Not having to stress over whether or not they are admitted to a college or university, students who are recruited athletes committed to attending a certain school in exchange for playing on its sports team.

Senior Sarah Mooney was recruited to play water polo at Bucknell University and described the overall recruitment process as straightforward.

“I emailed coaches during junior year and the summer between junior and senior year,” Mooney said. “Many of the coaches then saw me play at a big tournament during the end of the summer.”

Afterwards, coaches that liked her performance offered recruitment trips to their schools, while other coaches stopped emailing her, Mooney said.

“In September, I agreed to go to Bucknell and the coach offered me a spot on the team at the airport,” Mooney said. “I then committed the next day.” Being able to commit early to a school and know where she was going greatly helped in reducing her stress, Mooney said.

Senior Graham Low faced a similar experience when he was recruited to play baseball at Macalester University.

“The sports recruitment process is really about getting in front of the coaches and having them see you play in different situations,” Low said. “They want to evaluate your potential and possible success at the next level.”

Low has been playing baseball since he was four years old and agreed to go to Macalester in October.

“Being recruited didn’t exactly relieve the college application stress, it just made it more stressful during the summer when I was figuring out where to go,” Low said. “When most people were applying though, I was definitely less stressed about college.”

Senior Maddie Boxer was recruited to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to row for the lightweight crew team.

“I have been rowing for four years and committed in early February,” Boxer said. “I’m really happy to get into college early, and that reduced my stress in a way.”

However, Boxer said that she has to continuously update her coaches on her scores and results in races, which still puts pressure on her to perform well.