Hi! So I live in New Zealand and I’ve had an email from a coach in the US saying she’s coming to NZ next week and wants to come and see me row. Any tips for what to talk about? I don’t really know much about the whole process and I don’t want to come off too eager/not interested. How will I tell if she is interested in recruiting me? Thanks so much!!

That’s pretty awesome, congrats! Check out the list of questions to ask prospective coaches in the post linked below. There’s some good ones in there that pretty much cover all your bases as far as recruiting, academics, the program itself, etc. goes. Obviously you don’t have to ask them all of those questions but pick out maybe 5-7 or so and keep them on hand for whenever you’ve actually got some time to talk one-on-one. If you don’t have much time to talk with one another ask if it’s OK if you send an email within the next couple of days with some questions that you have and then just write out whatever they are in a brief, bullet-pointed email maybe a day or two later.

Related: What questions should you ask during the recruiting process?

Also check out the post linked below on how to respond to a coach that asks “what should I know about you”, “tell me about yourself”, etc. That’d be one of the first questions that I’d ask a recruit (and it’s something I’ve been asked on nearly every worthwhile job interview I’ve had) so it’s always good to have something prepared just in case.

Related: When a coach asks “What should I know about you?” or “Tell me what me about yourself.”, what should you say? I was asked this question and completely froze because I had no idea how to respond. Please help! I want to be prepared next time.

As far as coming off too eager or not interested … just be cool. She’s a coach, not a foreign dignitary. Just be polite and act like you always do (aka a normal person). I imagine that if she’s interested in you then she’ll let you know at some point in the future but if it’s really bugging you to know then I don’t see why it’d be a big deal to ask where you stand next to the other rowers she’s looked at. I would probably save that for your follow-up email though just to give her some time to actually process what she saw in practice.

Related: I went on an official visit about two weeks ago. I am very interested in this school but I am still looking at some other schools (that don’t have rowing). I want to keep up a relationship with this school but I’m not sure what to say in an email to them. Thanks!

There are a lot of really great questions in the recruiting tag that cover pretty much everything you’d wanna know and some things you didn’t know you wanted to know so if/when you’ve got time, definitely try to spend some time reading through them.

Tags: college qotd recruiting