I hope everyone is doing ok.
It’s hard to believe it’s almost August.
D21 is in the recruiting process and it seems like the pandemic has affected so many aspects of this journey.
Tournaments, the potential for better JNP rank, standardized testing, official visits, the whole recruiting timeline and the number of recruitment spots (for some schools) have been adversely affected.
As for recruitment slots, D has been turned down lately by two Div 1 coaches who had previously offered her official visits this coming fall (of course this was discussed pre-COVID); they originally told her they were looking seriously to recruit her. One told us specifically that the number of athletes he could recruit was changed due to financial restraints caused by the pandemic
Out of despair, last week DD emailed a couple of Div 3 coaches who responded and showed interest immediately.
One coach just responded today and said that he would for love her to be on his team. However, he wants her to decide by August 1st! He’s pushing her to apply ED1.
A couple of ivy coaches still have her on their shortlist since last year and are in the middle of completing her pre-read. It has been over a month and she still has not heard back from them.
I’m just wondering if others are experiencing similar situations of being in limbo. It’s hard to manage when half the coaches want an answer ASAP while the other half are reticent.
This recruiting year has been fraught with uncertainty and stress.
@smileymomma although my son plays a different sport (soccer) I had to chime in – I am so glad to read your post! Because it seems like now is when the stress/anxiety is really ramping up. My son’s journey sounds a lot like your daughter’s, including the fact that he’s waiting to hear on two pre-reads, which I was thinking was a bad sign. I will pass on to you what a coach (not college) just told me today, which is that things are so chaotic at the schools many things are delayed and he said not to read too much into the fact that the preread was taking longer than expected. Let’s hope he is correct!
Very best of luck to your daughter, it sounds like she will have some good choices soon!
Thank you for the words of support @cinnamon1212. I look forward to seeing a “good news” update or post regarding your son’s recruiting… Soccer is an incredible sport and it’s very competitive. It’s not easy to fall under the college coaches’ radar. Best of luck to your DS!
To a point several have made regarding the impact on the Olympic pipeline from colleges, great article in the Washington Post with some opinions, facts, and figures.
I am truly sorry for all the students athletes caught up in the uncertainty of the recruiting/admissions process. It’s also hard (although maybe not as hard) for those who are in college and not able to play as expected. Although I am perhaps stating the obvious, this situation (all the COVID-related uncertainty) highlights the oft-stated advice that students should make sure that the school(s) they are choosing are ones where they will be fulfilled, even if they never fence (or play whichever chosen sport) again. Good luck to all, and let’s hope that the future looks brighter soon…
@Feppe44 - Here’s a list to get you started. I encourage others to supplement it and/or “delete” the names of schools that don’t belong on the list - Sacred Heart, Yale, Notre Dame, Harvard, MIT, Detroit Mercy, NJIT, Saint John’s, Princeton, UNC, Ohio State, Penn State, Temple.
It’s possible that some schools have changed admission options in light of the challenges created by COVID-19. And if schools allow large numbers of students to defer all or part of the 2020-2021 academic year, that may impact capacity in future years. Not a great situation for schools or students.
@Feppe44 What level of fencer is your S/D? Some schools listed above are Women only (Temple). There are programs in D1, D2 and D3. The D1 landscape is definitely going to have fencers that are high on JNRPL or FIE ranked and that is something to consider when you are thinking about whether your S/D will be able to walk on to a team if they are not recruited and even if they can, will they get to fence? Being a walk in at Harvard or ND, for example, may be difficult to fence depending on your child weapon / gender. Are they looking to apply to college 2020 for entry in 2021? Princeton removed their EA round this year and will just go with one regular round. If you google NCAA fencing programs you can see the list by division and then can go to each school with EA and check out their rosters to see where your child would fall in terms of their fencing chops with other kids on the roster. HTH
Columbia joined the growing list of schools to go fully remote for fall semester. Princeton and Harvard already on the list. Not looking good for the NCAA Fencing season.
@BrooklynRye I agree it seems less and less likely there will be a 20-21 NCAA fencing season. Given the particular rules around “red shirting” for ivies (i.e. I don’t believe the ivy conference supports) what are you hearing around current college fencers taking gap years - esp in Ivies? I know there has been a lot of chatter that we will see this happen. If we do, do you believe that this will likely negatively impact future recruiting - esp for HS 2021 - since rosters will be full with current students / incoming 2020 frosh who take gap year. Thoughts?
@GlobalFencingMom My daughter and I were discussing something similar to this. She’s a rising senior on a Div 1, non-Ivy fencing team. If the season is canceled this year, you may see a couple of years of heavier rosters as all current collegiate fencers have an additional year of eligibility – perhaps either taking 5 years for their undergrad or fencing for a year of grad school?
I wonder if coaches will get their usual amount of slots, or if the administration will try to compensate for an unusually high number of gap year takers by offsetting the amount of slots a coach typically gets by however many of their 2020 Freshman took a gap year. Anyone?
@GlobalFencingMom - FWIW, current high school seniors will probably be fine because the slots were committed under the 2019-2020 recruitment protocol. But, IMHO, rising juniors are going to get killed. There will simply be no room and, I would venture to guess, that colleges will indeed reduce the number of recruitment slots.
@stencils Yes for the non ivies I would expect to see gap years and then athletes signing up for a grad school program at the school and fencing their last year of eligibility. It may impact recruiting but if not, it is going to be a crowded field competing for those NCAA by gender / weapon spots for their school! Buckle up, this just got crazy real!
This is so discouraging as my D is a rising junior. With schools eliminating their fencing programs, kids electing to red shirt and reduction of viable spots, it’s a recipe for disaster!
@GlobalFencingMom All these assumptions based on that a lot of fencing students in the colleges want to take gap year this year or go to graduate school, correct? this may not be true.
@Happylife4 Yes, just assumptions. But, for ivies athletes can’t red shirt. So if they go to college this year the NCAA clock starts / continues to tick down on their 4 years of eligibility. NCAA has not indicated that this will be waivered this year. It is IMHO becoming less and less likely there will be an NCAA competitive season. Many colleges are remote learning for the fall who have fencing teams (Harvard, Columbia, ND to name a few). I have heard of quite a few incoming 2020 fencers to DI programs who elected recently to take gap years. I am sure in the fullness of time it will become apparent what the impact to fencing rosters will look like next year and beyond. As we all know, most coaches don’t get a slot per gender / weapon per year. They get a parcel of slots and then decide based on need (driven by gender/weapon graduating sequence) how to use their slots. For example, for 2020 Columbia did not recruit any MF because they had managed to get a nice haul the year before and in addition, they did not pick up any RD MF. So, I imagine with possible gap years and potential impact to slots provided to the coach and how the need landscape shakes out they may have to use slots differently to ensure that they maintain a balanced team. This is one school. Same thing is going to play out across the board.