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The college recruiting process is complex and stressful for families who are usually going through it for the first time. Finding the right colleges, identifying the appropriate collegiate athletic level, getting in touch with the right coaches, finding financial aid and scholarships, making the final college choice – these are all difficult and multifaceted steps in the college recruiting journey that require assistance and guidance to effectively navigate.
There are a variety of companies who claim to provide the best, most efficient technology and assistance for student-athletes and their families during this stressful time. These companies usually have college recruiting websites that allow you to make a profile, find colleges and then email coaches.
A vital part of getting recruited is having college coaches respond to your emails.
A recent Athlete Match coach survey revealed that less than 5% of coaches open mass emails from college recruiting companies. Most college recruiting companies use auto-generated email templates and encourage you to send them to many coaches at once. They don’t focus on a select few colleges, but rather encourage you to send out as many emails to as many coaches as possible (as SOME might reply).
You cannot personalize an email when it is sent this way. In fact, as soon as a college coach sees ‘Dear Coach’ or any impersonal language they will hit delete. Likewise, when a coach sees recruiting service logos, ads and links in the email, they assume you are mass emailing a bunch of coaches, and will hit delete. This is a potential reason why these college recruiting companies encourage you to email so many coaches, because not many reply to these types of emails.
Coaches want to feel like you are genuinely interested in their program and that you have done your research on their school as a good fit. Look at the example and listen to the short audio clip below to analyze the following coach email inbox.
To make things worse, mass emails from these college recruiting companies get tagged as SPAM more frequently (meaning the coach won’t even receive the email).
Emailing a bunch of coaches and only getting replies from a select few, often means aspiring college athletes pursue the wrong coaches and colleges. To put things into perspective, the 4-year graduation rate in the US is approximately 40%. This means that you are more likely to add additional years to your degree (or drop out of college) than to graduate in 4 years. In fact, about 39% of students transfer to another college or drop out altogether after freshman year. What is the reason for these statistics? Why is the transfer rate so high and the 4-year graduation rate so low? The answer is generally that many students are making the decision to attend colleges that are not a good fit for them.
Don’t let a bad email system from a college recruiting company lead you down this path.
Athlete Match makes it easy for you to reach out to any college coach. However, we only allow you to email one college at a time, so that your emails are personal… (and much more likely to be delivered to a coach’s inbox).
Our emails contain no logos, links or ads – in fact, they look just like a personal email sent from your gmail for example. Look at the two examples below to see how Athlete Match sends personal emails, while a typical college recruiting company sends branded, impersonal emails that coaches do not like.
College Recruiting Company Email Example
Athlete Match Email Example
College Coaches prefer to receive emails from Athlete Match athletes.
Give yourself the best chance of getting a reply from a college coach by using Athlete Match.
Athlete Match understands how the recruiting process works and provides both the technology and guidance for a clear college pathway. Learn more here, Create a Free Profile today to begin your journey to your best fit college, or try our search & filter tool for free.