My kid is a Junior, swimmer who wants to swim in college. She’s been in touch with coaches and is getting positive feedback from the kinds of schools she’d like to be attending - mostly upper level DIII schools.
One of the schools sent her a note “inviting” us to come for a visit. We know this is an unofficial visit, and since it’s a DIII school the question of who pays for this visit doesn’t matter - we get to pay for it all :).
We had been planning to come back east to visit a few schools and are trying to make a schedule. My daughter is very concerned about missing too many days of swim practice, so the scheduling is vital to her. Club swim team is taking two long weekends off in April and we were hoping to go one of those weekends and add a couple of days so she only misses a few days of practice.
First preferred dates have no prospective student tours available.
Coach at one school has their 2018 recruited students day on the 2nd preferred date.
So, my questions - Does it matter much if we take the prospective student tour? My husband is a little familiar with the campus, we’ll still spend some time there and would try to get in last minute if we can.
Or is it better to visit with the coach? If this ends up being the top 1-2 schools for my kid we’d fly her back for an official visit in the fall.
Common data set says that the school does consider student interest. But how much does this really matter if we’re looking to be recruited to swim?
I would take the coach visit. I wouldn’t worry too much about the formal tour, I would bet that part of the coach visit will include a tour in any event. Different sport, but all my son’s unofficial visits included a tour that was much more extensive then the regular tour anyway
Thanks all! Looks like we are booked for the “First Preferred Dates” - no prospective tour at one school but spots have opened up at the other. So we’ll try to show up day of and see if there is room in a tour and if not we’ll wander ourselves. Meetings with coaches scheduled. Dang this is a lot of work to coordinate, and thi is only 2 schools!
Yes, we’ll look for some open swim time if we can. It’s a tight trip. Now that it’s all getting scheduled over our spring break, we also know there is time for some long practices once we get back to the west coast Thursday/Friday.
So, next question - what to expect? Do we meet with the coach as a family? Does she go on her own? I would expect that we’d be pretty quiet if we accompanied, just not sure what the expectation is.
S and I did some unofficials for a different sport but it’s probably similar. All of the ones we have done I was there too and I think it was expected. I tried to let him do as much of the talking as possible. But I think the coaches expected me to be there, and they incorporated me into the conversation and tried to answer all of my questions.
My daughter is freshman D1 swimmer this year so went through the process of unofficial visits over spring break as well when she was a junior. Yes we both met together at each of the schools where we did an unofficial visit and yes my daughter did most of the talking/questioning but coaches still also asked me if I had any questions. Spring breaks are a popular time for Unofficial swim visits, there will most likely be other swimmers there on same days, we even had 1 coach who scheduled 2 swimmers for same time for mini group session. My daughter went on all of her OV by herself though.
In a perfect world, I think the parent should accompany the recruit on meetings with the coach. The world is not always perfect, however, and sometimes parents put their kids on flights for an OV and they can’t attend. In such circumstances, it is absolutely fine that the parent does not attend. I have done it both ways, and for mine it went more smoothly with parent attendance.
Most coaches prefer that parents attend. There are many reasons for this. One coach told us that he learns a lot about a recruit from meeting the parent. A coach may also want to understand the true interest in the school, and in many cases, that comes from the parent. A kid may fall in love with a school, but when it comes time to pay the bills, the parent may nix an option. So most coaches want the parent to “be there.”
Being there, however, doesn’t mean doing the majority of the talking. Prepare your kid for the meeting. Have your kid ready with a five minute elevator speech of who they are. If you can, have the kid actually speak the speech to you. Then make sure the kid has three questions prepared to ask the coach. Let the kids carry the day with the coach.
At the end of the meeting, the coach will ask the parent if he or she has questions. I usually asked the questions that mine would not have the wherewithal to ask: 1) will my kid get admitted to this college; 2) where is my kid on your list of recruits; 3) how many kids can you recruit this year; 4) do you cut recruits; 5) do you have tryouts; 6) will my kid have a spot on the roster; 7) will you ask admissions for a pre-read; 8) what financial aid is available. Do not avoid asking the tough questions because they seem aggressive. You need to know for the benefit of your kid just where he or she stands in the recruiting process. Most coaches are totally straight up, but some are not or are just disorganized. There are the horror stories where kids “commit” (or think they have committed) only to realize that some superstar has landed in the coach’s lap and the kid is no longer on the list.
Incidentally, I wouldn’t worry about taking the official tour. “Demonstrated interest” can be satisfied by stopping by the admissions office and putting your kid’s name on the mailing list.
I accompanied my daughter on an OV (although it was D3 so UV/OVish), met the coach, and the coach dismissed me. D stayed with a team member and I stayed in a hotel. D called to invite me to the public tour she was scheduled for the next day. That was it for my involvement.
Guess what? My daughter didn’t go there. I had nothing to say about the school or the team because the coach didn’t involve me. I thought the coach was rather rude to me and I thought she was foolish to think that a 16 year old was going to make a $250k decision without parent involvement.
On the OV at the school my daughter does attend, it was kind of 50/50 for the parents being involved. There were 5 recruits, and the parents all went on the tour, sat through a presentation, and then the parents left and the girls went to dinner and a soccer game. The next day each family had a meeting with the coach one-to-one and we went over finances and any other questions about the sports program.
Agree on the questions. Pretty much anything about making the team or where S stood on the list were questions he wanted me to ask. Maybe it depends on the sport, but I think most coaches are looking for athletes that are confident that they will make the starting roster, regardless of who is protected or how deep the cuts are. You don’t want your kid to be arrogant, but I think in most cases they need to carry themselves as being confident that they plan on doing whatever work is necessary to be the one who is in a position to steal a spot, not to have one taken from them. It’s your job to ask those hard questions.
Also probably about finances. I think that most coaches just assume that when they start talking financial aid or scholarship money that the parent is the one they need to talk to. Ultimately S isn’t the one who will decide what he can afford, I am. They are telling him why he wants to be there, and telling me how I can afford it. S was very happy to pass that job to me. He knows what x% scholarship means roughly on where he stands with them, and what expectations they have for him on making varsity and contributing to the team. But he relies on me to translate that into whether it is actually a good financial deal.
It is also good to be there because you will most likely have an easier time reading between the lines at what the coach is really asking. For example, all of the coaches we have met with have asked questions trying to figure out if S can handle the change in intensity from high school practice and work expectations to those needed in a D1 college room. No one asks outright, because everyone will just say yes, they can handle it. S has had an unusual training regimen for a high school student. But half the time when in my mind they are clearly “asking” this as their real question he is oblivious and doesn’t tell them how he is prepared. Once I prompt him, he picks up the story and tells them what they are really looking for. I don’t tell them, but when he is done answering I just say something like “you should tell them about …” I think it was pretty helpful, and I can tell you that all of those coaches kept recruiting him after those meetings.
Thanks all! Keep the advice coming if you can think of other things we need to know. The kinds of questions to ask are great, thanks. And we had not thought about our daughter having an “elevator speech” - again, I appreciate the suggestion. It’s something we’ll be prepping before our trip.
This is all very new to us. Out club swim team has had a few kids recruited but they’ve been superstars recruited to top programs. That’s not us, and in listening to the stories from the teammate’s families it seems the process is s bit different. Everyone’s help here has been fantastic!
Happy to see this thread. My D19 is at the same place in this process. We have made several visits and talked with coaches (always as a family, but encouraging D to do most of the talking). Some of the meetings were set up through admissions. Her favorite school so far, did not offer to set up a coach meeting, so we set it up on our own and emailed the admissions office so that they would know about it. This school highly values demonstrated interest, so we just keep them aware of our communications with the coach. I assume they will know if she attends one of their fall recruiting weekends.
At this favorite school, the coach claims no input to the admissions process, so while D would be an asset to the team from day one, she will need to rely on her GPA and test scores to get in. Therefore, we also demonstrate interest by sending occasional emails with questions about majors, financial aid, etc.
My D19 is deeply committed and loves her sport, but she is not top-half D-1 athletic material, nor is she top D-3 academic. There is a ton of great info on CC in the “July” swim threads, but you have to edit it for yourself. It’s just as much work to be recruited at whichever academic/athletic level is appropriate to your daughter.
My D (track & XC) did 4 official visits and separately did school/department tours. For three of them there were aspects of the visit that ranged from sitting in some information sessions to going out to dinner with the program director and coaching staff with the parents of 3 other athletes for an “ask anything you want” session. The 4th school was a drop off and pick-up with nothing more than a side conversation with the coaches at pick up/drop off for the parents. In all cases, she knew where she stood in terms of their interest in her by the time she left. In most cases there was a tour provided by teammates that was perhaps more honest than the admissions tours.
I agree with the poster above that recommended talking with your admission rep about a tour if one isn’t available. If admissions knows that you are there on an official athletic visit and they won’t accommodate you on an overbooked tour, it probably says something about how the athletics are regarded on campus. This happened to us at one school where the info session was booked. I sent admissions an email asking if we could be put on a wait list since my D already had a visit with the coach scheduled. I had a return email in under 30 minutes confirming us for the campus tour.
We found that college coaches were pretty accommodating of the HS schedules - planned officials early in the season where the seniors could be missed from the early league meets and invitationals. My daughter was most concerned about absences from classes in the fall impacting grades which can still affect admissions decisions. Four official visits was very difficult (and only one was a plane ride) so I would choose them very carefully. They are critical to choosing the right program - official visits are all about finding the right fit. Your athlete would not be there if he or she wasn’t athletically suitable for the program.
What is the best way to approach a D1 coach before July 1. My understanding is that there cannot be official meeting with a coach until after July 1 of the applicant’s Junior year. However, we will have an opportunity to visit some schools in New England (which is far away for us) next month. Should my son write an email to the Track and Field coach saying that he will be visiting the school and would like to meet with him? Is this allowed?
@heartburner Prior to July 1 of the senior year and after Sept 1 of the junior year, the athlete can email the coach as often as he wants and the coach can reply. Meeting outside the campus to talk recruiting is not allowed. However, unofficial visits to the campus to meet with the coach and discuss recruitment is allowed. Many top athletes in various sports have already committed to certain schools in the Spring of their junior year this way. Good luck.
@heartburner As long as you are visiting on your own dime, it is an unofficial visit and a great time to talk with the coach to show interest. We visited a D1 with D19 last fall and even had our D21 in tow (she is an athlete in the same sport). The coach was fine with it as it was unofficial. If your son really likes the school, he needs to establish an email relationship and hopefully get invited to a recruiting weekend in the fall of senior year. Those invitations go out after July 1 and are considered the “official” visits.
Unofficial visit doesn’t mean the coach doesn’t know you are coming and you just casually show up. Unofficial v official has to do with who pays for the visit and what takes place at the visit (overnight stay, meals paid for, attending a game).
Different sports have different contact times, but the student can almost always contact the coach, but the coach can’t contact the family, so your email won’t be answered. Coaches contact club and high school coaches.
We did this summer between sophomore and junior year for the same reason. A tournament took us to the Northeast, so we made a week of it and did 4 unofficial visits. If you search for my thread from about a year ago you will find lots of detail on what I did and good advice from other posters.
Have the email come from athlete, not you. Explain that you will be in the area and ask for a meeting that date. Cc a club or HS coach on the email. Some college coaches will strictly follow the rules and set up the meeting through your club/HS coach, others may email something like"I can’t really email you back, but here is my cell#, let’s meet at my office at this time".