Courtesy of Elizabeth Wickham
I’m sharing seven tips on how you can help your swimmer through college recruiting. I hope this helps you wade through pools of confusion and simplifies the process. Enjoy the recruiting experience—it’s an exciting time in your swimmer’s life—and in yours, too.
1. Support you swimmer.
Help them through the recruiting process, but don’t take over. This is an important chapter in their growth.
2. Get your swimmer to practice!
College coaches will talk to your club coach. If your swimmer is a hard worker and consistent with practices—your club coach will recommend him or her whole-heartedly.
3. Register with the NCAA Clearing House.
It’s something all athletes must do if they want to participate in college sports.
4. Academics.
Have your student meet with his high school counselor to make sure he or she is on track. Coaches appreciate swimmers with good grades and high SATs.
5. Make Lists.
A – Dream schools — where has your swimmer always wanted to go?
B – Geographic location — where does your swimmer want to live? Close to home? Or in an entirely different part of the country?
C – DI, DII or DIII? There’s a division, conference and school for every swimmer. Determine a fit by looking at NCAA Division results.
D – Does your swimmer score points in conference? Chances are if they score in the top eight, they may be a candidate for a scholarship.
6. Have your swimmer email coaches.
Start early, during your swimmer’s sophomore or junior year. Tips for good emails: What is a coach looking for in a swimmer, what are their time requirements? Why is your swimmer interested in a particular school?Your swimmer needs to fill out online questionnaires on schools’ athletic websites. You may want to schedule unofficial visits at schools close-by.
7. Be polite.
Remind your swimmer to return all phone calls and emails. Remember, coaches move around—and they tend to have friends they talk with who are coaches, too!
Elizabeth Wickham volunteered for 14 years on her kids’ club team as board member, fundraiser, newsletter editor and “Mrs. meet manager.” She’s a writer with a bachelor of arts degree in editorial journalism from the University of Washington with a long career in public relations, marketing and advertising. Her stories have appeared in newspapers and magazines including the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Parenting and Ladybug. You can read more parenting tips on her blog.
Regarding Tip 5D. Your swimmers time must be good enough to score points in the conference if the school you are wanting to attend and you must be a contributer to team GPA criteria if you expect athletic scholarship money. Many D1 schools will upgrade scholarship money if you meet standards during your time at the school.
Good list. You may want to have more than a dream list. Be realistic and talk to parents from the same club who have kids who had similar times to your child but maybe a couple of years older. If their kid wasn’t recruit by Power 5 schools, your son or daughter probably won’t, either.
If you are swimming D1, better consider yourself a professional swimmer. My son was recruited by D1 two years ago. When we asked about academics, we were told classes shouldn’t conflict with practice. And practice doesn’t end when the season does. They get maybe two weeks off around spring break then they are right back at it.
Going from a great club team to… Read more »
Here’s your wake up call from a parent of three college swimmers:
Swimming in college is the same as having a full time job while you are going to school so unless your child is getting paid to swim(scholarship) or is being promised academic support (which they will need) then make the academic aspect the school the only priority. Ivy League programs are not for swimmers people who want to go faster – and they do not give academic support. Please be aware that even on D-III teams, very few of the swimmers are qualifying to swim in the heats which generate points for the team and not more than a handful of kids on each team actually go… Read more »
A response of a sort from the parent of one swimmer who just finished her college career, another in the middle of her college career and one more who is currently a high school senior and going through the recruiting process:
I’ve always told the kids I coach that if they want to swim in college, there is a place they can swim. Swimming in college is not for everyone. It is hard and time-consuming, but it can also be the source of a lot of benefits in school and after graduation.
Academics are always important but quite frankly, in my opinion undergraduate degrees are quite comparable from school to school. You can look at all the rankings you want… Read more »
we entrusted our beautiful youngest child to a college coach who pursued, wined and dimed him. We attended a big meet into his freshmen year. After the meet, the coach approached us and said ” hi, I’m coach X , have we met?”. Mind you, we were seated by our child, this same coach had toured us for hours on the campus when we attended the official visit, yet he did not know us at alll. Clearly astonished, disappointed, and utterly blown away.
This was at a DI, prestigious,,sought after, totally desirable, hard to get into school.
Sadly, wish we had known better.
There are only 1346 D1Male swiming scholarships POTENTIALLY available, and 2716 D1 female scholarships POTENTIALLY available. The word POTENTIALLY is in caps because not all programs are fully funded. Unless your swimmer is ON THE PODIUM finishing top 5 at JR Nationals or SR Nationals, DO NOT expect a lot of money in the form of an athletic scholarship. Academic scholarships are a better potential source of scholarship but DO NOT EXPECT A LOT, ANYWHERE. Most out of state public tuitions are in the 40K range, most private tuition is 45K and UP. We have seen EXCELLENT CHAMPOINSHIP WINNING SWIMMERS get offered “we will pay for your books”. Best we have seen is an out of state swimmer get offered… Read more »
As far as I know, all DI swimmers can go home over the summer. We have had every graduated swimmer return to our club team over the summer at least once. If they stay at school, it is by choice, whether to take summer classes, train, etc.
There is no “academic money” at Ivy League schools…..ditto for other very selective schools such as those in the NESCAC conference (Amherst, Williams, etc). Need based aid only. However, as noted elsewhere they have large endowments, typically meet 100 percent of demonstrated need and many offer no-loan aid packages make them very cost competitive.
Thank you… For real life analysis…!
Regarding 5-D, nnless this is a major D1 school, I wouldn’t expect a swimming scholarship, especially for a male swimmer.
My son signed for a D1 college he is currently a senior. He did not get any money per say for the swimming but half ride for academics as long as he keeps a 3.5 gpa. He took several AP classes in high school but now is wishing he took more. Now seeing what all good grades in AP classes can help in college .
If you can score in conference right away then you will get some $$. Otherwise you must earn the dollars thru performance in D1
My daughter is a senior who just committed to a DI university. All 7 points are excellent. The following is also important: 1. Colleges want kids who swim well in 3 events (or more). 2. Swimmers are often more likely to get scholarship money for academics than athletics – so ACT/SAT scores, GPA, and strength of curriculum may be more important than swim times. 3. When kids email coaches they should mention their progression/improvements over the last 3/4 years. 4. Be realistic when considering schools – swim wise, academic wise, and price wise. 5. You truly cannot have everything. Kid should make a list of their top three priorities which might be: price, location, swim team, academic major, small class… Read more »
Very good list especially number 1……also re Point 4 academics make sure you check to see if schools on the list require SAT subject tests. it’s best to take those tests the spring of your junior year if possible. This will be of immense help if you decide on going the early Decision 1 route. Also good SAT subject scores help bolster the academically strong candidate in the eyes of the coaches. At the risk of stating the obvious, academics are of number one importance. Academically strong athletes are an asset to any program, even those who can’t make the conference team or earn an athletic scholarship.
My additional point is that many, many swimmers are focused on top… Read more »