My D is being recruited by several schools and has narrowed it to two. However there are a few that would be in the next tier if her top 2 do not pan out. How do we keep the second tier in the mix without telling them they are in the top 2?
There is no reason to tell any of the schools your daughter is interested in where they sit in her personal ranking, until and unless she is ready to narrow her list.
How about OVs? If a school that is not on your top list asks you to attend, how do you respond to that school?
Each recruit may take up to five D1 official visits. If a school is considering to offer an OV, my experience has been that they want to make sure they are one of the recruit’s top 5 before they offer the visit, so they do not get rejected out of hand.
Everyone’s experience is different, but saying honestly that a school is in the top 5, if it is, usually is sufficient. Let them try to host a bomb OV and move to the top of your daughter’s ranking.
If your daughter has the time–and she is not concerned she might go over her 5 OV limit–go for it. She is liable to learn a lot and have a good time.
I assume that if certain schools are offering OVs, then all of the schools in that sport at that competitive level are doing so as well. If your daughter has received OV offers from schools in her personal second tier, I would advise her to reach out to her recruiting coach at the two schools she is most interested in, because it is at least possible that those schools are sending out OV offers as well, or are at least at the point where they are getting ready to.
I would advise your daughter to tell the recruiting coach that OV offers have been made, and that before she accepts any, she wants to know where she stands with that particular school. This should provide some clarity for your daughter as to where she stands with the top schools, and also signal to them that she views their schools as a priority.
Thanks. She has OVs from her top 2 NESCAC schools but there are 2-3 in the next tier(including a D1) that want to be in the mix as well. Although there is no limit to D3 OVs, I want my D to do more than 3-4 so that she can focus on school and her sport this fall. She has been also told that for one of her top choices that she is in the top 3 of this year’s recruits but not as much info from the others. I know there is no such thing as a sure thing in D3 and don"t want to put all the eggs in one basket
Well, from what you are posting it appears that your daughter’s options are to either shorten the list of schools by one or two or tell the schools in the second tier that she is only taking a couple visits before the season/early in the year so that she can focus on school/her senior season, and that she would like to know if there would be an opportunity later in the year to visit. See what they say. Quite honestly, if she has OVs at her top two lined up, and also has offers at three other schools she thinks she can successfully attend, I would probably suggest cutting the least favorite from the second tier and going on the four OVs. That should be plenty to give her a real good picture of where she stands/should attend.