College ID Camps

College ID Camps will be a big part of your college recruiting process. College ID Camps are camps that are hosted at the school itself or by a third party in order to give you more individualized attention with the the staff of certain colleges and universities. These ID Camps can be held at all different times throughout the year, can be 2 - 3 days in length (you will find some 1 day ID Camps) and are typically open to 9th - 12th graders (you will find some ID Camps open to 8th graders and older).  

ID Camps can be a heavy financial burden in travel, lodging and associated expenses so you will want to start researching College ID Camps as early as your freshman year in high school.  If there is a school or schools that you are extremely interested in, it is highly recommended that you attend an ID Camp at that college so that you can get a better feel for the school, the soccer program and the coaching staff as well as give yourself some early or additional exposure to that coaching staff. ID Camps not only allow you to view the campus and the facilities of the host school, but it allows the staff of the ID Camp (this could be coaches from multiple institutions) to evaluate you in a training environment. This gives you more 1 on 1 personal attention with each college coach that you come in contact with at the camp.  ID Camps have become more of an integral part of the college recruiting process so begin looking at the athletics pages of each of the schools that are of interest to you so that you can begin to schedule some of these ID Camps. 

Some of the most commonly asked questions in regards to College ID Camps:

How do I know which College ID Camp to go to?

If it is a top school on the list of schools that you are interested in then try and find a time to attend. You should try to attend 2 - 3 per year, minimum, of your top 5 schools of interest.

Are third party College ID Camps worth the money?

If there is a school attending the ID Camp that you are interested in or one that is on the top of your list then I would attend the camp. The more exposure to the coaches of the schools that you are interested the better for you.