Track and field is so straight forward since all schools publish their standards- service is not needed.

Not NCSA

Depending on the sport there are some valuable services though. Some sports the current coaches and showcases will get the job done.

Anonymous wrote:Rowing is such a niche sport you are better off doing it yourself - reach out to coaches etc.

Agree with this. DC was a recruited D1 rower. They reached out to coaches, shared their erg scores, GPA, SAT, etc. and received official visits.

Rowing is such a niche sport you are better off doing it yourself - reach out to coaches etc.

Edited: OP here, for [women's] rowing programs.

OP here, for rowing.

This is all such a racket.

NSCA is a waste.

You need to let us know the sport. Hockey has tons of advisors. I know a kid who met with an advisor for lacrosse. The Dad didn't even know it was a thing, and he had a daughter playing D1 already. The advisor promptly had him play down a year and suddenly Ivy coaches wanted him. Ended up staying on grade and went to Amherst.

Anonymous wrote:Any recruited D1 or D3 kids (or parents) who used a recruitment service like NSCA? Benefits? Worthwhile? Or a waste of money?

Maybe for D1 where you can get a full scholarship and/or more financial support? For D3, it was a waste of money. My DS did fine just emailing coaches of schools he was interested in.

He was able to get into a two schools I thought he had no chance to get in on just his academics merit. So it was a tremendous hook! He's at Tufts now.

Showcases for baseball.

As others have said, it depends upon the sport. My DD plays lacrosse and they use a version of SportsRecruits specifically for women's lacrosse. The college coaches all have access and can look at profiles that include things like film and academic stats. The fees we pay for her club membership pay for "pro" account that provides this info and access. If your kid plays travel, talk with their coach or club to see what the team offers. I've heard middling things about NCSA, but that might be because the SportsRecruits platform is better for DD's sport. Some parents also hire recruiting consultants - they are $$$$, though.

BBA for Baseball

Yes, usually there are services that specialize in the various sports. I kind of recall signing up for whatever is offered for free for NSCA...but it didn't produce much.

A free service that actually did produce outreach from coaches was a service called FieldLevel.

What sport? We used one that specializes in baseball recruiting for high academic schools. It was very helpful and ultimately connected DS with the coach/school that he ended up choosing (it was not initially on our radar). Even absent that, we were able to get a lot of valuable information through them about things that are normally not transparent . . . i.e., who had spots available and the level of interest they had in DS.

Any recruited D1 or D3 kids (or parents) who used a recruitment service like NSCA? Benefits? Worthwhile? Or a waste of money?