dsin917

I am concerned for my son. He is a great distance runner, but that's about it. His GPA is about a ~3.6 with a decent amount of honors/AP classes. He has a 2100 SAT score with a 32 on the ACT. He wants to go to Yale.

Everyone who has gone to Yale, Harvard, or any great school for athletics has had some type of legacy or some type of other prestige (president of clubs, research competitions, musician, artist, etc.) My son just has grades and his athletic stats (9:22 approx for 3200 for those who want to know how good he is). He didn't even get into his schools National Honor Society because he doesn't do anything else. Please help?

MaineLonghorn

That's an excellent time, so DIII coaches will be interested in him. Has he contacted any coaches yet? My son has been contacting people since last spring. His 3200 time is 9:36, and the coaches are recruiting him. Your son has a good GPA and excellent SAT, so he'll get into a good school, just perhaps not Yale.

EMM1

Your S should contact the Yale coach directly and tell him the relevant stats.

TheGFG

We know track kids being recruited to Cornell and Columbia with much lower stats than those. If your son would be interested in those schools, by all means contact the coaches!

The Yale girls coach told my D that, like admissions in general, athletic admissions is getter tougher every year at Yale. She said that this year she couldn't get students past the pre-read stage who in other years she would have been able to get through. She said when she took D's folder to admissions, out of the 8 kids she presented that day, they nixed 2.

EMM1

The key stat is the boy's time in the 3200. Either it is good enough for the coach to be interested, or it is not (don't know enough about the sport to have an opinion). The only way to find out for sure is to call the coach directly.

If the time is not good enough, the boy has to move on; being almost good enough to be recruited is not going to help much (if at all) in the admissions process.

TheGFG

I checked out the rankings. Assuming the OP's son ran that time as a junior, then while a very good mark, it is not a nationally ranked time. It would be a state-elite level time. There are 78-87 (depending on the tenths of seconds after the 9:22) kids his age in the country who are faster than he is in the 3200. The question will be how many of these are strong students.

bessie

Call the Yale coach and express your interest in visiting the school and learning more about the program there. They will let you know if they want to recruit you. Call other coaches as well... you never know where you might end up. Good luck.

maineparent

I really liked a coach from U Penn who told us they don't always recruit based on numbers, but rather, they know when they see "talent"... what that said to us was that there would be opportunities for "state-elite level" athletes.... individuals who are coachable.... and schoolwork (courses and grades) were the most important piece of the pie.

The other thing for your son to understand, and it is too late to alter what has gone before, is that all of one's behaviors do have a cumulative result. If he does nothing else besides homework and run..... then, he is competing with a lot of kids who do that same stuff AND more....in some cases significantly more. Now, he may be doing things outside of school.....so he isn't getting the high school gold stars (National Honor Society etc) but it is up to your son to build a resume that demonstrates interests, passions, actions and results. A real key question for your son and you.....is whether his current coaches are 100% supportive of your son's efforts.... any potential recruited athlete needs their current coaches to say that this candidate was a very positive member of our team... that they listen and work hard and help others etc....

And while any student might want to go to school A, B or C..... one thing that almost every regular CC visitor knows is "love they safety" and build a balanced list of safeties, matches AND reaches. Yale is a reach for everyone.... it is very rare for any one ability to be a ticket into any college..... I think your concern for your son is valid and so the next step is to start focusing in on what he does....who he is.... what he offers.... and not stress about what he doesn't have. (I learned this lesson with my first child... it was easy to see what was missing and our college counselor stopped that discussion immediately.... they wanted to know about who our child was...not who they weren't.) Helping your child craft a valid college list is a wonderful gift.... running for a school that will value you and offer a strong education is a winning combination for a 4 year experience..... have him reach out to many coaches to see if there is interest.... another thread mentions the Muhlenburg coach as getting over 700 initial recruiting requests... that is a lot..... so cast the net far and wide is my ultimate recommendation.

MaineLonghorn

"I really liked a coach from U Penn who told us they don't always recruit based on numbers, but rather, they know when they see "talent"... what that said to us was that there would be opportunities for "state-elite level" athletes.... individuals who are coachable.... and schoolwork (courses and grades) were the most important piece of the pie. "

Ditto! A really good running school has told our son they'd like him to run for them. Just looking at his times, it makes NO sense, but at the interview, the coach told us it's more than numbers. He said a lot of "decent" HS runners really hit their stride in college. On the other hand, some HS "stars" have a hard time when they get to college and lose an 8K by a couple of minutes!

ShesOnHerWay

UPenn is especially known for seeding it's teams with high stat athletes in order to get the lower stat (better athletic) athletes past the admission process. They need to keep an average stat across the team; the high stat athletes bring up the average. Be careful, high stat athletes may not play.

Search this board for more on the subject - especially at UPenn.

EMM1

The bottom line remains the same--the only person who really knows whether a particular student will receive the coach's support for his application is the coach himself. Have S call the coach, describe his stats, and see what the coach says.

maineparent

That was just not our U Penn experience Shesonherway.... I am sorry for mentioning a specific school..... the coach was cited more because of the issue of being a state elite competitor.....who can pale when in a wider pool of candidates... a golfer from Maine won't have the same opportunity to excel as a candidate from Florida.....whereas a hockey player from Maine does have more opportunity to excel than a Florida hockey player... talent can and does make an impression...... both natural talent and talent achieved thru hard work.... I am often reminded of Larry Bird and Michael Jordan who said the most important component of their success was practice.....

Agree with EMM1 about this: the ultimate arbiter is the coach.....if interested they will respond...

Mini Van

So much also depends on the recruiting year for that school. If all the distance studs decide to go to Yale, then that coach does not need to go too far down his list to recruit. Know someone recruited for Princeton one year who would not have been recruited another year when some national caliber runners decided to go there. Remember a coach is working off his/her list. As the top people commit elsewhere,you can move up the list. If they commit to go to the school, you can move off the list. It is a long dance....

bessie

It is a long dance and not all of it is in the control of any one athlete or coach. The puzzle comes together in surprising ways as a recruiting class is formed. Kids should pursue all of their opportunities and commit when they feel the fit is right. Most coaches who offer do not rescind offers... bad for future recruiting.