Pretty good video put out by USA Fencing and the coaches of Lawrence, Brandeis, and Denison. It is billed as a mainly about DIII fencing, but I think there is good info for those interested in DI, DII, or DIII. Fencing College Recruitment Webinar - YouTube
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Maybe most silly question in this thread.
How good fencer should be so it will make any difference on college admission?
background here: DD in 9th grade, fences for school team, unranked. she wants competitions, ranking and fencing in college. I am concerned if she should spend more time studying\volunteering etc. and keep just fencing locally.
@Kycbka th good news is there are opportunities to fence in college for everyone from the Novice to the national ranked champion. There is so much great insights and info in this thread, I would suggest you look through at your leisure to get a better understanding of all the different options for fencing (Div 1, Div 3 and Club).
For admissions support I think you’ll find it all depends on the college, the program and the need. If you’re looking at one of the Ivys you’ll need to be successful on a national level. Where some of the D3 schools might be happy to get someone with a D or a C rating. There’s another thread that lists all the rankings for each teams rosters.
As you mentioned in your message the MOST important thing is academics. There is not enough hours in the week for everything and it’s always a challenge to try and keep everything in balance.
As far as your daughters fencing, try out a few non school events, Local Open tournaments and RYCs then you can build from there.
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Thank you for all answers.
She really enjoys fencing and wants to “fence more” and "fencing team, not club " at the college.
At the same time she started fencing not so far ago, unranked and wants to get into direct medical program.
As a mom I am trying to find a balance here, since there are time and money constrains.
As a target college - I think her dream would be Div 3 with direct med. I am not sure she can fence Div 1 especially with med school workload.
@Kycbka I would suggest as you and your daughter continue on the journey you keep an open mind to all kinds of college fencing. The club level ranges the spectrum of more casual student run organizations to more competitive programs with coaches. Those teams compete in fencing leagues and in meets with D1 and D3 schools and the US club championship is one of the biggest fencing competitions in the world.
I’m not sure what schools offer a direct medical program, but you might comparing a school like Wayne State (D2 program) with a UMich or UChicago who field competitive club teams.
For women’s fencing you have more options on the D3 level as there are a number of women’s only teams. The flip side is those tend to be very competitive Men’s club teams (Tufts, Northwestern, etc)
Best of luck!
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Having competitive clubs is a very good news for me. Committing to “teams only” colleges seemed like a big restrictions for me, since there are not a lot of direct pre-med programs, and not all of them fit financially and by other criteria.
This thread is definitely helping me. Thanks a lot.
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Hi @Kycbka -
There is lots of great knowledge on this fencing thread - if you have the time, try to read the first posts from the very beginning of the entire thread for background (it’s fascinating). I would say that if your daughter fences for the high school team only, it will likely be seen as one of a high school students extracurriculars and not count for anything beyond that in the admissions process. If her chosen college has a club team, she should be able to do that, but she will most likely have to do more than high school fencing to participate in NCAA. If she is able to expand participation and get a rating then that would be helpful; @novacat9191 had on-target advice.
Some of my thoughts may stray from what you asked but since you did ask I’ll give my opinion :-D. As a parent, I would support your daughter’s desire to pick up her game, so to speak, and let her try for more fencing and events (as noted, this can be local and regional events - try askfred (google it) for some local, low-key events). She could join USFA if she hasn’t already. You never know – she may truly love it and be really good. There may also be local private clubs where she can fence more people or even find a higher level coach. As to being pre-med - well, to be honest, she is only in 9th grade, which seems awfully young to put limits on trying things at a time of life when one should be exploring (again, this is obviously my opinion so feel free to ignore it, this is your family!).
I absolutely agree that academics come first, but the ability to juggle things varies widely so she has to know her abilities (it is possible to do high level sports and do well academically, but the intensity of effort is not for everyone of course).
Last note: almost every college fencer I know reports being really happy about having a “home” at college, whether it’s team or club, with a built-in social group and way to get some healthy exercise away from the library.
Good luck!
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Fencing committee selects championship participants
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Thanks for posting this @Novacat9191. How do kids qualify for NCAA championships, what’s the path? Where can I read about it?
This year the fencers were selected by a committee. Past years I believe they have regional qualifiers. I believe there is some kind of power ranking that happens over the year. I’m sure there are some folks on here with kids in school that can give you a better idea.
For more info about the NCAA Fencing Championships, you can read this publication - https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/championships/sports/fencing/nc/2020-21NCXFE_PreChampsManual.pdf
But note that the world may have changed since it was published. (I didn’t read it.)
On a more practical level, only 144 student-athletes are selected for the championships every year. Unless your child is truly elite, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time worrying about this. (And even then, IMHO, there are far more important things to focus on - eg, academics, mental health, etc.).
Qualifying for the NCAA Fencing Championships this year was completely different than prior years due to the pandemic. I presume that it is because the Ivys, Ohio State, and several Div III schools elected not to compete this year and the entire season was abbreviated. My understanding is that coaches submitted the names of 2 potential candidates for each gender and weapon, and then a committee decided who would be given a bid. I’m not sure if they decided based on the school or the individual fencer.
Over the past many years athletes qualified based on their performance over the season and during the regionals with a limit of 2 athletes per gender per weapon per school along with a predetermined number of bids per region. In addition, 2 at large national bids were provided for each gender and weapon.
Notably, ~half of the bids in prior years came from schools that will not be participating this year.
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Thank you for the explanation!
Does anyone know what happened to the May NAC?
Why did they delay registration?
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@2020qfc I don’t have any inside information but there is some speculation on the fencing reddit site that the May NAC could be cancelled (which would be really unfortunate). Among the issues is the cost of these for USAFencing, especially given the limited #s of entries.
I hope/think that a high number of people will be vaccinated by the time of the summer nationals so they may not need to limit the entries in the same way.
That would be very unfortunate, especially since there are reasons to believe that the next NAC would be better attended, including: (1) most of the rest of the country views Texas as being crazy/unsafe for COVID; (2) the April NAC had a combination of events (youth + Div 1) that is designed to suppress people going, because of the huge gap in typical ages; and (3) many people likely were thinking to skip Texas because a better-suited NAC where fencers could attend multiple NACs was around the corner. Plus real numbers of people are starting to get vaccinated. This was basically a worst-case scenario for restarting NACs.
Starting to see the qualifiers for individual states popping up on Ask Fred. NJ has both a JO qualifier for cadets and Juniors as well as a D2/D3 qualifier
They are at least a dozen. Hard to tell what this means, as I don’t know if you have to get prior permission from USFA, but this could be promising.
Still no word from USFA regarding the Minneapolis NAC.
@FencingDad2020 - Permission from USFA regarding what?
Permission to hold a JO or SN qualifier. I assume so, but I don’t know.