From Tee to Degree: Navigating the College Admissions Process

Webinar Transcription

2025-10-28-From Tee to Degree- Navigating the College Admissions Process

Anesha: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I am a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor and I will be your moderator for tonight’s session. Today’s webinar is, “From Tee to Degree: Navigating the College Admissions Process,” which is a special session for Hurricane Junior Golf Tournament participants.

Anesha: Um, before we get started, just to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start with a presentation, and then we’ll open up to answer your questions in a live q and a on the sidebar. You can download our slides under the handouts tab and you can start submitting your questions under the q and a tab.

Anesha: But first, let’s meet our presenter, Mariko. Hi Mariko. How are you doing?

Mariko: Hi everyone. My name is Mariko. I’m doing all right today. It’s great to see everyone here. Um, I’ll start by maybe introducing a little bit about myself and then we’ll move into the presentation, if that sounds good with you. Yep, that works.

Mariko: Okay. So again, my name is Mariko. I am a Yale graduate. I graduated from our [00:01:00] undergraduate program in the history of science, medicine and public health and ethnicity, race and migration in 2021, but actually did a combined master’s in public health program at Yale and graduated from. My master’s degree in 2022, so two degrees five years.

Mariko: Uh, a bit of a chaotic time, but I also really loved it. And throughout that process, um, I played water polo at the club level, but was recruited at the high school level, um, when I was in high school for softball at the D1 and D3 level as well. So have spent a number of years now advising and working with, uh, recruits and people interested in playing athletics in college.

Mariko: I also had the privilege of working with USA water polo at the national level on a lot of youth programming after graduating, um, and currently still work in water safety, drowning prevention and other, uh, sort of public health adjacent, um, sports related things, uh, now for the CDC foundation. So I feel really lucky that my [00:02:00] athletic interests and career have followed me into a lot of the professional work that I’m passionate about, and definitely feel free to ask questions about that as well.

Mariko: So that’s me excited to be here today and let’s get it. Let’s get things rolling.

Anesha: All right. Before we let you get started, just gonna do a quick little poll. So please let us know what grade level you are in. If you’re a parent or a teacher, we welcome. You can go ahead and select other. Um, thanks so much for sharing so much about your background.

Anesha: Um, Mariko, I I wasn’t aware of how much extensive, um, experience you had with specifically supporting athletes, so, um, I think it’ll be a great conversation today. Um, let’s see. Okay. All right. We have a, we have about, we have a small group. We have an intimate group of about 20 folks in the room still waiting for, so I’m gonna applies to come through.

Anesha: All right. We’re actually pretty evenly spread. [00:03:00] Um, about a quarter of folks are from the 10th grade. A third of folks are in the 11th grade, a very small percentage of 12th graders, and then the majority of folks with us are other parents or teachers. So that’s who’s in the space with us for tonight. Um, I’ll stop talking, hand it over to you and be back a little bit later.

Mariko: Wonderful. Fantastic. Well welcome. I will try to make sure that this presentation is inclusive of the number of different people that we have here, and so please do feel free to also ask questions throughout in the q and a box if there’s something in particular that I’ve talked about or that I haven’t talked about that you are interested in learning more about.

Mariko: I’ll do my best to cover all of our general bases for student athletes who are interested in potentially playing their sport at the collegiate level, so the college admissions. Process for student athletes. And forgive me for folks who are aware, you might hear some repeated information, um, but wanting to make sure that this is as accessible as possible for everyone who’s on the call tonight.

Mariko: Um, the college admissions process for athletes will [00:04:00] look a little bit different than your average student in that you will have different levels of recruitment and a different timeline often for when you’re starting to finalize which colleges you’re interested in and which colleges you might be attending or considering attending.

Mariko: So really the two places that we can sort of think of recruitment and recruitment support within the college admissions process are in support through admissions and in a roster spot on a team. And right now we’re talking about varsity sports. So this means the highest level of sport that your school plays.

Mariko: Um, division one, division two, division three NAIA. And so. When we think about recruitment, right, there are two places where recruitment can help you get into college and help you keep playing in college. The first is in getting you into the school itself. This is going to be really critical for schools that are more academically competitive.

Mariko: Being offered support through admissions, um, or being offered athletic priority through admissions is going to factor into your [00:05:00] overall portfolio that the school is considering, not just for you as an athlete, but for you as a student who. Lives, works, breathes, contributes to a campus. The second thing that you’ll be considering is whether or not you are going to have a roster spot on a team that you’re being recruited for.

Mariko: And so I think for most people, that is where we lean into the idea of recruiting or we’re expected to have a roster spot on a team. That’s what successful recruitment looks like. But I do want to emphasize that there are multiple paths towards playing a sport at a varsity level. In college and not all of those actually begin with a guaranteed roster spot where you have an official commitment.

Mariko: So when we think about, right, what does being committed or being signed, right? Um, that is the sort of classic, uh, you’re playing your sport in college for sure, right? And that means support through admissions because you have a guaranteed spot on a specific varsity team, right? And that’s, I think, the most classic path that we [00:06:00] think of when we’re talking about this process.

Mariko: Um, a really important thing to note in that is that some schools, particularly the Ivy Leagues, do not guarantee admission. Um. There is no point at which being a recruited athlete officially, officially guarantees that you get, and you, you still have to, um, move your entire package through admissions as well.

Mariko: You will get support, but you are not guaranteed a spot. So it’s a little bit different than some other elite schools, uh, at the division one level where you can commit early and you’re guaranteed that spot. Um, also note that certain schools do not offer official academic scholarships or official athletic scholarships.

Mariko: Again, Ivy Leagues fall into this category where you will get financial aid. And the financial aid is quite generous because these schools are quite wealthy. But you will not be given a, like sports scholarship. And I think that’s also a mindset that people have, right? That you’re committed, signed scholarship athlete.

Mariko: And so just bear in mind that. Depending on what level you play, um, the sort of rules or contingencies for admissions into some of these more selective [00:07:00] programs and, um, you know, sort of what your place is within that. A lot of these things might change, and I, again, am sort of filtering this through the lens of academically competitive schools.

Mariko: As someone who went to an Ivy League myself and went through a primarily Ivy League focused recruiting process as a high schooler. Okay, so right committed, signed, that’s the sort of textbook image that we have in our head when we think about athletic recruitment and the college admissions process.

Mariko: However, there is a second level of admission, which is like a preferred admission or a preferred walk-on. And so what this means is that you get a letter of support that’s written by the coaching staff, um, that says, Hey, you know, if this person gets into our school, we would love to have them on our team, or we definitely consider having them on our team.

Mariko: Um, you don’t have the same level of support through admissions as you do if you’re sort of committed or signed. There’s also often less ex less exclusivity in this process. Um. And you also don’t necessarily have a guaranteed spot on the team that you [00:08:00] are being recruited for. So it could be one, it could be the other, it could be neither, right?

Mariko: Um, but you’re often a preferred walk-on. The coaches are aware of you. They know that like you want to play this sport if you get into this school. And then this sort of last level of recruitment is a true walk-on. You apply without any support for var from varsity coaches. Um, and then you decide, you know what?

Mariko: I do wanna keep playing golf or you know what I am. Um, a track athlete who can make these times and you walk onto the team and you get a roster spot after, um, you are admitted into your school. And so there are again, like these different ways in which you can play varsity sports, um, and. You can sort of be a recruited athlete within the collegiate admissions process, which of course includes people that are also not athletes.

Mariko: Um, I also think it’s just worth putting out there that you can participate or engage in varsity sports without being a roster athlete. It does depend on the sport. And so for golf, this will be less relevant than for team sports, such as baseball or soccer. But there are practice players that participate [00:09:00] at schools, um, with varsity teams.

Mariko: And so if you are maybe not at the level of competition that you would be able to get a scholarship, but you like the school, you like the team, you think you can get into the school. Um, without this sort of preferred admissions or without being committed or signed, there are still ways to be involved in varsity sports and to potentially continue playing your sport without going through any of this process.

Mariko: At all. So, uh, I just wanna make sure that that’s sort of clearly out there again, right? These three levels of, um, sort of commitment, priority, and guaranteed access to both your sport and your team are being like committed or signed. Um, this is exclusive, this is support through admissions. This is a guaranteed roster, spot upon admission.

Mariko: Preferred admission or walk-ons, which is help through admissions or, um, an affidavit from coaches and a, a chance to try out competitively for the team if you get into the school. And a true walk-on, which is that you just decide to do this afterwards. Um, I went through a process where I talked to coaches about all of these different levels of commitment [00:10:00] and ended up not actually applying early decision and committing the way that some of my friends and teammates were at the time because I did want to keep some of my options open in terms of the schools that I was looking at versus the needs of the team at that particular time.

Mariko: Again, for me it was a little different. Team sports, uh, such as softball, which are highly position based, um, have different kinds of recruiting classes every year depending on what the team has or doesn’t have in a way that golf, which is a little bit more of an individual sport, may not have the same level of stratification.

Mariko: But that being said, this is sort of relatively true for all sports and all schools. Okay, so. When we hear committing, we hear sign, uh, signing. We think about, um, you know, signing periods, national letters of intent, um, level of play and level of school will really make a difference in terms of the timing requirements and rules that apply to all of these different terms.

Mariko: Right. Um, and we’ll talk more about this on the next slide, but [00:11:00] my main piece of advice is that every school is a little bit different within these different brackets, again, of like division one, division three, division two, Ivy Leagues, NAIA, right? Whatever it might be. So make sure when you’re going through this process, you discuss clearly with your coaches.

Mariko: What the specific school’s, um, sort of timeline for signing for commitment and for signing your letter of intent is, and get as much in writing as possible, right? Anyone can say anything over the phone. It’s very important that you have communication in writing from these coaches. If you can also make sure to do your own research in this process.

Mariko: Um, the online portals for recruitment and for declaration are really helpful for this. These re resources are relatively newer, so I may not be able to answer as many questions as folks who are going through the process now. Um, because I went through the recruiting process in 20, roughly 2015 through 2017, and it is now shockingly 2025.

Mariko: So, um, again, right? Uh, definitely turn to resources about this as well. Um, [00:12:00] keep in mind, right, uh, that verbal and com written commitments are different, right? That’s really the sort of, uh. What the national letter of intent versus sort of a commitment letter are. And so make sure you know what’s binding and what’s not, and how to leverage these different offers.

Mariko: Um, not all schools can offer binding letters of intent. Um, that’s normally due to level of play. So what a division three athlete can offer, um, can sign for and be offered by a school is going to be a little bit less restrictive than a division one athlete. Um, and lastly, keep in mind that grades and conduct matter until the end.

Mariko: I have seen in real time people’s commitments get revoked because their behavior, um, outside of their sport, uh, or their academics outside of their sport, were not up to the school standards. So always remember that, you know, however binding any of this is, it also is dependent on your conduct as a student and as a person.

Mariko: Okay. So I would say that one of the big differences between student athletes and [00:13:00] regular admission students is the timeline, and mainly that your timeline will be earlier than some of your peers. So while, uh, sort of students who are not playing sports may wait a little longer to their sort of sophomore, junior year to even begin developing their college list, because they don’t have the grades, that will determine sort of, um, what their levels of competitiveness are for different academic institutions.

Mariko: Um, student athletes often start preparing for that process much earlier and again, right between the sort of preferred admission and walk-on options. And, um, true walk-on options. You don’t have to prepare earlier, but if you’re looking to sort of be recruited and signed right, your timeline will be much earlier than people around you and.

Mariko: The more competitive you are when it comes to your athletics, the earlier that timeline will be. Um, and I think this is also something that we’ve really seen accelerate in the last 20 to 25 years. [00:14:00] Recruitment has gotten a lot more competitive. Um, I think we’re moving away, thankfully from what we saw in the sort of mid 2010s, which were really early signing, um, options consistently for like 12, 13 and 14 year olds.

Mariko: I think colleges and parents and coaches are all learning that like you need time to grow and mature as an athlete and as a person. But that being said, right, um, you are really starting to. Work with coaches and talk about and talk to schools much earlier than your peers. So the way that this sort of shakes out, and again, there are some exceptions for extremely elite athletics.

Mariko: Um, but in general, what I would recommend as a first year in high school, you should be identifying schools and contacting coaches of interest. Again, very different than, um, someone who’s not being recruited. Being able to develop relationships with coaches and being able to get a sense for what schools might be interested in you and what schools you might be interested in, because this does go both ways, um, starts that [00:15:00] early, right?

Mariko: And most coaches, unless you are extremely, extremely talented, which there are many people who are, will not start to offer, um, commitments or non-binding or rather non-binding commitments, verbal commitments, um, as early as first year because uh, they will want to see how you grow and develop as well, right?

Mariko: Um, but being able to develop that. Communication, these lines of communication with coaches, these understandings of different programs, what they prioritize, what they’re interested in, um, that normally happens in your first and sophomore year of high school. Um, when you’re a sophomore, you’re really thinking about demonstrating your growth, building relationships with these coaches and these folks that you have begun to talk to and starting to collect more, um, things for your portfolio.

Mariko: So whether it’s, um, being able to go to camps, being able to produce film, um, skills film that shows what you’ve improved upon, being able to pad your stats or increase your stats, right? All of those things happen. Um, you know, within sophomore [00:16:00] year. And again, you do see some of these extremely elite schools.

Mariko: Um, when it comes to. Athletics start to commit during this time. Um, most of these commitments or all of these commitments are non-binding at this point, right? You cannot offer someone that early for juniors. Um, this is really when we start looking at securing commitments and also being really honest and realistic with our options.

Mariko: Because there’s a little bit of your first and your sophomore year, like, maybe this kid will grow, maybe this kid will develop, right? Uh, but by junior year there’s a sort of sense of what your skill level is and where you’ll be able to go, um, based on your skill level as a junior. And so, um, for many D1 and, uh, division one or more competitive schools, again, this is when you start to see these verbal commitments come into play where students will start locking down schools again, verbal commitments are only verbal though, so you.

Mariko: Do see some switching around and some changing depending on both, uh, the student’s preferences and how they’re being recruited and also the coaching and the team, right? If the team gets a new coach, um, you may have had a verbal commitment [00:17:00] for multiple years, but the new coach may not still want you or you may not want to play for that new coach, right?

Mariko: Um, so seniors, you’ve gotta apply to schools during the fall regardless of your commitment status. Um. For earlier commits. Uh, and for people who are pretty locked into a specific school, again, this becomes super relevant for extremely elite athletes. You’ll be applying a single choice, early admission or early decision to your school of choice.

Mariko: You’re locked in early, you know what’s happening by Christmas. Um, for students who are thinking the D3 level for student that may have more flexibility in their options, um, you may not end up actually committing until the spring. And so again, that depends on your and your and the colleges that you’re working with in terms of both of your choices here.

Mariko: And really a different path sort of works for everyone. Uh, again, for me, I really liked having options open. If I had committed to some of the schools that I had been offered, um, in the fall, I would not have had the chance to go to Yale ’cause I wouldn’t have applied to Yale. Right? So I think making sure you’re doing [00:18:00] what works best for you in this process.

Mariko: And so bear in mind, right, that at any level, and again, right, there’s some cushion, if you’re a more elite athlete, that then, you know, your academic and your, um, extracurricular portfolio might, um, not look the same as someone who is a sort of more well-rounded overall candidate. And some schools only are looking for these well-rounded candidates, right?

Mariko: It really does depend on the school and their program and your place within that program. Um, but overall, right? Um, all of those disclaimers aside, um, athletic and academic evaluations do work together in the admissions process to give you the best shot at going to a school you want to go to and playing the sport you want to play.

Mariko: Balance is really key. And this becomes more and more important again at elite academic institutions. Um, if you are someone that has stronger grades, um. That often can be useful to a school, even if your stats are not as good as some other folks that are being recruited because, um, some teams are [00:19:00] required to make average admissions metrics, whether it’s test scores or um, sort of GPAs.

Mariko: Uh, some schools also have different bands of Right. We can recruit, um, you know, folks, we need to recruit folks in this sort of top tier GPA range. And there’s a middle tier GPA range. So again, there’s stronger grades will always help you. And for me, as someone who I would say, um, had grades that made me competitive for incredibly elite schools, even without playing sports, this was a huge asset to me in the recruitment process because schools that were academically competitive would always at least talk to me because they knew that being able to have someone with the guaranteed grades to potentially get into the school anyway allowed them more flexibility in building their roster than if I wasn’t part of the conversation.

Mariko: So bear in mind, grades are always good. Um. If you are, if you’re having, if you really love a school, but again, you’re having trouble securing that roster spot, this is also a great way to enter into these conversations about preferred [00:20:00] walk-ons if you have stronger academic. And then of course, right in general conduct professionalism, strong values and execution in the classroom, in your sport are themes that will extend throughout your profile.

Mariko: And so, um, the skills and, and the building that you’re doing within your sport should hopefully be reflected in other areas of your life as well. And so if you don’t want to pursue athletics in college, but you are really committed to high school athletics right now, or you’re not sure. Um, if you want to or not, bear in mind that you can always leverage the athletics that you’re involved in now on your applications.

Mariko: There are so, so many benefits to athletics that can make you an asset to a college campus and beyond. I’ve listed a lot of these different options here. I’ve worked with athletes, both recruited and non recruited to talk about and cultivate these values in their applications. Um, these are also things that I personally think I received from sport.

Mariko: Definitely perseverance, adaptability, and response to failure, discipline and [00:21:00] commitment. Time management, which becomes huge in college and responsibility, having diverse strength and skillset. Um, there are a lot of individual lessons or important core memories and personality development that might be specific to you but would not have happened without your relationship to your sport.

Mariko: Mentorship and community service. Uh, younger teammates, being able to have team opportunities to give back to the community, whether it’s through sport or just through overall service and of course, teamwork and relationship building. Even if you are in an individual sport, you might play on your high school’s team or you might play, um, on a club or with a specific coach.

Mariko: And so there’s all sorts of skills that can be built through that, that I think are really advantageous and have continued to serve me long beyond playing, um, and practicing every day. And so. A great way to showcase your athletics is going to be in your essay portion, right? You’ll have your academic profile, you’ll have your extracurriculars [00:22:00] where you’ll of course mention your sports.

Mariko: You’ll mention, um, you know, sort of the awards that you’ve received, the amount of time you spend engaging in this sport. Um, other various accomplishments, but the place that sort of really allows you to showcase yourself, right? What makes me, me, and why am I my individual self applying to this particular college with this particular interest?

Mariko: Right? Is in your essays. Um, a lot of schools require essays. Most schools require essays and some may require multiple essays. Um, so you might have a larger main essay and several supplemental essays and sports can be used in all of them. Um, I think for me, sports mostly featured in my supplemental essays.

Mariko: Um, a lot of supplemental essays ask about things like leadership, um, and, uh, sort of. Accomplishment. And so sports were a great way for me to talk about those things. Um, but that’s not the only thing you can talk about. Um, if you’re talking about sports, um, a really common prompt theme that we see across schools in these essays [00:23:00] is growth, change and development over time.

Mariko: And so anyone who’s been playing a sport for a long time knows that your relationship to the sport and your relationship to yourself change quite a lot the longer you play. Um, and so being able to demonstrate that and being able to demonstrate that either within the specific confined context of your sport, or ideally how these growth and this growth and change has affected other parts of your life is a really wonderful way to talk about sports.

Mariko: Um, I think some of my favorite essays to edit and to advise on have been students who have really come into their own through joining a sports team or through overcoming something in sports or through learning something about themselves through their sport. Right. Leadership, great place to talk about leadership.

Mariko: I think that folks often do not give themselves enough credit where, um, if you’re on an elite team, and particularly if you’re in a position such as team captain, you are spending so much time [00:24:00] and building so many skills that are incredibly valuable and again, will transfer over well to the kind of applicant that, um, admissions officers want to see, right?

Mariko: They want you to be involved in campus. They want you to be a source of positive change in college and beyond. And so being able to talk about early leadership experience is huge. Sort of conversely to that, maybe, or maybe it is related, uh, sports are a great place to talk about failure. Every single sport, uh, presents so many routine option opportunities to fail and to learn from that failure to pick yourself up from that failure and to take something from that failure.

Mariko: There are a lot of essay prompts that ask about challenges, failure, um, times of difficulty in your life and sports could be a great way to talk about that. And lastly, this is sort of the broadest category, I would say that like sports can really lead to lessons that teach you more about yourself and about the world around you.

Mariko: Um, an example of that that I’ll give in my life is that I was interested in [00:25:00] public health very separately from playing water polo. And I did not know that drowning prevention and water safety were aspects of public health. And I would not have learned about those aspects of public health or pursuit a career in those aspects of public health had I not been a water polo player.

Mariko: Right? And so whatever that might look like for you, um, it, it could be something really small. It could be something really huge, uh, at the individual level, at the family level, at the team level, the community level, the structural level, whatever that might be. Um, you learn so much through sports, um, and I think you learn so much through anything that you spend a lot of time doing.

Mariko: Um, but this is a way that you can talk about sports as well. Another way that you can talk about athletics is in your professional interests. Um, athletics careers aren’t just for athletes. I think that people are often told, you know, if you can’t make it in the big leagues or you can’t make it at the highest level, then that’s the end of the road for you.

Mariko: And that is simply not true. Um, there are so many other careers that you can have in sport or focusing on sport that are not being an [00:26:00] athlete. Uh, marketing, talent development, event management, legal, um, sort of law related to sport. Law related to competition. Medicine related to competition. Every team has a team doctor.

Mariko: Every team has multiple physical therapists, nutritionists, if there is a career out there, I think there’s always some sort of sports applicable way to be able to pursue that career. So if you love your sport for the sake of your sport and you know that you want to stay involved with it, you totally can, regardless of whether you play in college or not.

Mariko: I know people who played basketball at the intramural level in college who are now working for the NBA or people who didn’t pursue, um, sport in college after playing competitively in high school, who now work for the Dodgers. So I really want to emphasize that, um, the more curious and creative you can be about how and why sport fits into your life, if this is something you’re interested in pursuing.

Mariko: These also again, could be very different things. Um, for a long time my professional interests and my athletics were very separate as well, right? [00:27:00] Um, but. There are so many cool ways that you can continue to engage with sport, and I think that is something that I wish more athletes knew at a younger age.

Mariko: Um, and lastly, right, I would say that regardless of whether or not you intend to play in college, if you just truly love your sport, you love your sport, you love playing it, it is an integral part of who you are. And your application would not be complete, would not fully tell the story and give.

Mariko: Admissions officers an accurate picture of you as a human without your sport. Talk about it. It doesn’t matter what level you play at, it doesn’t matter if you’re good or not. Um, if it is something that is sort of really integral and important to you, then I highly encourage you to write about your sport as part of your essay.

Mariko: And as long as it has a clear and personal point of view, um, whether or not you decide to play in college or whether or not you’re even good at your sport, kind of sometimes matter less, right? In general admissions process, [00:28:00] um, if you are applying as a recruited athlete, this is also just a very easy way to make a lot of your profile tie together, though again, if you are applying as a recruited athlete, I would recommend having at least one of your essays be about something other than sports.

Mariko: Um, that would just be my suggestion there. In terms of turning in a complete application, if you are required to submit essays for your school. Okay. Um, and so, right, I talked about the many different ways that you can have a career that is related to the sport that you play or to your current athletic journey.

Mariko: You do not have to, um, connect your specific sport to your major career applications. You don’t have to stretch your, your essays to make your entire personality a sport. If you are not being recruited for athletics, I actually strongly recommend against this. Um, but if you do have right these different career and major passions that connect to your sport, absolutely go for it.

Mariko: Absolutely do it. And if you’re not sure what you want to [00:29:00] do or what you might wanna pursue in college, but you do know you love your sport, um, that’s a great place to start in looking at potential majors or, um, sort of careers that have longevity if you don’t think that you are interested in playing professionally.

Mariko: So again, um, there are different options here, but definitely recommend it if it feels true to you. Right? Um, I. I like think that you don’t need to know exactly what you’re gonna do with your life. Um, the majority of people, uh, who say they’re going into college for one thing, um, so many of them end up going to college or finishing college, doing something else with their life.

Mariko: And even post-college people make career shifts and changes all the time. So you don’t need to know everything about who you want to be or what you want to do with your life, but you just need a concrete clear POV of who you are right now, what you’re excited about right now, and what you hope for in the future.

Mariko: You’re not gonna be held to that. No one’s gonna bring up this essay four or five years later and say like, Hey, why didn’t you do this thing related to your sport that you said you were interested in when you were 17 or 18? No one’s gonna do that. [00:30:00] Um, but. You can, if this is something that’s genuinely interesting to you, be something that you talk about right now.

Mariko: Um, bear in mind too when you’re deciding whether or not to do this, that different schools have different levels of difficulty and commitment when it comes to changing or adjusting your major. So some schools, the major you go in with is often the major you stay with. It’s very hard to change majors. It may set your graduation timeline back or just make your life a lot more complicated.

Mariko: Some schools and liberal arts colleges tend to shift towards this. Um. Are much more flexible about your major. So at Yale, you did not actually have to declare your major until the end of your sophomore year. A lot of us kind of knew what we were doing before that, so we would start taking classes a little bit earlier, but it’ll, it really allowed folks to not be committed to what they said on their original application.

Mariko: But that’s not true everywhere. So do make sure when you’re evaluating schools right and evaluating schools holistically, not just for sport, um, but also for sort of the education you’re getting out of it. Do [00:31:00] think about how much major, major shifts, major changes may play into your interest in a school.

Mariko: And so the last thing I’ll say here is that the lessons and themes from athletics can definitely apply to your collegiate, future and beyond, right? Um, what happens in sport does not stay in sport for the most part, right? We are people who exist in all kinds of contexts. So being able to connect lessons learned or, um, personal growth or failure or leadership or whatever that might be in sport or even sort of academic.

Mariko: Or, uh, academic and major slash career passions, whatever that might be. Um, often a great conclusion to your essays or to your discussions of yourself in the college admissions process, um, is in connecting right this moment that you had in sport to how it will sort of shape or change your life or influence your future and beyond.

Mariko: So just making sure that like you have that [00:32:00] ability to do that and to, um, work flexibly and understand right, that like sports does not exist in a vacuum, um, and that we would never want it to, right. Um, it’s such an important part of who we are and, uh, that isn’t just limited to the hours that we spend playing.

Mariko: Right? Okay. So. How, so we’ve talked about, you know, sort of the timeline for schools, like what you can talk about if you’re gonna apply to school, but how do you figure out what colleges are right for you and the sport you might want to play? So in this case, right, it’ll be college and golf, but I do think that this is a general matrix that can kind of apply to any sport.

Mariko: Um, I would recommend starting your own spreadsheet or your own tracker, your own document that includes the following, right? The level of play, so competition, right? Division one, division three, division two. All of these levels of competition, um, have different time commitments, have different levels of, [00:33:00] uh, sort of like binding funding, financial support, um, all of these kinds of things.

Mariko: So making sure you understand, right, what is the level of competition, uh, that you’re moving into. And then on top of that, how good is your school within that level of competition, right? Do you wanna play at a really good D three school or do you wanna play at a school that’s D one, but. Their record is often losing, right?

Mariko: So whatever that might be for you, right? You need to think about that for yourself. And also, what is the funding associated with that program? Um, some schools put more into certain sports than others. Some schools have a really rich alumni or a successful alumni who has donated money back to a specific sporting program.

Mariko: So really evaluating, right? The level of competition and the level of funding and infrastructure and support, right? All of those things go together in terms of level of play. The second thing that I would evaluate would be the athletic culture of the team and the coaching staff is this, uh, team that really prioritizes bonding [00:34:00] and, um, having sort of similar interests when you’re not playing sports.

Mariko: If so, what might those interests be? What does the school have to offer? What are the values, the teaching style, and the, um, sort of metrics for success that are driven by coaching staff? I think this is so, so, so important because at the end of the day, these are the people that you are spending upwards of sometimes eight or nine hours a day with, if not a full 24 hours.

Mariko: So making sure that you find an environment that is right for you is a really important part of this process, and making sure that you’re finding an environment that will support you as you support the other people in it and you have good buy-in into that culture is super important. Uh, there were schools that I was really interested in academically, but I knew that based on the culture of the team, that I probably would not play.

Mariko: A sport at that school, or at least my sport at that school. Conversely, there were schools that I had never thought about or never taken as seriously based [00:35:00] on my own interests or my own preferences, but because I really loved the team or because I really loved the staff, I went on visits and thought really seriously about the commitment process.

Mariko: I would also think really critically about location. Um, I think most athletes, like the majority of athletes, right? No one does it alone. You have a sport, you have a support system, and that support system is ensuring that you can play at the level you’re playing at. You will get new support and really wonderful support from folks in your college sphere, right?

Mariko: That’s why the athletic culture is so important. But it may be relevant to you to not lose the support that you already have. Being able to play sport at a high, high level, very far away from home is really difficult. It is so extremely difficult. Even just going to college very far away from home can at some point be logistically, emotionally, mentally, psychologically difficult.

Mariko: And so thinking about location of the [00:36:00] school and how that will impact sort of you as a person, I think is really important. Um, also just think about weather. Think about weather and sport, right? Do you want to spend your winters practicing indoors or do you want to have access to a range year round?

Mariko: Right? Um, do you anticipate having to travel more based on the conference that you’re in or the rigor of your schedule, or would you rather not do that? So just keeping that in mind, right, as an athlete as well. And lastly, right, is the academic culture. Uh, the best advice that I think I received about thinking through, um, sort of academic and broader school culture is that you would still want to go to this school if you were no longer playing golf, right?

Mariko: And again, you can always transfer schools, I think especially with the, uh, sort of instigation of the transfer portal. Um, none of this has to be as binding as it used to be. But, uh, you know, you never know when you may have to stop playing for some reason, right? Whether it’s because you are injured or because you realize you don’t [00:37:00] wanna prioritize your sport anymore.

Mariko: Um, you may not play through all four years, and that is a reality that is great for some people, sad for other people, but you’re still gonna have to go to that college. So making sure that, you know, if for some reason, either temporarily or permanently, you can’t play your sport, you still would wanna go to that school, is I think a really helpful way to identify a school that might be right for you.

Mariko: Um, how are you gonna find all of this out? How are you gonna fill out this matrix? Right? Uh, research can include things like recruiting calls, camps, and visits. I think this is, all of these are really great opportunities to get a feel for the actual physical campus, for the culture of the school. Uh, you get to meet prospective teammates and you get to be coached by prospective coaches.

Mariko: I think that is extremely helpful. Um, interviews with alumni are also really helpful, and I would recommend here asking about the experience of both athletes and non-athletes, right? Because even though you might end up in kind of a team oriented bubble, you still will be interacting with other people who go to this school.

Mariko: [00:38:00] So I think it’s really good to talk to alums. I think they’re really helpful and really useful. Um, they also become a really important source of networking oftentimes, especially within your sport. So definitely recommend, uh, sort of informal interviews or coffee chats or zoom calls or phone calls with alumni.

Mariko: And lastly, social media and the internet. I think there are so many. Collegiate players, um, and collegiate athletes now who provide really helpful if curated. ’cause all social media is curated glimpses into their life, their workload, their experience as a student at a particular institution. And so while you should not write, like, believe that social media and real life are one-to-one, it is useful, I think to watch vlogs, to see how people talk about themselves, about the, about their team and about their experience.

Mariko: Um, of course, right? A lot of that bias, again, will be shifted sort of more positively. Um, if you’re gonna make content about a school you’re going to, you normally like that school, but definitely recommend that. And also just using the internet to look up things, right? [00:39:00] Like, uh, sort of funding, um, like competition requirements.

Mariko: And like, uh, things like major academic options, those kinds of things. Um, it’s all pretty much on the internet also, if you’re going to a school where, um, you’re not being offered athletic scholarships, uh, but you are being offered financial aid, you can do your financial aid calculators. Um, most schools have one of those on the website so you can check there.

Mariko: So as I mentioned, right, uh, an athlete is never just an athlete. There is always a larger support bubble at play. Right. And a huge and important sort of cornerstones of this are parents and teachers. And so I will just chat a little bit about parent involvement. I am only one person in one perspective, so other people may have different opinions or different experiences based on what worked and did not work for them.

Mariko: I would say that in general though, what I’ve noticed in terms of working with parents and in my own experience as a human with parents, um, the first thing that I will say [00:40:00] is having continued encouragement and support. Is really, really critical. Um, recruitment is a, a really difficult endeavor and competitive recruitment slash arguably, being a teenager in today’s world is in many ways, way harder than it was when you were your child’s age.

Mariko: So really making sure that you are listening to them, that you are. Trying your best to sort of understand where they’re coming from and what sort of challenges, issues and successes they might face, because those may be very, very different than the world that you grew up in. Um, and being continually curious and humble about those things.

Mariko: I think there’s a, you know, there are places and times when you will know, um, and sort of be expected to guide, uh, what is best for your child, but also by the time your child gets to high school, they will also have a fully foreign personality and be able to say things to you [00:41:00] and are trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do, and are being asked to make a lot of very high pressure decisions at an incredibly young age.

Mariko: So again, right sort of unconditional encouragement and support. Seems really simple and practice can be really complicated, but making sure you’re listening and making sure you’re understanding that the factors that children have now, um, and students have now in recruitment are different than they were even five or 10 years ago.

Mariko: Um, recruitment today is different than when I was being recruited. Uh, I think the internet and social media are huge parts of this as well as just the general geopolitical climate that we live in and that we have been living in, particularly in the, uh, sort of COVID-19 world and onward. The next thing I would say is, and this sort of loops into encouragement and support, is making sure you’re centering your sort of whole child or whole person’s health.

Mariko: The world is and always will be more than sport. And while sport is a really important and often meaningful opportunity to bond [00:42:00] with, uh, children, to bond with people in your life, um, your child is more than just an athlete. And so making sure that when you’re making decisions and commitments that you’re considering.

Mariko: The whole person and not just sort of right immediate athletic output. I really admire and, um, am always very grateful to parents who are willing to and encourage their child to take breaks, to take up a secondary sport, to listen to their bodies, to focus on things that aren’t just sport. And to also understand how, um, you know, health outside of sport will impact your performance as well.

Mariko: And so just making sure that you’re viewing your child or, or your student as an entire ecosystem that is, um, of which athletics is probably a really important part, but it’s not the entire thing. Um, the next thing is irate being a safe person for your child to talk to about both the wins and the losses.

Mariko: Um, there are, [00:43:00] there’s a certain level of competitive toughness, right, that all athletes and all people who support athletes have to have, right? Um, but making sure that you’re not just teaching your child to sort of push down the things that they are feeling insecure or feeling bad about in the name of being a more confident competitor, but actually being able to work through those things to make peace with and to feel comfortable with and confident with, right?

Mariko: Um, the losses and the winds, right? Um, those kinds of things is really, really important. And, um, again, children need to be able to feel safe in going to their parents about that. So being overly critical, um, sort of making their. Success and their failure. Your success and your failure are not ways in which you are a safe parent and a safe support resource.

Mariko: So making sure that you can remove sort of your own ego and your own personhood from it in order to do that. Um, also making sure that you’re not the only person in your child’s life. [00:44:00] Providing a larger support network that includes qualified professionals is incredibly important for long-term management of any athlete.

Mariko: And nowhere is that more evident, um, in both its positive and negative effects than a athletes who play at the highest level, right? Um, making sure that your child’s physical, mental, and academic health are all being taken care of and probably not all being taken care of by you. Incredibly important. So whether that’s tutoring, um, for teachers that are on this call, um, you’re an incredible, incredibly important part of that too.

Mariko: Um. Having good doctors, good PTs, good recovery specialists, good nutrition and eating specialists and having good mental health support as well, right? Um, whether that’s strong coaching, sports psychology, therapy, really, really important and so many athletes, um, at elite levels, at any level, right? And so many people in general, right?

Mariko: Um, you want to keep all aspects of yourself healthy. It’s not a deficit to need, [00:45:00] uh, sort of mental and emotional support, health and support professionals. It is just another kind of trainer, right? Um, just like you have a speed trainer and endurance trainer, you also have a sort of mental game trainer, and it’s really important to have that support network be there.

Mariko: Also, just bear in mind that like as a teenager, your children are not always going to want to and also should not always have to talk to you and only you about what they’re going through, right? Giving them other outlets, um, is a helpful way for them to find. Safe expression and self identity. Obviously vet these outlets, make sure that they’re good for your children, but do make sure that they’re available.

Mariko: And the last thing is that I would say empowerment is so much more important than micromanaging everything that your child does and everything related to your child’s sport. A huge thing that athletes with really involved parents run into in college is that, um. Your mom or your dad isn’t there anymore to pack your gear bagg to make sure you have lunch, to make sure you’re finishing your homework [00:46:00] right.

Mariko: You will have school support staff, but there are a lot of things that you’re going to have to do on your own. And so, um, and that isn’t just some of the logistical things that I’m naming, it’s also being able to. Speak up for yourself, right? To engage in critical thinking when you need to make decisions about, um, your health, about your schedule, about what you’re gonna say to your teammates about how you’re interacting with your coach, about your mindset, right?

Mariko: All of these kinds of things. And so making sure that your children develop critical thinking. The ability to set boundaries and advocate for themselves and their ability to be in touch with their own physical and mental state is really, really crucial and important and skills that really need to be developed at the high school level in order to make sure that students are successful once they get into college.

Mariko: Right? It’s not just about getting them there, it’s also about making sure they thrive once they are there. And so these are all things that I think from personal experience, from sort of immediate secondhand experience and from advising experience that I would really recommend in this process. And this doesn’t just apply to [00:47:00] sports, but I do think that it.

Mariko: It sort of percolates in sports a lot because it is such a time commitment and it’s such an emotional commitment. Um, it’s such a financial commitment, right? Um, if you are a recruited athlete, you’re putting a lot into your child and into this kind of programming. And so I’ll close with some final tips.

Mariko: Um, really try to keep yourself open throughout the recruiting process. You may have, uh, schools that you’ve never even thought of that reach out to you give them a chance. Um, similarly, you might have your heart set on a specific school, but that may not be where you end up. I think that one of the coolest parts about the recruiting process was getting to learn about just how many options and just how vast of a multitude of educational experiences, of athletic experiences you can have in college and beyond.

Mariko: So really try to keep it open. Um, there are no guarantees in the process, so, um, embracing it as opposed to being scared of it is something that I wish I had done a little bit more because. All of the things that I kept myself open to, made the experience [00:48:00] so unique and so special for me. Next recommendation is going where you’re wanted.

Mariko: Um, I think this was another really helpful piece of information. Pay attention to coaches who want you and who get you to schools, who want you, and who get you to the people who are expending the time and effort to pursue you because it means that they see something in you and that they are also equipped and invested in taking care of you again as an athlete and as a person.

Mariko: Um, lastly, uh, our next competitive athletes can, athletics can be a bubble, so just make sure you have people and hobbies and interests that ground you inside and outside of sports. Right? Um, I think it’s so important to make sure that like right one thing does not take over your entire life. Um. Continue to be curious, continue to be inquisitive about yourself and about others, and understand and be grounded in what works for you.

Mariko: And the fact that that’s gonna change over time. Um, the way that I approach and motivate myself or, um, sort of work out now versus two years ago versus five years ago, has changed so much at every [00:49:00] aspect of athletics. And so continuing to be adaptable and curious is so important. Um, there are gonna be a lot of high highs and there are gonna be a lot of low lows.

Mariko: Um, it is, it is a process that will make you feel a lot, right? And so, uh, making sure that you have the support and making sure that you’re taking the time to properly honor those feelings without being consumed by them is also incredibly important. Um, and lastly, just a reminder that like recruitment and this process are so hard and so overwhelming and so scary and so wonderful, um, and formative and life changing, but.

Mariko: This is also not everything that you will ever do in life. So, um, when things are going poorly, I think remembering that is really helpful and when things are going well, um, also remembering that you have even more to look forward to, right? Keeping it balanced is, um, I think a really important part of maintaining endurance, uh, throughout sport because, um, this is something you’re gonna be doing for the next four years, probably at minimum, if not for the rest of your [00:50:00] life.

Mariko: Um, so really cultivating a kind relationship with who you are, what you do, and how you do it is so important and a perpetual learning process that, um, you can really welcome in. Okay, that’s the end of my prepared presentation. I’ll go ahead and turn it over for questions and answers. Again, feel free to drop questions in the q and a.

Mariko: I know that there were also some questions submitted beforehand, so I’ll try to get to as many as I can in these last 10 minutes.

Anesha: Yeah, sure. Um, before I let you get to there, I’m just gonna go ahead and do our little PSA so that we can dedicate the last few minutes to, um, entirely to questions. And so for any folks in the room who are not currently working with us, we’re just gonna take a quick pause to tell you a little bit more about CollegeAdvisor.

Anesha: Uh, we have a team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process through one-on-one advising sessions and essay editing. Through our digital platform, we have had, um, 10,000 total lifetime clients and a 4.8 out of five rating on [00:51:00] Trustpilot with over 750 reviews.

Anesha: After analyzing our 2023 through 2025 data, we found that clients working with CollegeAdvisor who have a strong academic record and testing, um, are 2.6 times more likely to get into an Ivy League college, and around three times more likely to get into a top 20 college and five times more likely to get into Johns Hopkins, UCLA and NYU when compared to national acceptance rates.

Anesha: You can increase your odds to take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for a free 60-minute strategy session with an admission specialist on our team by using the QR code that’s on the screen. During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out, and by the end you’ll hear about our

Anesha: premium packages and what we offer in order to pair you with an expert who can help you in building your list and developing your essays and much more. Okay. Um, I will leave the QR code up there and then we’ll move into the questions really quickly. Um, the first question that I had for you, and I know you [00:52:00] spoke to this to some degree, but, um, how can students highlight their athletic and academic achievements if they are applying outside of for formal recruitment?

Anesha: If they’re not, yeah. Absolutely. So

Mariko: most major college applications, um, so Common app, um, uh, like most state schools, like competitive state schools such as the ucs, um, they all have a section where you talk about your extracurriculars and you can input awards. So that’s the first place where if there are specific achievements that are notable, you could answer that in that section.

Mariko: Um, there’s also a lot of different ways to talk about these, um, more qualitatively or sort of descriptively in your essays. Um, make sure that you’re sort of separating the difference between them because, um, that extracurricular section is more like a brag sheet. Like you get to just like, pop off and say like, all of the things that you’re really good at essays are sort of more about how have those achievements impacted you as a person.

Mariko: You don’t wanna just sort of list everything that you’ve done. [00:53:00]

Anesha: Okay, thank you. Um. Oh, okay. So this was for international students, as we might have, um, several students in Canada. So if you can’t speak to it, let me know. That’s okay. But, um, someone asked how are there particular documents or recommendations that inter, inter international students need to have together?

Anesha: Um. That would differ from us Applicants.

Mariko: Yes. Although depending on your country of origin and also the schools you’re applying to, those documents and programs may differ. Um, if you are an international student, this is actually a place where I would recommend really working with an advisor, um, who we have several here at College Advisor, for example, who specialize in international admissions.

Mariko: Um, that can help you walk through that process. Um, if you are a recruited athlete, this is also something that your coaches normally have experience in because your, um, sort of like visa process and your admissions process again, may look a [00:54:00] little different than folks who are applying to the same school but aren’t athletes.

Mariko: So sometimes it makes it easier, sometimes it makes it more complicated. So just making sure that, um, yeah, I like can’t, I, I can’t answer too much about like, specific school and sport and country of origin. Like there’s so many different factors that play into this. Um, but do keep in mind, uh, that. This, this will be unfortunately, a, a thing.

Mariko: Um, and that will often change between schools as well.

Anesha: Okay. Uh, the next question is still related somewhat to, um, international, uh, admissions. I think we just have an international, I mean, uh, what role does demonstrated interest play, or how can students who are international demonstrate interest when they can’t easily come to campus in person?

Mariko: Absolutely. So when it comes to sports specifically, uh, a great way to do that is by emailing and. Messaging recruiters and coaches. Um, I would highly recommend in that email [00:55:00] having a resume, having a, um, transcript, a clear sort of summation of your grades. Um, obviously for international students it may look a little bit different, right, than what it does in the us but sort of providing the level of, um, sort of competitive competitiveness that you have as a student.

Mariko: And also having some sort of film, like a skills reel or a highlight reel that shows, uh, your prowess in your sport, because that’s gonna be a big thing that people aren’t going to be able to assess, um, if they are not seeing you in person. Also, bear in mind that, um, a lot of programs do take international trips or are showing up at tournaments where there are international students present, so being aware of what tournaments, um, the colleges that you are interested in attending normally show up at and making plans to make sure that they notice that you’re there or they know that you’re there.

Anesha: Um, one question that I have for you. Um, oh, so I’ve had, I’ve had this with some of my own students and, and seen it with [00:56:00] some, um, friends, but someone asked, how can students balance training schedules while maintaining strong academics and leadership involvement with high school? So during the senior year when things are kind of kicking up, um, do you have any, I guess, time management or just balance.

Mariko: Yes. So I would say one thing is starting early. Um, a lot of college admissions materials go out over the summer, so obviously it’s tough to balance athletics and whatever else you’re doing over the summer with writing, but easier to do that than when you are a student full-time. So a big recommendation would be getting your essays and your started early.

Mariko: Um, another recommendation would be sitting down and proactively planning out your schedule in a way that works for you. And finding the right balance of consistency and flexibility. And so what I mean by that is that there are certain things that you will need to get done and there are certain things that you do need to prioritize by certain times, certain dates, right?

Mariko: Certain points in the week. And you also have to know yourself and be realistic with sort of what’s going to [00:57:00] work for you. So a big example I always give in high school is that I was a big post practice napper. Um, I knew that like, ideally, you know, you want your homework done as soon as possible, but uh, if I came out of a two or a five hour practice, I normally would need a nap before I started homework.

Mariko: And that was just a thing I knew about my body. Um, even though that was not true for everyone or for some of my teammates, they were like, that just made. My whole night so much worse. ’cause now I’m behind on everything. Right? So again, being able to, to know both of those things, um, I also would highly recommend scheduling software or scheduling sort of planner ability.

Mariko: Um, whether you’re in, in, uh, sort of in writing planner person or if you’re a digital person. I used and still use a lot of, um, like calendar services that connect my phone and my computer with reminders. Um, and I normally write down to-do list by hand as well for better retention, um, and for more clarity when the sort of scheduling app looks like a mess.[00:58:00]

Anesha: Um, and then the last question I feel like actually could have been the first question now that I got to it, but, um, it, I think it’s a good summative question, which is essentially what should student athletes be considering or thinking about when they decide to pursue athletics or if they’re debating with focusing on solely academics.

Anesha: So if you’re a student athlete and you’re uncertain if you wanna continue pursuing it, what are some considerations you should, I guess, have before you decide?

Mariko: So I think student athletes get a lot of structure and a lot of sort of very clear prioritization, right? Because you kind of have to, um, you know, you have a lot of commitments that are sort of required and in some ways that makes the rest of your life easier, right?

Mariko: Because, um, you have time blocked off for practice, you have time blocked out for workouts. And so homework goes in between, classes go in between. And you also, at certain schools get a lot of academic and um, sort of overall planning support to make those schedules work. And if you’re someone who needs that kind of support, make sure you’re looking at the kinds of [00:59:00] resources that colleges can provide you, right?

Mariko: Some schools are better at that than others. Um, but there are, the con to that is right, you have a lot of structure and you have a lot of prioritization. So if you want to be adventurous and try new things in college, um, if you are sort of, you know. Feeling like I already don’t quite have enough time in high school.

Mariko: Um, you know, if I don’t play sports, my life won’t end, right? Like that kind of thing. Um, I think that’s sort of really important to consider too, and always consider, right? There are so many levels of sport that you can engage with for your entire lives, right? Like you can play intramural, you can play club, you can play varsity, right?

Mariko: Um, there doesn’t have to sort of just be an end all be all. Like I either go through intense recruitment or I don’t. Um, there are totally lots of other awesome ways, uh, to keep being involved in sport, um, in whatever way you might choose, right? Um, so be it, it sort of in play in academics, in professional goals.

Mariko: So, [01:00:00] um, I think really thinking about and exploring those options is a really important part of making sure that you are figuring out what’s best for you.

Anesha: Awesome. Okay, we will end it there. Thank you so much, um, Marigo for coming and presenting and sharing your expertise and wisdom. Thanks everyone for coming out tonight.

Anesha: We hope you gained some tips and strategies for navigating college applications, um, and we hope you join us in the future. But until then, take care and have a good evening everybody.