Let’s say you want to apply ED to your top choice school, but you are not good enough to be recruited (soccer) at that school. Are you essentially required to apply ED to have a chance of being a recruit (as opposed to walking on)? I’m asking this for DII and DIII schools not DI and for soccer.
If you are NOT a recruit, it is not necessary to apply early. As someone who may have played on high school varsity, that will be viewed by admissions as the equivalent of any other EC activity.
There are a lot of theories as to whether ED truly increases an applicant’s chances for admission. One theory says “not really” because even though the statistics show overall increased admit rates, the pool of applicants has a large proportion of recruited athletes which skews the real reason for the increased admit rate. The other says “it depends.” Schools who are in the market for increasing yield could well admit a large number of the qualified applicants at the ED stage.
If you ARE a recruit, typically (at most schools) it is necessary to apply early. The theory is this: if you are getting an assist with admissions because you are recruited to play on a team, the school wants you to commit to attending the school. If you think through the alternatives to this arrangement, it will make a lot of sense. If all athletes got a leg up in admissions, regardless of whether they committed to attend through ED, then the admissions criteria would be turned on its head. Rather than those having the best grades and board scores standing the best chance of admission, those with the fastest 60 would.
You can tell a lot from an informal discussion with a coach about your chances. If the coach says, “you can try out if you get in,” that means you are not being recruited. If you want to play your sport, you should probably look elsewhere. Of course, many D2 and D3 schools also have club sports or intramural options as alternatives for continued play.
D3 soccer parent agreeing with @gointhruaphase.
A recruit is someone who has been told, usually in person or by phone, something like – “you are a recruit, if you want to play for me next year, please apply ED. Otherwise, I cannot hold a spot for you on my team.”
A student who has not been told that by the coach can certainly apply ED and that may or may not, depending on the school, help with admissions, as a sign of demonstrated interest etc. However, that student has no greater shot at playing as a walk on (and, by definition, is not a recruit) than any other student admitted RD who contacts the coach about possibly coming to pre-season training and “trying out.”
At an admitted student event my student attended at his school (he had been admitted ED, just went to meet some prospective students) – in the large room introductions, probably 10 guys identified themselves as “hoping” to play soccer at the school. When my kid met with his coach that visit, coach said those guys were not recruits, and were hoping to be walk ons. Out of that group (and that was just one admitted student event, I’m sure there were many other guys hoping to be invited to pre-season training), one student was actually invited to attend pre-season training, and did make the team as a walk on.
Research the school and team – one student posted here that NYU Men’s team does not recruit, period, and holds open tryouts. Other schools, like MIT etc, are known for not putting much weight on the admissions scale based on “recruit” status.
Thanks for the info. This is helpful. This the situation, S is a 3-sport athlete. He would like to play soccer in college, preferably varsity but knows he can only do that at like a DIII maybe DII level. He’s on a club team at a club where quite a few players go on to play at small liberal arts colleges (Whitman, Haverford, Pomona, Santa-Clara, Occidental are common schools they’ve gone to play at). He is one of the top players, so playing at that level seems achievable and LACs are attractive to him, though bigger schools also seem fine to him.
But he has said that IF he can maintain his grades through junior year and his test scores are good, then he wants to apply ED to a HYPS school where he is not good enough to play varsity but he could try-out for the club team. That means he cannot use his ED for soccer recruiting purposes. In all likelihood he’ll be rejected from his ED school, because the vast majority are rejected. That means he will have to apply RD and try to walk-on to teams (if he wants to play).
So…from what I’ve read, contacting coaches is still useful since if you are walk-on then it is best if the coach already knows you. Obviously you don’t get the admittance boost that recruited athletes get. He just has to see if he gets in first and take it from there.
But that leads to a different college search and maybe some different time allocation to his other sports. Since playing soccer will be iffy (has to walk-on), it’ll be important to make sure the other schools he applies to have opportunities for him to do his other sports. They are not at all schools, but they are sports he can walk onto. They are not team sports.
Hmm, maybe that something just to ask coaches about? How many walk-ons do you take? If the answer is consistently ‘hardly any’, then S might decide that ‘um, maybe better to devote myself to sport #2 and just soccer more socially’ or ‘rethink applying to a school with 10% admit rate…’
If he is interested in preserving the possibility of D3 play, then yes, he should reach out to coaches at schools of interest, attaching film, a soccer resume, club schedule and high-profile tournaments his team is attending. Be prepared for the fact that, if a player is not interested in committing as a recruit through ED, a coach will lose interest and move on. It is a complicated dance – showing enough interest on the player’s side so that you stay on the coach’s list of interest, but not giving up other options elsewhere, at least through junior year.
Ask about walk-ons, but our anecdote of 1 school showed us that many players hoped to walk on, but out of that large group, only 1 was actually invited to try out. Even for recruits, that just gets your name on the list – playing time is a whole other competition. I can identify several players who probably won’t return to the team because they just haven’t played much of a role. One coach told us a recruit got 2 years to prove themselves, most others said the roster spot was for one year and, if it wasn’t working out, there would be a mutual parting of the ways.
D2 soccer is very competitive for recruiting purposes – many schools have more than half of their rosters filled with foreign players.
Liska21,
If I were you, I would try reversing your efforts. It sounds like your S is good enough to play D3. Why don’t you explore that now, while there is still time. Get a tape made and send some emails off to some fine D3 programs (there are so many of them, ask Midwestmom). See if your son can get any traction with those schools. He may well be able to get on the short list of a few coaches.
After speaking to D3 coaches, your S may decide that the allure of playing soccer outweighs his general chance of admission at an IVY. He can always jump ship and apply early to an Ivy, having ED2 at a D3 as a backup.
Your son might be surprised by the opportunities at D3 schools, especially for varsity athletics. Walking on, however, is always a risk. All schools are different, but most all (the exception being those with B teams) have limited spots. It is way tougher for a coach to cut a recruit than it is to cut a walk-on. If a recruit and walk-on are close, the recruit will win out every time. What coach wants to get the reputation of cutting recruits when it can be avoided.
Anyway, it is probably worth the time to explore playing at the D3 level, even if your son ultimately gives up the idea for a larger school.
@gointhruaphase Thanks, that’s good advice. I’ll tell him to keep an open mind and he can do some visits of D3 schools during this summer or fall so he’ll have a better idea of what he wants to do. He’s a sophomore, and he’s not started emailing coaches but he has started making lists of schools and going to ID camps. He’s also in a ‘college-prep all-state team/program’ and they are working with the guys (and gals) on the recruiting process.
It’s come to a head now because
1 club tryouts are in 6 weeks. His age-group in his club is unfortunately a bit weak and doesn't play in the highest division. He thinks it hurts his speed of play a lot. He sees where he needs to get to by comparing himself to the juniors and seniors at the camps, and worries his current club team will make it hard for him to increase his speed of play enough over the next year. But I highly doubt he will switch clubs. He's intensely loyal and is one of the team captains. The senior coaches have sent a long list of players to D3 schools over the years; they have known S since he was 9. I expect he'll agonize about switching, but will decide against it in the end.
2 More importantly, he does a second sport at a high-level. Decisions have to be made now about some big summer competitions that will conflict in a major way with summer showcases.
The ED thing came up in the Q&A at the last camp. S asked the D3 coach about this but didn’t get a clear answer. The coach said it depends on the school, as some schools have rolling admission not ED/RD.
I’m very sympathetic about the club situation, my player found himself in a similar situation. Club participation at high level tournaments is one of the key components – not exclusively though – of D3 recruiting. Guest play for another team, or approaching current club about playing up to maximize player development might be something to consider. Strong relationships between senior coaches and D3 programs of interest might help open the door, but the college coach still wants to see the player compete at the highest level, often at more than one tournament. Recruiting camps are part of the process, but coming from the Midwest to east coast LACs, we found many coaches already had “their guys” from watching DA teams compete. A player would have to have an incredible 2-3 days at camp to get serious attention if the coach had not seen them play. Can happen, but it’s a lot of pressure.
I agree, explore the club and D3 options, and go from there. My kid started visiting some D3 schools and coaches spring of 10th grade to sort out if he really wanted D3 and to start to understand the expectations.
Good luck!