Tips From Someone Who's Helped Athletes Get Recruited into Every Ivy League School

Here are 10 Must-Know Tips if you’re considering the journey.

At Crimson, I am closely connected to the college recruitment process. Since graduating from the US five years ago, I’ve guided over 200 student-athletes through their recruitment journeys, helping them secure spots at a diverse range of US colleges—from Florida and Texas to California, Maine or even Hawaii. This includes not just navigating into world-renowned colleges with ultra-competitive admissions (think Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Caltech) but also finding pathways to powerhouse Division 1 schools like LSU or Oregon, where the challenge is competing against a deep pool of domestic talent.

My experiences have solidified two beliefs. First, college sports can be life-changing, offering access to top-tier academics and incredible peer networks. Second, every student’s recruitment journey demands a tailored approach.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution in recruitment, here are 10 Tips I believe every aspiring recruit should know as they embark on this exciting journey. 

1. Think like a recruiter
   Put yourself in the shoes of a college coach (the recruiter) during the whole process. Coaches are swarming through hundreds of emails each week, and focused on the goals of their program. Every action you take as a recruit should feel like a lay-up, removing all points of friction to get the response you’re looking for.
2. Plan early for academics
   There are non-negotiables for certain colleges. For instance, a school like Wake Forest will need a 3.0+ GPA for its strong recruits. Harvard will need to see very few low grades — even if those come three and four years out from college. A structured academic plan for course selection and study habits can be game-changing in opening doors later on.
3. Choose your battles
   As a student-athlete, time is your enemy — after training, traveling, studying for hard classes, calls with coaches and 8+ hours of sleep per night, what’s left in your day? Take a chronological approach to mapping out recruitment milestones, placing each at a time when you’re likely to succeed. Example: don’t sit the SAT in the middle of heavy exam prep.
4. Pick the (right) testing battle
   On this note, when it comes to standardized testing, don’t blindly assume you should take the SAT which people talk more about — what about the ACT? I’ve seen some students index immediately higher on the ACT than the SAT, so there’s no reason to bang your head against the proverbial ‘SAT wall.’ Do diagnostics early and don’t waste any time! This holds vice versa of course.
5. Use the holidays!
   Summer and winter breaks are the best time to fix structural issues in your athletic-academic profile. Whether it’s getting in front of coaches directly, retaking a subject to correct your GPA, or studying for an SAT, holidays can free up your term time for other priorities. 
6. Utilize (un)official visits
   Mentoring an athlete toward understanding their options goes a long way in finding the best-fit university. However, there’s nothing like setting foot on campus, breathing in the air, seeing the red maple trees (or high rises), and saying ‘Yes, this feels like home!’ It’s integral to use the chance for a funded official visit to your advantage. ‘Unofficials’ are great too — just more expensive!
7. Don’t listen to your friends
   In high school, it’s tempting to follow your close mates — it’s a kind of ‘proximity bias.’ But, by year one of university, everyone will have evolved and encountered a great deal of independence anyway. So, avoid groupthink in your developmental years. Define your unique preferences for university with inner honesty. This takes time, and can even be uncomfortable. But it will pay dividends if you do it well.
8. Take your time when negotiating
   Coaches can act like hiring managers who have a budget. Unless you’re the top dog recruit, coaches are probably not going to extend all their cash at the first offer. So, taking your time to understand it, create alternatives and earnestly communicate with the coach about how funding is a significant factor in your decision-making. These strategies can help yield a healthier scholarship agreement.
9. Know you can always change your mind
   I actually stole this from our wonderful strategist Kirstyn Goodger (Tokyo Olympic Rower and Washington Huskies Alumna), who presented at a seminar in Australia late in 2024. As Kirstyn put it, getting on the plane for a 4-5 year window can feel like a huge lock-in. But you can always change your mind. You can transfer, decide it’s not for you, and your close friends and family will still support you. Most student-athletes do love it, though 😀
10. Your wins build your journey

A student-athlete’s journey is defined by the wins they take, not the failures and challenges along the way. You will be the athlete who went to D2 and placed at conference, or made an Ivy roster as a freshman, or won All-Academic awards four years straight. You won’t be the athlete who didn’t hear back from Stanford as a year 11 student. Seeing recruitment as the opportunity to take wins, versus the pursuit of a fixed goal, is a subtle mindset shift that can help build confidence and ambition for success. You got this!

Hopefully you find some value in these lessons and can action them right away in your own journeys to college. If you found some value, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free to pass this onto a friend who’s also navigating the journey, or at the outset. 

Harry & The Team at Crimson Athletics. 

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