Parent of 2026 Sectionals Level Girl Swimmer, just starting to fill out recruitment questionnaires and emailing programs. Looking at primarily D3 schools, NESCAC, NEWMAC, UAA and SCIAC Conferences.
Would love insights from experienced parents about recruiting timelines. Planning on a few campus visits this summer, would love to have a general idea if these programs offer official visits, and if so, do those occur in junior or senior year? Also, do coaches from these schools attend high(er) level competitions (Sectionals, Futures) to meet with prospective recruits?
I assume that to nail a spot at any of the schools she’s interested in, she will have to apply ED1. Hoping she’s a competitive enough prospect to garner some interest.
Always email the coach (with academic and athletic highlights, and video) after filling out recruiting questionnaires.
If you do summer visits, see if the coach may be around to meet with your D. Parents often are not invited in those meetings, but sometimes are. Just know that it can be difficult to gauge the vibe of a school and its students in the summer.
Many D3 coaches do not have budgets for official visits, those that do generally will hold them senior year…and by then, many programs will have already made verbal offers.
Some programs will do pre-reads and make verbal offers in spring of junior year. NESCACs won’t do pre-reads until July 1 after junior year, with offers coming at any point after that. Generally an ED app is necessary for athletes who have verbally committed and have full coach support.
Does your D have an ACT or SAT test score yet? If not, I would encourage her to do so sooner rather than later.
Adding to email the head coach and CC all other coaches with each communication. Sometimes, but not always for D3s, its one of the assistants that will pick up the communication during this stage. Always make sure you are cc’ing the headcoach and vise-versa. Assistants move around a lot and sometimes recruits don’t realize they have been emailing someone who is no longer there.
Make a spreadsheet to keep track of communications! Eventually we found what we liked best was a running GoogleDoc for each school, titled school_date of email. Each email sent was added above the previous one with the date, and he would rename the file to that date. This came in handy when wondering “did I already tell him my SAT scores?” Particularly as exchanges picked up and each school had their own timing.
Also - I highly recommend having an email that is solely dedicated to recruiting/college. We set it up so any incoming email would also get forwarded to me. This way there was an extra set of eyes and I could say “hey, did you see coach x emailed you?”
I have a male swimmer ('24), so timing is a little slower than for girls, but don’t expect things to start to pick up until late fall. Early fall most of these schools will be working on finalizing their '25s. Still, its important to send updates along the way, even if you don’t hear back at first. For these schools, most of the activity will happen after March championships and through the summer. Some will have OVs in the early Sr fall, after pre-reads.
Swimming aside, we didn’t love visiting in the summer bc schools are quiet and the swim staff is not always there. Still. its a great time to figure out what you are looking for at the macro level. What type of school appeals if swimming was not part of the equation? Some schools will have Jr days in the fall or spring. Not exactly an official visit… more like an invitation only open house. We found them helpful as we got more of the day than a straight up college visit (like the opportunity to attend classes with another swimmer, or a personalized tour). Go out of your way to visit schools you are interested in. Any time you visit a school, email the coach and ask if they are available to meet and show you the facilities. We would typically email the coach with a couple of dates and ask what was best for them. We did some unofficial “official” visits. Latter in the process coaches were willing and able to put together great day long visits with time with the team and in classes when we were trying to finalize our decision. Don’t be afraid to ask.
I disagree with the “make sure to swim at these” idea, as its not always the best meet for the swimmer. Coaches don’t care where you make the time as long as you make them. Most of the time, a meet where a swimmer will get to swim more events and swim finals is a better choice than a higher level meet where they have a couple of cuts and won’t make finals. Having said that, if you are going to be at any of these meets, email the coaches and let them know you will be there and would love to connect if they are going to be there as well. Several (of these) coaches were at NCSAs last summer. At the very least you can usually expect local-ish coaches at sectionals and above.
That is usually the deal. True impact recruits may see support at later rounds but its not something you can count on. Even then there are no guarantees in RD. Coaches were pretty open about this.
Make sure she has a SwimCloud Varsity account where she can use the “how do I fit” feature. I would consider her “competitive” if she can score at 2+ events at conference and/or top of the program for multiple events. If she can add to a relay she will be considered more valuable.
If NEWMAC includes MIT, make sure to have that SAT score upfront. Coaches need a 1500+ for support (same is true for JHU) and generally don’t waste their time until you are in that ballpark. As @Mwfan1921 recommended, prepping this summer and taking the test early fall is great timing. I highly recommend the Aug AND the Oct test after prepping in earnest this summer. Showing up with a good score in hand will help at many of these schools. The coaches don’t have to wonder if they are investing time in someone who may not meet the academic threshold down the line.
The one piece of uncertainty is what will happen to D1 rosters given the recent SCOTUS decision. While everything is speculation at this point, everyone seems to agree swimmers will get squeezed out of P4 programs into mid-majors creating a trickle down effect all the way to D3s. On the boys side, where there are so many fewer programs, much of the selective D3 timing is driven by “waiting to see who is going to fall from an Ivy.” We will see more of that. Coaches will move even slower to see which swimmers fall on their lap after not finding a home at the higher level.
It’s safe to assume programs across the board will get faster. It’s more important than ever to cast a wide net.
I hated every minute of the recruiting process but I learned a lot along the way. Feel free do DM me if you have any questions.
Yep, she has been doing this for the 3 schools she’s already reached out too. I will let her know she’s on the right track.
Best case scenario is an abundance of riches, I guess. With the variability of timelines with which schools extend their offers, how does one make an informed decision? Don’t want to string a program along while waiting for other offers, but also, don’t want to make a rash decision. How long do programs wait to finalize their rosters? A school making an offer spring of junior year probably won’t wait until fall of senior year…
She is scheduled to take the ACT in September and the SAT in October. She is planning on doing test prep all summer. She did consider taking the SAT in August, but was nervous that she wouldn’t be prepared.
Timing will vary by school and by how much a given coach wants the athlete. Many offers do have sunset dates, sometimes a week, sometimes two, sometimes a month.
But, for example, a UAA school that makes an offer in spring of junior year is not likely to wait until August so the athlete can hear back from a NESCAC. Coaches want to lock up their athletes and be done with recruiting. NESCACs move later in general than the other conferences. It’s not uncommon that an athlete may have to turn down an offer from a program that isn’t their top choice without another offer in hand. It can be a long and agonizing process.
Your D should be upfront with coaches about the schools she is talking to and the timing. The coaching world is small.
She does have a varsity SwimCloud account. Based on her current times, she should be able to score in 1 event in UAA, 3+ events in NEWMAC, 2 events in NESCAC and 3+ events in SCIAC. She is primarily an IM’er, so limited relay value, but she’s working on it.
So if her top choice makes an offer Spring of Junior year and she is 75% sure, but wants to feel out other programs, she’ll have to decide how much of a gamble she’s willing to take. Yikes.
Yes, that is one possible scenario. Some coaches might indulge her and wait until she hears from all the schools she is interested in/has pre-reads at…but not all will. They do all know all these athletes are looking at multiple schools and want to wrap up the best athletes they can get.
Best to be up front with coaches “X school is one of my top choices” vs “X school is my top choice” (only if true.) One of your D’s goals should be to build good relationships with the coaches, so that communication can be direct as the process unfolds.
If she is prepping, she will be fine (it’s the very end of Aug). If you are able to register, I recommend adding it and taking both. Because virtually everyone super scores, there is a very good case for taking it twice. The least likely scenario, though possible, is that both sections would go down. Still, no harm done. Than, hopefully, call it a day in October.
The great thing with this timing is that kids get the added bonus of a real shot at the NMSQT. Most kids won’t start thinking about the SAT until after the PSAT.
Our strategy was to play it all at once. We showed earnest interest in all schools from the get go. The key for us was identifying schools that were a great fit academically/socially where he would be a true impact swimmer. There were many reasons why these schools would have been a great choice so he was able to have earnest conversations with the coaches.
I don’t think you will run into too much of this with the schools you are considering. Regardless, always ask the coach when they need to know by and if you are against a deadline you can always be direct with the coach of a school you prefer. Let them know they are your first choice and ask where you stand.
A lot of the coaches asked was was OUR timeline. The answer was (loosely) end of summer/early fall. When it came to it we had an OV as late as early October. We reiterated why we loved other their schools but explained we wanted to see it through with a couple of other schools. No one has a problem with this timeline.
I will add, there were a couple of schools where it was more like the coach left the ball on our court. In other words, they made it pretty clear that if we said the school was our choice, an “offer” would come.
Different sport, but the same leagues so I’ll comment on what we did about the timing issue in case it helps (it may not). My kid got her first offer from a SCIAC in mid-June. NEWMAC schools also offered then (but we had said it was no longer in the running). The SCIAC gave her a month. It was her #2 school. Her #1 was a NESCAC, which last year was Aug 1. When mid-July rolled around, she called NESCAC coach and explained my #2 offer is here, I’d rather be with you, but this is a great academic/social/athletic fit too. How high am I on your list? Do you expect you can get me info on Day 1 of NESCAC answers? She told the coach she was risk averse and wanted the direct truth on whether she was enough of an impact player that she should risk holding out for an offer. He said he would tell Admissions that she was their top recruit and that she needed an answer on Day 1. He also said he’d be shocked if she didn’t pass the pre-read given her academic record. So she called the SCIAC coach and asked for more time. He said that he was going to move down his list, but likely wouldn’t get all spots filled in 2 weeks and he’d happily take her if there were still spots open (he wasn’t going to rescind the offer, but he was moving forward). The NESCAC told the coach she passed the pre-read on Aug 1 and the coach called her right away. It all worked out. But, she had to be very direct and blunt (while still being polite and understanding) with both coaches, and that was uncomfortable for her. UAA schools were later in in the summer and so became moot.
Of course, NESCAC has reset back to July 1, which makes all this much less of an issue (it was just the weird summer of 2023). Still, it gives you one data point on how to handle such things. I think it helped that she had been regularly in touch with these coaches for a year by the time she needed to press them a bit. She had built up a relationship and a bit of credibility with them. Those conversations may not have yielded the same sort of truly specific, direct info and/or the same willingness to keep her as an option absent that history.
Thanks for sharing, @Ignutzz. Your story reflects the two “principles” I’ve been able to develop after pattern matching around this for a while:
The concern about having to manage different timelines for different schools is legitimate, but it’s also unique to every situation and very fluid, and you don’t know what it will look like for you until you’re actually managing the decisions - so it doesn’t help to overplan in the abstract.
When it does come up, which it generally does for competitive athletic recruits, your best tools are honesty, clarity, and respect - the coaches have heard it all before, and as long as everyone is straightforward with each other and respects each other’s role in the process, it tends towards a positive outcome.
I don’t know if that’s helpful, but it’s what I’ve seen and experienced.
If you are still open to considering other conferences, let me put in a plug for the MIAC which contains schools such as Macalester, Carleton, St. Olaf and Gustavus. Because of their Midwest locations, these schools have higher admit rates than schools of similar quality on the coasts. The MIAC is a nice conference because it is geographically compact so all seasonal meets can be done as simple day trips. When I swam in the MIAC, I don’t remember having to miss class even once, and being a STEM major was no problem. The MSP airport is also a hub, which means multiple daily direct flights.
Don’t underestimate this factor. Travel really cuts into a student’s time and if you can control this it helps. Traveling to the middle of nowhere gets old, even if the end location is a beautiful LAC (that you can’t really enjoy because you are in a gym, pool, or on a track).
My daughter gets car sick (and buses? forget about it) so she didn’t get much studying done on trips.