Today CollegeSwimming.com introduces Skylar Swimmer.  Skylar [not his/her real name] is one of the most sought-after recruits in the class of 2009.  The National Team veteran will anonymously chronicle his/her recruiting experience and give you a glimpse of the highs and lows of being a top recruit.

Hi!  My name is Skylar Swimmer and I want to share with you what my college search hsa been like.  So far, I’ve gone on a couple unofficial recruiting trips and there is so much to consider in deciding which college will ultimately be the college for me.  I hope my blog can help you out when its your turn to begin the recruiting.

Here’s a little background info on me: I swim for a large club team and I’m proud to say that I had the opportunity to be a part of a USA National Team.  School is also an important part of getting into my dream university, so I have worked hard to maintain an exceptional GPA that ranks me among the top of my class.   This year, I’m taking two Advanced Placement classes my senior year and I hope to do well on the AP tests.  I’d like to get straight A’s this year too.

I have set several goals for myself.  Since I didn’t make the Olympic Team this year (watch out 2012!), I hope to win my best event at the Short Course Junior Nationals in Texas in December 2008.  In college, I want to make the top eight in the NCAA’s in several different events and contribute to my college team’s successes. 

Academically, I hope to find a major that will prepare me for an interesting career.  I’ve been playing around with a couple ideas, but as of now (and who knows, it could change again in a month or so) I want to major in communications, but I’ve also been thinking about business.  In general, I want to have a great college/swim experience and to prepare for an exciting future.

During my junior year, I filled out swimming questionnaires for my top six colleges.  I also looked at each swim team’s website, their roster and any related news articles I could find to help me get a feel for the team and their accomplishments.  I researched the coaches to find out their coaching style and their accomplishments.

One of the tricky parts in the beginning of the recruiting process for me was to make sure I had a clear understanding of the NCAA rules concerning recruiting visits.  Currently, the rules say that I am allowed to make as many “unofficial” campus visits as I want and that I can only make five “official” campus visits starting my senior year in high school.  My club coach recommended that I take a few unofficial visits now in order to reduce the amount of official visits I’ll need to make.  Official visits will probably take me out of school for at least two days, so if I took all five of the official visits, I’d be missing a lot of school and a lot of valuable training time.

This year I’ve made two unofficial visits where I was able to meet with the head and assistant coaches.  I spent about three hours at University A and two hours at University B.  The coaches gave me a tour of the pool facilities and private athlete facilities, and I also took an abbreviated campus tour.  It was so exciting to actually be on a college campus and soak in everything that the tour guides and the coaches had to tell me.  While both universities I visited were large, public institutions, they definitely had different feelings.  I think in the end, it will be important to choose the college that vibes with me the best.  I also want to make sure I really like the swimmers and the coaches because they will essentially become my family away from home.  At University A I got to watch a swim meet and at University B I was able to watch a swim practice.  I tried to imagine myself being a part of the meet and being a part of the practice, and I realized the final decision is going to be a tough one to make.  Here’s what I thought about both universities:

University A

• Beautiful campus
• Located in a major city
• Other good sports teams (basketball, football, etc.)
• A lot of school spirit
• The coaches had more reserved personalities
• Nice private workout facilities

• Smaller workout facilities
• Very school spirited
• Many other sports teams
• I liked the timing of the morning and the afternoon workouts
• Three different options for tutoring
• Has produced Olympians
• More urban location
• My best friend attends this university

I couldn’t eliminate either school after my visits.  I had my parents come with me on both unofficial visits and they enjoyed meeting the coaches and seeing the campuses.  They also asked questions and helped me navigate the campuses (college campuses are so much bigger than high school campuses!).  I’ll be going on another unofficial visit soon and I’ll let you know what happens.  Until then, keep swimming!

Learn more about the college search process at the CollegeSwimming Recruit Workshop