Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for scheduling synchronization in association with collective operations in a parallel computer that includes a shared memory and a plurality of compute nodes that execute a parallel application utilizing the shared memory are provided. Embodiments include acquiring an available channel of the shared memory; posting to the acquired channel of the shared memory one or more collective operations and a synchronization point; determining that processing within the acquired channel has reached the synchronization point; and posting to the acquired channel, in response to determining that processing within the acquired channel has reached the synchronization point, a background synchronization operation corresponding to the one or more collective operations.