‘27 recruiting: advice from people who already went thru it?

[Anonymous]

Less than 0.5% of male swimmers make a Power 4 team.

[Anonymous]

Former college coach here.

#1 rule that applied before HOUSE and even more relevant now is....

If you don't score in the conference meet, don't expect to get scholarship. And now, don't expect a roster spot in a Power 4 unless you're looking at a bottom 25% of the conference school.

If you have sectional cuts and good to excellent academics, you belong at a D3 school.

If they aren't calling you, you aren't a priority. Focus on who engages with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Former college coach here.

#1 rule that applied before HOUSE and even more relevant now is....

If you don't score in the conference meet, don't expect to get scholarship. And now, don't expect a roster spot in a Power 4 unless you're looking at a bottom 25% of the conference school.

If you have sectional cuts and good to excellent academics, you belong at a D3 school.

If they aren't calling you, you aren't a priority. Focus on who engages with you.

How do coaches decide who to contact? our DC has been contacted by a huge variety of places and it doesn’t feel like it makes much sense to be honest!

[Anonymous]

It can be based on need. Maybe they need to recruit deeper into the class for a specific stroke/event.

It can be based on volume. Some coaches take the "throw everything at the bus" approach and see what sticks. Worst case scenario they have too much interest and start ghosting kids that aren't as fast as other kids responding.

It can be based on a more in depth look into the swimmer. Maybe they aren't quite there yet but they have been dropping tons of time or they saw the swimmer at a meet and noticed they are a 5'11" female.

Remember, just because you get contacted doesnt mean they actually want you on the team right now or would offer you a spot/money. It's like a dating app right now. You save your favorites and reach out to the ones you might be interested in but you'll only need up with a few you "bring on a date" aka the official visit

[Anonymous]

Finally, some rational information on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Respond to above, I’m not sure that’s true that ECs don’t matter - at Harvard the rule for recruiting is “the broken leg” rule, meaning the admissions committee asks “would we want this person on campus even if they broke their leg and couldn’t compete”

I’m assuming that’s true for Yale or Princeton as well. For other mid-majors and certainly power 4 it doesn’t matter

If your swimmer has Futures times and good stats, d3s are a good target. Ivies still want Winter Juniors times if not Summer Juniors at least is what we’ve been told

Does that mean a swimmer has a winter junior time with very strong numbers in academics (i.e. 4.8 GPA + 1550 SA) would be recruitable at an ivy school without additional ECs?

[Anonymous]

Everyone applying to Ivys have ECs. You're not unique if you have 5 to 10 ECs on your application. Unless you've developed an app that is widely recognizable or founded a fundraiser that funds 70k to a cause, you're not unique.

Even though Ivys have opted out of the HOUSE settlement, winter Jr's still doesnt do a lot for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Respond to above, I’m not sure that’s true that ECs don’t matter - at Harvard the rule for recruiting is “the broken leg” rule, meaning the admissions committee asks “would we want this person on campus even if they broke their leg and couldn’t compete”

I’m assuming that’s true for Yale or Princeton as well. For other mid-majors and certainly power 4 it doesn’t matter

If your swimmer has Futures times and good stats, d3s are a good target. Ivies still want Winter Juniors times if not Summer Juniors at least is what we’ve been told

Does that mean a swimmer has a winter junior time with very strong numbers in academics (i.e. 4.8 GPA + 1550 SA) would be recruitable at an ivy school without additional ECs?

No it means you NEED ECs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It can be based on need. Maybe they need to recruit deeper into the class for a specific stroke/event.

It can be based on volume. Some coaches take the "throw everything at the bus" approach and see what sticks. Worst case scenario they have too much interest and start ghosting kids that aren't as fast as other kids responding.

It can be based on a more in depth look into the swimmer. Maybe they aren't quite there yet but they have been dropping tons of time or they saw the swimmer at a meet and noticed they are a 5'11" female.

Remember, just because you get contacted doesnt mean they actually want you on the team right now or would offer you a spot/money. It's like a dating app right now. You save your favorites and reach out to the ones you might be interested in but you'll only need up with a few you "bring on a date" aka the official visit

When do they reach back out for official visit?

[Anonymous]

OVs occur in the fall around big football games usually

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OVs occur in the fall around big football games usually

How many do they invite per gender?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It can be based on need. Maybe they need to recruit deeper into the class for a specific stroke/event.

It can be based on volume. Some coaches take the "throw everything at the bus" approach and see what sticks. Worst case scenario they have too much interest and start ghosting kids that aren't as fast as other kids responding.

It can be based on a more in depth look into the swimmer. Maybe they aren't quite there yet but they have been dropping tons of time or they saw the swimmer at a meet and noticed they are a 5'11" female.

Remember, just because you get contacted doesnt mean they actually want you on the team right now or would offer you a spot/money. It's like a dating app right now. You save your favorites and reach out to the ones you might be interested in but you'll only need up with a few you "bring on a date" aka the official visit

When do they reach back out for official visit?

Kids are already being invited to visits setting their visits. If you haven't been offered a visit by a school, most likely you're not a top priority right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OVs occur in the fall around big football games usually

How many do they invite per gender?

Depends. Sometimes we had a small group like 4 on a visit, sometimes we had a big group like 15. That's just one gender.

Schools want their top recruits on one of the first visit weekends so they can get them on campus and make an offer in hopes they will not take other visits and commit. So if your swimmer is getting pressure for an early fall visit or only being offered early falls visits, the coaches probably want to make sure they actually take the trip. Most won't take more than 3 visits.

We almost never had someone actually take a visit if we were their 4th or 5th visit.

[Anonymous]

I’m assuming this is different for Ivy recruiting

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Mom of a D3 college swimmer male. We had a list of approximately 20 schools that were academic fits and where he could score at conference meets (mid major patriot league, caa and top D3, UAA, NESAC). I stressed academic fit (great student, engineering major). It worked out for us, I think in part because we knew that there would be no swimming money and the school was a good academic fit. Others on his club team went P4 and D1 and have not had the same experience. They have been cut and two transferred.

Did he have lots of other ECs too? TIA

A few not a ton of other ECs, he had a very high GPA and very good SAT scores, swimming was the primary EC and it is so time consuming. Good luck!

Thanks. DD has a very high GPA in her freshman year. I was always wondering if swimming could be her only EC to get recruited by some less competitive Ivy schools or good D3 schools, assuming she continues doing well in classroom and gets 1550+ SAT. She has a couple of futures time and her first swimcloud ranking is expected to be somewhere around 300~400.

Is this a joke? Very high GPA, 1550+ SAT, multiple futures times/top 300 in the country and wondering if a good D3 school would be interested.

She doesn't have any other ECs. I thought her swimming and academic resume could be strong enough to draw some attention from top D3 schools like Amherst or Williams, but what about Ivy Schools that I thought many athletes had lots of other ECs like music, debating etc.?

What matters for Ivies beyond grades and test scores is being fast. Some very fast swimmers end up at Harvard, Princeton, Penn, etc. Also what matters is what events your kid swims and the team’s needs. Other ECs are not important for recruited athletes

^. This. If you want an ivy or high academic D3 school, make sure that you know that you can full pay or are eligible for financial aid. There is no merit or athletic scholarships available at these schools.