The recruiting process can be very overwhelming for young student-athletes, and that could even be an understatement. Because let’s face it, it is a very stressful time in a young person’s life. Almost everybody will feel some sort of anxiety when it gets to the point where you are looking to pick your future college. Which school should you choose whenever you have narrowed down your search to maybe 3 or 4 colleges that all seem equally great? How do you know that your decision will be the right one? These are all questions that basically every aspiring college athlete faces at some point during the recruiting process, and even more so when you have reached the moment of making your final decision. However, this is totally normal and there are actually some little tricks that we have for you, that will help you overcome these “last minute jitters” and that will help you make the best possible educated decision!
First of all, don’t worry, we are always there to help and to consult you in the best possible way. We have close to two decades of college placement experience, so we know a thing or two about basically each school in the United States. Now, having said that, we might not always agree on all factors are the most important in someone’s college decision making. For example, we might think that one area of the country is more attractive based on our own experience, but you might be more into a different culture or climate (as an example). So we might not agree on every single factor that might be important to your final decision. That brings us to the main topic, or the main piece of advice, that we would like for young athletes to get out of this blog post:
Always do your own research before making your final decision! As you know, most coaches are very good at their jobs and most of the time they will promote their school and program in the best possible way. So you might very well end up in a situation where your top 5 schools all seem very similar. What we advice our athletes to do in that moment is to get on their computers and start doing some last minute research about every single university that is in your final selection. Here are some things that you should do research on once you get to this point in the recruiting process:
- What do you find about the area where the school is located? Do you see yourself living there? Does the climate meet your personal needs?
- What do you find about the team and its coach?
- How are the facilities?
- Does the team play a good tournament or match schedule?
- How is the school ranked academically?
- Does the school offer the major you are interested in?
- How big is the school? (Are you looking for a smaller or bigger school?)
- Does the school have a lot of international students?
- How easy or difficult is it to get there from your home country?
There are numerous other topics you might want to do research on, but those are just a few examples of factors that might help you make the best possible decision. If you do this type of research just before you make your final decision, you should be very much at peace whenever you make your college choice. And don’t worry, if you are still unsure at this point, just give us a call and we will help you make the right selection!