While I am an advocate for having big goals to work hard to achieve and keeping some dream schools on your list, you have to be cautious about what percentage of dream schools vs realistic schools you have on your list, especially these days with the transfer portal and roster caps added extra elements of difficulty for high school recruits when it comes to available spots.

I say to contact 50+ schools, but as with most parts of this process, that is dependent on many factors. The reason I use that number is for the average player who is doing this process on their own, without knowledgeable or reliable guidance, I have seen a trend of what happens if they create a list of less than that.

When I am providing general advice and tips on the steps of the process, I am trying to consider what most players will tend to do and why they may not get the coach responses they are expecting. So if a player takes the time to initially contact 50 or more, then hopefully they expand their reach to include at least 15-20 realistic options to then have 7-10 programs that they can focus on. I certainly do not expect a recruit to maintain communication with that many coaches. I just want them to initially cast a big enough net to generate enough interest to find the right fit.

Also, the better the player’s resume, the better odds they can keep their list small initially and still find those 7-10 programs to focus on, but without a really strong golf resume, the odds of contacting enough realistic options for most players is usually low and leads to frustration and lack of confidence. Many times it will take a list of 100+ schools to eventually find a realistic “sweet spot” of schools and generate enough interest from coaches to feel comfortable with your options.

But no matter what, you have to just get started and reach out to coaches via email (and phone call if allowed).

 

Written by: Brandi Jackson, RecruitPKB College Consultant

For more information about college recruiting, please contact Brandi at bjackson@pkbgt.org