<p>I too am flabbergasted by the idea that is presented that student-athletes have it easier. The time-commitment, physical exhaustion, travel, etc. if it was so easy, everybody would be doing it!</p>
<p>An interesting thought I recently had re: the difficulty of being an athlete - in addition to the time commitment the sport requires for training, travel, etc., how about the fewer hours in the day because of sleep? It might seem trivial, but if you’re a non-athlete you can get away with more late/all-nighters, as you’re only dealing with mental exhaustion, not physical. I need a lot of sleep to function well, especially in my sport. From my anecdotal experience, there was one period where I focused on an EC more than my sport junior year. For those couple months, I trained less and slept much less as well, and was able to keep up with school and a very demanding activity. One week I took off school and training, worked 120 hours, slept minimally including a couple all-nighters, and was still able to function. Never could’ve happened if I’d been practicing. On the HSL forum on CC, kids with excellent academics talk all the time about how little sleep they get. I doubt a top athlete could pull that off…</p>
<p>I think I’ve stated it before but for my “soft” sport A & W have much higher standards for most of their teams than the Ivy’s. Amherst appear to get one “slot” for a kid with slightly lower standards (in my sport, I think this board has reported 66 overall), and then they can fill almost as many spots as they’d like with kids with superb stats who have a pre-read and commit to the team. For Amherst, the coach said he needed a 32, preferably 33, or a minimum of 720 on every SAT section. I have a friend who had a 33 and strong GPA at a top publics hs (one that routinely gets mentioned on cc) but had one bad grade freshman year. He didn’t make it through the pre-read. He’s going to Midd next year, which is probably a better fit for him anyway (slightly stronger team), so it all worked out for him. Oldbatesie, everything I’ve heard about Midd is wonderful. Congrats to your son!</p>
<p>anothercrazymom, that’s interesting that Princeton is so transparent. It would’ve been nice if my more subjective sport and it’s teams had similar guidelines.</p>
<p>^^agree. school, practice, sleep for 4 years. no dances, no friday nights, no hanging-out time like non athletes have. she loves her sport and teammates but it’s not “easy” for athletes! it’s hard work and discipline</p>
<p>Only Princeton, Harvard and Yale were vague, except for erg times. That’s universal. I wish I could remember the times. Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell said he was recruitable. Of course that’s just coaches, it’s pretty clear that admissions still has to sign off. If a coach has only 6 picks(or less)for LW rowing, my S academic stats aren’t so great. I still think crew is an amazing sport just not an automatic ticket to the Ivies. I will say the girls at his school have been recruited heavily for the last few years. Including the coxes. If you have a girl UVA recruits rowers aggressively.</p>
<p>Another reason to consider regarding why Amherst’s critera is so challenging is that their class size is SOOO small. Seriously, they only have 400 kids per class, if my memory serves me correctly. Williams and Middlebury are a bit larger, 500- 550… it is easy to understand why it might seem easier to court Yale, Dartmouth… as their class sizes are larger, and then Cornell and Penn and even Stanford have significantly larger class sizes. Stanford takes sooo many from CA that it lowers the odds for out of state, and Cornell and Penn each have significant in state student bodies. </p>
<p>10scholar, you are correct at mentioning the importance of sleep… it may not be true for every athlete, but it is for my child. Early in his first semester, he asked his roomates to consider calling it a night sooner. Nothing much was going on but they were up til 1am and later every night… his first class was at 8:50 five days a week and the quad was really small… luckily the roommates agreed and lights were out most weeknights by 12pm. It is more of a challenge freshman year cause you really can’t pick your suitemates. Compatible hours (morning person, night owl) can be discussed when making plans for sophomore year!!</p>
<p>My position for any student/athlete is to love several schools, of different levels, reach/match/safety so that you will have many wonderful choices. Coaches come and go, injuries happen which can decimate a team; at the end of the day, our kids will have learned a lot, dramatically broadened their horizons and hopefully had some fun too. College can be the time of your life… the only kids I know who transferred were athletes who had coach issues. To any kid/athlete reading this, choose a school first. At most, consider using your veto power about a school if you don’t like the coach. But don’t use your yes vote based on coach alone.</p>
<p>anothercrazymom
so you are in the thick of it with apps out for schools and lw crew right now…thats very exciting. Are coaches good about talking about SATs/GPAs and ERg times for example, letting you know what they are looking for in time, ht/wt/etc or are they just hoping kids get in and then walk on…so theya re just taling to all comers so to speak?
Wish coaches were transparent for each sport and to let the kids know whether they are “in the pool” or not even close so the kids can also keep casting a wider net/broader scope of things…</p>
<p>The sleep thing is huge…our student is still growing and the sport takesa lot of energy 3 hrs a day 6 days a week…hard enough to get the 6000 calories in a day–I know our student could use more H2O and calories and sleep EVERY DAY…</p>
<p>Yale and Harvard coach were very clear, no leading on there! Yale coach called him and said “You are not one of picks, please don’t let this keep you from applying to Yale, I just can’t give you my support with admissions.” My S though it was classy to hear early and clearly.</p>
<p>I agree, better to hear right away, and make an informed decision. Amherst coach very clear as well, and right on what 10scholar said…Maybe its the same sport? </p>
<p>My S would eat from when he got home from practice (6:00 pm) til he crashed at 11 or 12, and lose weight during his seasons… .I had 2 boys running XC one fall, and imagine the grocery bill-$400 a month of our college tuition payment is coming straight from the grocery budget with only one gone…</p>
<p>OldbatesideDoc, I don’t think so, since I’m tennis, but my guess is the standards are consistent beyond the 66 slots. That coach was clear, so they must know exactly what they can/can’t recruit.</p>
<p>For food - I was really tall and skinny after a growth spurt freshman year when I started working out off-court with a trainer. He put me on the ‘seafood diet’ - I asked what it was, he said, “you see food, eat it”</p>
<p>this is good to hear that these coaches can be straight with the kids</p>
<p>AnotherCrazyMom–did these coaches say something summer of Jr yr, Sept, ? When? Also when/how did you know if he was or was not in the hunt for H? </p>
<p>We have a Jr so not until after July 1 will anything beyond friendly email be exhcanged…
its interesting…and as you said very classy for them to be straight forward.</p>
<p>fogfog - our S also received and appreciated clear, direct communication with coaches, but it wasn’t always a yes or no answer. At some schools our S was a first pick, at some others coaches weren’t interested - in both of those cases, his status was clear to us early on. However, at a couple of schools our S was not a first pick, but the coaches were still interested in him if they didn’t get all their top picks (which is almost always the case - no coach gets every athlete he’s interested in). So just be aware, that you may be able to rule some schools in or out early on, but probably not all of them, at least in in terms of coach’s interest. Of course your athlete may love one of the schools that is most interested in him and make a choice about where to attend without waiting the other schools out. That’s what our S ended up doing.</p>
<p>Right, the coaches can definitely be “overly optimistic”. It’s ok to ask specific questions before committing. In d-1, there’s that likely letter, but for D-3, it’s much less clear…
I know I sound like a broken record, but I feel this is one way i can help other kids(and parents) not go thru some serious heartbreak.</p>
<p>Fog, H coach called his coach, (they are friends) and said he would most likely not be one of her picks. They still e-mail and she encouraged him to appply. He and his coach are still working on a place for him at his first choice. They have 4 picks and he was told he was #6 on the list. He rejected others who liked him, but he needs to love the school first and foremost.</p>
<p>Well, you all know the coach who lured him on and then reneged at the last minute said “I’d call the Midd coach and recommend you, but I don’t want you to compete against us” That was when I went ballistic.
Luckily the Midd coach hadn’t another person with my S’s skill set on his short list. Plus he actually had the stats to be accepted without support, but every little bit helps at these uber-selective schools.</p>
<p>fog: communication with college coaches was crystal clear. what was fuzzy was our interpretation…trying to read to much into it or not take it on face value. For instance when the coach finally called me (my first interaction with the coach) and said we want your D, I said oh that’s great and it was a casual two minute conversation. Yet I get off the phone and start thinking what did that mean, what happens next, is it for sure, etc, etc.</p>
<p>Turns out it meant just that, “we want your kid!”</p>
<p>And now they have her! Well, they’ll have her in September:)</p>
<p>Oldbatesie, I wasn’t suggesting that the coaches we dealt with were overly optimistic. Rather, I think they were very direct and honest when we asked the tough questions. It’s just that in a few instances they didn’t have a final answer yet - essentially the answer depended on whether or not everyone they had already offered a position said yes. If so, our S was out of luck, but that was ok because we knew where he stood. In other instances our S was the first choice and some other athlete was probably waiting to see what he decided. So Fogfog - how early you hear from specific coaches probably depends on where your S stands in their list of recruits - at the very top or very bottom you may find out pretty early, if he’s in the middle of their recruiting class, it may take longer to see how it all shakes out.</p>
<p>Oldbatesie, just this fall I had two sons running XC. The older one is smaller, but running 50-60 miles a week meant he ate constantly. Almost literally. Although the 14-year-old didn’t put in as many miles, he was already 6-feet tall and growing, so he ate constantly, too! I’d always heard how much teenaged boys eat, but this was unbelievable. I hadn’t thought about being able to use some of that money for college tuition, lol!</p>
<p>Since my son couldn’t apply ED, we’re still waiting for decisions. The waiting is killing me! It doesn’t seem to bother him as much. Maybe because he’s recovering from wisdom teeth extraction and leg injuries! At least the bone scan showed nothing seriously wrong - he’s just very tight and needs to do lots of flexibility exercises.</p>
<p>So you went through the same thing, Mini Van? Your child survived OK, lol? It has been an endless week.</p>
<p>Since I posted last night, DS got two acceptances, so that’s helping my frame of mind. One of the schools (D1) would be perfect for him, except it looks as if he won’t make the team. He will have to decide if that’s a deal breaker for him. Kind of ironic, after all the time he and I have spent on this endeavor. I’ve been assuming 100% he would run in college, but I know this has to be HIS decision. It was easier when he was little and I could tell him what to do!</p>
I believe your son is a lot better runner than I was but ultimately I had to make this choice … two great academic choices … one which was D3 and athletically wasn’t a great match (as a HS senior I would have been the 2nd best distance runner) and one which was a D1 school where, at best, I would be a varsity contributor by the time I was an upper classman … an unexpected quandry. </p>
<p>(PS - BTW I made the decision on fit and academics … which turned out well as my first week at school I hurt my knee and never ran competatively in college … glad I picked the school first).</p>