Q & A

Q. When should I sign up for the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Center?

A. The NCAA recommends signing up for the Eligibility Center junior year. For students with at least a 3.0 GPA and a college prep curriculum, you may be able to be cleared as a junior. Then you don’t have to worry about it as a senior. It is important to make sure your school sends your final junior year transcripts if you want to take advantage of the early clearance. For seniors, you must make sure your final transcripts are sent this summer. The purpose of the Eligibility Center is to clear you for playing in college. However, usually college coaches want this handled as soon as possible so there are no surprises.

Q. You talk a lot about visiting colleges. How do we go about setting up a visit? What do schools offer?

A. It is very easy to plan a college visit. Almost all schools offer both a student-lead tour of campus and an information session which gives you tips on how to apply and also information about financial aid and scholarships. Our recommendation is to do both, but at the very least do the student-lead tour. Go to the college website (very easily found by “Googling” the name of the school), search for “campus tour” or “visit.” There you will see the times of the tours and info sessions. Most schools have at least two per day so that you can visit one campus in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Some schools require a reservation and some just tell you to show up. On rare occasions you have to call to make a reservation. That’s it. Just make sure the student signs in while you are there because many schools track this as level of interest.