26S was recently informed by the coach at a high academics D3 school that he passed the pre-read but was placed in a lower band. However, no slots were offered at that level.
We’d appreciate some insight—does this mean his academics were just above the threshold (placing him in a lower tier), or was his athletic rating adjusted downward? Is this a definitive rejection, or is there still a pathway forward? Wondering if we should continue engaging with this school in the process.
Could be either or a combination of the pre-read results and athletic strength in this year’s pool of recruits at that school. Regardless, the only one who can answer your S’s questions is the coach…he should directly ask if there is a path forward and if so, what that looks like. Good luck.
While it’s not a definitive rejection, it sounds like there will be no coach support with admissions. So if he gets in on his own, he could join the team. Verify with the coach if that is the case. If your son is ok with that, certainly continue engaging. But it sounds like you’re definitely rolling the dice admissions wise.
If he has safer options, it might be best to pivot to those. Good luck!
At the higher academic schools which have athletic slots (not all schools have slots that the coach can use for admissions), the coach only has so many slots to offer. It looks like someone else edged your son out for a slot. It’s almost always some combo of athletics and academics.
I am not sure of the sport, and if admitted on his own if the coach would welcome him on the team. That does happen.
I would have your son ask the coach about that and if the school is one of your top choices, you could consider applying without support, with other back-ups in case he does not get admitted.
Good luck!
Sounds like a nice “no” to me. Confirm with the coach, and move on unless this school is his it school. If through the pre-read, he got put in a lower academic band, sounds like regular admission may also be dicey (of course depends on school and your son’s academics).
Can someone who is in a lower band even get in without support? As I understand it lower band means “has the minimum required to survive academically but is not nearly as strong as the students we look to admit”
I would think it may be a challenge but difficult to say on this forum without knowing the school and student. Obviously something the parents/student would have to think about and consider. However, many do apply to reach schools, which may not be that different from being on the lower end of an academic band. It does happen.
I don’t 100% agree with this, but once you get into some of the higher end schools, the academics and workload may not be all that more difficult from a lot of other schools. And these schools typically offer services to help kids handle the academic work load.
While I don’t disagree that pleasant surprises can happen, there is a big different between reach because acceptance rate is sub 5% and reach because stats are bellow average. Applicants need to go in with eyes wide open.
As a parent, as much as we would love for our son to be admitted to this school, I believe that if he were to get in based solely on his own ‘merits’, he might struggle to balance the demanding academic workload with his sports commitments. While this outcome is disappointing, it also serves as a clear indication that this may not be the right fit for him. We will likely move forward and explore other opportunities.
Thank you all for your valuable insights—we truly appreciate them.
If it was a NESCAC I can provide some general insight. The NESCAC has agreed upon limits for recruiting and a “banding” system for recruiting purposes.
For recruiting purposes a pre-read athlete is evaluated and put into one of three “bands” by admissions.
‘A’ band students academically look better than the regular pool with grades, test scores, and rigor all at or above the school mean. They would be strong candidates for admissions in general.
‘B’ band students whose have overall solid academics and fall into the 25-50% range of the class.
‘C’ band students are those who lack something academically compared to the rest of the class but have demonstrated enough academic strength that there is no doubt about their ability to handle the academics and succeed.
Banding is done by the Admissions office and students are given their “band” without regard to the sport that the prospective student is being recruited for.
I do not know if there have been any adjustments but when the system was put in place ‘fully supported’ athletic recruits were capped at 2 recruits per sport plus 14 for football which means about 75 ‘slots’ at most schools which can be used to support athletes in the admissions process. Of those 75 or so slots only a small number (about 20%) can be used to admit ‘C’ band athletes. This means that for many sports it is rare or impossible for a ‘C’ band student to receive support.
75 recruits is not enough to meet the recruiting needs of most teams so in addition to slots ‘tips’ are available to use to recruit ‘A’ bands athletes. The number of tips available is typically about equal to the number of slots. Tips and slots do not have to stay with a specific team (they are overall numbers) and they are traded/adjusted depending on the needs of a sport in any given year and at some schools a team bringing in a ‘C’ band recruit might also have to swap an additional slot for a tip though I am not sure if that is a requirement.
If your kid was ‘B’ banded and the coach was hoping for ‘A’ they are probably displaced by stronger athletes but getting into the school is a possibility. If they were ‘C’ banded and the coach was hoping for ‘B’ it is unlikely that they would be admitted and it is time to move on. Only the coach can provide the needed details.
Unfortunately, the school doesn’t permit the coach to share that information. Right now, we only know that he has one spot for ED and possibly a couple more for RD. By the way, son’s SAT is around 75% of the school admitted students, but GPA could use a bit more A’s on math.
Given what we know, it looks like we probably won’t apply ED to this school. As for RD? Maybe—why not? The essays are already done anyway.