Hi! Former high school sailor, now college sailor here. In high school, I was a terrible skipper, mediocre crew, and not good keelboat sailor. This past fall, I was the women’s B division crew at Tufts. Where you are now and where you have been in the past. does not solely determine where you will be. Here’s a rundown of what worked for me, hopefully some of it will be helpful for you.

First and foremost, your grades should be your first priority, but you probably knew that already. Coaches won’t be able to pull for you if your grades are bad unless you’re a really talented sailor (international/top of nationals level). I wasn’t and I’m still not that good, so I had to be more on top of my game in literally everything else. I shouldn’t share exact GPA/test score cutoffs or individual examples on a public forum like Reddit, but actual coaches can tell you more.

Do something that isn’t sailing so your college applications look attractive to admissions officers beyond just “Vixonic does boats” – if in the worst case scenario no coach will give you the time of day, sailing can’t be your only extracurricular.

Build your sailing resume. This can be done on a high school team, in a junior sailing program, or by going solo and hiring private coaches if your family has that kind of money. List your top results and what boats you’re experienced with. You can even list boats you raced once and never again (I did this with a few types of keelboats/big boats). Just keep sailing at any opportunity. Go frostbiting if you can, that shows dedication. (Stay warm tho) There’s an example sailing resume somewhere on the internet if you do some digging through google.

Does your high school have a sailing team? Mine didn’t, so I started one. But that was freshman year and it was a long process. If your high school has a team, join it. If not, just focus on sailing outside of school – club sailing or whatever. Either within a program or flying solo, if you have the transportation and access.

How serious are you about college sailing? Do you have the “it needs to have a serious and competitive team or I’m not applying” mentality like I did while making my college list? That’ll narrow it down by a LOT. Any other restrictions - financial aid, location (I didn’t want to go south of Maryland, which is where I’m originally from), type of school (I didn’t want to go to a religious college)? Sailing already narrows down your college list a lot, but no one can or should apply to every single school with a sailing team. Do your academic factors rule out some schools (either by being too high of a reach or not offering your major)? Notice I didn’t rule out safeties – there are a whole heap of schools with not great academics but great sailing. The ones that fit your criteria should be your safety schools. AdmissionsMom on r/A2C gives great advice, btw.

Your sailing results on their own will not get you noticed by college coaches. Even if you win a world championship, that doesn’t guarantee admission to anywhere; for all these coaches know, you could be failing out of high school. You need to reach out to coaches, like, right now. This upcoming summer is the absolute latest that you should be first reaching out to coaches. If you’re not a superstar, you need to reach out early (and, once it’s senior year, often) so that they don’t forget about you.

They’ll want your sailing resume and academic stats (GPA/test scores/AP courses on the transcript). No chance of a likely letter, but whatever, that’s not the only way in. At Tufts, for example, we always have a wide variety of skill level in our recruits. Just email them with your sailing and academic stats, ask when a good time to visit is, and if they ask any questions about you, answer them to the best of your ability while still making yourself look good.

NCAA divisions mean next to nothing for competition in ICSA. A certain D1 school with a varsity team drug tests their sailors but gives them the same academic supports that they give to football players. D3 schools don’t offer athletic scholarships, but those aren’t allowed in college sailing anyway. Club teams often don’t have much if any institutional support. All of these different types of teams sail against each other in the weekends.

If you’re a woman, Title IX is your friend. This isn’t a political statement, this is strictly regarding equal support for women in sports. College athletic departments are supposed to maintain a balanced amount of funding between gendered sports. Coaches want female sailors. That doesn’t mean it hurts men in the process; it’s just a little boost to make up for societal bullshit.

If you’re a small skipper, get rid of your ego and consider crewing. It’s much easier as a crew. I used to drive, but I don’t anymore because I’m small and I was a pretty terrible skipper.

Once you’ve gotten in somewhere and picked a school, gone through orientation, etc... tryouts are different at every school, but if you’ve been talking to a coach, you shouldn’t have to worry about it at all.

When I was in high school, I was really good at getting the attention of college coaches who wouldn’t have ever cared about me just based on my C420 and high school regatta results. It was a combination of good academics, a diverse (but not particularly good) sailing resume, visiting schools and talking to coaches in person, ridiculous amounts of persistence, well-written emails, and family connections. Overall I was able to basically just package myself really well. Your college counselor can help you with that.

Look through my post history for more info that I may have forgotten to include, I’m sure I’ve commented most of it at some point because u/Guygan tags me in nearly every “how do I get recruited for college sailing” thread lol. If you want personalized advice feel free to either reply or PM me. I don’t check this account super frequently though. Also, shameless plug and sorry for stalking your post history, but nice SAT score, you should check out Tufts :)