<p>My oldest just started his sophomore year and is a 5 star. I have been paying attention to tennis recruiting website this summer and noticed that many kids have committed to their colleges before the start of senior year. How are kids committing so soon? Do these kids already also know what the cost to attend their college will be? </p>
<p>What is the timeline that we should be following?<br>
I have registered S with the NCAA Eligibilty Center, he has taken 3 SAT Subject Tests, and plans to take the SAT next year so all of his standardized testing will be complete by the end of junior year. Other than these few things, he has done nothing else yet. Are there things he should be doing now?</p>
<p>The best thing your kid can do is continue to be a 5 star and get good grades in school. You can commit verbally anytime. I believe that students are not formally committed until they sign a National Letter of Intent in November. The kids who commit over the summer are rising Srs, and they are probably offered full or partial scholarships, or their parents are going to pay full tuition.</p>
<p>So the kids that are committing during the summer only have a verbal committment from the college? </p>
<p>One of my son’s friends is a rising senior and committed to a college last month. I assumed he had something in writing since it was posted on tennis recruiting, and he said he was happy to be done with the whole college application process. </p>
<p>What happens to these kids if the college decides not to put it in writing in November? Or is the verbal committment somehow binding?</p>
<p>DD is a soccer player but our experience seems like it would be valuable to you. She is a rising HS JR now. From what I understand the Women’s soccer recruiting timeline is one of the earliest but it sounds like it might be similar to tennis.</p>
<p>The top players (u17 National Team) will get scouted starting in the spring of Freshman year and will make campus visits that summer and into Fall of 10th grade. The first player on my daughet’s team commited in Nov. of 10th grade - it was early, but she was nowhere near the first in the country to commit.</p>
<p>There are some schools (Duke, Stanford, etc) done recruiting the HS class of 2014 players and are moving on to 2015’s.</p>
<p>The next tier of players (players with solid d1 potential) will get scouted during spring of 10th grade and visit that summer. Top 25 d1 schools will be finishing up the class of 2014 in the next couple of months (though there will always be space for a top player who chose to wait). Other d1 schools are working hard on their 2014’s and are hoping to snag a couple of this tier of player to be their stars. </p>
<p>The mad rush for everyone else starts at the end of college season and most schools (including d3’s) will be hoping to be finished by next summer. </p>
<p>Coaches will make offers during unofficial visits - while these offers are not binding until the letter of intent (NLI) is signed in Feb(?) of Sr. year, it is fairly rare that a coach will go back on their word. There is nothing in writting until the NLI.</p>
<p>For soccer the key is contacting coaches letting them know of your interest and your tournament schedule. Find out where the coaches of the schools you are interested in will be and let them know you are interested. Coaches cannot contact you until Sept 1 of jr year so you may have to read between the lines of the emails they are allowed to send (invitations to camps, recruiting questionaries).</p>
<p>Hope this helped</p>
<p>Thanks for the post, Dreadpirit</p>