Anonymous wrote:DS knows of a kid that made a huge fanfare (as did their parents) of verbally committing to a college for their sport, when they weren’t recruited and only a walk on (and didn’t make the roster). A little nuts no? And my DS only knows because a friend of his plays in same conference as the ‘committed’ kid and asked about him when they played said college (seeing he wasn’t on the roster). “They were a walk on and didn’t make the roster”. The kid I can (at a push) almost just about get, but the parents posting all over the place when they must have known it was a complete lie. Bizarre, or is it quite common in this area?

So some programs will recruit walk ons. They tell you you are the first or second walk on vs making the team. Sometimes it will help get you into a school.

*embarrassed

Anonymous wrote:DS knows of a kid that made a huge fanfare (as did their parents) of verbally committing to a college for their sport, when they weren’t recruited and only a walk on (and didn’t make the roster). A little nuts no? And my DS only knows because a friend of his plays in same conference as the ‘committed’ kid and asked about him when they played said college (seeing he wasn’t on the roster). “They were a walk on and didn’t make the roster”. The kid I can (at a push) almost just about get, but the parents posting all over the place when they must have known it was a complete lie. Bizarre, or is it quite common in this area?

I can beat that one. Classmate admitted to HYPS because family made an enormous financial contribution to the school, and claims they were recruited for one of their teams (and insinuated that the student's grades/course load are anywhere good enough to properly be admitted through required channels to that school).

Parents are whacko, OP. The whole class knows what is what, but the parents think they can lie, lie, lie.......

SUCH an embarrassment. Too stupid to be embarassed.

If you’re a walk on and didn’t make the roster, you really didn’t walk on to anything.

Also, newsflash … people lie. All the time. It is a national pastime these days.

Anonymous wrote:I mean there’s a variety of ways to interpret “walk on”. Many would say all non-scholarship athletes are walk ons, so someone attending D3 or an Ivy would technically be a walk on even if they had preferred admissions status through the coaching staff. When D1 athletes are signing NLIs, they’re signing celebratory certificates or blank sheets of paper. The high schools like to celebrate their achievement. And some recruited athletes don’t make the roster. You don’t know what the situation is—why make a judgmental fuss about it?

This is what I thought of as well. Some D3 colleges over recruit so more kids show up for team than roster spots, much less likely in d1 where student is receiving scholarship money.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a byproduct of the ‘everyone gets a trophy’ culture. Neither kids or parents can cope with failure.

Also for those piling on the OP, I think they are more focused on what the parents are thinking….or maybe those parents are on here

No, it's the bizarre question of "is this common?" OP knows it's not but just wanted to mock these people. She's being mean and petty and putting an innocent question at the end of the salacious story doesn't fool many.

Actually, I would say it's not uncommon, especially at large universities.

Anonymous wrote:Per NCAA: "If a college coach calls you more than once, contacts you off campus, pays your expenses to visit the campus, or in Divisions I and II, issues you a National Letter of Intent or a written offer of financial aid, you are considered to be recruited"

I have had 2 kids who took official D1 visits and committed with no athletic $ and one who took an unofficial D1 visit but committed with an NLI for athletic $. All 3 per NCAA are considered recruited athletes.

Yes, which is why the OP was confusing. “Walk on” athletes (Wikipedia: A walk-on, in American and Canadian college athletics, is an athlete who becomes part of a team without being awarded an athletic scholarship.) are confused with not being recruited. This is exactly the wording OP was confused by. Kid from the school said the athlete was a “walk on who didn’t make the roster” and OP made the assumption he was not recruited.

Per NCAA: "If a college coach calls you more than once, contacts you off campus, pays your expenses to visit the campus, or in Divisions I and II, issues you a National Letter of Intent or a written offer of financial aid, you are considered to be recruited"

I have had 2 kids who took official D1 visits and committed with no athletic $ and one who took an unofficial D1 visit but committed with an NLI for athletic $. All 3 per NCAA are considered recruited athletes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean there’s a variety of ways to interpret “walk on”. Many would say all non-scholarship athletes are walk ons, so someone attending D3 or an Ivy would technically be a walk on even if they had preferred admissions status through the coaching staff. When D1 athletes are signing NLIs, they’re signing celebratory certificates or blank sheets of paper. The high schools like to celebrate their achievement. And some recruited athletes don’t make the roster. You don’t know what the situation is—why make a judgmental fuss about it?

D3 recruit athletes heavily, the ‘incentive’ is almost guaranteed admission to some high academic schools. In a similar no financial return vein - Ivy League being the ultimate prize.

Yes, exactly. However if you look up “walk on” the definition is often no scholarship money. So by that definition no D3 or Ivy would have anything but walk ons. We all know they recruit athletes even without athletic scholarships. I could see the wording used by OP meaning many different things. For some it means no scholarship, for some it conjures images of attending some sort of open tryout after they’ve matriculated.

These days, most team sports: Football, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, hockey, baseball all have web sites tracking this information and commitments are verified by the school. Parents and players track this information and follow it to see where opportunities are. This is way different than a walk on. Although things change a verbal is still a big deal. This is still true at Ivies and D3 schools as positions can be very competitive.

Yes, I agree 100%
I’m just saying a lot of people throw kids into $ and walk on, even though all of us who have been through the process know there is a lot more to it. Who knows what situation OP is talking about (show up and hope to make team, verbal commitment, no $ but admissions help, etc). No matter the situation, OP needs to get a grip and let it go.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was a “preferred walk-on” meaning he was not given scholarship money but did get preferential admissions.

He easily could have been cut freshman year but he wasn’t and ended up staying and getting a scholarship. About 3 kids from his grade have the same story, but some got cut.

It’s a harsh and intense way to “apply” to college and there are no promises.

To me it does not seem odd or weird.

This happened to my brother as well. OP seems petty AF.

Agreed for most non rev sports, a roster spot and help with admissions is the value of being recruited. What sport OP.

Lacrosse

I’m most familiar with baseball. In D1, teams are allowed a maximum of 35 players. Of those 35, only 27 are allowed any athletic $ (and they don’t have enough money for full rides. Most players are only getting partial scholarship $ and the coach can allocate his money to fewer players. So 8 players on every team are going to be “walk-ons” if you are referring to no athletic money. No money - the player can be cut. Big programs - the ones that recruit future MLB level players - have players that get drafted every year before they graduate. They also may recruit a player who ends up getting drafted out of high school, so he never shows up on campus. So coaches over-recruit to make sure they have 35 guys in the spring. They’ll bring in 10 new guys, even though if everyone stays, he only has room for 7. Remember, at least 8 can be cut because they are getting $0. So the fall is the try-out. Most likely, it’s going to be a freshman who is cut. But there could be an upperclassman who is cut to get to 35 players in Feb.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean there’s a variety of ways to interpret “walk on”. Many would say all non-scholarship athletes are walk ons, so someone attending D3 or an Ivy would technically be a walk on even if they had preferred admissions status through the coaching staff. When D1 athletes are signing NLIs, they’re signing celebratory certificates or blank sheets of paper. The high schools like to celebrate their achievement. And some recruited athletes don’t make the roster. You don’t know what the situation is—why make a judgmental fuss about it?

D3 recruit athletes heavily, the ‘incentive’ is almost guaranteed admission to some high academic schools. In a similar no financial return vein - Ivy League being the ultimate prize.

Yes, exactly. However if you look up “walk on” the definition is often no scholarship money. So by that definition no D3 or Ivy would have anything but walk ons. We all know they recruit athletes even without athletic scholarships. I could see the wording used by OP meaning many different things. For some it means no scholarship, for some it conjures images of attending some sort of open tryout after they’ve matriculated.

These days, most team sports: Football, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, hockey, baseball all have web sites tracking this information and commitments are verified by the school. Parents and players track this information and follow it to see where opportunities are. This is way different than a walk on. Although things change a verbal is still a big deal. This is still true at Ivies and D3 schools as positions can be very competitive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was a “preferred walk-on” meaning he was not given scholarship money but did get preferential admissions.

He easily could have been cut freshman year but he wasn’t and ended up staying and getting a scholarship. About 3 kids from his grade have the same story, but some got cut.

It’s a harsh and intense way to “apply” to college and there are no promises.

To me it does not seem odd or weird.

This happened to my brother as well. OP seems petty AF.

Agreed for most non rev sports, a roster spot and help with admissions is the value of being recruited. What sport OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean there’s a variety of ways to interpret “walk on”. Many would say all non-scholarship athletes are walk ons, so someone attending D3 or an Ivy would technically be a walk on even if they had preferred admissions status through the coaching staff. When D1 athletes are signing NLIs, they’re signing celebratory certificates or blank sheets of paper. The high schools like to celebrate their achievement. And some recruited athletes don’t make the roster. You don’t know what the situation is—why make a judgmental fuss about it?

D3 recruit athletes heavily, the ‘incentive’ is almost guaranteed admission to some high academic schools. In a similar no financial return vein - Ivy League being the ultimate prize.

Yes, exactly. However if you look up “walk on” the definition is often no scholarship money. So by that definition no D3 or Ivy would have anything but walk ons. We all know they recruit athletes even without athletic scholarships. I could see the wording used by OP meaning many different things. For some it means no scholarship, for some it conjures images of attending some sort of open tryout after they’ve matriculated.

Anonymous wrote:I mean there’s a variety of ways to interpret “walk on”. Many would say all non-scholarship athletes are walk ons, so someone attending D3 or an Ivy would technically be a walk on even if they had preferred admissions status through the coaching staff. When D1 athletes are signing NLIs, they’re signing celebratory certificates or blank sheets of paper. The high schools like to celebrate their achievement. And some recruited athletes don’t make the roster. You don’t know what the situation is—why make a judgmental fuss about it?

D3 recruit athletes heavily, the ‘incentive’ is almost guaranteed admission to some high academic schools. In a similar no financial return vein - Ivy League being the ultimate prize.