College Apps and Athletic Recruiting

No matter where you are recruited you will need to meet all the application requirements. If you are seriously considering 5 schools and they are also interested in you it makes sense to apply. Many schools have early admission deadlines around 12/1(some even earlier) so you should check each school for their requirements. Some applications are free but others have a cost so it makes sense to be sure you are serious about a school before applying.

You still have to apply to the schools according to their deadlines. An offer from the coach is not an offer to attend the school. You still have to apply and get accepted like everyone else. You could apply and get accepted to all five schools, and then it's just a question of which one you want to run for, and whose offer letter you accept.

But as previous poster said, talk to the coaches! They work with admissions. They can get a "pre-read" on your admission chances (and potential financial aid) before you actually apply, and they are going to want to know when you plan on applying.

Go get the application dates for each school. See if they have early-action (which isn't binding). I had two early-action acceptances by the end of December last year, and by January I was all set and didn't have to worry about it anymore.

Plan to apply to all the schools. There are generally minimum entrance requirements to meet (GPA, SAT scores, etc.), so even if the coach can offer you an athletic scholarship, the school wants to know you won't drop out. If you have received a recruiting letter, then ask the coach to go through the recruiting process. This should include opportunities for a campus visit and being considered for a scholarship. Your HS coach or HS athletic director or HS counselor should have experience with this as it is probably similar for all sports. Some schools will post walk-on standards and standards for athletic scholarship consideration, so that may help you know how likely you are to be considered for a scholarship.

I coach in NCAA Division 1. You will need to fill out an application like every other student to the school that you choose to attend, regardless if you sign a NLI for scholarship or not. We can get kids in through the admissions process as long as it looks like you won't be an academic liability. You can totally 100% not have the grades to get in on your own, but we instead push you through on our end. However, if you are way below the average student in attendance our athletic director would never sign off for you.

This happened to me in High School as well. In fact, I even received a rejection letter from the school. My coach did stuff on his end and then I received another letter saying congratulations I was accepted and that they "accepted my petition to get in." So yes, athletic departments have more power than you think to get you in. We can even move kids around in the dorms to pair athletes up once you get admitted.

Thanks for the replies guys, they were helpful. But now i'm curious again, do I need to be stressing about getting a recommendation letter from a teacher?

Teachers are usually happy to write recommendation letters. They do it all the time.

bakrbakr wrote:

Thanks for the replies guys, they were helpful. But now i'm curious again, do I need to be stressing about getting a recommendation letter from a teacher?

I didn't have to get a recommendation from a teacher when I got recruited

Is it common to get a scholarship in November? I know a student who was asked to do early decision in Div 1 with an offer. The student wants to see what Winter season will bring before they decide. I thought April was also a time that offers are made.-confused with the process

1- start by visiting with your school's college guidance counselor. Do that sooner rather than later.

2- sign up with the NCAA Clearinghouse to make sure you are D-1 recruitable

3- as mentioned above, if you are interested in the school that are recruiting you then get going on the FULL application for each school; app, letters of rec, scores sent in, test scores sent in, ...

4- get started on your FASFA form

5- keep your options open. note (and sorry to be so direct) you may not get the amount of scholarship $$$ that you may think you are going to get.

It's October, you need to get going. Some of these things take a while.