Everything You Need to Know to Get Started with SwimIntel as a Student-Athlete
Jamie Bailey | Nov 30, 2023
Introduction
SwimIntel gives you the tools you need to find the perfect place for you to swim in college. This guide will take you through the basics of using SwimIntel to get your Best Fit Report, research college teams, and jumpstart your college recruiting journey.
To create your SwimIntel account, go to https://swimintel.com/register/profile/ for the Starter tier (free!), https://swimintel.com/register/research/ for the Plus tier ($240/yr), or https://swimintel.com/register/family/ for the Pro tier ($480/yr). If you have a coupon code, click on the “Have a coupon?” link at the top left of the screen and enter the code in the coupon field to apply the discount. Fill out the required information and click the “Sign Up” button at the bottom of the screen to complete registration.
You now have a SwimIntel account. Let’s get started.
Your SwimIntel Student-Athlete Profile
College coaches and NIL brand sponsors are always searching for standout athletes. Your SwimIntel student-athlete profile is your opportunity to showcase who you are, both in and out of the pool. Highlight your athletic achievements, academic strengths, leadership roles, and personal story, all in one place.
Think of it as your LinkedIn for swimming recruits. You can update your times, track time drops, view rankings, upload highlight videos, share awards, and write a short bio to show your personality and potential. It’s your digital resume built specifically to help you connect with the right programs and opportunities. A step-by-step guide to claiming and building your SwimIntel profile can be found at https://swimintel.com/profile-guide.
Sharing Your Profile
Click on the “Share” button to have a shareable URL copied to your clipboard. This will generate a short URL customized to your profile and name (e.g. https://swim.mr/gracen-bailey). You can paste this URL into an email, text message, your Instagram bio, recruiting questionnaires, etc. for anyone to view. Regardless of who you share this with, only verified college coaches and NIL brand sponsors will be able to see your contact info, about me, college priorities, academics, etc.
Impact Rating
Impact Ratings are numeric ratings (0 to 100+ scale) assigned to college swimming recruits that directly reflect those recruits’ ability to make an impact at the collegiate level. Impact Ratings can be found throughout SwimIntel including in each Best Fit Report, college profiles, rankings, etc. This gives SwimIntel users a tool to quickly understand what their best times/events mean in terms of getting recruited by specific schools. An overview of Impact Rating (including links to Rankings, calculator, and more) can be found at https://swimintel.com/impact-rating-overview/.
Getting Your First Best Fit Report
Your Best Fit Report tells you where you fit athletically and academically. It also helps you find colleges that match your personal criteria such as location, academics, school size, team size, team performance, and more. Your report will be located at User -> Reports. When you first go to the Reports section, it will be empty. You can request a new report or update an existing report with different criteria from the link on this page. The direct link to request a new or updated report can be found at https://swimintel.com/request_report/. Fill in the required information as well as any optional information that you would like used to create your report.
A college swimming specialist will create your report from the information you provide within (typically) 24 to 48 hours and notify you that it has been published.
Report Request Form
The Best Fit Report Request form has the following required and optional fields:
Account Email (required) – The email address associated with your account. Athlete Name (required) – The name of the student-athlete for the report. High School Grad Year (required) – The high school graduation year for the student-athlete (e.g. 2025). State/Region (required) – The state of residence for the student-athlete. Best Event 1 (required) – The student-athlete’s best SCY event. Best Event 1 Time (required) – The student-athlete’s best event time (e.g. 0:56.85). Best Event 2 (required) – The student-athlete’s second-best SCY event. Best Event 2 Time (required) – The student-athlete’s second-best event time (e.g. 0:56.85). Best Event 3 (required) – The student-athlete’s third-best SCY event. Best Event 3 Time (required) – The student-athlete’s third-best event time (e.g. 0:56.85).
Include Division 1 (optional) – Include Division 1 colleges and conferences in the report. Include Division 2 (optional) – Include Division 2 colleges and conferences in the report. Include Division 3 (optional) – Include Division 3 colleges and conferences in the report. Include Contributor Conferences (optional) – Include college matches from Contributor conferences. Include Stretch Conferences (optional) – Include college matches from Stretch conferences. Academic Selectivity (optional) – Only include college matches that have these requirements. My ACT Score (optional) – Only include colleges that are in the range of my ACT score. My SAT Score (optional) – Only include colleges that are in the range of my SAT score. I want to attend a school less than or greater than (optional) – < or >. Number of students enrolled at school (optional) – Only include colleges < or > this size (e.g. 7,000). Include colleges in urban areas (optional) – Include college campuses that are located in urban areas. Include colleges in suburban areas (optional) – Include college campuses that are located in suburban areas. Include colleges in rural areas (optional) – Include college campuses that are located in rural areas. I want to be on a team less than or greater than (optional) – < or >. Number of swimmers on team (optional) – Only include college teams < or > this size (e.g. 20). Team’s Freshman Year Improvement (optional) – Improvement from High School to College FR. Team’s Junior/Senior Year Improvement (optional) – Improvement from High School to College JR/SR. Only include schools in these states (optional) – Two letter abbreviations for desired states. Don’t include these schools or conferences (optional) – These are schools you have no interest in. Anything else that is important to you (optional) – Tell us more about what you want in a college.
Once you submit your choices, we will begin creating or modifying your report using your information and preferences within (typically) 24 to 48 hours.
Finding Your Report
Once your Best Fit Report has been created and published, you will find it under User -> Reports (top toolbar). Click on the report icon to open it. Your report is private to you and will only be shared with your coaches if they are also a member of SwimIntel.
Your Report
Your Best Fit Report will be several pages long and include explanations, advice, and, most importantly, lists of conferences and schools that match your athletic, academic, and personal criteria. Your report will link to SwimIntel school profiles for you to dive deeper into for your research. You can request to update your report as you drop time and adjust your personal criteria. The update request form is linked at User -> Reports and can be found directly at https://swimintel.com/request_report/.
College / Conference List
All colleges and conferences tracked in the SwimIntel database can be found by clicking on the Colleges link at the top toolbar. You can filter the conference view by Division I, Division II, Division III, or by individual conference by using the top left dropdown menu. You can search for an individual college or conference by using the search bar in the top toolbar. Different profiles are provided for men’s and women’s programs. All Division I conferences and colleges are tracked by SwimIntel. Select Division II and III conferences and colleges are tracked (but that number is growing!).
College Profiles
Each college profile contains extensive information about both the college and team including conference championship times, conference performance, academic requirements, Freshman to Sophomore retention, roster demographics, website, social handles, cost of attendance, coaching staff, and more.
Recruiting Standards
You can see how a team has historically recruited by viewing their average recruit Impact Rating (more info) on their college profile page. This is the average Impact Rating of their current team when they were in high school. How a team has historically recruited is a good indication of how they will continue to recruit. When you add your three best events and times to your profile under User -> Account, your Impact Rating will be shown on the same graph for comparison.
Team Performance
Clicking on more details in a college profile’s Swimmer Improvement section will take you to the team performance page. Here you can see how well a coaching staff/college team progresses swimmers from their high school best times. The Freshman improvement data shows the average improvement of all swimmers on the team from their high school best times for their top two events to their Freshman times. This will give you a general idea of how well student-athletes acclimate to that school’s/team’s environment during their Freshman year. The Junior/Senior improvement data shows the average improvement of Junior/Senior swimmers on the team from their high school best times for their top two events to their best college times. This will give you a general idea of how well the coaching staff progresses their swimmers through their college careers.
The min/max/avg improvement data for all Division I programs is shown on the top graph for reference (even if analyzing a Division II or III team). Current swimmer progression details can also be seen in the table. Only the top two events for each swimmer are shown as this is the likely training focus of those swimmers.
Conference Profiles
Each conference profile contains statistics, analysis, and information about the conference and colleges within the conference. Conference championship times, conference championships rankings, Freshman improvement rankings, Junior/Senior improvement rankings, active swimmers, average team size, and more can be found for each conference.
Favorites (Bookmarks)
You can bookmark colleges and conferences that are interesting to you by clicking on the star icon beside the college/conference name in its profile. All favorites are listed and linked at User -> Favorites. Clicking on the college/conference logo will take you to that school’s profile. You can unfavorite a college/conference by clicking on the star icon of an already favorited school/conference.
Your ACT/SAT Score
You can add your ACT and/or SAT score to your profile to show where your score fits in a school’s existing ACT/SAT range. Add your ACT/SAT score in your profile by going to User -> Account and your score(s) will automatically populate on each school’s profile.
Your Best Times versus Conference Championships
You can add your three best events and times to your profile under User -> Account. If any of your three best event times are faster than a conference championship B-final, A-final, or 1st place time, a ✅ will appear next to the time on a school’s profile page. Conference championship times and swimmer improvement times will default to your best event on the primary college profile page.
PredictAI™ App
The SwimIntel PredictAI™ app predicts your future performance using a sophisticated predictive AI model trained on data from 15,000+ college swimmers originating from 2,500+ clubs. The PredictAI™ app can be found at User -> PredictAI™ or directly at https://swimintel.com/predictai. Using the app is easy. Simply fill in the required information in the six fields – Name, Gender, Current Club, Destination College, Event, and Best Event Time. Events and times can only be short course yards for the AI model. The Underperform/Overperform slider is used to modify the predicted performance based on discretion.
Click the ANALYZE button to predict the freshman and college best performance. The output box (below the ANALYZE button) will display predicted times and compare each time to conference championship A-final and B-final cut time for last season’s championship meet as well as for NCAA championships. A 🟢 symbol will be displayed for predicted times that are at or better than A/B-final cut times. Team, conference, and NCAA division profiles are linked in the output box for quick reference.
Top 25
The Top 25 pages list the most recent team rankings from the CSCAA Coaches Poll for men’s and women’s D1, D2, and D3 swimming. Each college listed is linked to its SwimIntel profile to make it easy to research that team. Each Top 25 ranking is linked from the top toolbar.
Knowledge Base
The SwimIntel Knowledge Base contains a growing number of articles to explain each step of the college swimming recruiting process as well as answer many commonly asked questions. These articles are great tools to know what to do and when to do it. The Knowledge Base is linked from the top toolbar and can be accessed directly at https://swimintel.com/knowledge-base/.
SwimIntel Spotlight Podcast
The SwimIntel Spotlight Podcast lets you hear some of the best college coaches in the country talk about how they recruit and develop their athletes as well as their thoughts on the current events happening in college swimming. Whenever a coach is featured on an episode of the podcast, their episode is linked on that team’s profile page. The SwimIntel Spotlight podcast is available on all major podcast platforms such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and more.
What’s New
The What’s New page lists all of the new feature updates at SwimIntel. From additional colleges/conferences tracked in our database to major new features to Best Fit Report generation/school profiles, you can see how SwimIntel is constantly improving. The What’s New page is linked from the bottom toolbar and can be accessed directly at https://swimintel.com/whatsnew/.
Exclusive Discounts to Partner Companies
SwimIntel members have access to exclusive discounts to select partner companies that have been chosen because they provide amazing services for competitive swimmers (e.g. strength training, sport psychology, nutrition). A complete list of partner companies and discounts can be found under User -> Account or accessed directly at https://swimintel.com/partners/.
