How long do you think it will take for coaches to reply?
There’s no rule of thumb. Some will never reply. Now is a good time to be reaching out. If you haven’t heard from them within a week or two it’s ok to try and contact them again.
DId you send an email to the head coach and recruiting coach at each school? Position coach too, if they have one.
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You may have to choose one or the other, or even knock both down to a good soccer program and a good academic program. In fact, I think you may have a much better chance of playing at a D2 program and being outstanding academically in a really solid academic program.
Look at a program like Colorado School of Mines. A few years ago I was looking up stuff for that school and found that every single player on the men’s soccer team was in engineering (not unusual for that school as it is about 80% engineering) and every single one of the players had played club soccer through high school. A D2 school can give athletic scholarships and CSM gives academic scholarships too.
Lots of D2 schools in Florida that have international players on their soccer teams.
What type of ‘top academic school’ are you looking for? What top soccer schools?
Honestly, I thinkyou are looking for a unicorn at this point, especially if you want to start in August. The scholarships will be gone and if you haven’t applied and been accepted by March 1, the academic money may be gone too. If any of the coaches you’ve been talking to are interested in you, grab that chance. If they suggest a gap year and how to do that (at a boarding school as a post grad, playing for a club) follow their lead. If your current club offers post grad years, that might work out the best.
What do your coaches recommend?
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I sent an email to the head coach, assistant coach and if applicable an associate coach.
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They will reply fairly quickly or not at all. If the latter happens it could be that your email is lost among the hundreds the coach gets every week. In that case send the email again, and make sure to include every coach on the staff.
I just googled and there are tons of agencies promising to place UK players at US colleges and universities. I am sure some might be shady, but I expect its worth reaching out to all of them, and seeing what you can learn.
My coach has some connections to a plethora of colleges mainly d2 or juco with a few d1 schools and he suggested that I go to a JUCO and transfer to a D1 school later. However, I would not want to do this for different reasons
I have been looking for agencies in the UK and basically, all of them don’t seem to be getting players to schools greater than mid-major D2 which respectfully isn’t what I’m aiming for.
I could be wrong but I think it’s just a matter of saying so (ie reaching out about a spot on the ‘25 roster). You need to think about how you are spending the year though and could discuss options with the coaches.
It doesn’t hurt to reach out to the coach at The Pennington School (top 10 HS team) and explore the PG option and how they could help you (and the financial aid situation). There are other schools, of course, but that is the one I am familiar with.
Even as an athlete, you can get more money with merit, so maybe look at schools where you’d be an impact athlete AND an impact student. The advantage of merit money is that if you can no longer play, for whatever reason, you keep your scholarship. There are many excellent D3 schools that give significant merit scholarships, specially if you look away from the coasts and more towards the middle of the country.
You should include your class and position on your subject line, but I would at the very least say “ ‘24/possible gap year” or something like that.
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If your budget is only 9K you will need to be more flexible. It’s for you to decide if you’d rather play and attend school “somewhere” in the US or stay in the UK.
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I will definitely try and explore this route. Most grateful for all your help and suggestions everyone.
Thanks 
I apologise if this sounds silly but what would an email towards a school such as The Pennington regarding a post-graduate year or reclassing look like?
Also, what’s the difference between reclassing and a post-graduate year
In HS speak, reclass usually refers to repeating a grade. Reclassification is pretty common for students moving to boarding school. If you already graduated, you come in as a PG, but in all practical sense you are part of the 12th grade class. PGs are almost always athletes. Many times PGs are already committed but need to strengthen their academic profile for acceptance.
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I agree that JUCO with As and A* at A Levels, especially for a science and maths, is NOT what you should be aiming for.
If your coach has connections to the US, has he said where he thinks you could play? ‘D1’ is a wide range in terms of both football level and academics. Does he think you are a Clemson (national rank 1) or a College of Charleston (137) or something in between?
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I think you could just email the coach with your stats, video, etc explains that you are considering a PG year and ask if he would set up a call to discuss with you.
Most people never heard of PGs. I am sure coaches in these programs are used to talking to athletes about the option.
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The downside of a PG year is OP’s budget, and likely having income high enough to not qualify for need based aid (if the school would even give aid to an international.
I have worked with plenty of student athletes with very low EFCs that did a PG year and I don’t think the price ever got close to $9K. OP will also have travel costs as well as health insurance costs, which could easily be another $6K or even more.
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The coach who has connections to the US isn’t my coach specifically but a coach who is part of the organization I play for so he wouldn’t know my football level on this range as he’s never seen me play and could only go off my highlight tape.
I don’t disagree, though I think it might still be worth understanding the option.
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And if I want to reclass I can do the same thing and replace “considering a PG year” with considering reclassing to the class of 2025.
OP I sent you a private message. Look for the green envelope icon on the top right of this page, by your avatar.
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But he should have an idea from the level you are playing at now, and your highlight tape - he can definitely say whether you are more to the top end of D1 or lower down… you do need to have this convo to know which college coaches to be contacting. It is worth asking the question at least…
For example - many of the English players I’ve seen at the very top D1 programs are ex PL and EFL academy players, who were released at age 16.
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