as much as possible. Our podium result finally came mid-season and the “over 1400” SAT came recently from the May sitting. Today, we sent information to several Div 1 schools and requested meetings at SN. A few responded with “thanks for the information, see you at SN” without committing to a specific time or place to meet. One coach asked us to contact him next week when he is setting up his meeting schedule for SN. Do they wait to see how the fencer performs in the Junior event before they are willing to talk with you or is this just a polite way of letting us know they aren’t interested?
Thanks SevenDad
She is a rising senior. She sent info out to nine Div 1 schools. Our coach told us last week she was not strong enough to be of interest to the best Div 1 school but we contacted them anyway. She took the SAT again in June after a week of prep, she thinks she can do better on the math and is aiming for a 1500 +. I don’t know how much difference a 1500 will make but I’m sure it can’t hurt. She took two AP’s this year and her results come back in July, most of her other courses were honors or advanced. She is not sure what she wants to major in or what she wants to do for a career which makes it harder to narrow down schools.
I don’t understand how a top 25 JRP senior wouldn’t be of interest to Div 1 schools?! With good academic credentials, it’s still be possible to get in and walk on without coach support during admissions (though reach schools are dicey anyhow).
@SevenDad (and others), how soon is too soon to reach out to coaches? Rising sophomores?
@OldnTired: Obviously the higher the better, but I was told that 1400 is good enough for a recruited fencer at most/all Ivies. I would not sweat retaking to chase a 1500+.
@picklish: I think my daughter started reaching out in fall of her Soph year…if you are not a top-tier recruit (national team or at least regular medal winner), I think part of the battle is getting on — and staying on — the radar of coaches at programs you are interested in. Optimally, you’ll have some info/updates to share at each contact point (such as new results, rating, ranking, scores, EC achievement, video, etc.).
I’ll remind people of what I think is a good subject line strategy: FENCER’S NAME, WEAPON Prospect, Class of 20XX
That way the coach knows exactly what s/he is getting before s/he opens the email.
To clarify - he was referring to the best Division 1 school. He did say we might have a chance with some of the weaker ivies or top non-ivies. Our coach seems to have good relationships with several college coaches so we expected him to guide us through the process. What we’ve learned is that he’s more of a reactive personality and very focused on coaching mechanics and not the college process. We figured this out a bit too late. I’ve read through CC posts over the years but each fencer’s situation is unique depending on club, coach, academics and development. We didn’t like the idea of sending out what felt like an immature résumé - we believed good results and scores would come during her junior year and wanted to make the best impression possible. So I think we’re in this situation due to a couple of reasons and agree that we should have been more proactive earlier in the process.
Unfortunately, many club coaches are great fencing coaches, but not great coaches to guide you in the recruitment process. This thread has a wealth of knowledge and advise on fencing recruitment, far more than what your club coach can tell you. It has been our experience, when we asked our coach about recruitment, it was often very lacking in giving us any meaningful direction.
However, once the connection is made with a particular college coach, then our coach became extremely helpful, especially since he is a very renown coach. The college coach also does his due diligence on the recruit before discussing commitment. They will rely on the club coaches recommendation regarding the athletes ability but more importantly his/her personality, teamwork, and sportsmanship. They also rely a lot on the input of his athletes on the team, since many of them had interactions with the recruit and will be able to tell the coach if he/she wil be a good fit for the team.
@OldnTired I don’t feel it’s an anomaly that your coach doesn’t have the best grasp of the recruiting process. My daughter’s coach didn’t either, most don’t from the feedback I’ve gotten from other parents. But, my coach didn’t offer much advice either. Take a look at the top 10 graduating your fencer’s year in that weapon. If your child falls within that 10, I disagree that your fencer isn’t recruitable by any program. This is dependent on need of course. Especially given your grades. Btw, you can and should speak candidly to the coaches about what scores the admission committee at each respective school looks for in recruits. They will let you know if your scores are good enough. I feel they are. To answer your other question, you are kind of late to the process. But, certainly not too late. I don’t feel you need to wait until SN. Your fencer already has a good ranking. You should ask to meet the coaches at the schools you are interested in to talk about possible interest in your fencer. I did this in December of my daughter’s Junior year.
@OldnTired - I think you have received some very good advice from people all experienced in the fencing recruiting process. I especially think that @noanswers take on the value of your coach’s input is particularly insightful. At this point in the process, there is no time or need for second guessing or recriminations. You are a month out from Summer Nationals and there is plenty of time to reach out to coaches and to try and set up meeting. The increasingly accelerated time frame of the recruiting process may have set you back a bit, but for a fencer of your daughter’s caliber, combined with her wholly acceptable academic statistics, there will almost always be slots available. As you may also have surmised from numerous posts to that effect on this thread, the recruiting process is extremely fluid. Fencers often change their minds and plans change, e.g., taking time off to compete for 2020 Olympics, leaving slots unexpectedly available late in the game. I am a bit surprised that your daughter was not more on the radar of coaches consider her stats, but understand why you felt the need for a podium finish and to enhance her academics. In any case, you are where you are and it sounds as if you are making up for lost time. As others on this thread have suggested, if you feel it will help to be more specific and wish to do so in a private setting, you should definitely reach out to any of the experienced posters with whom you feel comfortable. Good luck!
@OldnTired - Just curious if your daughter has got any contacts from college fencing team coach as her ranking is very high.
@Happylife4 If you’re asking whether the coach made the first contact in someone who is highly ranked, then the official answer would be no. However, for athletes on their radar they have ways of letting the potential recruits know of their interest. They often ask their athletes on their roster for advice in choosing an athlete. If there is someone whom they really want on their team, then the team member will reach out to the recruit to consider their school. Usually this team member would already be a friend or an acquaintance of the recruit. Other ways would be through the club coach.