The answer is you don’t because most coaches don’t know. You can usually count on the first offer not being their best offer, but where do you go from there?
College recruiting changes on a daily level throughout the year, but it changes on an hourly level in the fall. You have to stay in communication with the coaches to keep track of when a spot or scholarship might open up.
Finding out if you have a chance at getting a swimming scholarship is not necessarily rocket science. The coach wants to know, “how many points can you score for me at conference?” The more points, the more money. Some of the top swim programs are not only looking for conference scorers, but also NCAA scorers.
Do your homework and look up the conference results for the teams you are looking at. Three events in the top 16 will usually get you some money and three events in the top 8 will get more. Being able to swim on relays will usually get you more.
Since more and more recruits are getting offers in their junior year of high school a very important aspect of recruiting is selling your potential. You will need your coach for this. You want to get the college coaches to see how fast you can be for them in your freshman year.
Creating leverage for yourself is another very important aspect of scholarship offers. If you are interested in a particular school you need to get other schools within their conference to recruit you and offer you scholarships. That way you can leverage one school against the other. Most coaches would rather pony up a little more scholarship money to keep you away from their competition rather than risk facing you for four years with another team.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK AND START EARLY!
This is flat out Game Theory. Commit, apply, and lock in early. It may not be the best offer, but the best offer may not come from a school that will get you a JOB. What’s the graduation rate? Ave starting salary after graduation.
This article contains some of the worst advice that I have read regarding the recruiting process and borders on irresponsible coming from a recruiting service. As a DI coach with moderate scholarship funding sure we are challenged to grow our teams by economically managing our funds by trying to get quality recruits. However, once we have a sense for the recruits that match our needs, show interest in our program and that we have a reasonable shot at signing, we have a good idea of how the money available will be spread out. Conference scoring potential and NCAA qualifications being the driving factors. The larger offers (50%-100%) are earmarked for the top recruits then smaller offers (10%-30%) to people who… Read more »
“I realize that finances are important, and I can only speak for myself, but if a recruit would rather go to another school because they are getting a couple thousand dollars more at that school then obviously money is the driving factor not the institution, the swimming program or the experience. It makes me questions the viability of the recruit being motivated to compete for 4 years and ultimately their priorities in general.”
Best Comment! Unless you’re an Olympic-level athlete, odds are swimming career ends after college; and the stipend given to USA National Team members is not going to pay most mortgages. Only the Elite of the Elite get sponsors and make any real money. Choose the Institution first… Read more »
BUT NEVER FORGET THIS…
1) it is the responsibility of the swimmer to try and get the MOST money they can
2) it is the responsibility of the college coach to get as many fast swimmers as they can with the amount of money they have
On the swimmer’s side…offers usually are never large enough for their liking. Always ask if the program has a history of increasing scholarships as swimmers improve in their program. Some schools are VERY good about this and some aren’t.
You know you’ve got a good offer when they give you 100k
…wait this isn’t basketball!
I found the process to be like buying a car. Now, most 17/18 year olds haven’t done that- but their parents have. If you and the car dealer agree on a fair price, then you buy the car. You may not have a lot of wiggle room negotiating a better scholarship offer, depending on the school and how many swimmers they need to bring in and most importantly if you are a male or a female but you should have a good idea on what you will need to afford the school. If the school is going to be way out of reach financially unless you get a very large scholarship it might be time to move on.
For us and our limits on aid, I always put my best offer on the table up front. There have been a few times where we lost a commit and we can bump a little but those have been rare.
It used to be that a lot of your competitors/friends would compare their offers from the coach of the same school recruiting you..funny how offers went up all of a sudden, when someone decided to go somewhere else. Now with instant messaging it must be easier to compare notes… I always appreciated the Coach who might have not given a full ride but was a great coach and sincere in really wanting you as part of the team.