Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, they are hallucinating.

Yep. My 12yo daughter is on travel and school swim teams. Looking at the college placement of both teams last few years aligns with that link posted above; about 2-3 college swimmers out of 30 girls. But the college swimmers are swimming at mediocre D3 colleges, so no scholarships and no academic firepower. And these older girls were considered rockstars amongst this circle.

I also recall the rockstar girls and their parents making a big show about visiting prestigious schools and D1 programs...only for their daughters to end up at the mediocre D3s.

Sometimes swimmers end up in mediocre colleges because they had mediocre school grades. Howard is Division 1 in swimming, giving nearly full scholarships, but who would want to swim there? It has to be a right combination of academics and athletics achievements, not one or another.

Forget full scholarships for most sports for most athletes except in football and basketball. In the other sports - lacrosse for example - most of the scholarships except for the very top athletes in each entering class are are partial and low partial at that.
On the other hand, athletic ability can make all of the difference in terms of being admitted to top tier schools - may of the, such as in the Ivy League - with first class scholarship benefits.
Have your kids use their athletic talents to get into the very best school they can, unless it is very clear that their abilities are so high that they will not only get a full scholarship but are likely to star on a national ranked team - and highly ranked at that.
I have a relative who could have had a scholarship on MOST of the top lacrosse teams in the country. He ended up an All-American at a top Ivy League school, and he is now doing great on Wall Street. He made the right choice.

Anonymous wrote:All your answers can be found here at this great website. Really good info.

http://scholarshipstats.com/

click on the swimming & Diving tab

Such an informative website. Thank you.

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?

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, they are hallucinating.

Yep. My 12yo daughter is on travel and school swim teams. Looking at the college placement of both teams last few years aligns with that link posted above; about 2-3 college swimmers out of 30 girls. But the college swimmers are swimming at mediocre D3 colleges, so no scholarships and no academic firepower. And these older girls were considered rockstars amongst this circle.

I also recall the rockstar girls and their parents making a big show about visiting prestigious schools and D1 programs...only for their daughters to end up at the mediocre D3s.

I’d love for my teen to play water polo because I think he’d like it but can’t find any Alexandria area places where he could start. It doesn’t look like that many colleges have teams, so not sure it would be much of a benefit for admissions. I do think it would be great exercise.

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.

Of course, if you never made anything better than BB-A as a swimmer by upper middle school, water polo or other sport makes sense to consider. But if a swimmer has at least 3-4 AA times by the age of 15, there is still a high chance to make college cuts in high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, they are hallucinating.

I mean, if the meet in question is the Mini Champs and they're talking about a bunch of 8 year olds, yes for sure delusional. But if they're at the Senior Champs, and those parents have the kids going to finals and winning events? Optimistic, sure, but not delusional necessarily.

If the OP was talking with Senior Champs swimmers parents, top 20 there already have at least 2-3 different colleges cuts at age 15-18. So parents are not delusional, they are being practical discussing their college offers with others.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, they are hallucinating.

I mean, if the meet in question is the Mini Champs and they're talking about a bunch of 8 year olds, yes for sure delusional. But if they're at the Senior Champs, and those parents have the kids going to finals and winning events? Optimistic, sure, but not delusional necessarily.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, they are hallucinating.

It is not a matter of a scholarship for many swimmers, but about getting into that specific college. Some don't' even want to go to colleges that offer scholarships and choose different programs either because they are higher ranked, or because they don't want to commit to swim all years in college.

Yeah, they are hallucinating.

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.

All your answers can be found here at this great website. Really good info.

http://scholarshipstats.com/

click on the swimming & Diving tab

I’m at a swim tournament and so many parents are talking about scholarship dreams for their daughters. I was under the impression even at division 1 colleges full scholarships are very rare.