NCSA Next College Student Athlete Reviews

Cons

At this point I have not seen any cons

Cons

For some departments, work/life balance can be tough to manage.

Cons

no downsides at this time

Cons

A little disorganized. Only constant is change

Cons

Some positions are micro managed. Not much room for growth.

Cons

- Despite some positives, the recruiting coordinator position can be rough for many reasons. The job itself is very boring. It is basically just one giant call center. You make 50-100 calls per day on a “smile and dial” mindset. Literally, your job is to set sales meetings for families with closers and that is it. I hardly found the job challenging due to its repetitive nature.
- The work-life balance can be frustrating in the position. There is a lot of pressure to work evenings and weekends. The company constantly preaches that it is trying to improve work-life balance for employees but never actually makes any meaningful improvements.
- The micromanagement in this position can be way too much at times. Some managers will get on to you too much about certain metrics. There is a tremendous pressure to set a certain number of meetings per day, even if they are not quality sets.
- The leads I got almost every day when I first started were terrible. The position is cold calling families roughly 75% of the time. Many of the lead sources are very frustrating as well. Sometimes you feel like you are annoying families in trying to get in touch with them more so than actually helping them. Much of the time, because of these bad lead sources, you are calling families that didn’t realize they sent their info to NCSA and then get mad when you reach out.
- The base pay for the position is terrible. It is currently $30k, which is actually up from $27k when I first took the job. Although under the current structure you are not eligible to earn commission until you have at least 50 enrollments, which means even if you find success right away you are just stuck with the base pay plus overtime for your first few months.
- It is possible to make decent money in this position, but you will have to be prepared to consistently work 55+ hours and 6+ days a week. In my last month at NCSA I was right around the company average in enrollments, in addition to working roughly 45-50 hours a week, and still easily made less than $40k/annualized for the month for the amount of work I was putting in, and I know I was not alone.
- I felt I was misled on how realistic/easy it was to earn a decent commission in the interview process. Additionally, the commission you earn is based on the sales your Recruiting Specialists make from the meetings you set with them. Thus, you do not have absolute control over the commission you make.
- The burnout and turnover rate in this position is very high. Personally, I already felt burnt out after about 2 months and left for a new job after 5. Very few people last over a year in this role. NCSA struggles to even retain some of its top performers in the role. I would say about half of my recruitment team is planning on leaving within the next couple of months or is actively looking for a new job.
- There is very little room to grow up in the company from the RC role, despite what management says. Management positions are few and far between. You have to complete a career development program to move up in the company in any capacity.
- Some other reviews on Glassdoor argue that NCSA is all about profit and does not actually care about the families. I absolutely disagree with this based on my experience especially since there are some tremendous people at NCSA, BUT there is an absolute pressure to set and enroll a high volume of families. As a result, recruiting coordinators and specialists are often pressured to qualify, set, and enroll unqualified student-athletes. A solid number of student-athletes in NCSA’s network will never see the field/court in college.
- The company is currently hiring way too fast in sales, while on the flipside, the company is completely understaffed on the service side. I had multiple families contact me after enrolling as they were struggling to get in touch with their recruiting coach after spending thousands of dollars on our service side.
- NCSA is never afraid to pat itself on the back and the rah-rah culture can be very annoying.
- There were issues of RCs stealing top recruits/leads from other RCs and management hardly did anything about it.
- Leaving NCSA was a mess. While it didn't happen to me, it is a common procedure for managers to fire RCs on the spot at NCSA when they give a two-week notice.

Cons

the company is growing and is a work in progress in some ways, I believe management is always trying to make things better for both our clients and employees but it does take time to implement some changes. I've seen improvements made in both comp and benefits since I've been with the company

Cons

Extremely low pay and lack of hours makes it nearly impossible for recent college graduates to earn a living. Since there are a minimum of 25 hours and max of 29 weekly hours, getting a 2nd job becomes difficult due to lack of flexibility. There are "bonuses" based on productivity but they are rare the amount listed should barely be considered a bonus.

Cons

-It's a sales job....so you need to hit numbers
-The amount of out-bound calls you have to make....it can be anywhere from 60 to 100 calls daily. It'll depend on if you've met your numbers and some managers will get onto you about it
-The money is below sub-par. I understand it's a sales job but it can be hard sometimes to hit your commission / bonus numbers. You have to be extremely disciplined and a self-motivator in order to have this kind of job.
-No room for growth except to either become a Recruiting Manager (which is very rare and you'd have to go into Office to do this) or become a Recruiting Specialist (which is even more of a sales job)

Cons

Needed more than part time and I couldn’t just make the same call over and over again anymore!