I am a junior recruited athlete (d1). I have come to the realization that I might want to decommit. The school I am currently verbally committed to is a topish program but average academically. I have just felt that I don’t really want to go to this school anymore. I was recruited pretty heavily and was a top recruit at a couple of schools. The new school I want to go to looked at me when I was getting recruited and called me, however I shut them down because at the time I thought I wanted a better program. That school is a top academic school in a place that I would really enjoy living in. I am now realizing that I would 100% rather go to a worse program for a better education. This program doesn’t really get a lot of good recruits. Im struggling because even if I decommit I don’t know if this new program would like me still, and scared because my current school is a great program but I just don’t want it anymore.
I think you need to tell the coach at this school that you want to reopen your search and that the reason is academic fit, not the team. If he says no, you then have thank him and move on. If he says yes, you can recontact the other schools or new schools.
A good coach should want you to have the best education (for you). He’s not going to be in a good place if you go there for a year, are unhappy, and transfer.
The sport I play is very tight nit, the community is small I’m scared even mentioning I want something else will get me blacklisted. I feel if the school I’m currently at hears I’m thinking about something else I will loose everything. My current HC is somewhat of a coaching legend. I’m torn because I really do not want to make a decision unless I know the school I really want will have interest. I feel like they will because I am a good recruit and above what they usually recruit but I don’t know. I was thinking about talking to some alumni who played for the program I want and try to test the waters. Again I don’t know. Should I try my recruited director? See if they can reach out for me?
It’s fine to reconsider, and good to think about fit. But before going too far with this I think some preliminary clarification is needed.
You took an OV at the current school and it seemed like a good fit?
You shut down conversations with the other school before even taking an OV? So you really don’t know much about it other than “top” academic school in a location you think you like?
Did your academic interests change or is this a matter of the difference between school reputations? And how sure are you that your academic experience would be different? It’s one thing if you’re comparing a random directional state college to Yale. But are we talking the perceived difference between schools like Michigan and Harvard here?
Let’s call my current school A and the other B
In my sport the recruiting process is extremely fast and has an unofficial but strict calendar that most top schools follow. All fall/ summer of your sophomore year you are evaluated, and on Sep. 1 of your junior year you are allowed to be contacted and on sept 1 some schools will even offer and want a decision w/o an OV, in my case I was on calls all day and had to try to make a list of the schools I wanted to see over the next couple of days. ATP I crossed of B because though it’s a great school it’s was very far from where I live and I had also thought I wanted a better program and I could not make the travel out there unless I was seriously considering (and I wasn’t bc it’s not as good as a program of the schools I went to visits on). I went on back to back to back to back visits getting offers on each but then being forced to make a descion without any real downtime. B/c If you are getting looked at by top schools, most programs will want their recruiting done 2-3 weeks after sept 1. And if you are a top girl on a schools list getting the most money (my situation) you will be given timelines. I was given very strict timelines with my top schools at the time, one was an Ivy League and one was not (A). I ended up choosing school A because of the financials, but this had an extreme amount of pressure involved (bc I was given hours to decide). But now I’m again realizing that I want a more challenging academic environment that school A does not give me. I’m becoming more interested in school B because of how well rounded the experience could be if I went there, it offers an almost Ivy League level education without the financial burden.
Forgot to mention that I was really torn about turning this Ivy down but had to do it because it was not feasible, considering I was getting lots of money from school A.
I’m not sure I’m following every detail but I think I’m getting the gist.
The key thing I learned from your timeframe post is that it sounds like the recruiting spots for your sport are generally filled in a tight and defined timeframe, and that timeframe is long past. So the chance that “School B” still has a spot for you sounds like it’s close to zero. The chance that they’re going to push out someone they’ve already recruited sounds unlikely, given the tight-knit nature.
This means that, almost certainly, your choices are either attend School A as a recruited athlete (with the financial support associated with athletic status, if there is any), or enter the standard application process at School B and anywhere else you’re interested in.
Is it possible to ask if School B might still have a spot for you? Yes, and you might be able to have a coach do so or something. Is there a chance that will get back to School A? Yes, it’s a risk, and you might get an angry phone call, but also it happens all the time. Given that the likelihood of a spot sounds very slim, I probably wouldn’t tell School A’s coach that you’re asking beforehand, but they would need to know (and School B would have rules to follow) if the conversation becomes serious.
It’s normal to struggle and you don’t have lots of information - and also you can get a great education at all sorts of schools, and you will likely not be the smartest person in most rooms at any school. It could just be that this is stress talking, so I’d suggest giving yourself some space to breathe.
Thank you… this type of conflict with school A not being good enough academically has been weighing on me, and this is not the first time I’ve felt compelled to decom. School B is one of those schools that takes longer to recruit, but yes I still don’t really know. I’m going to take sometime and talk to some neutral people to see what they think.
you aren’t sharing the school, and you shouldn’t do so publicly, but I would just note that many people think of “not good enough academically” as a synonym for “lower in academic prestige.” At almost any DI school, your education is what you make it, and you can find academic challenge pretty much anywhere (and have great post-undergrad opportunities, whether professionally or academically, at any of them). You could look at this board and others and research School A in particular and see what people see who are academically stretched there. You might have a wider range of academic strength among your peers at some schools than others.
In any case, good luck!
I hope you can get a current coach or your ‘recruited director’ (I don’t know what that is) to make some calls or ask around (they may know if School B or schools C-Z) are still recruiting for you position. My daughter is also in a sport where all the coaches know each other or are related to each other or have a second cousin who knows a coach who knows your brother. They also know you were a 16 year old making a big decision and felt pressured to make a decision. If your coach (school A) can’t understand that, maybe he’s not the coach for you.
There comes a time when you just have to take a chance to get what you want. If you aren’t sure about school A, keep looking.
If you can’t afford school B without athletic aid, and school B can’t give athletic aid, how are you going to pay for school B?
My daughter had sort of the opposite problem you have. She was given a very good offer from her school, it had her major but wasn’t as highly ranked as other schools that were recruiting her, but the team would be playing its first season and they didn’t even have enough players to field a team (had to borrow some from the soccer team). She’d get to play a lot but the team was going to lose - a LOT. No one wants to lose all the time. She took the chance and it turned out well, both academically and athletically. Lost a lot, second year won about 50%, and the third and fourth years they made the NCAA tournament. Was it MIT or GaTech (she’s an engineer)? No, but she did well academically, had a job before graduation (still has it) and even got to play her sport after graduation.
You don’t have to go to Alabama to play football and you don’t have to go to Harvard to get a college degree. You might have to compromise.
I am having some trouble with this.
One issue is that we do not know what the schools are. However, I can see that you cannot divulge this information since this might give away what you are thinking to the college coaches. Similarly telling us things like what state you are in and what your major is might give away who you are, not to us but rather to the coaches (which might matter a lot more). Thus we probably just need to try to give advice without knowing what schools you are talking about and without knowing your major.
Another thing that is bugging me is that it is common for high school students to care perhaps too much on the rankings of schools. It is very easy to see that US News ranks colleges and universities in a particular order, and one school is ranked a few places higher or lower. It is very easy to see that one school is in the Ivy League and another school is not. It is just as true, but way less obvious, that there are a huge number of colleges and universities in the US that are academically very good and that can provide you with a great education. There are lots of very good professors at a very, very wide range of schools. Thus sometimes students prefer a school that is higher ranked, where the actual difference in the quality of education really does not matter.
Quite a few of us have experience with graduates from “top 10” programs and graduates from “top 100” programs and graduates from programs that are not in the top 100, who end up either working together or studying in graduate school together, and who find that the students from all of these programs are coming in well prepared.
But I can see that focusing on academics over athletics makes a lot of sense for most student-athletes.
And the financials can matter quite a bit. If this allows you to graduate five years from now with a very good education and debt free (or with significantly less debt), that lack of debt can be a huge advantage.
My best guess is that both schools will provide you with a great education, you can do well with a degree from either school, and the school that you already committed to has a significant advantage financially and an advantage in not breaking a commitment and annoying coaches (with unknown consequences). However, this is only a guess, and I really do not know enough to know if this is right.
I am wondering whether your high school coach, and your high school guidance counselor, might be the people to talk to. They and your parents can at least know what schools you are talking about.
Thank you for your reply. Yes I can’t really say the specifics. But the thing about school B is that while being a great school academically they have a very successful athletic department, they are just not that good in my sport. And when I was talking to schools back in September, I got full rides from many schools that were lower ranked in my sport that still had good athletic department, they offered me because of the “caliber” of player I was. Which leads me to believe if I were to pursue school B I would get a good scholarship. But of course that is just speculation and I would never know. I do have a recruiting director who helped me through my process the first time and is heavily involved with my recruitment who can help me out, but even mumbling the words decommitment will probably set off a dumpster fire. I fear that it will be hard for people to understand my change in heart to decommit because I was expected to play for a top program like A and going to B would be pretty big step down sport wise.
Am I only one that is not reading this as prestige chase but a search for genuine fit? What happened to follow the school and not the sport? I know a bunch of kids that did not love their college experience because they chose the winning team, how much they would play, etc instead of looking for the right fit school. Is getting a degree/job enough reward for four years?
My kids understanding of what they wanted and where they wanted to be evolved and mature SO much between Junior year and Spring of Senior year. They love their D1 experience but they love even more that they have easily found groups and activities outside of their sport too because the school is right. If you can have a rich and layered college experience, why would you want that?
Nope. I’m reading it as OP likes the School A team and the prestige of that program, but would also like a prestigious school like School B but the. Sometimes you just have to choose. I think there is also a difference in scholarship money.
It is like the athlete who wants to play at Alabama but academically would like to go to Harvard. Nothing wrong with attending Alabama for academics, but not the same prestige as Harvard. Nothing wrong with playing football for Harvard, but not the same path to the NFL (or same possibility of winning a national championship) as playing for Alabama.
Only OP can decide to pick school A or try for another school which may be a better academic fix but the team experience may not be as strong. I’m sure School A is fine academically, and I’m sure School B (or another school) might offer good playing experience. There are plenty of schools that are top 20 that may have ONE or two really great teams (Duke lacrosse and basketball, but look at the football team) but if that’s not your sport, you may have to make a decision to go for a great fit academically but not so great athletically, or look for a lower ranked (but still academically strong) school with a good/great team and coach. Sometimes you can’t have it all.
When my daughter was looking for schools, a girl who was the best playing in Florida signed at UF (they were ranked 4th that year). After a year she transferred to Liberty because it was a better school and team FOR HER. I think she picked UF for both the team and the academics, but it didn’t work. She could have had scholarships at a lot of D1 schools but went with the hype on both. At the time, girls could commit as sophomores so there were a lot of decommits as teens do change their minds.
I believe the money issue was with an Ivy, from which they walked away. From what I understood, OP never truly engaged with school B because the team was not as successful. Mind you, they never said the team experience would be bad. Also, they specifically referenced looking for a more well rounded college experience.
Kids decommit from schools all the time. A verbal offer/commit isnt the same as a signed letter of intent. I would 1. Talk to your current coach about your concerns 2. Talk to your guidance counselor about your current concerns 3. Reach out to the school B coach and tell him you are reconsidering but only for his/her school and that you wanted to see if it was too late and if it is youll sit tight with school A. 4. After that conversation, reopen your process and notify the school A coach if applicable. I know some my differ in their opinions but at this stage you are only exploring a possibility, what I would not do is decommit until you know you are likely to get an offer from school B or even another unknown school and school A pulls their offer, which there is a high probability they will.
There really aren’t (binding) NLI anymore since students can transfer all they want. (And this student is too young to have signed a NLI as that isn’t done until Senior year)
What this student is worried about is School A learning of her continuing to discuss things with other coaches and withdrawing her offer to School A, or being mad and if she goes to School A, holding it against her when she’s playing for Coach A.
I think a current coach (club or hs) could be helpful in figuring out the lay of the land for which coaches at colleges are still interested in this player and if there are spots available. If that School B coach says yes still interested, then before it goes further then OP needs to tell Coach A before contacting Coach B on her own. She’s right that everyone knows each other and they all talk and compare their players. A comment from a current player can even get back to a coach.
I don’t think there are many gudance counselors who know that much about recruiting. My daughter’s GC certainly didn’t, and didn’t know anything about committing and decommitting, about athletic funding or what was needed. It was the secretary of the athletic department who helped us with the NCAA clearinghouse documents, getting transcripts to the school.
Contacting coach A first is up to OP, there’s no ‘need’ to (meaning no requirement.)
I do agree there could be some risk that coach B contacts coach A should OP contact coach B about their recruiting class status.
I would also tell OP not to tell anyone else they are thinking about this, or that they talked with either coach A or B about changing commitments (if things get to that point)…certainly not friends or teammates, definitely not their HS counselor. I would only tell their current club/HS coach IF that coach knows recruiting…many do not.
OP hasn’t engaged in this thread for a few days, perhaps they are speaking with some posters via PM or perhaps they made a decision. Regardless I would counsel OP to only be talking to people who understand how recruiting currently works in their sport and to act sooner than later if they are going to act.
There isn’t, and never has been a rule about a student contacting a coach at any time. There are rules about when a coach can contact a student. However, coaches don’t like it when they have a commitment and kids keep talking to other coaches AND don’t tell them. They want to know that you are still looking. And they may decide to revoke the offer. It is a risk on both sides to rely on the commitment.
I would add coaches pull commitments all the time, so they are always looking. There is no obligation on the player/athlete to notify their committed school that they are still talking to others, granted no one likes it, but it happens every day both on the player and coach side. Its the cost of doing business.