Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal ran an article on student athletes eschewing the use of private athletic-recruiting counselors, which can be quite costly. Instead, they are using do-it-yourself web sites to promote their talents to coaches at colleges and universities throughout the country. The burst of online methods available to help student athletes promote themselves demonstrates how the web continues to change the way prospective students participate in the recruitment process.

One of the hottest sites, according to the WSJ, is beRecruited.com. Students spend $39.99 to post their resume, along with photographs and videos of them in action. A huge savings compared to the typical cost of hiring a counselor. Of course, sites like beRecruited.com rely on coaches’ willingness to weed through a lot of information to land on talent they might ultimately want to pursue. Relying on a counselor to assist with the process is certainly a more direct, time-effective way to identify desirable talent. That said, if a school relies mostly on recommendations of this kind, they might be missing out on low-income students who can’t pay the $700 and up fees associated with hiring a private counselor or consultant. The availability of cost-effective, online resources can only help ensure that more students ultimately find the school that is right for them.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous.