An overwhelming majority of college athletes don’t fall into the “elite” category. Hence, they must market themselves to prospective college programs. Many student-athletes are seeking to highlight their hopeful athletes turn to high-level through recruiting services. For the athletes able to land a full-ride college scholarship, then any fees paid for recruiting services are a good investment. For instance, four years of college for a Colorado resident at Colorado State University runs $108,000, according to the university’s admissions department. Four years for an out-of-state student at CSU will cost $180,000. Four years at some private colleges can cost as much as $320,000.
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College/University Recruitment
Recruiting services such as BeRecruited.com, Next College Student Athlete, College Fit Finder, The Sport Source and dozens of others allow prospective college athletes to post biographical information, academic expectations and highlight videos to be distributed to schools based on the athlete’s preference. In fact, recruiting services do get athletes in front of more Division II coaches and the bottom side of Division I and junior colleges and NAIA schools. Also, they’re a valuable tool in helping athletes communicate and spread information about them to a whole slew of colleges. And, athletes can make their own lists, own areas to go to by drawing a radius.
Recruiting Services
University Athlete which is the most used resource by college coaches to look up and evaluate student-athletes. Best of all, the coaches pay to use the site, not the players! This tool is used at all tournaments that college recruiters attend. It is a connection tool. There is no selling of athlete information or promoting of athletes involved. The student-athlete can register for a free profile, very much like other sites, but there is a greater chance that the recruiters will actually be using the same tool. Athlete students can provide a link to a video and can also pay a minimum fee for the ability to search schools, take notes on them, and send emails to coaches. There is a great email writing system where the student can compose a generic email indicating where to insert school-specific information. It makes it easy to send multiple emails prior to an upcoming tournament or showcase. They can also see who has viewed their emails, unlike other sites where students cannot see when someone has viewed their profile.
Tips and advice
Overall, student-athletes interested in athletic recruiting ought to do their homework and learn everything they can by:
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Exploring all the free information available on the NCSA site.
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Finding out if college coaches in their sport are known to use, for instance, the University Athlete site or other sites.
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Getting tips on creating a recruiting video and creating one.
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Finding out what to put in their athletic resume and creating one.
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Using tools to track colleges they are interested in. For instance, College Search Recruiting Spreadsheet which is an Excel spreadsheet template that students can download online.