Hi, new to this forum and can’t seem to find the answers anywhere. I have a daughter in grade nine that has been approached by a few Ivy league and non Ivy league coaches. She wants to commit to an Ivy league. We are afraid to make her verbal commitment public because we know that the Ivy league schools will match financial aid and we don’t know what proof is required to make sure this happens. Is her minor league coach verifying phone calls enough to prove there was interest? We don’t want to push other schools away and then find out three years later that we can’t afford the first school because they won’t match. Anyone with insight in this matter?
Are you certain that three years from now she will want to attend this Ivy?
You might check out the section of this forum that is dedicated to athletic recruits. You might find your answer there. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/
I see no value in publicly “committing” now. Her commitment is as binding as any “offer” from an Ivy League college. If her academics and SAT/ACT end up falling short, that “offer” will disappear. For further insight on Ivy League commitments, you should look in the Athletic Recruits forum.
We’re getting into semantics here, but not all Ivy League schools will “match” FA. HYP will rerun the numbers based upon receipt of an FA offer from a similar school; their revised offer may still fall short.The other 5 may match, but again, only from a similar school. In all cases, Ivy League colleges will only compare need-based aid, not any merit or athletic money.
She seems certain right now, but obviously things could change. If they do, I doubt that there will be other roster spots available in this sport at a school of this caliber. So we want to assure that school’s coach she wants that spot, but we want to also make sure that in 3 years that we can afford the price tag which means matching financial aid. Just don’t know what the requirements are for matching…
Thanks for the comments. The only advantage to committing early is to signal an interest in locking up a spot on a roster. I realize that the verbal commitment is non binding, and that the coach can change his/her mind, and that marks determine whether she gets in or not. Can anyone comment on what is needed as “proof” for matching and when? She wants to “commit” and not have to waste time talking to other coaches (which is also wasting their time).
I already did above. “Proof” is the written FA offer from another peer college.
Thanks do you know when can that happen? Do colleges give out estimates of FA this far in advance?
I believe you would have to fill out the FAFSA and CSS her senior year of high school, like anyone else for a definitive answer. This far out, I think the NPC on the school’s website would be the best estimate.
OP, you’re way ahead of yourself.
http://www.yalebulldogs.com/information/recruiting/index
Also see the detailed info on Prep Scholar, about the steps. (Sorry to mention this one but it’s particularly informative.)
She has one semester of hs so far. She may not turn out to reach athletic or academic bars, may get injured, develop other interests, etc. She may not even turn out to be among a coach’s top choices.
Right now, she’s only in their sights. Miles to go.
3 years in advance? No. And no college will match based upon an estimate anyway.
Really, I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. If you want to get an idea how much the college will cost you, run the New Price Calculator for each. For Ivy League colleges, assuming your income is from wages rather than being self-employed, the estimate should be within the ballpark for this year. Also note, for the most part, there will be few colleges that are as generous with need-based aid outside the Ivy League, and those Ivy schools will only match need-based aid.
What is needed as proof of a FA offer from another ‘peer’ school is the actual offer. If your daughter never applies to another school, she will have no offer for her chosen school to match. You have to decide if the FA ‘offer’ of the chosen school is enough, but you won’t be able to do that until you receive that information, which is possible to get following the pre-read after July 1 of her senior year. You can used the NPC on the website to estimate what your offer should be. No school would take “Well, three years ago the Duke/Stanford/Yale coach said he wanted her, so you should give us the FA Stanford would have given us.” Nope, that’s not going to work.
There is no official pre-commitment in the Ivy League. The eight schools do not participate in the National Letter of Intent program, so athletes ‘commit to the process’ but are free to change their minds at any time.
I suggest even if she does verbally commit that she continue to waste the time of other coaches and keep communications open with other. No Ivy is going to give her a commitment until the admissions committee has reviewed her file for the pre-read. A commitment as a sophomore means very little. The coach pencils her in, but the coach knows you’ll need the FA, that your daughter will need the grades and to be accepted, and that a lot can change in 3 years. Thus the pencil and not a pen.
If finances are a consideration, you need to have more than one financial aid offer from more than one IVY to be able to ask for reconsideration based on financial aid offers.
@twoinanddone would this student be smarter to keep her options open rather than making even a verbal commitment while in 9th grade? Fact is…the student would need to get accepted to this Ivy…and as a HS senior would need to complete the FAFSA and Profile forms to have the college determine eligibility for aid. Exception is Princeton which uses its own form instead of the Profile.
There is NO college that will give you a pre-read in financial aid three years in advance…not going to happen.
Even assuming this all works out (academics and athletics), if this is an ED Ivy, you will have likely no opportunity to “match/shop” because your daughter will have to withdraw her application from other schools if she is accepted. For almost all Ivy recruits, the coach will require the recruit apply ED or SCEA.
Also to be clear, there is $0 athletic or merit money. It will be 100% need based FA determined by the FA office with virtually no pull by the coach. He or she might be able to help you estimate your cost, maybe with some input from the FA office, but you can pretty much do this through the school’s Net Price Calculator. You should also be aware that FA generosity varies among the Ivies both in amount and type (grant vs work study vs loan). If she is being “offered” (again understand the coach can withdraw the “offer” at any time and the AO can deny admission unilaterally) by HYP, she will have an opportunity to “shop” FA since they are SCEA schools. They are also the usually the most generous schools in terms of FA.
I think so, but even a verbal commitment in 9th grade is no longer allowed in my daughter’s sport, so it is easy for me to say ‘wait’. In another sport it may really be that ‘everyone’ is committing early.
What I found was the very top players didn’t need to commit early. Coaches would always find a spot for that extreme superstar. The rest of the top payers (say the top 85-99%ers) were the ones scurrying to commit early They cared if they went to UNC or Syracuse, to Denver or UConn. There was elbowing and a few hits to the kneecaps at the showcase tournaments (just from the parents, not the girls).
And the vast majority of recruits were still looking for teams/schools as juniors and seniors. My daughter didn’t even look at a single school until summer after junior year. She was recruited by D1, D2, D3 schools. She was late for the ranked D1 schools, but she was pretty small as a 13 year old freshman so wouldn’t have been recruited by those anyway. Her academics were attractive to the D3 schools. Did she miss opportunities by not going to camps and showcases as a freshman and sophomore? Yes. She still had plenty of offers.
Thanks for all your input. This is the more than I hoped for and gives me a lot to think about. She is in a sport where verbal commitments are happening and commitments are very public. Most are to Non Ivy, but a few Ivy. I am beginning to think that we should remain quiet for now. More offers hopefully. Going to be hard on her as she hates the calls. I hate leading coaches on.
It’s not leading anyone on. It’s keeping your options open! You have no idea now how your daughter’s grades and test scores will pan out.
You don’t and shouldn’t lead the coaches on. It’s fine to have a Plan B and Plan C (and it’s fine that the Plan A coach knows this), and to thank coached D-Z for their interest in time. Remember, much can change in 3 years, including that coach A leaves. You certainly don’t want the replacement coach (who will have his/her own prospects anyway) to be one that you yanked around.
Don’t lead coaches on. Be honest. Tell them you need more information, need to firm up financial aspects of college (be it athletic aid or need based aid or merit aid). Tell them you are considering other schools too. They’ll know. Most sports are small communities and they all know each other.
Don’t be afraid to tell a coach you don’t understand how recruiting works, what options there are for committing now or later, what negative consequences there are for committing early or late. I wasn’t sure about having my daughter sign the NLI in Nov or waiting until April. I talked to the coach and she admitted that daughter wouldn’t lose anything by waiting but wouldn’t gain anything either, and it was just nice to have it over with. She was right, and for us it was right to sign early and be done with it but for someone who wasn’t sure, it would have been better to wait.
The ivy league schools don’t give athletic scholarships, only need based FA.