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The college application process for athletes can seem overwhelming. With so much to think about and accomplish—from putting together your athletic profile to attending events and making sure the right coaches see you play—it’s easy to forget the fact that you actually have to apply to college. If you’re not organized and miss important deadlines, there’s no real safety net. It’s up to you to manage your time wisely so you can sign on the dotted line and begin your college athletic career.
Each college’s admissions process is different. In addition to the applicants’ academics, extracurriculars, application essays and recommendation letters, admissions counselors also need to consider the college’s unique factors like enrollment projections, student body diversity, faculty and recruitment goals.
The application goes through an evaluation process to eliminate applicants who have not met the minimum institutional requirements. Applications that move forward then go to the committee, where admissions counselors read applications and determine who gets accepted.
Students who are clearly a good fit for the school will get accepted, but other applicants who need more review may go through several rounds of evaluation. College admissions officers want to know if you’re a well-rounded individual who can help the college reach its admissions and retention goals.
Since there are so many steps, such as applying for financial aid and securing letters of recommendation, it can be helpful to create a checklist. A good place to start is by reviewing the college application process steps. Before applying to your list of target schools, it’s important to go through that list to ensure you didn’t forget a step or miss any college application deadlines.
There are seven main steps to the college application process for student-athletes.
Student-athletes enrolling in a D1 or D2 college program during the 2022-23 academic year are not required to take a standardized test to meet NCAA eligibility requirements. Eligibility will only be calculated based on NCAA core course GPA and the core course requirements. Although the test-optional policy has been adopted by some colleges since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many colleges still require ACT or SAT scores to be admitted and to be considered for academic scholarships.
Learn more about the NCAA Eligibility Center’s COVID-19 Response.
Insider tip: When it comes to studying for standardized tests, the more you learn about the tests, and the earlier you practice them, the better prepared you’ll be when test day comes. Learn test-taking strategies, time management skills and the types of questions frequently asked on the ACT and SAT with our partner, Method Learning.
As you prepare for the ACT or SAT, review the test date options and their registration deadlines. If you are planning on taking the tests more than once, it’s important to keep these dates in mind while planning your game plan.
As an underclassman, you should be taking prep courses and the PSAT and PLAN to prepare for the real deal. By your junior year, you should register for and take both the ACT and SAT standardized tests. The ACT is given six times per year: September, October, December, February, April and June. The SAT is given seven times per year: October, November, December, January, March (or April), May and June. Registration for each test date usually opens about a month before.
You can take the ACT up to 12 times and the SAT as many times as you want, but you should stick to no more than four times.
The College Board website has more information about the SAT. Learn more about the ACT.
Insider tip: Fee waivers are available for economically disadvantaged students for both the ACT and SAT. You can use fee waivers up to two times for each test.
If you’re looking to play Division 1 or Division 2, register for a Certification Account with the NCAA Eligibility Center (formerly the Clearinghouse) and/or the NAIA Eligibility Center by the summer after your junior year. Student-athletes who will play Division 3 can create a Profile Page in the NCAA Eligibility Center to receive updates relevant to their needs.
Insider tip: If you aren’t sure which division you will compete in, you should start with a Profile Page and move to a Certification Account if you end up receiving interest from or start applying for D1 or D2 programs.
The NCAA Eligibility Center looks at your high school core courses, your core GPA for those courses and your ACT/SAT test scores to determine eligibility. Your official scores have to be sent directly from the testing agencies, so use code “9999” for NCAA and “9876” for NAIA when you request those scores. It’s important to register by your junior year so you can go on an official visit.
If you have already been recruited, you may be wondering, do recruited athletes have to apply to college? The answer is yes. Recruited student-athletes must submit a college application to the school that recruited them.
Some decide not to apply to a college until after they have taken an official campus visit. Others have already applied, been accepted and received a scholarship offer when they go on their official visit. Either way, it’s important to let the recruiting coach know once you’ve applied so they can be on the lookout for your application.
The most popular time for students to apply to college is in the fall of their senior year of high school. Admissions experts say that, generally, a student should begin the application process by the start of their senior year of high school. Some colleges may have different deadlines, but most applications for regular fall admissions are due by January.
By the time you’re ready to apply to college—usually the summer before your senior year—you should have your target list of schools narrowed down. You can apply to as many colleges as you’d like, but keep in mind that there are application fees involved and filling out the forms can be time-consuming. Every college has different deadlines for its admissions process, so make sure you have a method for organizing those important dates. A good practice is to create a spreadsheet or calendar to stay on top of the various timelines.
Insider tip: Student-athletes should consider using the Common Application, which allows you to send multiple schools the same application information at once. It’s a huge time-saver.
You have three application choices: apply for an early decision; choose a rolling decision option; or apply as part of the regular decision process. Each of these options has different deadlines. Most student-athletes choose to apply as part of the regular decision so they have more time to make a final decision on the program they are most interested in or get their test scores up.
Each of these options has different deadlines. Most student-athletes decide to apply as part of the regular decision, so they have more time to make a final decision on the program they are most interested in or get their test scores up.
Early decision applications are usually due around November 1 of your senior year, while most regular decision applications aren’t due until January 1. However, with early decision applications, student-athletes are bound to apply to only one college. This choice is a personal one based on your circumstances.
The table below lists the most common college application deadlines for various application options, such as early action and regular decision.
| Application Deadline | Application Due Date | Admission Decision |
| Early Action | November 1, November 15 | December |
| Early Decision | November 1, November 15 | December |
| Regular Decision | January 1, January 15 | March |
| Rolling Admission | Varies | Usually within 4-6 weeks |
Are Ivy League or Top-50 colleges on your target list? CollegeAdvisor.com offers 1-on-1 guidance from admissions experts to strengthen your college applications and boost your chances of admission.
One of the most important steps in the application process is submitting your college applications by the correct deadline. When it comes to applying to college, an early action or early decision application offers less competition than a regular application for getting admitted at an early stage. However, these early applications mostly benefit those who have done their research ahead of time and have narrowed down their choices to where they want to attend college.
The main difference between the two applications is that an early decision application is binding, and the applicant must attend the school if they are accepted. An early action application is not binding but can offer the applicant ease of mind knowing that they’ve been accepted (or not) at an earlier date.
For more on the topic, check out this video featuring D3 Kalamazoo College swim coach Jay Daniels and former D1 and D3 swim coach Danny Koenig.
Most schools allow you to apply early in one of two ways: early decision or early action. Since early action is non-binding, meaning you are not required to attend if you are accepted, you can apply to multiple schools from your target list. An advantage of early action over early decision is the opportunity to compare financial aid packages from those colleges to make the best decision for you.
Getting accepted early does offer some benefits, including saving on the cost of submitting multiple applications, reducing stress and time spent waiting on a decision, and having more time to prepare for moving to college. Additionally, studies show that early decision applicants get accepted at a higher rate than regular applicants. Plus, if not accepted, early applicants also have more time to form a backup plan.
This can be especially appealing for student-athletes who have done their college research and have settled on a first-choice school that fits them athletically, academically, socially and financially. However, applying early decision may not be a good decision for someone who is not 100% sure they want to attend that college, has not done a lot of research into colleges or may need to bring their grades up their final semester.
The Common Application (also known as the Common App) is a form that student-athletes fill out with general information like GPA and extracurricular activities. They can apply to multiple schools. Instead of filling out this information for each school, student-athletes can apply to any of the 870+ colleges that accept this application. This is especially helpful because athletes can submit the same admission essay to many colleges. While the Common App is free to use, every college charge its own application processing fee.
Since courses, grades, and standardized test scores are set factors in the application process, a student-athlete’s personal essay is an opening to tell their story, display their interests, talents and motivations. When writing a college essay, student-athletes want to write something that stands out from the large stacks of essays college admissions professionals read.
The tips below will help student-athletes prepare and write an essay that might land them in their dream college.
While a full-ride scholarship to the school of your dreams is what every student-athlete wants, the reality is that only 2 percent of high school athletes are awarded athletic scholarships, and an even smaller percentage of that receive full rides. And there are no athletic scholarships at the D3 school level. Luckily, all students are eligible for financial aid to supplement scholarship dollars.
To receive financial aid, students must complete the Free Application for Federal Students (FAFSA®).
If you miss the college or state deadline for FAFSAÒ, you are not likely to receive much financial aid, if any. If you miss the federal deadline, you’re out of luck for that year. However, you can submit for the following year. To learn more about the state and federal deadlines, you can visit our financial aid guide for student-athletes.
Starting April 1 of your senior year, you must request your final amateurism certificate if you plan to play in a D1 or D2 institution in the fall. If you’re enrolling in the Winter/Spring, you can request you final amateurism certificate starting October 1. To be eligible to compete and receive a scholarship with the NCAA, you have to meet certain requirements. You have likely already registered with the NCAA Eligibility Center during your junior year, but you must update the information in your senior year in order to become certified and cleared to play at the college level.
After you graduate high school, you must prove to the NCAA that you’ve done so. The best way is to have transcripts sent to the NCAA Eligibility Center with your graduation date included. If you can’t provide a transcript with the graduation date included, an administrator at your high school can sign a proof of graduation and fax it to the Eligibility Center.
One of the most common mistakes student-athletes make in the application process is not letting the coach know when they’re applying to the school. If an athlete applies and doesn’t get in, there’s nothing they—or the coach—can do about it. But if the coach knows that an athlete submitted their application, they may be able to flag it with the admissions office. Of course, an athlete’s test scores, GPA and application need to stand on their own, but coaches will want to know when top recruits have applied to their school.
If the athlete doesn’t have a relationship established with the coaching staff, they should still let them know when the application was submitted. It may remind the coach to take a second glance at the athlete’s recruiting profile and video. For many coaches, deciphering whether a recruit is seriously interested in their program or not can be a challenge, so communicating about your application to the college may give you a competitive edge over other recruits.
College coaches can serve as both an aid and a barrier in a recruit’s college admissions process. Below is a list of the main ways college coaches get involved:
Nothing is official until you receive an acceptance letter. And, even then, if you don’t formally accept, you haven’t made it quite yet. Each school has its own deadline for when you must accept, so make sure you note that when you receive your letter. If you don’t let them know you intend to come, they will offer your spot up to someone else. You’ve done all the hard work, so it’s time to make it official.
Several coaches—especially at the D3 and NAIA levels—recruit student-athletes well into their senior year. Some student-athletes may find themselves in a position where the college coach is actively recruiting them, but the application deadline has passed. Fear not, there’s still a chance the coach may be able to override the deadline if their roster spots aren’t filled.
“Coaches would be calling you in the spring of your senior year knowing that they’ll more than likely be able to still get your application in, if you’re interested in their school,” says Julian Beckwith, Recruiting Coach at NCSA College Recruiting.
So, if an athlete is being recruited by a coach at a school they haven’t applied to, they should be up front and let them know. If the coach is genuinely interested in the athlete, they may be able to still get the athlete’s application in.
College applications for regular admission are due January 1. Some deadlines can vary based on the college or type of application. Early decision and early action applications are due November 1 and November 15.
Recruiting in your hands.
Tools and advice to find the right fit.
Due to federal privacy regulations, your student-athlete has to be 13 years old to create an NCSA profile.
According to information you submitted, your student-athlete is under the age of 13.
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While you’re here, we invite you to educate yourself on the recruiting process. Here are two of our most popular articles:
Train like the pros at IMG Academy – it’s where athletes like Serena Williams, KJ Osborn and Andrew McCutchen went to become legendary.