Not much to second guess with respect to athletic recruiting unless one has received multiple firm offers–which does not appear to be the case here.
Plus, if it is Williams College, then it would be hard to get a better opportunity among LACs in my opinion.
Congrats!
Congrats! Your daughter made a great choice! Go Ephs!
As the parent of a NESCAC student I think your daughter will be very happy! But I thought the Middlebury coach won the award so confused about Go Ephs? Maybe more than one coach got an award. Anyway, Congrats!!!
Based on internet research, Williams College coaches won best coach & best assistant coach women’s indoor track & field for New England region for 2019.
Congrats @MrsJayBird - different sport and different schools but my daughter is torn between playing d3 or going to a big name school for the big college experience. I wasn’t prepared for all the emotions about this decision 
Yay! Great decision and I’m sure she will love it!
Whew. I read through that whole thing! Congrats to your daughter. I’m not sure if it’s Williams or Middlebury but I can assure you that when it comes to name recognition with people who “matter” (med schools, employers, etc) they are going to know! Maybe because you’re from CA people don’t know those schools but us snobbish New Englanders sure do. So positive is that her friends won’t think she’s bragging and people in the know will be super impressed.
Another Ivy coach reached out to my daughter today! But my daughter is happily committed to Williams College.
I heard this is the typical Nov. 2 scramble for some coaches.
@MrsJayBird Ahh, in the northeast the Williams name will not hold her back at all. Half the kids at Williams turned down an Ivy to choose a smaller experience. I think your daughter will be plenty happy and have great outcomes. Huge congrats - this time of turmoil makes a solid, in the bag offer all the more welcome.
@MrsJayBird, I read the whole thread too and, for those coming behind your daughter, is there a lesson to be learned?
Is it common for desirable LACs to “jam” kids into an ED acceptance to “guarantee” a spot BEFORE they can even hear all their options such as Ivies? Maybe this is the ugly underbelly of amateur sports, but I’m left wondering if there was a better strategy to get all options on the table and avoid that stress. Perhaps not.
@treblig, athletic recruits should not look at the ED option as “jamming” or an “underbelly.” Rather, it is the essence of the quid pro quo in D3 recruiting and it presents a great opportunity for athletes.
It is really, really, really hard to get into Williams. It is particularly so for high achieving high school girls - even the ones with flawless GPAs and test scores. Athletic recruiting gives a boost with admissions. For someone wanting to attend the school, it is invaluable.
If you are going to get that boost, the school needs to know that you are going to attend. Can you imagine a coach trying to bring in 5 recruits without the ED commitment? The coach might have to recruit 25 athletes to get those 5 recruits. The Adcom would be put in the position of having to admit 25 athletes for one team, thus precluding 20 non-athletes from admission. Flip it around, what if each of those 25 athletes accepted the offer of admission? The coach would end up having to cut 20 perfectly good athletes.
If an athlete really wants Ivy over D3, he or she can arrange meetings or calls to see what the Ivy coach thinks. Usually, coaches know how to tell a recruit where he or she stands. And, the Ivies do recruit a bit before the NESCACs, and November is fairly deep in the admissions cycle for Ivies to start recruiting.
Athletic recruiting is not for everyone. There are students and families that are not ready to commit by the ED deadlines. That is absolutely fine. The student applies to a range of schools and then picks the best fit out of the institutions offering admission. A continuing conversation with the coach might get some soft admissions support or help with walking onto the team. But note, that this is the exact opposite of athletic commitment, as the coach has no guarantee that the recruit will attend, and the athlete should not expect a boost with admissions. Many coaches advised us that pull was significantly reduced after the ED round. While this depends on the school, it is what we observed with NESCAC D3s.
Completely agree with @gointhruaphase . No underbelly, the athlete is getting something of tremendous value in exchange for going ED.
I am not a big fan of athletes being pressured into applying ED unless it is a very top end academic school And the student and family are 100% sure.
Williams certainly fits the criteria of a very top end academic school!
@MrsJayBird-congratulations to you and your daughter! Best of luck to her!
Well put, @gointhruaphase . And very interesting to ponder all this. Thank you.
MIT does not do ED so it’s kind of irrelevant for anyone being recruited there.
@recruitparent, I don’t think anyone here would advocate for pressuring any high school student into applying ED. If a college or university is not a fit, don’t commit and don’t apply ED.
I just don’t think this is just a “Williams or bust” analysis. If your student is a stretch for Connecticut College (a fine institution, whose admissions statistics are less competitive than Williams), and you get an offer of support if your student applies ED, it is precisely the same analysis as with Williams: Is this a good fit, and does the offer of support significantly increase otherwise moderate chances for admission.
I must say that we went through this a number of times, and no coach ever pressured us to apply ED. We were straight up told that the coach’s influence with admissions would decrease after the ED rounds. This ended up being true as some recruited athletes waiting for RD were not admitted.
@sherimba03 - Yes, but the coach told my daughter that the admissions office doesn’t like it if she applies EA as a recruit and then ED’s elsewhere. I think it makes the coach look bad.
@MrsJayBird IMO you and your daughter went through the process thoughtfully and respectfully and your D has an amazing outcome that she is happy with. Congratulations to all.
Agree with all of the above, also, the top 5 LACS provide a better overall experience in terms of attention from professors, summer research and spending per student. On an endowment per student basis, the top 5 lacs exceed many of the Ivies. Also, Ivies such as Brown and Dartmouth are cutting track and field and other sports. The team experience is also unique across the NESCAC schools.