Ivy Recruiting - Official Visit expenses

Athletic Recruits
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child 2026 (recruit) is being woo’d by a major Ivy for a niche, non-revenue sport

based on rankings, recruit is probably #1 pick for them; no worse than #2

school has a healthy athletic budget (one of largest among Ivy); our family has “connection” to the school; they are not being generous with costs associated with the visit (won’t cover full cost of a 3 hour flight roundtrip for the recruit; nothing for parents; recruit staying overnight with a current team member); we live in an expensive zip code, fwiw, so maybe they think we can afford it

this will be the recruit’s 3rd OV, with another one planned the following week; 2 are with major D1 (P4) programs and 1 with rival Ivy

in all 3 other visits, itinerary and logistics were provided well in advance, and all expenses were paid for; with 4 days left for this OV we only have a tentative schedule and are still fiddling around with flights and logistics

the head coach does not have an assistant coach to help with these details - so I am guessing that the disorganization is due to being busy/overwhelmed

I am not thrilled with the nickel & diming and other costs associated with OV; CC parents and others who have experienced this in the past: is cheapness during the OV process indicative or a red flag for how things may be once a recruit is a student-athlete?

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Friends kid was recruited and committed to an Ivy for a revenue popular sport. I believe some costs were covered but not all.

I think if you don’t like the school being fiscally responsible, then you should choose elsewhere.

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For a non revenue sport - No. My daughter was an Ivy recruit and overnights differ across the league as do the benefits assigned to athletes at each school. If this bothers you (guessing not your child), I would encourage you to let go and see how your child likes the school, classes and team without your concerns potentially coloring their visit.

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This was my kid’s experience with Ivy OVs. They want the recruit to experience a little bit of college life, staying in the dorm and eating in the dining halls. If during the week, going to a class or two with a current team members. Getting to know future teammates. The team usually has dinner together when recruits are visiting. Parent accommodations and parent flights were not covered for us. I wouldn’t worry about nickel and diming.

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Uhhh… isn’t that usually the preferred arrangement?

Pretty common.

IME they don’t “wine and dine” certain recruits more than others. The OV policy is the the same for everyone. If you truly can’t afford the ticket for your son, discuss that with the coach but there is no expectation that they will pay for yours.

Congratulations! Those are likely to be two very different academic, social, and even athletic experiences. Your son will have to decide what is more important to him.

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The only part of this that seems slightly unusual is that they aren’t paying for your student’s travel. Your family will just have to decide if that matters to you, which will likely be more interesting in the context of the entire set of visits. I would wonder more about the lack of an assistant: not a deciding factor by itself, but interesting to understand if the disorganization carries through the team. Your athlete should be able to suss that out.

Good luck!

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Unlike major Division I programs (especially Power 5 schools), Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships, and their athletic budgets, though large, are typically more restricted when compared to P4 schools. This may explain some of the “nickel and diming” during the visit. Ivy League schools generally prioritize academics over athletics, even in recruitment processes for high-level athletes.

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interestingly my child is the one who mentioned the cheapness and disorganization

“maybe they aren’t really that interested in me?”

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I am extremely knowledgeable about this school (and other Ivy’s) fiscal capabilities

I am comparing this school specifically to their rival school which we already visited (and they rolled out the red carpet)

I guess I am specifically asking, if they are cheap when they are trying to impress and have no leverage, how will they treat the student-athlete once they are committed/captive?

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we’ve experienced otherwise already - at their rival school no less

speaking with other recruits of same year, there does seem to be differences in how they treat them; we are wondering whether it is because another recruit’s family may appear to experience more need/help

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You want to be wooed and thats totally acceptable to judge schools if thats important to you. Everyone wants to feel wanted.

I think its impossible to say whether or not your kid would get the gold star treatment.
Yes some kids who may have greater financial needs may very well get more money. You may be comparing apples to oranges as we dont know for certain others financial statuses.

I work at a college and have kids who did have to travel for auditions and such. No travel expenses were given to us. This ivy may have limited funds for non revenue recruits. Will you be able to afford the school if accepted?

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That reaction makes sense, and it’s worth your athlete exploring - both whether they’re being treated differently (which would be an unpleasant feeling) or if the team happens to be comparatively underfunded. In my experience, the level of organization and early communication is usually about the program’s recruiting process (and its current distractions), which may or may not be reflective of the program as a whole. Some schools just send out itineraries closer to the visit, are dealing with details at the last minute, etc. I think it’s sort of equivalent to the level of organization at the admissions office: maybe it’s reflective of the school, maybe it’s not. Talking to athletes about how whether they have the resources and structure they need to be successful once they start is something your athlete should absolutely be doing.

Put more simply: maybe not paying for their visit is a sign; maybe it’s nothing at all. It really doesn’t matter if the school has a multi-billion-dollar endowment: the team has a budget and needs to make choices. It’s also possible that other prospective students told the school they couldn’t afford to travel on their own, or they make some decision based on geography, or a bunch of possibilities you can’t possibly know now. It’s information - useful but not determinative.

Hmmm. I have some thoughts here, take them as you wish. FWIW, I haven’t talked about it much here, but one of my children is a student/athlete who had a very similar profile.

First: your student hasn’t yet been accepted to this no-doubt-very-prestigious university, and so really has zero leverage. It is understandable to want to feel wanted (as @2plustrio said). Being #1/#2/whatever in a non-revenue sport is something the school values, and also they’ll be fine if your student doesn’t attend. Every coach I’ve ever spoken with has some story about an athlete they wanted before the visit and did not want after. Their job is still to be someone the team wants.

Second: this may be an opportunity to help your student get a sense of perspective. It’s amazing, and no doubt reflective of their very hard work, that they’ve built a set of skills that top universities choose to value, and so they’re willing to spend time and money to help your student see why whichever HYP this is would be a great fit for them. Also, there are tens of thousands of equally-amazing kids all across the country who will get absolutely zero 1-1 interaction from these schools whatsoever, will send their applications into a black hole, would no doubt be successful at those places, and will just get a “Sorry” note in their portal in the Spring. Your student is incredibly privileged to be in the position they’re in - even if some of that is their hard work, plenty of it is an unbelievable amount of luck - and I hope they can gain that perspective before they matriculate anywhere.

(Also, nobody is “captive” here, either practically or figuratively. C’mon.)

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Some of the things you mention are pretty typical in my experience: staying with current students, not paying for parents, fairly late itinerary of on campus activities (I’ve seen this arrive the night before, and having had kids on the other end of this came to realize it was often a function of seeing who was available, and when, to be involved with recruiting).

Figuring out flights this late is a bit unusual. Lack of an assistant coach could explain this I suppose. Paying for only part of a flight hasn’t been my experience but I have heard of this happening.

You mention being familiar with finances so perhaps you have deeper knowledge than I do. But my understanding is that some of these programs rely on the various friends groups to fund things beyond the institutional budget. This often includes visits, additional team travel, additional assistant coaches, training staff, etc. It’s not as if these coaches can just tap the endowment for visits. This might or might not explain the approach here, not sure. Yes, it wouldn’t surprise me if the perception of affluent parents affected this.

Whether this has any correlation to life in the team is something the recruit can try to understand on the visit. I wouldn’t assume it does. I’ve seen totally disorganized coaches on the recruiting side be somewhat off-putting, but then talking to team members reveals them to be organized and caring where it matters (to those on the team).

If you can afford it I’d just take the visit without any assumptions and see what it reveals.

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So, my daughter has gone on five official visits and was really put off when one college offered to pay for hotel and dining and not for travel. What she did was to call the recruiter and ask, “Does this mean you aren’t very interested in me?” The recruiter told her it was the school’s policy to not pay for travel expenses but to pay for expenses once the recruit was on the ground. My daughter already has some good options, so if the school hadn’t been interested, she wouldn’t have visited.

I feel like the recruiting process has been so good for helping my daughter build her communications skills and confidence and those bumps in the road have provided great opportunities to learn.

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Have you considered that maybe by not paying for hotels and flights for recruits and their parents, the program has chosen to spend more of their athletic budget on the student athletes already in the program? Nicer gear, better hotel rooms during game travel, locker room upgrades, etc.? I wouldn’t be put off by spending less on wooing recruits, especially now that the number of OVs kids can take is unlimited. Spending less on the front end does not necessarily correlate to “cheapness” overall.

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I had a kid that was a top recruit at an Ivy and other D1s as well.
I understand that things have changed a bit as its been a few years, and it can vary by sport, though are Ivy Likely Letters being offered to and accepted by other 26 athletes? Are the official visits in fall 24 where the coach/kids narrow down and agree to apply ED with LL support?

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Just so it’s clear for OP, Likely Letters are issued by admissions after a complete REA/ED application is submitted (with coach support). They are not offered by coaches before the application is in.

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My 2025 T&F athlete went on official visits and all paid for her air travel. No air travel is paid for parents, but hotels were covered. Likely letters, if issued, come after OCT 1, after the student’s full application has been reviewed. The LL will be issued from AO.

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Understood. My question was more about the timing and concern from the OP about the OV’s while still a year in advance of applying.
It may be a bit of semantics, but coaches do offer their support and a LL in advance of an application, with the condition that the committed recruit will be submitting an application. Although not 100% guaranteed as admissions sends out the LLs.

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In our sport OVs for '26 are happening now, with recruitment often being wrapped up by spring break, even if announcements are sometimes slower to come. Based on past announcements, I am guessing some receive offers contingent on SAT scores, which most do not have at this point so they won’t publicly commit until March/May/June.