How many schools?

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obbay

Banned
Aug 21, 2008
2,199
0
Boston, MA
When you are looking at schools and they want to know what other schools you are looking at, should you tell them the actual number or just list 2 or 3 others? DD has (5) she's looking into right now and I'm wondering if you say any more than 3 if that puts you on a back burner with the school.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
When you are looking at schools and they want to know what other schools you are looking at, should you tell them the actual number or just list 2 or 3 others? DD has (5) she's looking into right now and I'm wondering if you say any more than 3 if that puts you on a back burner with the school.

Good question and I am also curious what the more experienced members think. My DD has narrowed it down to 3 at this point due to her intended major and other preferences. Sometimes I think she is restricting herself too much but understand that academics is more important.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
All coaches are different, but I would suggest listing 2 or 3. The list is always changing too. Some schools may be added and some may drop out depending on mutual interest. When I look back at my DD's original top-10 and her final top-5 there was not a single school on both lists.
 
Oct 19, 2009
1,277
38
beyond the fences
It varies depending on the situation and the school (D1-D2-D3) also depends on graduate year.
After July 1 (rising senior) she should be narrowed to 2-5 schools. As a sophomore it is not uncommon
to have more. Another variable is how much open communication she has had with these schools so
you can gauge the actual level of interest. Most coaches will be transparent and not string recruits along
as they are aware of the process. Best of Luck! These should be fun and exciting times for the family!
 
Feb 17, 2015
318
18
USA
I will only answer from my and DD's experience. I've posted before that DD is at a JUCO and is a sophomore. We started the process of looking for a 4 year school just prior to her freshman year of college and really hit it hard last summer. She ended up with 18 schools showing varying levels of interest in her. From there we trimmed the list to about 6 and ended up visiting 4 schools. During her visits every coach asked her what other schools she was visiting. I told her to be honest and tell them. It didn't seem to hurt DD in her recruiting efforts. Actually it was fun to sit back and watch their reactions because most coaches know of the other schools and it also lets them know who they are up against.
 
Last edited:
Feb 17, 2015
318
18
USA
Good question and I am also curious what the more experienced members think. My DD has narrowed it down to 3 at this point due to her intended major and other preferences. Sometimes I think she is restricting herself too much but understand that academics is more important.

FP26, That is how my DD reached her decision, academics. My order of things to consider when looking at the schools was 1. Academics (including intended major), 2. Scholarship money and 3. Softball. DD ended up picking a school with the right major, good academics and a really good scholarship offer. Softball wise they weren't too good last year and have a first year coach. But after listening to her pitch I was pretty confident that DD would be able to get what she needed out of the program competition wise. She chose her next school over a school that has won it's conference 10 out of the last 12 years, been to the NCAA tourney 7 out of 12 and had 2 sweet 16 appearances. I think her new coach was kind of surprised that DD picked her school over the other one but DD would have had to change her major because the other school didn't offer it.
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
I hate continuing to bore you all with the same stories. I've mentioned before that when BB was asked this question by one HC while we were on a visit, BB mentioned the name of their conference rival. That HC didn't act right when she heard that. In short, she wanted to know if BB would really consider going there. BB responded that she had no idea of where she was going and that is why she is visiting each school. She visited this school first. I knew then BB was not attending that school.
 
Jun 11, 2012
741
63
DD has a definite #1 choice right now. We visited, she loved it, the coach had already seen her play and liked her and they continue to stay in contact. They had a camp today with the coach and some current players and they all knew who DD was even though she had never met any of them before.
She has a handful of other schools that she is talking to but none that she likes as much as this school. She also knows what she wants to major in and what part of the country she wants to go to school in so that has helped narrow the pool some.
 
Jul 4, 2014
141
0
DD had a conversation with a HC at a D3 school last week. When asked where DD was in her college search process, DD honestly listed her top 3 schools (of which the school in question was one of the top 3). Then DD went on to list the other schools she's currently in conversations with (total of 8 schools) and one where she's already received a standing offer. Coach thanked her for her honesty and expressed how impressive the list of schools DD is communicating with. They ended the conversation by agreeing to continue to keep in touch.

Some people may held off on listing the schools and just stick with a number, ie 3 schools, versus ABC school, XYZ school and 123 school. We went ahead and listed the schools because we wanted the coach to know that the schools she's in communicating with are all comparable in academics and to a certain degree, softball competitiveness.

Hope this helps.

Hope this helps.
 

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