ISO: Advice Re Athletic Recruiting

[Anonymous]

When a kid "commits" to a top academic school after sophomore year, it's not a guarantee. They still have to meet academic criteria. The coach is basically saying "stay on the course you're on now, and I'll support you with admissions".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At highly academic schools, coaches send information about athletes to admissions and get feedback. That feedback might be "Yes, you can use one of your spots for this player", or "Maybe, you can choose a couple players at this level, but not all of them." or "Yes, if they bring their GPA up, or get a certain test score" or "No, they don't meet our standards". Then once they have that information they choose who to admit. So, they might decide your kid is good enough to admit if they are a yes, but not if they are a maybe. Or they might submit for two goalies but only accept one.

There are some situations, like Duke Basketball, or Stanford swimming (these are guesses, just naming teams where they play at a very high level) where a coach might be given a lot of leeway, but that doesn't mean that the squash team gets the same leeway. There are other schools, like Ivies, or NESCAC, or JHU, where there isn't much leeway at all, and athletes need to be academically pretty similar to unrecruited admitted students.

There are a few schools, like MIT and Caltech, where a coach can encourage admissions to take an athlete but it's not a sure thing, even with positive preread.

So a preread doesn't mean he's in, but multiple prereads means he's got a good chance of getting into one of them.

All D1 schools, even Ivies, get leeway for a number of slots for popular sports (proportional to the sport). They are giving commitments after sophomore year with no pre-read…and then literally telling kids what courses to take junior and senior year and minimum gpa to ensure they pass the pre read.

They then get a likely letter issued to those athletes prior to applying which is essentially a 99% chance of acceptance.

Only Ivies, and a handful of other highly academic schools give likely letters.

Ivies give leeway for sure, but a squash player looking to go to Harvard isn't going to get the same leeway as a swimmer at Stanford or a basketball player at Duke.

No, but a football player at Harvard gets a ton of leeway.

A basketball player at Duke just needs to meet NCAA minimums (which are very low)…the best will only stay one year anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When a kid "commits" to a top academic school after sophomore year, it's not a guarantee. They still have to meet academic criteria. The coach is basically saying "stay on the course you're on now, and I'll support you with admissions".

It’s more than that if you get a commitment in a popular sport. You get someone in admissions advising you what to do (maybe only certain schools?) for the next two years working closely with coaches. It’s hard not to get accepted.

[Anonymous]

What year is your DS? If you are a senior and asked for a pre read, it’s most likely smoke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. DS is a runner. He used to be very focused on D1, but after an injury and some time off, he is now thinking D3 at a really good school is the smarter option (which we parents agree with). And yes the ED decision seems like the hardest part. He is torn between two great options. Just generally wasn't sure how seriously to take coaches' overtures (ds is def taking it seriously...I am the more skeptical one.)

I think for any male in a non revenue sport should seriously consider d3, the new ncaa ruling is not good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What year is your DS? If you are a senior and asked for a pre read, it’s most likely smoke.

The Ivies and NESCACs don't allow prereads before July before senior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two runners at high academic D3 schools. After a positive prereads, DC1 told the coach they were ready to commit to ED, but coach said he had three runners ahead of them. Did not get the coaches commitment until Sep. DC 2 was committed by July after a positive prereads. Have DS tell coach that he is ready to commit ED and the coach should let him know where he stands

Thank you -- very useful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What year is your DS? If you are a senior and asked for a pre read, it’s most likely smoke.

The Ivies and NESCACs don't allow prereads before July before senior year.

One of the schools that requested a preread is in the NESCAC, but we are in July, so I guess it's fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What year is your DS? If you are a senior and asked for a pre read, it’s most likely smoke.

Rising senior, graduates 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, curious - what year is your DC and what sport? The timing of what you describe sounds off.

Running. He is a rising senior. Graduates 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What year is your DS? If you are a senior and asked for a pre read, it’s most likely smoke.

The Ivies and NESCACs don't allow prereads before July before senior year.

One of the schools that requested a preread is in the NESCAC, but we are in July, so I guess it's fine.

You are exactly the right timeline. I responding to the PP who was implying that the summer before senior year was late. It’s actually the only time this happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry but wasn't there a thread on pre-read and recruiting just a couple of weeks ago?

Didn't see that...will look for it now...

[Anonymous]

My DS is a baseball player - he did pre-reads at two D3 schools.

One is a top 10 SLAC. There was no way he was going to be admitted on his own merit and the school was not on DS' radar because of the cost and high academics. The coach really wanted DS and assured him he had pull with admissions. As expected, the pre-read came back saying NO - DS had the course rigor in high school, but did not have the grades and test scores needed for admission.

The other school was a mid-tier DS. DS definitely had the grades to be admitted on his own merit. He did the pre-read and not only did it come back with a YES it also said how much he'd get in merit aid. DS decided on school #2 and when his decision came in, the merit aid was larger than what he received in the pre-read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What year is your DS? If you are a senior and asked for a pre read, it’s most likely smoke.

The Ivies and NESCACs don't allow prereads before July before senior year.

One of the schools that requested a preread is in the NESCAC, but we are in July, so I guess it's fine.

You are exactly the right timeline. I responding to the PP who was implying that the summer before senior year was late. It’s actually the only time this happens.

Nope, I’m PP. Have been through the NESCAC recruitment process (successfully) a couple of times now. I know well the timelines. For the sport (team) my kids play, D1 offers are long gone by the summer before senior year and most of the NESCACs have made offers on July 1. End of July is pretty late and I’d worry how high my kid is on their board. Again, that is for my kids’ sport, which is why I was asking for more information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a baseball player - he did pre-reads at two D3 schools.

One is a top 10 SLAC. There was no way he was going to be admitted on his own merit and the school was not on DS' radar because of the cost and high academics. The coach really wanted DS and assured him he had pull with admissions. As expected, the pre-read came back saying NO - DS had the course rigor in high school, but did not have the grades and test scores needed for admission.

The other school was a mid-tier DS. DS definitely had the grades to be admitted on his own merit. He did the pre-read and not only did it come back with a YES it also said how much he'd get in merit aid. DS decided on school #2 and when his decision came in, the merit aid was larger than what he received in the pre-read.

For the school he chose, did he do ED? And did the coach provide some sort of letter that he could include in his application?