<p>My S is a sophomore in HS and he is pretty enthusiastic about wrestling. My question is how good do you have to be before it gives you a leg up in admissions? For either scholarships in D1 or just a boost in D3 (you get in a top LAC with a 3.6 GPA when otherwise it would take a 3.9)?</p>
<p>Just broad strokes. We are in CA. Is going to State what matters? Or do you have to be one of the top finishers to attract any interest? </p>
<p>Any info at all would be appreciated. He loves the sport and, at this point, would like to continue in college. I'm just trying to help him figure out what the admissions landscape looks like for him.</p>
<p>Very honestly, I would just suggest that if he enjoys it -just let him see work on improving and see where that takes him. I would not worry about scholarships/college right now. </p>
<p>My brother was a 2 year state champ in HS, and then went to UT-Austin, tried out and made first string as a freshman (the kid he beat out wasn’t too happy!). He won state that year, then got hurt his sophomore year and couldn’t wrestle anymore. I know that he did not receive any scholarship $$ for wrestling and I don’t think it provided any “hook” for him. He was a NMF, so maybe he didn’t really need anything else. Of course - this was many years ago…</p>
<p>All that aside - it isn’t too early to start looking at schools that he “might” be interested in and seeing what their wrestling programs are like. My younger son (a junior) is doing that right now. He’s a golfer.</p>
<p>My friend won state and no colleges even showed interest in him. He was really disappointed. It is probably best to just do the best he can and see what happens.</p>
<p>Do not count on scholarships for wrestling- some get them but they are usually the exceptional kids. Multi- time State Champion from an excellent wrestling State.</p>
<p>My son placed at the State meet three years including state champ his junior year. Although a few schools expressed interest in him, the ones he was interested in attending would not have given him any scholarship money and no help in being admitted. There was a boy who was an undefeated state champ all four years of high school and he was only offered a partial tuition scholarship to wrestle in college. It did, however, get him into the school to which he would not have otherwise qualified. </p>
<p>If he’s interested in wrestling in college, he’s going to have to at least place at states to be able to wrestle for any of the bigger (wrestling) schools. He could, however, wrestle at a D3 school.</p>
<p>UT Austin has no team now, unless it is club level. The big twelve is the big five in wrestling (OK, OSU, Mizzou, Iowa State, and Nebraska). </p>
<p>California’s state competition is very tough. It is the largest state with only one state champion per weight class, because it is not divided up into multiple classes of competition. If you place high at states in CA, you are certifiably good. </p>
<p>Wrestling has 9.9 scholarships per team. That a litle more than two per year. </p>
<p>To get a leg up in admissions, you have to be able to do your activity or sport at the college level where you’re going. One of the side effects of wrestling being the favorite target sport to cut by administrations is that more and more good high school wrestlers are competing for fewer spots in college. Competition at most visible programs is very tough. The big conferences are brutal, and even the Ivy’s are largely made up of multiple time state champs from the best wrestling states (Pa, NY, NJ, Ia, OK, IL, OH, to name a few. CA is very strong also). Cornell is a top 10 team. Penn Harvard and Princeton have all had ncaa finalists or champs in the past 7-8 years.</p>
<p>At the smaller schools it is different. The ones who have teams like Williams, Wesleyan, Davidson, Washington&Lee, Hopkins and others don’t give a lot of slack in admissions for the wrestlers. But you don’t have to be able to beat nationally ranked kids to make the team. </p>
<p>Its early to target anything. Let him do the best he can. That’s hard enough without looking for a big extra. If he really likes the sport, he may get good enough at it to turn into something. Otherwise focus on academics. Its easier to get good grades and high scores than to beat people in state tournaments.</p>
<p>MOWC is like the old “Bo knows…” nike commercial. :)</p>
<p>Well, it depends on what is meant by the university having a team. There is a team on campus, at the club level. I don’t know if UT ever had one at the official level. </p>
<p>So from a participation standpoint there is a team, which competes at the NCWA (national club organization) level. You have to take your hat off to the kids who keep this up on their own nickel, with no coaching support, and minimal facilities and budget. </p>
<p>NCWA is made up of a long list of schools that have dropped teams, schools that have never had teams, and schools that actually have official varsity teams but also have a team at the club level because the university team is too competitive for the typical athlete (Penn state and Michigan, for example).</p>
<p>Regarding the OP, if the team is club, I believe there is no admission support at all.</p>
<p>dadx - My apologies - a quick internet search showed that it was a club team - not an official varsity team. My brother was actually president of the club in 1983 and was quoted in the yearbook.</p>
<p>For all I know, it wasn’t a club back in '83…nothing to apologize for. </p>
<p>In many ways, the club athletes are the true lions of their sports. Most of them aren’t in the same ballpark talent-wise, but the requirement to make it all happen by yourselves on top of your actual training and competition makes club sports one of the big challenges for a collegian. </p>
<p>As you may know, Texas has had a little more national success in recent years. Brandon Slay from Amarillo was runnerup twice at NCAAs when he was at Penn, and won a gold medal in Sydney Olympics after dropping his finals bout to a German who was subsequently disqualified for a positive drug test. I see a day coming where Texas may rise to varsity status and have a team mostly of Texans (although initialy there woud be more than a few Oklahomans. Florida is at this point too. A lot of it has to do with the demographic migration from the Northeast and Midwest, which brings the coaching experience necessary to become good at the sport. Growth of the sport in Texas high schools has been steady, and is important to the sport as a whole.</p>
<p>For scholarship purposes wrestling is one of those sports, and equivalency sport, where, unlike football or basketball, scholarships can be divided up. Since the maximum scholarships allowed by the NCAA is 9.9 (I believe) they are frequently split up among the athletes. In order to get a full scholarship you have to be really, really good and go to a school where wrestling is important.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. We’ve been through the college process with our D. She played varsity sports but had no plans to continue in college. Since S wants to wrestle in college (at least for now) I just wanted some insight into where it all fits in.</p>