Thx @ 2023_2 How do I message you directly? I can’t find that function/button. From reading earlier posts, I may not be able to message other ppl directly yet since I haven’t posted enough messages (?)
Click on their user name and a message button should show up. If you are too new to the site they will have to message you first.
@TonyGrace It varies quite a bit but only a few have rosters significantly over 24
Hi – just wanted to post a quick update (and some lessons learned) from my daughter’s current recruitment process. (As a recap, she’s currently a junior in high school.) Since this community’s members have been so helpful posting information to help future fencers & their families navigate the recruiting process, I also want to “pay it forward” and pass on some “what we wish we had known” tips. In a nutshell, my daughter received three offers around the week of Thanksgiving, with varying response deadlines. We started visiting campuses in the fall (of her junior year), but we have not yet been able to visit all the schools the she either got an offer from or was considering to apply to. So ultimately, she had to give a verbal commitment to one of the offers before she/we were able to visit and see all the schools she wanted to consider. Looking back, the big lesson we should have done was to start visiting as many potential college landing spots during our daughter’s SOPHOMORE year of high school. So anytime one of our family’s travels (whether for our daughter’s fencing or son’s soccer or just family vacations) took us anywhere near a possible college option, we should have tried to take a day to work in a college visit. This way, you can spread out the college visits over 1.5 school years (sophomore year and the fall of junior year), and you don’t have to try to cram them all (or the majority of them) in during the hectic fall of junior year, which is already typically the busiest high school year due to tougher general schoolwork and more homework, additional SAT/ACT prep, drivers education, in addition to all the practice/travel/tournaments for fencing (domestic and/or international). So, that would be our lesson learned: START TAKING COLLEGE VISITS DURING SOPHOMORE YEAR. And good luck to everyone that goes down this process. I hope it ends up as well for all of you and your child/ren as it has for us!! 
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Congrats to your daughter!
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This is great feedback, and thank you for taking the time to write. It can feel overwhelming (my empathy) but it sounds like your daughter is doing really well and congratulations!
For the people who already went through this process, when did you start the first contact with coaches?
Hi emily2008 –
My daughter is currently a junior, and we are going through the process now. She first sent out emails to coaches the summer after sophomore year (after Summer Nationals were over). Others that have completed the full process (all the way through admissions and official acceptance) can opine on their respective timelines to help you get a sense of the general timeframes.
Continuing the discussion from The Only College Fencing Recruiting Thread You Need to Read:
Thank you for the info. Wish your daughter best luck in this journey!
Sorry for the late response,
I have spoken with a few div 3 and div1 schools who have historically recruited other fencers around my ranking. I think I’m just a bit nervous as most of the d1 responses have been that the coaches haven’t decided which direction they want to go yet (bad sign?) However I have set up meetings for the d3 schools I’m in contact with and would be really happy to go there. If this were the case should I focus more heavily on academics or try to see if I can squeeze in a last minute good result at JO’s or another nac? (I know d3 schools cant directly recruit and some d3 programs at top schools require you to have a nerly perfect SAT/GPA.)
@fejdy This is really not meant to be flippant (it can be difficult to read tone in listerv writing), but why not try for both? Are you not able to work on your academics or take an SAT prep course AND go to JO’s or a NAC? One of the reasons I ask is that coaches at these schools will want to know that their students are able to successfully juggle academics and fencing. I don’t think it will go over well if you say “well, I couldn’t go to JO’s because I was studying” or “well I didn’t get a good grade because I went to JO’s.” If you truly struggle with that kind of balance, you may be better off doing fencing in college more casually, like as a club sport – there are many excellent schools with fencing clubs where people enjoy continuing to fence but not necessarily at the super intense level of D1 or D3. If you think you really want to do those levels, you should be clear that is something you are able to manage. I really am not intending to sound negative, just injecting a dose of reality!
I will echo what @SpaceVoyager said. This balancing question is THE question you should be asking yourself. There are schools that are going to expect you to drop everything for fencing. At the other extreme, there are schools that will be very lenient if you need time for academics. (Club teams are a great example here, but there are some D3 schools that fall into this category.) And then there are all sorts of shades of gray in the middle. Part of your search should be to find a school where the balance is the right balance for you.
We set up a “trial run” for our D22. The summer before senior year she did an intensive research program at a college. On two consecutive weekends in the middle of the program she flew across the country to compete in summer nationals. While it would have been great to say that she knocked it out of the park at both of those things … she didn’t. And that’s OK, because it was just a trial run. The important thing was that she learned (1) she did want a very intense academic experience, (2) she also wanted to be on an NCAA team that gave her the opportunity to routinely fence with and against high-level fencers (not just a club), and (3) having a positive intense, academic experience was more important to her than trying to train to be a top fencer. She then sought out a school and team that matched exactly what she wanted.
A couple things to keep in mind. You can’t always tell from the outside what the academic pressure is like at a school. You need to ask students in general and you need to ask students on the Fencing team, preferably in your major. How much time are they spending on homework? How much time are they spending on the gym? Are they able to do anything else besides those two things? Are there any majors that are not recommended for people on the Fencing team? My D asked that at every school and got different answers at each school. Ask when practices are, and what that might conflict with. And how conflicts are handled. Do athletes get to register first to secure optimal class times?
All of these questions should help you find a school where you can strike a balance that will allow you to be most successful (however define success).
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Meanwhile, in all my years of involvment with NCAA fencing, I don’t recall ever seeing an upcoming NCAA Championship in which only 2(!) programs qualified the maximum number of fencers. It also is not as if competitive programs with less than the max are sitting at 10 or 11 with even a remote shot at a championship. Barring a disaster this is clearly looking like a 2-horse race.
Curious to hear your opinion if last year winner, Harvard with 10 fencers (and most Olympian fencers 2024) and Princeton, also with 10 fencers, have no chance against Columbia and Notre Dame with max fencers (12). Thanks!
There is always a chance, but it is highly improbable. Each team has a potential 143 points, assuming maximum number of berths, substracting out each fencer against him/herself. While UND and CU start with this max, teams such as Harvard and Princeton start with potential for only 96 points. So those teams start the tournament nearly 50 points in the hole to 2 of the perennially most competitive programs in the country.
You can see how the scoring is done by looking at past tournaments:
Usually when a top team has fewer than 12, they end up vying for a runner-up position (which is still an amazing feat and not to be undervalued!). And for individual fencers, just getting to go to the Championships is an honor and an incredible experience. I think it is important to recognize and appreciate all the fencers who got there, not just the winning team.
Thank you @BrooklynRye and @SpaceVoyager for the explanations. I can’t wait to see my MF favorites, the Chen twins battled it for Princeton and Harvard. I still can’t figure out how the Referees kept track who is who when the twins bout, aside from left fencer and right fencer. But I am sure they now wear their schools’ insignias.
NCAA results as predicted. The score list is useful to gauge the strength of NCAA fencing teams in particular weapon and gender. I think it is a useful tool for fencers and their parents in getting a sense where recruitment is a possibility. Looking at MF Div 3 schools, JHU is the top rank, powered by a graduating senior fencer who has consistently done well the last 4 years.
I strongly second SV’s post. While many of us tend to focus on the potential and ultimate winners, the large majority of programs (in this year all but 2) have no realistic chance at a team national championship. But for many, it is a dream to represent their team, their school, and ultimately one of the better faces of the sport of fencing. During my years as a fencing parent attending NCAAs I found myself struck far less by the winners, both team and individual (although I sorely wanted team and individual glory for my child), than by the underdog teams and individuals who competed with grace and heart and ultimately had the time of their lives.
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I think the structure of the NCAAs for fencing is flawed. If a team does not have 12 fencers they have no chance of winning? Boring…Perhaps the NCAAs should only have individual trophies…
Personally, I think they should figure out a way for the top teams to have their full complement of fencers (3 per weapon/gender).
While I realize this can result in crowding, in other sports they segment the teams into flights where the top 8 teams compete, and there is a separate flight for the 9th thru 16th and so on.
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