First, if anyone were to contact the coach, it should be your son, not you. Second, What does your son plan to major in? If he has an anxiety issue, shooting for IB might not be a good plan given the intensity of that field. He has made the choice that he feels is best for him, and he sounds like a smart kid.
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Do. Not. Reach. Out . To. The. Coach!!!
it will not help, and it WILL hurt your son.
Any reaching out should be done by your son not you!
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I donāt think that because YOU favor Yale and your kid (apparently) favors Brown that this makes you a prestige-anything. Reasonable people can look at the same situation and inputs and come to different conclusions.
But truly- a HS senior who MAY want law school or MAY want med school or MAY want finance but DEFINITELY wants to play his sport, does not suggest in any way that Yale is the best choice or that Brown is a lesser choice. This is truly angels dancing on the head of a pin territory.
The Brown/RISD art museum in no way can compete with the Yale art museum or the Museum of British Art which sits across the street. So if you had a kid who was gung ho on studying art history- tip for Yale. But if you had a kid who wanted to MAKE art, tip to Brown. Similarly- studying Classics or Antiquity? tip to Brown. 20th century European History? Yale. Etc. We could go department by department- no single university has a lock on any single discipline.
But since your kid is undecidedā¦. does any of this matter?
Slap!
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keep the slaps coming! thank you all.
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One canāt delete threads.
Hereās a slap ā donāt.
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Brown is pretty much as prestigious as Yale. Any differences are really hair-splitting.
And btw, I am very prestige-conscious, and also value prestige. At your sonās rarified level there really isnāt a material difference in prestige between those two schools.
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Also, give yourself some grace. People who havenāt gone through the athletic recruiting process really cannot understand the anxiety and stress that go along with it. My youngest went through recruiting, and until your son knows where heās going the uncertainty can be maddening!
So hang in there ā you are certainly not the only parent to be feeling a lot of angst at this point!
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No. Donāt do this. @TonyGrace should parents reach out to coaches about recruits??
Or listen to @cinnamon1212 who is spot on.
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Iām not going to take a position on Yale or Brown, thatās up to your S. The only other comment I would add is has your S asked the Yale coach if the āsupportā would be in place for an RD app?
Most importantly, does your son have Plans B and C? Please tell me he has EA and/or rolling apps in, those are allowable with Brown ED (if he ends up choosing Yale SCEA look at their rules for other apps.) He also need a balanced list, with at least one highly likely school. I would not wait until a Brown ED (or Yale SCEA) decision until getting RD apps completed.
I also echo what cinnamon saidā¦the stress associated with athletic recruiting is unique and can be extreme, and people who havenāt gone thru donāt understand. And never, ever should a parent contact a coach.
Good luck to him (and you and your spouse)!
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lol I had just said the same thing!
EA to michigan, MSU, virgina, penn state, miami oh.
will RD to a probably 10-14 more, if needed
as for your first question, the support only applies for SCEA currently, although has not shut door on support for RD if donāt get their top three guys, but not banking on that.
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Echoing @Mwfan1921 question: has your son asked the Yale coach if theyād do this during RD?
I donāt think anyone can tell you the impact of Yale club WP walking in an app, especially if itās a new practice. Itās possible that since there isnāt a varsity program that thereās some impact, but personally I wouldnāt count on it much. Yale is known to be pretty stingy with the athletic recruiting slots theyāre allowed for varsity sports, so itās hard to see them expanding into a menās club sport.
I might get a Yale RD app ready so itās in the pipeline anyway. And have your son follow up on the RD question as a backup to Brown. Keep doors open there and elsewhere. YOU should not contact any of these coaches unless they ask. Your son needs to ask the questions.
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Hopefully when you re-read this tomorrow, youāll slap yourself.
Struggle to believe that Club Water polo Coach has much admissions juice given all of the other sports and coaches (Itās a Club Sport) and whatever juice they may have is likely less than the āNon-supported recruitā designation at Brown gives (āCause theyāre actually a Division 1 sport).
Relax. He didnāt miss an opportunity. Heās good. Donāt make it worse by like, calling coaches (Goodness donāt).
And with respect to āBut itās Yale!ā
āBut itās Brown!ā and āBut itās D1 sports!ā
Thatās pretty special. To my mind, thatāll do much more to get him a gig on The Street than Club. Water Polo is already behind the Lax Bros. D1 moves him up in line.
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Here is a slap: I am trying to wrap my head around the idea that Brown is some poor, neglected stepchild to Yale.
Brown is an elite top university and your kid is going to be at no disadvantage by going to Brown. Your kid is the opposite of disadvantaged.
Hope that helps.
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Wow, thatās a lot of apps to put together in short order (just a couple of weeks?) if Brown ED doesnāt work outā¦ especially if they are highly selective schools with significant supplemental essays.
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most are in the works if not done. and he gets into michigan, then more like 5-6 more.
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*if
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just to be clear. this is a me problem, im acutely aware. im not proud of it, but it is very stressful. will NOT call coachā¦my wife would never let me contact him anyway. thank you all for the words of encouragement and support so far.
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Michigan EA decision data is by Jan 30, so your S wonāt know the Michigan decision prior to RD deadlines.
https://admissions.umich.edu/apply/first-year-applicants/first-year-application-plans
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I donāt view it as a problem at all. These are very hard decisions and itās natural for a parent who wants to support their kid to agonize over some of the choices and opportunity costs.
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