He did complete the alternate entry form and submit the scores to the NM foundation, and from what I read, I dont see how a 790/790 will fail to gain NMSF recognition, and with 3.83 UW and 15 hours a week in the pool, I assume he wouldnt get weeded out to the finalist level.
This is great. Although UCâs are test blind, theyâre not award/honors blind. So the only way to let them know that he had amazing test scores is if he were national merit - which it appears he will be!
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I strongly suggest collegeswimming.com. It is the best swim recruiting site and it should give him some ideas where might be a good fit swim wise. This is all my daughter used for recruiting.
If heâs a sectional level swimmer, there will be a lot of good schools that might be interested in him (thatâs isnât as strong as Emory/JHU/UChicago swim-wise but has an excellent academic program). Swarthmore?
Wesleyan?
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Occidental, with the 3+2 engineering program at Columbia as an option if he wants to step up his game. Newer pool.
Yes, he has an account on college swimming. Lots of great stats on there.
Lets suppose he wanted to go to Swarthmore. Great LAC. Like anybody, he could use an admissions boost at a school with an 8.9% acceptance rate.
Looks like my son would be in the A final for Centennial League Championship (Swarthmoreâs conference) for 2 of his best events and in the B final for the third of his best events.
How would that affect my sonâs admissions chances, assuming he was committed to swimming (which he is)
Hi, I can only speak from my experience but with two events in A finals plus one event is B final sounds like a very good chance of getting a boost from the coach. But the only person who can answer this question is the coach at Swarthmore- I suggest your son reach out to the coach (include his SAT, GPA, and best event times). Good luck 
The coach can really make a huge difference in admission if you were recruited. Feel free to pm me also
Thanks, I may reach out to you as we delve into this further.
By contrast, in the NESCAC (Amherst, Tufts,Williams, etc) he is a C Final swimmer for his 3 best event. Whatâs your take on that? My read is that theyâd welcome him to the team, but would coach use a âslotâ or even a âtip?â
Yes, NESCAC is much faster. If he has a few C final events, faster teams like Amherst/Williams/tufts will most likely not be interested. Our daughterâs friend had a few B finals times and she wasnât fast enough for the faster schools (she was recruited but ultimately was not offered a support), but she was recruited at the middle of the conference teams and will be going there. So I think the schools not at the top of the nescac conference may be interested, like Wesleyan for example - a great school (with a laid back vibe)? Just a thought. Again, I urge your son to reach out to the coaches, now is the time:)
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He has been asked to get a template email to coach together about his times, his academics, and his interest in swimming. Havent seen it yet.
Part of the problem is he has truly no idea about what he wants to study, and thatâs giving him pause. I need to tell him that just sending these coaches a note isnt going to commit him to anything, it will just be a way to gather info.
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I think not knowing what he wants to study is not unusual as a high school Junior, especially if he is both strong in STEM and humanities. My daughter had no idea also until she got to college.
If he wants to swim in college (and recruited), I hate to push but Iâd remind him to send these emails, though. Now is the time.
If heâs rather swim club, obviously no need⊠but he perhaps if approached that way he may have a preference? Most kids do.
Another thought: if he isnât really sure about what to study, maybe look at a big uni with many different majors and a very strong swim program and email coaches to see if he can walk on.
University of Arizona? ASU? Alabama? UF even (that might be too fast for even a walk on)?
With National merit I think itâs close to free ride at ASU and Alabama, UF also, Arizona has a really good automatic merit as well. He will most likely not be traveling to meets but he may still be able to walk on.
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We had discussed larger Division 1 schools , but in the context of swimming club if he decides to attend one. We thought probably not that fun getting wiped out by top 20 Div 1 swimmers every day and never scoring in a meet.
So another mission is to find which schools have very active club swimming programs. For instance, Ohio State has some nice merit awards for high scoring out of state students, an amazing aquatic center, nearly any academic program you might want, and a very active (appears to be ~100 students) club swim program. The mens team was club national champions, and posted some real nice times (clearly a lot of kids who could swim Div 3 but want a big state school experience end up there)
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