sherpa

As Ivy League recruited athletes narrow their choices in the summer and early fall, the question of the reliability of athletic likely letters naturally comes up. My son went the likely letter route last year and everything went exactly as advertised. He applied in September, had an official visit in mid-October, and had a LL in hand before the end of October. This college does not offer ED, so he had to wait until April 1 for the actual acceptance. He treated his LL as an early acceptance and made no other applications except to our state flagship as an ultra-safety (at my insistance).

From his experience as well as talking to other athletes and parents in his sport, and from what I've read on CC and from PMs from helpful CC members, I am convinced that likely letters are absolutely reliable so long as the applicant doesn't do anything that would cause a rescission of a regular acceptance (precipitous drop in grades, academic dishonesty, criminal activity, etc.)

For the benefit of the kids and their parents struggling with the process this year, can any of you confirm or counter my observations?

riverrunner

Concur. EA admit after LL in October of 2007.

Thanks for putting this up, sherpa. There are always rumors about this topic, and I'd love to see them laid to rest.

ImCrazy

Yea...I mean you have to reeeally screw up for the likely not to hold up. But then again it's the same with an actualy acceptance. IF you screw up reeeally bad it could be rescinded. If you didn't get in with a likely, it's more like a rescinded acceptace than a rejection.

Runners2

We've never heard of a problem with a likely letter either. At S's school several kids were admitted to Ivy's each year as recruited athletes and I never heard of a likely letter being revoked. (Did know of one Stanford recruit having to explain his senioritis, but that's another story and all worked out in the end).

monstor344

From what I've heard a likely letter is essentially an early acceptance letter.

3xboys

My S's recruitment via likely letter was as described above: recruited all junior year, invited on Official Visits after July 1, likely letter in hand via fax/email before the November 1 EA/ED deadlines, changed his RD application to ED when we got the likely letter and his official acceptance letter came in December...

thelongroad

Never heard of a true Likely Letter not being followed by an acceptance. Only issues I've heard have been when others have assumed they received a "Likely letter", when it was in fact something else. To clarify, a true Likely Letter from an Ivy will come from the admissions office, not a coach or member of the athletic staff. I have never heard of one being issued until admissions has received a full application and scores, sometimes with essays, sometimes without. From my personal experience with two Ivies and likelies were not sent until after official visits and applications had been completed.

beawinner

Does anyone have experience with a likely letter/approved application taking place prior to senior year? In my daughter's sport rumors abound, and I recently heard that an athlete was fully accepted during her junior year for admission one year hence. She's now attending said university.

ImCrazy

I guess it's possible if she took her SAT really early and got a good score, but even at that I think they'd want to atleast see her whole jr. year transcript.

2924SW

My D just got her LL. She had her ED app in in September, and was told they could not issue LL until after October 1 of senior year. Maybe because it is an Ivy? i don't know.

sherpa

Yes. From the "Joint Statement for Candidates on Common Ivy Group Admission Procedure"
http://www.princeton.edu/admission/pdfs/0708_ivy.pdf

Congratulations to your daughter.

keylyme

As you can see from the following article (dated July 26, 2009, the summer before this particular recruit's senior year), you can commit to the school before senior year. Although, the player has not signed yet (I think signing is in November for basketball, Ivy or not), he is "in" as have been all Ivy recruits from the school mentioned. This school always has plenty of Ivy bball players and they are all announced early and they all always end up signing.
The Harvard Crimson :: Sports :: Prep Star Brown to Play for Amaker's Crimson in 2010

OldbatesieDoc

Can someone help me here-do D3 schools do "likely letters"

ChargerFans

No. Only Ivy leagues do likely letters. D3 schools go through the regular admission process with input from the coaches on who they want.

OldbatesieDoc

Thanks Charger. We are new to all this.