ndefost

for the elite liberal arts colleges does anyone know when they notify recruits of status?

My daughter is a CA softball player and wants to attend an academic school in the east. She is a 2010 senior has been told she is a top recruit by a couple of schools, asked for transcripts and scores, act (32) and SAT (2080). We have provided these and we havent heard anythign for a couple of weeks. Does this mean we shoudl give up? Does anyone know if various college admissions offices respond in the same time frame? Is this typical of elite academic diii schools or should we accept other offers? I understand the D1 process but not Diii. Any response or advise would be appreciated...Thank you.

riverrunner

Hi ndefrost,
I can't speak about softball, but in our experience with recruiting in another sport, also looking at some DIs and DIIIs, the DIIIs were lagging the DIs in recruiting efforts and timeline. My sense was they were waiting to see which recruits were serious about DIII, and willing to walk away from DI, or found they actually weren't competitive for DI, and then turned to DIII. I'm sure this isn't true for every sport, but certainly was in our case. Keep digging through this forum with this question in mind, and maybe you'll get some clarity, and find some softball families!

LargoVegas

Our experience would validate riverrunner's comment. My sense is that the coaches at the very selective DIII schools have a very limited number of "tips" to use with the admissions office, so they want to be sure that if they go to bat for you (no pun intended) you will come if admitted. In D's case, two coaches asked her to apply early decision - the clear message being that if she did the application would be championed at the admissions office by the coach. One expressly stated that if D did not apply early decision the coach would have no influence in the admissions process.

Another possibility is that if it has only been a couple weeks then the coach has not heard back yet from the admissions office on the informal review, or that the coach is waiting until all the fall recruiting visits have ended. Unlike the DI schools, where everything is done early, D was still doing DIII visits in New England in late October.

purplegirl

For DIII it seems best if you personally visit the school and meet with the coach. Then the coach is usually more interested in reviewing your video/stats etc. if the student seems genuinely interested in the school. ED committment does seem to be a big factor but makes it hard if you can't visit. For softball, most tournaments have been for DI so like you it seems the DIII schools don't go out and solicit the players and watch her play. We are in the middle of this too. Good luck. Hope you can visit schools you are interested in. We've visited alot of the DIII schools in the Northeast.