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Recruiting Horror Stories™: My Guidance Counselor Made Me Doubt Myself

By Catherine Light|Updated on June 27, 2023 (originally published on May 17, 2022)

Come back every Tuesday for Recruiting Horror Stories™, athletes' first-hand stories on what can go wrong during the recruiting process.

The recruiting process can be full of twists and turns, so trusting your intuition is important. But what happens when outside influences make you doubt yourself? That's what happened to this anonymous athlete in their own Recruiting Horror Story. Thankfully, this four-year varsity letter winner went on to attend their dream school, Cornell University, on the women's track and field team. They broke the freshman record in their event and was a strong leader on their team. This is a valuable lesson for recruits: Trust the recruiting process even if you may have doubts along the way.

The Set-Up

As a high school athlete I was recruited for track and field by some colleges and universities with high academic standards. I may not have been the valedictorian or salutatorian of my grade, but I strived for academic excellence having taken multiple honors and AP courses throughout my high school career. Knowing that I wanted to go to a school that had both high academic and athletic standards, I was excited when some Ivy League schools showed interest towards me.

Fruits of my Labors

After sending in my test scores, transcripts, letters of recommendation, and list of extracurriculars, I had been academically cleared and was given the university's version of a likely letter. I told my guidance counselor the good news that one of my top schools had officially offered me a spot on their team, but was not greeted with the level of enthusiasm I had expected.

The Let-Down

After 4 years of working my butt off in school and on the track, and having been accepted to not only one of my top choices, but one of the best schools in the country, I thought she would have been a little more excited to say the least. Instead of a congratulations, she responded with something along the lines of, “the university can still deny you, it's not a sure thing”.

Guidance Counselor's Doubts

Since two other athletes had applied early decision years before me and were accepted, she assumed that there was no way I would get in with regular decision. I was confused and dejected to say the least. I understood that college recruiting could be a brutal set of mind games and empty promises, but shouldn't there still have been celebration in the fact that I had just been offered a spot at an Ivy League School?

Fighting Back

After trying to explain to her that all I had to do was accept the offer, there was still doubt in her mind. There wasn't doubt that the coach would pull the offer, but doubt that I had actually been accepted into an Ivy League University with regular decision. Essentially, even after getting my acceptance letter in the mail, she made it seem like this was some type of fluke in the system, which really made me question my efforts as a student-athlete. It's scary to know that if I had fallen into her web of doubt and not listened to the encouragement of my family and coaches, that I may have missed out on one of the best decisions I had made in my 23 years of life.

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