How do you get recruited as an athlete to an Ivy League?

[Anonymous]

Know kids at TJ who are Ivy athletic recruits. Or at least have been approached. Through tournaments, etc.

[Anonymous]

PP:Should clarify, it’s not tennis.

[Anonymous]

https://gocrimson.com/sports/womens-tennis/roster/

OP. You said your DD is intrested tennis and Harvard is on her dream school list. Here’s the roster. Multiple state champions, five star recruits, blue chip recruits. I think you can see the quality here.

Here’s UVA for a top tennis team not Ivy. Same thing, five star recruits, international level tournaments. Can we please stop with the delusion that if your kid is a top high school player that they are going to one of these schools for tennis? https://virginiasports.com/sports/wten/roster/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wanted to add her dream schools right now are Cornell, Columbia, Yale, and possibly Harvard.

Odd array of schools. Do you know how different these schools are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. Haven't heard of any recruits from sophomore DD's very sports and academically focused high school. Are they looking for smart athletes? How competitive are their field hockey, track, and tennis teams (for my DD specifically)

Ivy league is Division 1. With the exception of football where they know they will never compete on a national scale (and won't agree to playoffs), they care quite a bit about how strong an athlete is your kid. For basketball and football, and to some extent baseball and increasingly lacrosse...their academic criteria has more leeway (i.e., they will take kids with 1200 SAT scores, but you do need to be straight A with a decent transcript). Not sure about the other sports.

Again...the transfer portal is changing many college sports, even at the Ivy level. Any "commitments" that happen prior to Fall of senior year are nothing more than words. A coach will drop you in a heartbeat if they find a more talented, smart player...or they had a better year in the transfer portal than what they expected.

Ivy schools are attractive transfer portal schools for smart kids that were good enough to say play basketball at Duke, but realize while they were recruited...they may ride the bench all 4 years. All of a sudden, Princeton looks really good especially if they qualify for need-based aid since that aid can't be taken away.

NIL is also starting to ramp up at Ivy schools. There was a controversy over Harvard selecting their new football coach and there is now a Harvard football boosters group that will pay football players NIL $$$s to play at Harvard. You won't get $5MM a year in NIL money like Alabama quarterback...but there are a ton of rich Harvard alums that are happy for you to film a commercial for their hedge fund and pay you $100k+.

[Anonymous]

One of the main ways to be recruited to an Ivy is to attend an elite NE boarding school. 20-30 of my daughter’s classmates commit to Ivies each year, mainly in field hockey, lacrosse, T&F, swimming, baseball and football. Some soccer players and bball players thrown in as well. Depending on the sport the commitments come as early as the summer between sophomore and junior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately, the answer usually given here is "if you gotta ask...".

There are many websites and books out there that can help you with this info, and if you are serious, consultants who can help.

+1. But if you were going to try to get recruited you would want a plan in place by grade 7 or 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the sport. DD is an athletic recruit to an Ivy next year. She said one of her future teammates is dumb as dirt. She's only taken 1 AP her entire HS career and highest math was pre-calc. Sooo, if they are talented athletes the Ivy will exceptions with grades.

I feel sorry for your DD's teammates having to work with someone so toxic and judgmental. I'm hoping this is you (as a toxic, gross parent) having conveyed a position that your child does not hold.

[Anonymous]

My kid is a soccer player. May even play D3 somewhere. No chance he’s going to get recruited to play soccer at an Ivy.

He will likely apply to his reach Ivy because why not. How should he present his soccer (travel/varsity and takes a lot of his time) on his application?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the main ways to be recruited to an Ivy is to attend an elite NE boarding school. 20-30 of my daughter’s classmates commit to Ivies each year, mainly in field hockey, lacrosse, T&F, swimming, baseball and football. Some soccer players and bball players thrown in as well. Depending on the sport the commitments come as early as the summer between sophomore and junior year.

At least for baseball, those kids that are recruited are all playing on high-level usually national travel teams and the coaches really only care about those teams from an athletic standpoint. All sports are different...I think those schools are super critical for hockey and all those 5th year seniors that are playing.

The boarding school transcript (and in theory high SAT scores) is influential...in other words, they know a 3.9 from Philips Andover passes the "academic" test. Of course, it always helps that your family is probably loaded too.

[Anonymous]

Know a couple ivy athletes. They are INCREDIBLY smart (like, 4.9 W GPA) and play at a high level. They also had A LOT of coach support and running interference for them

Keep in mind, however, while the ivies do give need based aid, they give NO athletic money. And little/no merit for "regular" umc families. I know a couple of kids who are deciding right now whether to turn down and ivy offer b/c they were given zero money. It's a hard decision. And we are in a similar boat of likely turning down a top school out of inability to pay full freight (no merit given) and no athletic money given.

It's a bitter pill but is a reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Know a couple ivy athletes. They are INCREDIBLY smart (like, 4.9 W GPA) and play at a high level. They also had A LOT of coach support and running interference for them

Keep in mind, however, while the ivies do give need based aid, they give NO athletic money. And little/no merit for "regular" umc families. I know a couple of kids who are deciding right now whether to turn down and ivy offer b/c they were given zero money. It's a hard decision. And we are in a similar boat of likely turning down a top school out of inability to pay full freight (no merit given) and no athletic money given.

It's a bitter pill but is a reality.

You are too early...this is where the Ivy booster clubs will start filling in some of the gaps for the relatively high-profile sports. The coach will refer you to somebody at boosters who may sign you to an NIL deal to "close the deal". They don't care about need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the sport. DD is an athletic recruit to an Ivy next year. She said one of her future teammates is dumb as dirt. She's only taken 1 AP her entire HS career and highest math was pre-calc. Sooo, if they are talented athletes the Ivy will exceptions with grades.

What a lovely child you’ve raised. 😒

Seriously. I would be so embarrassed and horrified if I had a child with a mouth like that. What an awful person the PP has produced.

[Anonymous]

My kid is at an athlete at a Big3 private and knows several kids who are top athletes (not football, basketball, baseball or lacrosse) but outside the top 15% of the class and have been told by the Ivies that their grades aren't good enough. It's striking because they're REALLY good at their respective sports but they're not in the top 20 kids in the class (which is really hard to do) so the Ivies are passing. He has another friend who pretty much phoned it in and did almost zero work at Jackson Reed (by the student and his parents' own admission), got a 4.3 and was recruited to a top10 school.

It really does not seem to be a good plan to try for elite university recruitment from a pressure cooker high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the sport. DD is an athletic recruit to an Ivy next year. She said one of her future teammates is dumb as dirt. She's only taken 1 AP her entire HS career and highest math was pre-calc. Sooo, if they are talented athletes the Ivy will exceptions with grades.

What a lovely child you’ve raised. 😒

Seriously. I would be so embarrassed and horrified if I had a child with a mouth like that. What an awful person the PP has produced.

NP. You and the other holier than thou parents are hilarious. Admit it was a rude comment but to question poster and kid's character is ridiculous. I'm sure you and your angels never pass judgment on anyone. Hypocrites.