ED1 and ED2 for Recruits
kjs1992
119 replies2 threads Junior Member
Hi everyone -
Question regarding ED1 and ED2 for recruits. My son is being heavily recruited by 2 very selective LAC's (not NESCAC, but close) with 20-25% admit rates. He is on the top of their recruit lists, and they are in contact with him at least once/week. The pre-reads were both positive, both coaches want him up for official visits and one is already set up with one of the schools - just waiting for dates from the other. The coach at the school where he has the visit set up has already asked him if ED1 is a possibility for him. He's in the top 10% of his class, 1430 SAT's, leadership activities, etc. There is one school that has a slight edge over the other and that's really the coach that pushes it over the top (that's the school we're waiting on dates from). If he applies ED1 to one of the schools and ED2 to the other, I'm assuming the likelihood of coach support (such as it is) is much lower with ED2, as would be the likelihood of admittance if something were to fall apart with the ED1 school. Both schools are in the same league, and the coaches definitely know each other, so I'm sure they talk, as well. As an aside, yes, he has back up schools which we're confident he will get in to in case these don't pan out. Thanks!!!!
19 replies Question regarding ED1 and ED2 for recruits. My son is being heavily recruited by 2 very selective LAC's (not NESCAC, but close) with 20-25% admit rates. He is on the top of their recruit lists, and they are in contact with him at least once/week. The pre-reads were both positive, both coaches want him up for official visits and one is already set up with one of the schools - just waiting for dates from the other. The coach at the school where he has the visit set up has already asked him if ED1 is a possibility for him. He's in the top 10% of his class, 1430 SAT's, leadership activities, etc. There is one school that has a slight edge over the other and that's really the coach that pushes it over the top (that's the school we're waiting on dates from). If he applies ED1 to one of the schools and ED2 to the other, I'm assuming the likelihood of coach support (such as it is) is much lower with ED2, as would be the likelihood of admittance if something were to fall apart with the ED1 school. Both schools are in the same league, and the coaches definitely know each other, so I'm sure they talk, as well. As an aside, yes, he has back up schools which we're confident he will get in to in case these don't pan out. Thanks!!!!
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Replies to: ED1 and ED2 for Recruits
After the two official visits and he has decided which is his top choice immediately inform both coaches. To the second choice school have him express how difficult his choice was and that if the process does not work out could he reach back out to coach for ED2. These coaches deal with this all the time. Do not close any doors as you never know what will happen. On my sons NESCAC school swim team there are a few swimmers who did not get into their ED1 choice but kept communication open and got accepted into their ED2 school.
Good luck
I think the coaches are asking about ED1 because some students are really not ready to make the choice in the fall. My daughter was asked, and she said no. She was able to commit to another school on the NLI, but just didn't want to apply ED1 to a school. In reality, the NLI was less of a commitment because she always could have gone to a D3 school, and NAIA school, or just not played for a year, but the ED1 is binding.
Of course, you should use ED1 for the preferred school. I wouldn't assume that coach support is less effective for ED2. It depends. It depends on the school, the athletic need, and the recruit. For schools that use "slots" and the slots are used up in ED1, then for sure a recruit needing a lot of coach support (due to lower stats) might be out of luck in ED2. On the other hand ED2 has been used by many recruited athletes where something went amiss in ED1.
It is important to try to decipher "coach speak," and to ask specific questions -- "where am I on your recruiting list? How many recruits that you have given this level of support with my stats have been rejected in the past 5 years?" There is a lot of learning along the way for athlete and the family, and my kid matured as he learned to interact with coaches in person and on the phone, to ask follow up questions, and to make the difficult call to coaches he had developed a relationship with to say he was not choosing their school. It all worked out wonderfully in the end, but there are likely to be some bumps on the way.
As usual, I totally agree with your comments. I would go one step further and ask the coach "will you send my grades and scores to admissions for a pre-read." You could even ask "does your admissions office do pre-reads." Then, in 3 weeks time, follow up with the question "have you heard from admissions about the pre-read?"
I am only leaving out on the table the possibility (that I heard from one athlete in one sport) that Haverford doesn't do pre-reads. That could explain the disappointment of a recruit who learned -- after specifically asking the coach -- that he or she was high on the coach's list and had acceptable stats for admission. If I didn't know about pre-reads, I too would assume based on that information that the chances for admission were very good.
My kid needed merit award to make LAC work so his schools were safeties/matches and we weren't focused on admission but on the amount of merit. Somewhat analogous to a pre-read, we did ask most schools for a non-binding preliminary prediction of what kind of merit kid might get.
The challenge was listening to what was actually being said (or not said)-- it's easy to get carried away by the coach's laudatory remarks about your kid -- and make yourself focus on what it all means. Is the coach supporting your student for admissions as a recruited athlete? What does that mean? How many students with a similar admissions profile were admitted/denied over the past X years? Does your athlete have a guaranteed roster spot? For how long? Does the coach cut recruits in the first year? etc.
Also, beware of the response that no pre-read is needed as it likely means that the prospect is not a slot on the coaches list; it doesn't mean that an acceptance is less likely, but it likely means that no meaningful support is being given - my DD was given pre-reads at some schools where she was well within the top-25-%, but not all - the coaches interest mattered in that next step.
The OP said they are not looking at Haverford and it is not lax, so this issue may not be of specific interest. Still, families going through recruiting can benefit from reminders to ask specific questions of coaches about admissions. It is all too easy to hear what we want to hear, and much more difficult to follow up with the hard questions (at least for me, and I assume I'm not the only one). Especially in D3 which does not have likely letters or NLI and which relies on ED commitments, there is so much room for ambiguity and misunderstanding that asking those detailed questions can make all the difference between celebrating and heartbreak in mid December.
When we started doing unofficial visits, I was pleasantly surprised at the level of info coaches will give if asked direct questions. I let S do most of the talking, but on things where he was less comfortable I asked a few questions.