<p>I have a high achieving student athlete. He is a junior and one of areas best bball players. He wants to be a doctor. We are receiving 6-10 letters and emails daily from many colleges, mostly due to his his academic achievements. Should we be responding to each? If so how and generally what do we say?</p>
<p>Coaches are not allowed to contact athletes until after their Junior year of high school. Start now to review which schools your son is interested in. Does he want a University or LAC? Does he want east, west, north or south, urban, suburban or rural? How important is bball to him? Have you visited any schools yet? There are some good tools on Princeton Review to help you narrow down your selections. You could also spend some time researching the schools that are contacting him since they are already interested which could be a plus for admissions. Good luck and enjoy the process.</p>
<p>There is no need to respond to email if you aren’t interested in the school. Be wary of any coach that is contacting him too early.</p>
<p>Many of these letters and e-mails will come because your son checked some random box on PSAT or SAT allowing the scores to be released.<br>
Collegemom16 is absolutely about the coach - student contact rules. Contacting a student too soon is a recruiting violation.</p>
<p>Above all, your son needs to pick his school for its academics – his future plans. Then pick for the sport. If he winds up with a career ending injury, he doesn’t want to be at a school he hates.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>You can contact them. They can’t contact you until after a certain date. (For most sports June 30th.) Your son’s coach can contact a college coach at any time.</p>
<p>As Mini points out, while there are limits as to when they can contact you, you can contact schools any time and why not. Most definitely respond.</p>
<p>You may also want to go to the NCAA website and familiarize yourself with the rules. Although not your son’s sport, visit the High school Baseball Web. They have great information on recruiting, timelines, etc.</p>
<p>Your son has nothing to lose in pursuing this and getting information with as many schools as possible and getting on their radar. Once a connection is made with a coach they can be an enormous help for you in the application process. This is the proverbial “win-win” situation.</p>
<p>One word of caution, my son played college baseball, “retiring” after his soph year as the sport limited his ability to do other things he wanted to do and this was at, as they say, a very “academic” school. No matter where, I think the term student-athlete should be switched to athlete-student. Whether Division 1, 2 or 3, Ivy or State U, MUCH is expected of the student and your academics and other activities will be influenced by playing a sport.</p>
<p>Best advice my son every got, pick the school you really want to go to, where you fit best, and if you can play too all the better. Don’t pick the school based on the sport and NEVER on the coach. Coaches come and go far too frequently.</p>
<p>A good place to start is by downloading “The Guide for the College Bound Student-Athlete” found at the following website. (You will find the link in the column at the left.) </p>
<p><a href=“https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/general/index_general.html[/url]”>https://web1.ncaa.org/eligibilitycenter/general/index_general.html</a></p>
<p>You can also call the toll-free customer service number provided on the site and have a copy sent to you.</p>
<p>As previously posted, find schools that fit academically first and athletically second.</p>
<p>Find schools that fit in the criteria that are important to your son. He may rate them on academics, finances, strength of his individual major, location, internship/research opportunities, his sport, clubs, study abroad programs, social climate and a huge variety of other factors. One benefit of being an athlete are the recruitment trips where students can stay overnight and meet the team, coach, tour campus, attend a class, interview, etc. (he may take 5 in total). </p>
<p>As others have cautioned though, don’t pick only based on the sport.</p>