My DS is a junior. He is a fantastic athlete, playing water polo and swimming. He is being recruited for both sports, from both DI and DIII schools. He was his high school’s water polo MVP this year and plays on the ODP team. In swimming, his specialty is breaststroke. He dropped more than 2.5 seconds off his time this year, swimming a 100 yd in a little over 57 seconds. Everyone loves him–he is a charming, good looking kid. He is so mellow, to the point where I think he needs to be a bit more passionate. Stress never gets to him. His coaches think he hasn’t even reached his potential in either sport. However, this mellowness also shows in his schoolwork. His grades do not match his capabilities. His GPA is 2.7–unweighted & weighted! He has not taken the SATs yet, but he is scheduled to take them in May. I worry that his low GPA will hurt his scholarship chances. I don’t think he has the grades to get DIII money, and I don’t know if I want him to swim DI (he needs a life). We live in PA and he has heard from several strong DIII schools (Franklin & Marshall, Ursinus) as well as DI’s like Fordham for swimming and Bucknell and Navy for water polo.
What are the chances of these schools being interested when they learn about his grades? And what type of SAT scores might he need to help coaches look over the poor grades?
Any advice/tips would be appreciated.
Congrats that he is being looked at by these schools
My oldest son swims in college now and my next son is a junior being recruited by similar schools
It is always best to reach out to the coach with his grades and find out what they require for recruitment and admissions
You do not want to go into the fall and find out you are not able to get admitted. Each school will have their own allowances and if you will need coaches help he will have to apply ED so you want to get squared away as much as possible.
Good luck and enjoy the process
If the college coach is seriously looking at your son, then before they get too far down the recruitment process they will likely ask for a copy of his current transcripts and SAT scores as a pre-read to see if he is within acceptable admission standards. I know of a couple instances where athletes were no longer pursued by coaches because their academic stats were too low for the college. Perhaps you can do a little research on collegeboard.com etc. to see what the acceptable range of GPAs and SAT/ACT scores for the particular Major your son is interested in. Good luck!
Might as well get it over with so you don’t set sights too high. Upward trajectory is also important, can your son buckle down and improve? Schools don’t want gifted athletes who might flunk out, and swimming is less forgiving than “helmet sports”…
I agree that it is better to let coaches know upfront. One of the better players that we knew for my son’s sport had a 2.5 GPA and not great test scores. He was being courted by coaches at some great schools, but ones that did not fit his academic profile. The family was so excited about the attention that I don’t think they realized that sports ability would not completely make up for lower academic performance. They never made an effort to reach out to schools that were more in line with his academics because they firmly believed that eventually one of the schools on their list would be able to overlook the grades. In the end he ended up at a community college.
We also know a kid who struggled academically and was recruited to a top notch D1 program (for another sport) with top notch academics. They did require a 3.0 GPA so his parents had him work with tutors, he took very easy classes, and in the end just barely qualified. Even with academic support in college, he flunked out after his first year. I felt that his parents and counselors really set him up for failure and did not look at the overall picture when researching schools.
It is better to let coaches know the academic situation up front so that you can get a realistic picture of your son’s prospects. There are schools out there that are a fit for him for both academics and his sport. It is best to target those schools now to get a feel for interest, rather than wait and have to just take whatever you can find. College athletics is so demanding-especially D1- that academics are going to be challenging no matter where he ends up. If you let coaches know now, they can tell you if they are still interested. At least you would know and be able to move on if necessary. Best of luck!!!
I understand how you feel. Our son wants to go to a div 3 school. He wants to play soccer. The coaches are very excited about him. They told him that his gpa (3.2) is within the range. He just took the Sat for the first time. He is 100 points lower than what the coach said he could push through. I signed him up for the ACT plus the SAT again. If this does not work out then it is unlikely that he will play soccer in college. Anyway, I hope things work out for your son.
Sorry to hear that allboyz. Is he set on that particular school? If not, I would think a 3.2 and a reasonable SAT score could still get him into a number of schools where he could play soccer. Of course I don’t know what his SAT score was, or any other details such as area of the country, etc. Has he looked at any NAIA schools where maybe the academic requirements aren’t as high? I’m sure you have probably looked at all of this already but I really hope it works out. A lot of kids do a lot better on the ACT than the SAT so I’m holding out hope for your son!
If you don’t want him to do DI, are you asking if he will get an academic scholarship to a DIII school?
nice time on the breast! that would be in the very top tier in our state!
can’t really help with your question as i know nothing about your situation though.
however, I’d be curious as to the extent of the scholarships at each school, and what other costs will be.
we have a friend who’s swimming for an OOS D1 next year. He’s splitting a full scholarship 8 ways between 7 other kids. that’s what happens when football is BIG.
No, that’s not what happens when football is big. NCAA sets the rules and the number of scholarships for each sport. and swimming doesn’t have many but needs a lot of swimmers to form a team.
Thanks for everyone’s input. I have been very worried about sending his transcripts, for fear that coaches will run the other way! My DS has gotten by through life on his charms and athletic ability, so school work has not been a priority. He is finally seeing now, which is a little late, that he needs to work as hard in the classroom as he does in the pool. I don’t think he would qualify for much, if any, academic money at a DIII. I am starting to think a good, but not great, swim or polo DI school would be the way to go. He takes his SATs in a few weeks, so that may help us narrow things down a bit. If he does well enough, may be coming clean straight out of the gate on his GPA won’t seem so scary!
If he can’t get merit money at D3 schools, and he doesn’t really like to study (guessing from your statements), why not go for a D1 or D2 program and take the athletic money? My daughter is at a D2 school and ‘has a life’ (although during the season, it is pretty much school and team but she loves that).