I currently have soft pull for a Pomona + Pitzer. Coach said he sent a letter to admissions and that he would only give support through RD. Just wondering what kind of weight this has in admissions. How much does it help if any?
Of course it helps. How much will depend on how much the coach wants you. And of course, every school is different as to how many soft support slots they have. And also it will depend on your academic profile and if you are an admissible candidate or close to it. Have the coaches given you any indication of how likely this is and how many athletes they’ve had admitted this way? Those are questions you should be asking.
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Yes, it helps. How much depends on so many things – the relationship between admissions and athletics and that coach in particular, how strong you are as a an applicant, etc.
As you can imagine, admissions wants to make its own decisions as may not be thrilled to have athletics doing their job for them beyond what is agreed for recruits. Otoh, if you are a compelling applicant, having a coach ask for you can give you an edge vis a vis other compelling applicants. So if you have a good profile, this support could be the thing that pushes you into the accepted pile. And in no case does it hurt!
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@gardenstategal just curious - why would a coach give support via RD but not ED?
A non athlete parent simply trying to learn.
Thanks
I’m not @gardenstategal but there could be many reasons. The athlete got in touch after the ED deadline. The coach had a recruit drop out at the last minute (or even didn’t get admitted, unexpectedly). The RD athlete is good, but not good enough for the coach to use an almost guaranteed admissions spot for. There are probably about 10 other reasons!
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I’ll add on: most schools have a finite number of athletes that they can offer ED spots to. Typically, the higher priority recruits get those spots. Support through RD can help fill rosters. In another scenario, a highly sought after athlete doesn’t want to commit to ED. Some coaches will offer support in RD to get that recruit.
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And…some schools are experimenting here and there with moving recruited athletes to the RD round, with the idea to accept more non-athletes in ED (rather than just increase the proportion of the class coming from ED…which plenty of school continue to do.)
Personally, I don’t think moving a large proportion of athletes (whether full or soft support) to RD will work/gain traction because of the uncertain nature and prolonged process that is athletic recruiting.
For OP, I echo what momofthree24 said…ask the coach what proportion of athletes they’ve given soft support in RD have been accepted. Do you have any other interest? I assume the Pomona/Pitzer app is in?
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Back to the OPs question (which was not about the reason behind ED v RD support)… I think only an admissions officer for one of the schools could opine on how much pull a letter from the coach would have. I expect it will be a positive in your application – but no idea how much of one. Good luck!
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