Do coaches have any pull for Regular Decision applicants? Q on attending recruiting camp also

Athletic Recruits
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<p>My D is a rising senior and her sport is tennis and she has been consistently a three star on tennisrecruiting. She was a four star once before. Due to special accelerated programs she wants to apply, she can’t apply binding early decision. My question is - do coaches have influence on regular decisions? She is looking into NESCACs, Swarthmore, Rochester type of schools (mostly D3 schools). She is a straight A student and scored 2200 on SAT (Math 800, Verb 660, Writing 760), 800 on SAT Math II, 750 on SAT II Bio. Will take ACT (practice test score around 33-35) and SAT II Chem and Spanish on June 7 and 14.</p>

<p>One more question - is attending College Exposure Camp such as the Donavan at Yale, necessary? If it is, we have to sign up by tomorrow, June 2! </p>

<p>Your advice is greatly appreciated!</p>

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<p>Seems like she can get into the schools you listed without sports based on her grades and SAT’s. Ivy’s are another thing altogether.
Regarding D3/ivy sports. Many D3/ivy “recruit” even though they don’t give out athletic scholarships. So it depends upon the coach/school as to the importance of that particular sport, etc to the school. Generally speaking, yes, being an athlete helps especially if the coach wants her. However, the athlete still need to have their academics in order. You could be at the bottom of the range at say the 25th percentile in gpa and SAT and get in because you are an athlete.
Although D3/ivy do not give out athletic scholarships perse, many give out other money to the athletes… they just call it something else.</p>

<p>Regarding Camps. The question is how is she marketing herself to coaches? Bio? Video? etc. These camps can be a good thing but also can backfire. Hard to say. For instance, in soccer, the college tournaments are very important for exposure. However, another way to get exposure is go to a summer camp at her targeted college.</p>

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<p>Her top schools will be those which offer the accelerated programs. After that, she will choose schools with good premed programs. We are still at fence whether she should apply to IVYs. School conselor seems to recommend LACs over IVYs for premed.</p>

<p>Currently she has not marketed herself in any capacity. She has been receiving emails from coaches - I’m not sure it they qualify for recruiting emails? Should she make a video? She has been so busy with AP exam, SAT prep, etc so has not been playing a lot of tournaments for the last month. Also she will be in a summer intensive research program so I don’t think she’ll be playing much. And then comes the fall, when she’ll need to prepare for college applications. I wonder if that can pose an issue if she doesn’t play tournaments in the next six months or so?</p>

<p>Why do you say the camps can backfire? Is it because you don’t play well and the coaches see it?</p>

4

<p>I think you really need to decide “IF” she should play in college.
Doesn’t sound like you have done anything to market and quite frankly it may be too late. Is her HS season in the spring? Is she playing in tournaments where lots of college coaches attend?<br>
Regarding camp, you actually have to train before going to the camp. Lots of pressure, etc.<br>
No different that football perse. If you line up for the 40 yd dash and lay an egg, then no chance for the scholarship offer.
If she can’t balance academics and tournaments now, then she probably can’t in college. College coaches won’t be interested.</p>

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<p>Ivy and NESCAC coaches have their greatest influence during the EA/ED process and as a result most recruits go that route (and in fact, in the Ivies, the top recruits receive a Likely Letter more than two months prior to the time EA/ED decisions are released). The risk in waiting to apply RD is that the coach may have filled his/her roster by then. If you need to go the RD route for the reasons you’ve stated, you may in fact lose whatever athletic hook that may otherwise have been available.</p>

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<p>I know a lot of kids that were recruited for athletics at ivy.
None of them went EA/ED.
Doing so you lose your negotiating position with the ivy as well as other schools. Not recommended unless you want to pay full boat.</p>

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<p>Coaches can influence RDs, but it depends on what their roster looks like at that time, and it depends on how much a coach wants your D for the team, at that time. So the later she leaves it, the more “luck” is involved. </p>

<p>What is your D trying to gain by playing college tennis? Does she enjoy it so much that she can’t envision not having it in her college life? It doesn’t sound like this is the case, as her academic interests are clearly taking priority over tournament play. Or is she viewing tennis as a hook into a “better” school, but you’re worried that applying RD will diminish the hook? </p>

<p>If the latter is the case, then it’s arguably more sensible for her to target a few (ideal) schools with the idea of applying earlier. After all, she’s a 3 Star and might not be in great demand at many of the best NESCAC tennis schools for RD. She’d have more success with RD at schools with lower ranked tennis programs (Rochester, Swat). But as you say, applying earlier is not in the cards because she’s considering the accelerated MD programs. So I guess the issue for you is whether the advantages of an accelerated MD program (cost, guarantee of med school admission) trump the advantage of possibly getting into a higher ranked school using tennis as a hook. You need to debate that and be clear about it before it gets much later. </p>

<p>There are other advantages with RD, though, regarding cost. RD allows you to compare Fin Aid offers from various schools, so that might be a necessity for your family.</p>

<p>The DTS camps are not “necessary”. Again, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. It would be more valuable if your D had already targeted a few schools and could show those coaches what she has to offer (tennis-wise and commitment-wise). But now, she’d be going into it blind, largely unprepared, hoping that the right schools are interested in her. You’d probably get more mileage if you invested some of the money (for the camp) into producing a recruiting video to show her skills at her best, target a handful of choice schools, then show the coaches how enthusiastic she is about their schools. You could accomplish that either ED or RD, but again, your odds likely go up ED. </p>

<p>So let me ask you: How important is it for her, and your family, to apply to the accelerated MD programs? How certain is she that she wants to be an MD? And as discussed earlier, what does she want out of college tennis? Her tennis recruiting options largely depend on those things. And I might add, a med school aspirant has to be particularly careful about playing a sport because of the potential drop in GPA.</p>

<p>Also, what do you mean by “premed programs”? I get confused when that term is used because it sounds like the person is seeking actual premed majors, when in fact, if you look at the success of premed majors on the MCAT, “premed” leaves a lot to be desired. It’s more advisable to take a different (more rigorous) academic path into med school, especially for a student with great quantitative scores.</p>

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<p>Thanks to all who provided great feedback!</p>

<p>Tomsriver and Dunboyne: D has been playing USTA tournaments for over 7 years, which we all know is an individual sport. Most recently she played a couple of seasons of high school tennis. She loved the team/social aspect of it and the feeling that she helped the team winning. That is why she wants to play college tennis. But I won’t say tennis will trump academics for her. She is a hard worker, just like all athletes, trying to balance tennis and school. She ranked in top 150 at tennisrecruiting before junior year and then suffered a couple of injuries, which pulled her away from playing for over six months. She tried hard to get back to the game, but with additional training required and 5 AP classes, she has not been able to do so. Her ranking is around 250 nationally now.</p>

<p>I’m not sure if this counts as some preparation for college tennis, but last summer we took her to meet with 5 / 6 college coaches. After that, all coaches have emailed her about their interest and they’ve been checking her profile updates at tennisrecruiting. She is planning to email them again this summer to express her interest.</p>

<p>She is very determined to be a doctor, and will apply to the accelerated programs. However, those programs are harder to get in than most of the IVYs. So we are not very hopeful. That is why she will apply to RD to the top LACs. However, given her stats, we are not sure if she can get in and hope tennis will help her a little bit with the admission. I also wanted to clarify on what I meant by “good premed” programs. I referred that to schools with strong all around liberal arts programs and decent med school admission rate. When you say a more rigorous path for med school with good quant skills, do you mean majoring in engineering or math? </p>

<p>As far as the financial situation, we won’t qualify for financial aid. We went through the process with our older child (not an athlete, but admitted to two IVYs with zero FA) so we are not even going to try with her.</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestion of making a good video! We will work on that in the next two weeks. </p>

<p>As far as next steps go then, she will work on the video and start emailing the coaches who have been sending her emails to express her interest, plus coaches in some other schools. Anything else she should be doing?</p>

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<p>TomsRiverParent – I don’t doubt you. All I can say if that my DS was a recruited athlete at Yale and she and each and every one of her fellow recruits went EA and would not have had the coach’s support unless they had done so (and had also verbally committed to attend if accepted – EA as you know is non-binding). There is no recruit on her team who applied RD. </p>

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<p>Applying ED is an issue but picking a school for SCEA with coaches recommendation but choosing an accelerated BS/MD program does not sound unethical at all if a coach at an Ivy wants to support your application and can get a likely issued.</p>

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<p>As long as she is set on Medicine, she should be fine with the accelerated programs. One drawback is that most 17-18 year olds grow tremendously in their first couple of years of college. It’s not uncommon for kids to want to change direction entirely once they get a true feel for a subject. The accelerated programs make that difficult, as you more or less become entrenched in Medicine at age 18.</p>

<p>Your D sounds like she’s not that far from being a bona fide 4 Star (without injuries), so she should have some good options. Her 2200 SAT translates roughly to a 33 ACT, so it would be a significant gain if she can score a 34-35. </p>

<p>It sounds like tennis would make her happier at school, so D3 is probably the ticket. However, a couple of D1 schools to look at would be Georgetown and Colgate (strong academics, weaker D1 tennis), if she wanted a shot at playing D1 tennis. Georgetown has quite a few 4 Stars on the team, but it might not hurt to give the coach a shout. Your odds would be better with Colgate, but the location might be an issue. The downside of D1 tennis is the level of commitment, especially for a pre-med, but it’s do-able with a team/coach that doesn’t have sky-high expectations. </p>

<p>One tactic would be to target Med School Unis that also have solid tennis teams: Chicago, WUSL, JHopkins, Tufts, Emory, Case Western. Med Schools (arguably) offer a small advantage in admissions for their own undergrads. I’d probably steer clear of JH and Emory, though, as their tennis programs seem to be perennially strong. (I’d say the same for Amherst and Williams.) The stronger D3 tennis programs have quite a few 4 Stars and the odd 5 Star, so your D probably wouldn’t have much of an admissions advantage for RD. Coaches have a tendency to string you along to suit their own interests, and your D wouldn’t want to waste time pursuing options that aren’t likely to come through. </p>

<p>The best programs for your D (considering pre-med) might be in the category of Strong Academics / Weaker Tennis. Here you’d find Swarthmore as the shining example, along with Haverford. Strong Academics / Better Tennis schools to consider would be Carleton, Vassar, and Wesleyan. </p>

<p>Another consideration is where your D fits academically. Pre-meds need to prioritize GPA, so whether your D slots into the 50th percentile or the 75th might have a big impact on future GPA. In that sense, the more selective schools like Chicago, WUSL, and Swat look great on a resume, but what kind of GPA is possible? Your D seems like a strong student, though, so maybe she’d be fine at the most selective school that wants her. It’s all about fit, anyway, and if a student is happier at School A vs B, their GPA will probably reflect it.</p>

<p>Regarding “Pre-Med”, yes, I meant a more rigorous major like Engineering or Math. Here’s a link: <a href=“Some Statistics on the MCAT and Undergraduate Majors | A Med School Odyssey”>http://medschoolodyssey.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2010/03/30/some-statistics-on-the-mcat-and-your-undergraduate-major/&lt;/a&gt; Check out the PDF file on the page too. The highest composite scores on the MCAT tend to come from Engineering, Physics, Math, Neuroscience, Biochem, and also Economics and English. Pre-Med and Biology majors don’t have the results one would expect. Many of the “best” majors for the MCAT might hinder GPA, though, due to their rigour, so that’s an issue. Generally speaking, the majors that teach problem solving and abstract thinking seem to be preferable. Your D seems strong enough quantitatively to pursue one of these majors, but it comes down to aptitude and comfort. Something to consider, anyway.</p>

<p>Here’s a link for some Do’s and Don’ts for tennis recruiting vids: <a href=“How To Make A Good College Recruiting Video - Tactical Tennis”>http://www.tacticaltennisblog.com/how-to-make-a-college-recruiting-video/&lt;/a&gt; Do quite a bit of research on this topic and have a look at some recruiting vids online. You want the video to help your D, not hinder. One thing I can emphasize is to include a few strokes from a wider angle in order to see the outcome of the stroke (in addition to the closeups). Also, many vids will include volleying technique but they don’t include an approach shot with the volley. Show a couple of approach shots plus volley, on each side, from a wider angle. </p>

<p>Have your D handle the coach communications herself, as much as possible. Parents should oversee and advise, not interfere. Coaches like the athletes to take charge.</p>

<p>Also, be sure to express interest in a program/school genuinely; be honest about where the school ranks in your D’s list. Don’t forget to express interest in a school in other ways, too: Facebook pages, emailing clubs and academic departments, etc. Whatever facet of the school your D is interested in, give them some proof of that interest. It helps admissions gauge whether your D will actually attend, which is a huge factor for a school, considering how important their “yield” is.</p>