% of college (swim) student-athletes who are full vs partial vs no scholarship?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is a 12-year-old gal with AAA, A, AA, A, A finishes last 5 tournaments good enough for D1 or Ivy?

No. This 12 yo would have to carry over those AAA times and achieve it in the next age groups. But the chances are pretty high that if you are AAA at 12, you would be able to achieve it at 17 if you train.
It also depends on which events AA-AAA was achieved: if he/she does these times only in one stroke/same event it’s not good enough. At 12 a good indicator of college ability is several AA and higher time cuts in different strokes and distances: for example, breast/free/IM or back/free/fly etc.

[Anonymous]

Last month my 12-year-old daughter did 6 different events at a tournament, finishing with: AAA, AAA, AAA, AA, AA, AA

Should we begin taking swimming more seriously? I can never tell if the enthusiasm is genuine or if people are just being really nice. Sorry if dumb question; me nor my husband are sporty people.

[Anonymous]

Does the truth come out once kids get into the 13-14 age group, or you really have to wait for 15+ standings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely, definitely definitely get your swimmer into water polo. Seriously. Less competition. Great scholarships to a bunch of good schools. I don’t know why more people don’t know this.

Not all schools offer this. How or where to get involved if your high schoool doesn’t have a team?

[Anonymous]

From what I've seen, you have to be near Olympic caliber to get a full scholarship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last month my 12-year-old daughter did 6 different events at a tournament, finishing with: AAA, AAA, AAA, AA, AA, AA

Should we begin taking swimming more seriously? I can never tell if the enthusiasm is genuine or if people are just being really nice. Sorry if dumb question; me nor my husband are sporty people.

Three AAA for a girl prior to 13 is very good, especially if these are mid and long distances. If these are fifties, still pretty good, just take into account that girls won’t drop much time on 50s of strokes after age 13 and competition for college in fifties is insane.

Your daughter definitely has abilities to make those college times in older age groups, assuming increased training load. But of course, nobody would tell if she suddenly drops out from swimming or starts partying in high school and stops improving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the truth come out once kids get into the 13-14 age group, or you really have to wait for 15+ standings?

With both boys and girls you can tell if they have skill to potentially make college times around age 12. But the truth comes out in high school, as it
all depends if they are prepared to train at that point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last month my 12-year-old daughter did 6 different events at a tournament, finishing with: AAA, AAA, AAA, AA, AA, AA

Should we begin taking swimming more seriously? I can never tell if the enthusiasm is genuine or if people are just being really nice. Sorry if dumb question; me nor my husband are sporty people.

Three AAA for a girl prior to 13 is very good, especially if these are mid and long distances. If these are fifties, still pretty good, just take into account that girls won’t drop much time on 50s of strokes after age 13 and competition for college in fifties is insane.

Your daughter definitely has abilities to make those college times in older age groups, assuming increased training load. But of course, nobody would tell if she suddenly drops out from swimming or starts partying in high school and stops improving.

Thank you! What's mid and long distance? Her events for those finishes were 50, 50, 100, 200, 200, 200.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last month my 12-year-old daughter did 6 different events at a tournament, finishing with: AAA, AAA, AAA, AA, AA, AA

Should we begin taking swimming more seriously? I can never tell if the enthusiasm is genuine or if people are just being really nice. Sorry if dumb question; me nor my husband are sporty people.

Three AAA for a girl prior to 13 is very good, especially if these are mid and long distances. If these are fifties, still pretty good, just take into account that girls won’t drop much time on 50s of strokes after age 13 and competition for college in fifties is insane.

Your daughter definitely has abilities to make those college times in older age groups, assuming increased training load. But of course, nobody would tell if she suddenly drops out from swimming or starts partying in high school and stops improving.

Thank you! What's mid and long distance? Her events for those finishes were 50, 50, 100, 200, 200, 200.

200 and longer in different strokes

[Anonymous]

What percentile is AAAA? I didn't even realize there was a AAAA until I looked at her best friend's times. I assume the AAAA girls are where most of the D1 and Ivy swimmers are from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What percentile is AAAA? I didn't even realize there was a AAAA until I looked at her best friend's times. I assume the AAAA girls are where most of the D1 and Ivy swimmers are from?

Only 2% of swimmers make AAAA once in their career. It’s hard to step up from AAA to quad A, requires over 20 hrs swimming/week for 2-3 years straight for stuff like 1000FR, or incredible athletic talent in sprinting. These are top 100 in the US and they won’t be numerous enough to compose all college teams. Colleges hire quite a few AAA (top6%)swimmers but it depends on how many cuts are interesting for that specific college, which distances etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last month my 12-year-old daughter did 6 different events at a tournament, finishing with: AAA, AAA, AAA, AA, AA, AA

Should we begin taking swimming more seriously? I can never tell if the enthusiasm is genuine or if people are just being really nice. Sorry if dumb question; me nor my husband are sporty people.

Three AAA for a girl prior to 13 is very good, especially if these are mid and long distances. If these are fifties, still pretty good, just take into account that girls won’t drop much time on 50s of strokes after age 13 and competition for college in fifties is insane.

Your daughter definitely has abilities to make those college times in older age groups, assuming increased training load. But of course, nobody would tell if she suddenly drops out from swimming or starts partying in high school and stops improving.

Thank you! What's mid and long distance? Her events for those finishes were 50, 50, 100, 200, 200, 200.

200 IM, 400IM, 200FL, 200FR, 200BR, 200BK, 200/500/1000/1650FR

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last month my 12-year-old daughter did 6 different events at a tournament, finishing with: AAA, AAA, AAA, AA, AA, AA

Should we begin taking swimming more seriously? I can never tell if the enthusiasm is genuine or if people are just being really nice. Sorry if dumb question; me nor my husband are sporty people.

You might want to look at synchronized swimming. William and mary recruits for their synchro club and looks at girls with a 3.8 gpa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last month my 12-year-old daughter did 6 different events at a tournament, finishing with: AAA, AAA, AAA, AA, AA, AA

Should we begin taking swimming more seriously? I can never tell if the enthusiasm is genuine or if people are just being really nice. Sorry if dumb question; me nor my husband are sporty people.

You might want to look at synchronized swimming. William and mary recruits for their synchro club and looks at girls with a 3.8 gpa

Her daughter has sectional times at 12 being already top 6% in the US with all the chances to have wide colleges selection if she continues to train. It is the worst advice I’ve ever heard, to switch sport out of a sudden while someone is already doing so well! And why would she focus on one college??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son dreams of MIT. It’s Division 3, and doesn’t even give scholarships. We can afford any college of his choice. Having swimming time cuts allows to compete for the school and can help getting into college of your dream, with all other factors being equal with other applicants.
If you look at that table, about top 6% of all high school swimmers qualify for college. Top 6% of your age group is an approx equivalent of AAA time (A is top 15%, AA is top 8%). In some states swimming is not too popular or advanced, but in DC-MD-VA many swimmers would make several AAA cuts in high school as long as they train. Most kids in decent clubs easily have 4-5 AA cuts by the age of 12.

Is 12-yo enough to sort of know if child is destined to be a college swimmer / scholarships? Gal's finishes past couple months: AAA, A, AA, A, A

Is there much movement with AAA kids from age 12 to 17? I suspect not, but then again, who knows what puberty will do, right? And don't a lot of swimmers quit or plateau when bf/gf/partying come into the picture in high school?

There may be a lot of movement with AA-AAA times from age 12 to 17, especially for boys and even in short distances! For girls there is not much movement between 13 and 17 in short distances, but they can also improve a lot when training for longer distances like 500/1000/1650FR.
Of course, you can't tell at 12 for sure if the child is destined to swim in college, but if your swimmer has at least 3 AA-AAA times, there is certainly the right skill level at 12 which he/she can develop into college cuts closer to 17, if there is a desire to continue training.
If the swim times are primarily B-BB at 12, I wouldn't bother continuing swimming past that age.

Your last sentence goes too far. There are plenty of kids swimming past that age with no illusions about using swimming as a college hook. It is a lifelong healthy habit and it still shows commitment and time management on a college resume if you need that.