College Academics Before College Athletics

Imagine this scenario: you're sitting in a restaurant and the waiter hands you the thickest menu you have ever seen. This thing is fifty pages long. You open it, start flipping through, and realize that it’s in a language you have never seen before. You have no idea what you're looking at. To boot, you're a picky eater. The waiter asks what you want, you point to a random item, and hope.

Amazingly, this pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey method is how a lot of athletes choose a college. They make a decision with little information other than hearsay or some indication that they might be able to play there. Unfortunately, the result is that a lot of people end up transferring.

If you want to have a successful college career, you have to work for it – and not just in the sense practicing a lot. Finding the right college requires research. The good news is that there are a number of excellent resources at your disposal.

Relatives and family friends – It's always good to start with the people you know. Ask them what schools they know that might be a good fit for you. These are often great recommendations because your relatives and family friends know you and the college.

College guidance tools – Websites like Campus Explorer suggest a list of colleges based on the criteria you suggest. Books like those offered by the Princeton Review can be very useful as well. Go to the bookstore, sit in a big cushy chair with a hot chocolate and flip through some guidance books.

College counselors – If your school has a college counselor, schedule an appointment. Otherwise, talk to your teachers. They are often familiar with a lot of colleges. Talk to your club and high school coaches as well.

Don't be overwhelmed! Spend a couple hours over a couple of weeks doing some research and before long you'll have a great list of colleges. You'll notice that the resources above focus not on sports, but on academics and social life. That is by design. Once you have found a group of twenty or so schools that are right for you academically and socially, then it's time to focus on sports.

College team websites – You can learn a lot about teams by checking out their websites. Read about the coach, the most recent results, and check out the schedule to see who they compete against. Have a look at the roster to learn where the athletes on the team are from, and what kinds of teams they were on before they came to college. Use Facebook to send messages to some of the players and ask them about their experience.

Visits – Once you’ve narrowed your list down to 5-10 colleges, visits are essential. Don’t wait around for coaches to offer you official visits. Instead, take the initiative to visit on your own and try to stay overnight with someone on the team. This will show the coach that you’re seriously interested and give you an opportunity to really assess the place. If you love it, great. If you don’t, cross it off your list.

Finding the right school is one of the most challenging aspects of college recruiting. But a little homework goes a long way. First, find a group of colleges that are right for you as a student and socially. There are so many colleges out there that, if you are fairly thorough, your pool will end up including a handful that are right for you as an athlete.

If you can find the college that’s right for you on these three dimensions, you’ll be setting yourself up for a great college experience and a great college career. So as you start sifting through all the colleges out there, heed the following: fit is infinitely more important than prestige. Find the right place, not just the fanciest.

Pop Quiz: What is The Goal of College Recruiting?

The goal of the college recruiting process is to be guaranteed a spot on the roster at a college that is right for you as a student and as an athlete. Long before you arrive on campus, you should be certain that you love the college and that a place on the team has been set aside for you.

People are often surprised by this answer. Conventional wisdom says that recruiting is all about getting a scholarship at a Division I school. Yet the reality is that each year there are many DI scholarship athletes who are very unhappy. Some don't get the playing time they expected. Others find that the college is a bad academic or social match.

The point is, doing a good job with recruiting isn't just about scholarships and Division I. Rather, success in the recruiting process is about getting on the roster at a college that is a great match for you academically, socially, and athletically.

The problem is, college is really expensive these days and Division I is very appealing. Unfortunately, the allure of these two things often forces people to make bad decisions. Of course, there's nothing wrong with getting a scholarship to a Division I school -- but only if that college is the right match for you.

There are two really important factors working in your favor. (1) There are a lot of colleges out there, which means that you can find a handful that are the right fit; and (2) There are a lot of other ways (and often better ways) to pay for college like countless non-athletic scholarships, financial aid, and loans. It's been said that the average DIII athlete gets more money for college that the average DI athlete.

As you market yourself to college coaches, remember the goal and don't be distracted by scholarships, idle talk of Divisions or colleges with famous sports teams, or where your friends are going. It's all about finding the situation that's right for you. And that means being offered a spot on the team at a college where you are going to thrive as a student, socially, and as an athlete.

College Admissions Information from Top Admissions Officers

The New York Times Q&A blog featured an interesting back and forth with a handful of college admissions officers. Featured on the panel were the following:

  • Jeff Brenzel, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., which in 2007 had 5,275 undergraduates and 6,083 graduate and professional students.
  • Bruce Poch, Vice President and Dean of Admissions at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., which has an enrollment of 1,520 students.

  • Steven Syverson, Vice President for Enrollment and the Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., which has 1,429 full-time undergraduates.

  • Bruce Walker, Vice Provost and Director of Admissions at the University of Texas at Austin, a public university with 11,000 graduate and 39,000 undergraduate students.

Getting College Coaches to Help You With Your Application

Applications are flying left and right, the common app is getting more attention than the xbox, and people are wondering how they can get a leg up on the zillion other people who are applying to the same five colleges.

We've heard this question a lot lately: Can college coaches help me get in?

Everyone has heard about the DI basketball players with 1.0 GPAs and 5s on the ACT who have somehow miraculously been accepted at colleges they had no business getting into. While this may sometimes happen in big-time basketball and football, it is far from the way things work for the vast majority of athletes.

The reality is that your grades, test scores, essays, and interviews have to carry you most of the way. But, there is a way that college coaches can help. Coaches typically have close relationships with members of the admissions office. While they typically can't just call an admissions officer and say, "let this person in," they can "support" your application.

When a college coach supports an application it can help get you over the final hurdle. If your grades weren't up to par, there's not much hope. But, if you're on the bubble, a coach supporting your application can provide the extra oomph to get you in.

So, how do you get a coach to support your application? You convince him that you're serious about playing for him and then you ask if there's anything he can do to help push your application through. Of course, you can't ask 25 coaches for this. Instead, you need to hone in on the schools you like most and those that will be the most challenging to get into. Then pick up the phone, convey your enthusiasm for the place, and ask if he's going to support your application.

Getting Recruited by College Coaches Over Winter Break

Ahhh, winter break. Egg nog, 14 hours a day on the Wii, and a Mount Kilimanjaro of presents. It's the perfect time to kick back and do absolutely nothing -- uh, if you're trying to not make a college team.

If, on the other hand, you actually do want to play in college, you can get huge recruiting mileage out of your winter break, and still get plenty of solid time on the Wii. Here's what your New Year's resolution should be: by January 1st, you should find a group of 10 schools and send the coaches at those schools an email with a link to your CaptainU profile.

Not a big deal, right?

Sit down at the computer and resist the temptation to go to Facebook or ESPN. Instead, search for a few of the college teams that interest you. Have a look at their team pages, their rosters, and their coaches' info. Boom. Done. 5 minutes a team. Just like that, you'll have learned a ton. Enter a few quick thoughts on your CaptainU Recruiting Log. Do you like the school? If not, dump it.

Repeat this 10-ish times. Look, that's less than an hour total.

Next, create a great CaptainU profile. Throw a few pictures on it. Add your grades and test scores. This can be accomplished in 15 minutes. Finally, write a quick note that you can send to each of your coaches. Include the link to your CaptainU profile. Each time you send an email, personalize it with a few details about that specific school. College coaches will appreciate it.

All told, this can be done in 2-3 hours. Spaced out over 2 weeks, that's 8 minutes 34 seconds a day. Come on. You can make this happen and still beat Halo 3 893 times!

Radio CaptainU: Picking the Right College Camps

It seems like every college coach these days wants you to come to his camp. It's flattering, no doubt, but how do you choose which camps to go to? We explore that question and more on the latest episode of our non-Emmy Award Winning radio show.



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CaptainU is "Finding New Ways to Recruit" -- ESPN

ESPN ran an article today about CaptainU. The article focuses on recruiting at the highest level and the continued importance for athletes to actively promote themselves to college coaches.

Additionally, there is a significant discussion about misconceptions surrounding the NCAA divisions:

Some of the biggest differences between the divisions, however, aren't as much about quality as they are about commitment. NCAA rules strictly regulate the amount of involvement coaches can have with their athletes, and this varies significantly from Division I to Division II to Division III.

Check out the full article about new and innovative ways to get through the college recruiting process.

The Parent Piece of the Puzzle

"College coaches are recruiting athletes, not parents," famously quipped a college coach. But let's face it, parents play a central role in the recruiting process. How do you find the right balance? We explore that question on Radio CaptainU.



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A Parent's Role in College Recruiting

Finding colleges, let alone ones where you can play a sport, is a daunting challenge for high school students. The sheer number of colleges is enough to make most 17 year-olds a little jittery. To be successful in recruiting, the athlete has to drive the recruiting process forward. But there are lots of moments in the process when a parent's guidance and assistance are invaluable.

As parents, concentrate on what is right for your child. If heʼs not Harvard material, donʼt push him in that direction. If she wants to explore a lot of other activities, maybe Division I isn't right after all. Most importantly, donʼt be overbearing. Instead, think of yourself as teammates trying to win the recruiting game together. The cool thing is that this can be an exciting, collaborative experience.

Here's how parents can have a hugely positive impact on recruiting:

  • Help your kid identify 10-ish colleges that seem to have the right fit of sports and academics.

  • Sit down together and write a cover letter. Help edit, but donʼt censor.

  • Practice recruiting phone conversations at the kitchen table. Play both roles, so your kid gets to see what it's like to be on the other end of the line.

  • Help keep all of the recruiting materials organized and your CaptainU recruiting Logs up to speed.

  • Make sure that your kid maintains regular contact with each college coach.

  • Address the financial issues — which are a complicated aspect of the college selection process that will stump most kids.

  • When your kid reaches an impasse, help him work through it.

  • Speak to college coaches only when you absolutely must. Otherwise, let your kid do the talking.

Your most important job is to keep the vibe positive. There are always setbacks in recruiting. How you deal with them will help set the tone for your kid. Emphasize the point that this is an exciting opportunity in which your family can take control of the process.

On Campus at Last!

College life rules!

One of the best recruiting things you'll ever do is visit college campuses. Visits show you what colleges are really like. They take you way beyond glossy websites and brochures and show you all the bumps, scrapes, and hidden delights colleges have to offer.

If you can, schedule your visit with the coach. That way, when you get there, you'll find a schedule waiting for you that lists the people you'll stay with, who you'll go to class with, when meals are, and so on. Then again, maybe you won't get the royal treatment. Donʼt worry if this happens. Some coaches roll out the red carpet for recruits. Others require you to be more self-sufficient. Either way, a can-do attitude will go a long way.

Your visit is your one real chance to investigate the school and the team. You have a ton of say in this whole decision. You may be trying to convince the coach to recruit you, but he has to convince you that his school and team are great as well. Remember, if you donʼt like a college, you donʼt have to go there just because the coach wants you to come.

Most importantly, this is where you might go to college. Ask yourself these questions: does it feel like home? Does it feel like a great place to spend four years? Does the campus have the right vibe?

Of course, this is also where you might play for the next four years. Do you like what you see in terms of style, the quality of play, the quality of coaching, the teamʼs attitude on the field, as well as the social dynamic off the field?

While you're on campus, ditch your parents. Much as they might like to relive the glory years, this is your college experience. Take the tour with your parents and then go off with some of the kids on the team. Get the real college experience by staying in the dorms with them and eating in the cafeteria.

Finally, you have to meet with the coach. Try to sit down with him one-on-one. Ask for a tour of the facilities, watch a practice, and a game. In the few days that you're there, do as much as you can to simulate what your college experience there would be like. Then, once you get home, be honest with yourself by answering one key question: How did you like it?