@bewilderedmom One of my kids is at a NESCAC school. When he went through the process, I asked about tips/slots because I had read that terminology here. The way it was explained to me was that the coach is given a certain amount of “currency” that he can use with admissions. Depending on the recruit’s stats, one recruit may require the coach to use more of his allotted currency than another recruit. However, we were told that all the recruit needs to worry about is whether the coach will support his application- how much currency the coach needs to use is an internal issue between the coach and admissions.
My NESCAC son’s coach does permit non-recruited students to try out for the team as walk-ons. I have another kid who plays in the NEWMAC and his team does not hold try-outs for walk-ons.
If you child is not guaranteed support by the coach, but wants to swim on the college team, you will definitely want to ask what the coach’s policy is regarding walk-ons because the policy will vary from school to school.