Think. Swim. College.

If a coach asks you for something, make sure to respond with the information in a timely manner. For example, if you have a week to sign your NLI don't wait until the very last day to sign and fax it to your future coach. During signing week you should already know what school you are attending. By waiting until the last minute, you are running an unnecessary risk. Another Example:   Your coach asks for your physical paperwork to be faxed to him by June 1st. You have had over a month to schedule a doctor's visit and inform the doctor of the tests/vaccinations you need. You wait last minute and your doctor visit is on May 30th and you don't get your lab results until June 3rd. The paperwork gets sent to coach by June 5th. Now, your paperwork is almost a week behind every other student-athlete who submitted it on time. Then in August, you find out you're missing an official stamp or signature on your paperwork for one vaccination and you can't practice with the team...

JULY between your junior and senior year in high school. At this time, Division I & II schools can reach out to you, and you can have PHONE conversations.  Read more here about eligibility dates .

The main difference is that Division I and Division II schools can offer recruits athletic scholarships whereas Division III schools cannot. Technically, DIII schools only offer academic scholarships. However, there are ways to get an "athletic" scholarship masked as an academic scholarship. Check out the Helpful Resources page. There are other distinctions between DI, DII, and DIII schools you can read about here .

If you have chosen a school and signed the National Letter of Intent (NLI), congratulations!!! You have now joined the ranks of collegiate athletes. The respectful thing to do is to let the other schools know that you are no longer on the market. Send out an email to all the coaches that you have been talking to. Let them know that you have committed to a team.

I am currently a sophomore chemical engineering major at Howard University. I am also on the swim team. I also pay about $200 dollars in fees every semester (that's it). I received a full ride at Howard through hard work, dedication and strategy. I started swimming on a club team when I was nine. Which is kind of late considering many people started at five. I was raised by a single mom. She's extremely smart and resourceful. That's where I got my drive from. By the time I was in middle school I was excelling at math and science. Around that time is when you start to learn about college and all the different specialties. I decided on engineering by the time I reached high school. Somewhere in there, I chose chemical engineering. By my senior year I was actively talking to eleven universities, nine of which I was being recruited for. Both Division I and Division III. I applied to all eleven. Accepted into ten of those schools. I received four academic scholarships....