Short question - Should my DD apply ED to the D3 school that wants her and that she loves, or should she she take a chance at an Ivy League?
Long story -
My DD is probably a top recruit for D3 in track and field. Her marks are high above the D3 standards and are at the D1 recruiting standards for Columbia, and above the walk-on standards for the rest of the Ivy Leagues. Her GPA, class schedule, and test scores (35 on the ACT) puts her within the 50%-75% range of Ivy League schools, although that still means a less than 10% chance of admissions.
She’s waiting to hear the results of the pre-read from some LAC’s. They are in the top 5 LACs in the nation, and she’d be pretty thrilled to attend any of them. She also wants to do pre-med, and it sounds like these are perfect schools in terms of academics and athletic time commitment. Also, these D3 school coaches are so warm and enthusiastic about recruiting her.
The problem is that she’s heard nothing from the UC’s or any of the Ivy League schools she’s reached out to. Well, Brown responded to her questionnaire in February with a “we’re interested and will talk to you soon” but has been silent since then. The Harvard coach actually responds to her email updates but it’s pretty clear he’s just being polite.
Then there’s MIT, another D3 school. She would love to attend MIT and the coach is said he is going to give her some sort of tip. But it sounds like MIT doesn’t do pre-reads, so her chances would still be a 50/50 chance of admission.
My DD would be really happy to go to the 1st choice D3 LAC and doesn’t want to give up the opportunity. She’d also love to be done with the college search process. But we are also wondering if it’s too early for her to give up hopes of attending Harvard, Princeton, Yale when they haven’t shown any interest in her? Or to close the door on MIT who can’t make any promises. As for the other Ivy’s and UC’s my DD would rather attend the small LAC anyway.
We’d love to get your thoughts.