7 Crucial Steps Before Committing To A College (For Athletes)

Hey, Alex here. Thanks for joining me. Today's episode, we're going to be talking about the seven things you need to do before you commit to a school, before you decide on one of the biggest decisions of your life, arguably, especially as a teenager. This is arguably the biggest decision of your life, of choosing a school, choosing an athletic program, of where you're going to go and compete. So I'm excited to go over this and if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swinson. I'm a former Division 1 college coach, Scout and recruiter. And now what I do is help high school baseball athletes and their parents navigate this college recruiting process, help them get noticed, help them get seen and find the best college fit for them. So if you're interested in getting some help going through the recruiting process, you can go on and visit my website, Premierathletes Co. But go on and check that out. I'll also leave it down in the descriptions. And if you get anything from this video, please smash that like, button that thumbs up. Subscribe here whether you're watching on YouTube or the podcast. I also have a podcast you want to listen on the go. But let's get into number one. So number one, tour campus with the coaches. You could start off even before this step of tour the campus on your own, okay. But you no doubt want to take a tour with the campus. So I have a lot of guys going through my program that have in the past where they coaches are interested in them and even some coaches have already offered before the athlete has even seen or been on campus. Now we definitely want to go see the campus and get a feel of the campus. Walking around campus, seeing the dormitories, seeing the baseball facilities or athletic facilities, seeing the weight room, seeing the cafeteria, all those things. We want to get a feel. And with the coaches preferably, obviously, especially if there's an offer out there to ask any questions that you might have as the player or a parent. So definitely taking a campus tour with the coaches. Next, ask yourself, could you see yourself there if you couldn't play anymore? So God forbid something happened from an injury perspective and you couldn't play anymore. Could you see yourself there? Because I don't want you to be so wrapped up on the athletic side to where you are missing the bigger picture, right, of getting your education, having a great college, overall college experience. And there's no doubt, man, being a college athlete, there's a lot of work. Your majority of your time is going to be practicing, playing, traveling, weight room, all that you're going to be. Your life's going to revolve around being a college athlete, but you want to like the university or the college that you are going to. Not just because of the athletic side. All right. Just the feel of it. All right. Could you see yourself there from an academic size, majors, what? And just feel you like the environment at the campus and the surrounding areas. So ask yourself very, very important question. Go to a practice or go to a game. This is huge. See how the team interacts with each other. See how the coaches interact with the players and how they coach. I recommend this so highly. And you can knock this out when you are on a campus visit with the coaching staff, either on an unofficial visit or a physical visit here. But definitely go watch a practice or a game. Now research majors and class sizes. Okay. Hey, do they have majors that you are interested in that you want to study? Now? You don't have to have it all figured out. I certainly didn't have all figured out. And you can change majors, but it's a good idea to definitely start thinking about what interests you. Go on to the specific schools that you're interested in. Your target school school list, if you haven't created a target school list, definitely do that. But you want to make sure that there are at least some majors that you're interested in. But if you're, you know, if you definitely have a target of what you want to study and they don't have that, well, then you know that's going to be making some decisions for you there. And then class sizes. Do you want to be at a schools where 2, 3, 400 students there or do you want to go to where it's a smaller field and you're going to be more interactive with, with the professor? You got to think about that as we go. Number five, look at food options on and around campus. So this is big, man. You're going to be eating and you're a teenager and going into your 20s. While you are there, you're going to be eating a lot, especially as an athlete. So you want to make sure you got some good food options there. It's a little thing, but also a big thing as we go. The food needs to be good. Tour the town around campus. Whether it's a town, whether it's a city, you want to make sure, especially if you are not familiar with the area, that you know what is around a campus. And again, does it feel good? Does it feel like home? More of the campus setting than necessary, the town. But that's going to be important as you go through this talk with a current player. If you can do your best to reach out. I love when my guys go on campus tours with college coaches and they almost have a panel of college players that sit in front of them. A lot of schools, not all, but a lot of schools, will have like one, two or three players talking to the athlete and just getting to know the high school athlete that's coming on the tour and that has an offer out to them. And then the athlete can ask some questions to the players to get a player's perspective. Huge, huge there. So do that if you can. If you can get also get creative and use social media and DM certain players and ask some questions as well about the environment of the program, the coaching staff, what they do in the spring, in the fall and the winter, you know, how's the strength and conditioning program, do they play summer ball? All these certain things that you can ask and how is. Like with classes, what's a popular major? What's. When does practice start? How's practice? Right. Run all these things that you can ask from that standpoint. And then what I miss, anything I miss, put it in the comments here or ask me. You can reach out to me, ask me any questions that you have or things that you would recommend doing before you commit to a school. I look forward to hearing from you and I'll see you in the next video. Take care.