By January 1: Register with the NCAA and NAIA Eligibility Center
NCAA Eligibility Center – Your first step will be to create a Free Profile Page or an Academic and Amateurism Certification Account with the NCAA Eligibility Center in order to get your NCAA ID#. When you begin the registration process for the NCAA Eligibility Center, you are given three options to choose from.
Most students choose:
Option 1: Free Profile Page Account. If you are looking to simply register and be issued
an NCAA ID # then option #1 may be the best choice. You can upgrade your Free
Profile Page to an Academic and Amateurism Certification Account later by paying the
one-time registration fee.
OR
Option 3: Academic and Amateurism Certification Account.Division I and II schools
require their prospective student-athletes to have an Academic and Amateurism
Certification Account *Amateurism-Only Certification account is only reserved for
international students.
By January 15: Be sure to record yourself playing your sport or at least put a plan in place to get video recordings.
By January 15: Fill out online recruit questionnaires for college teams.
By January 21: Email or direct message college coaches.
By January 30: Check NCAA requirements thoroughly.
By February 15: Make a plan for college visits with your counselor.
By Spring Break of Sophomore Year: Start visiting college campuses (virtual or in-person).
By June 15: Consider virtual courses if you’re short on credits for eligibility.
Throughout Summer of Junior Year: Conduct pre-reads with schools that are interested in you and complete pre-reads. Some students are recruited earlier than this. Many are, in fact. But, if you haven’t been, you may want to consider going through the pre-read process.
Throughout Summer of Junior Year: Complete Personal Statement/Common App Essay and supplemental essays for each individual college
By August 15: Submit early college applications (most early deadlines are Nov 1. Some public colleges in the south have early deadlines of Oct 15)
By Fall: Confirm your transcript has been submitted to the NCAA Eligibility Center.
By Fall of Senior Year: Complete a verbal commitment.
Between Dec 1- Dec 15: Apply for financial aid and complete FAFSA forms (opens December 1 for the next academic year).
Between Dec 1- Dec 15: Request NCAA Amateurism Certification.
Between Dec 1- Dec 15: Optional: Sign an athletic grant-in-aid.
National Signing Day or Before: Confirm your school decision.
Important Resources You’ll Want To Explore
2024-2025 College Bound Student-Athlete Resource — This is a helpful guide for prospective student-athletes at-large. The NCAA allows D1, D2, and D3 colleges to determine a prospective student-athlete’s academic readiness through the admissions process and not through the NCAA Eligibility Center.
High School Core-Course Search – You can search for your high school to discover which courses at your high school fall into certain academic categories that will satisfy the NCAA 16 core-course requirement (For D1 and D2 only)
NCAA Directory – This is a good resource to help you see all the schools that sponsor Women’s Fencing regardless of NCAA division. This will be a good tool to use to identify other high academic achieving / like-minded schools that you can add to your college list to explore further.
Athletic Recruiting Questionnaires – This is an example of the recruiting questionnaires that colleges ask you to complete. This is a low stakes way to make initial contact with coaches / programs you are interested in. Once you finalize your college list, you can make a plan to send these out.
