There will be a number of kids who turn down a number of schools – you can only attend one! Everyone is talking to several schools because they don’t know where offers will come from.
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Honestly, I’m surprised that more parents are not encouraging their child/athlete to ask more direct questions of the coaches. No, your child should not ask the coach FOR a pre-read, but they should be asking direct, polite questions to know where they are in the recruiting process, what steps are next, do my grades/transcripts/rigor match what your school looks for, where am I on your list, what happens next if I pass a pre-read, when can I expect to hear, etc., etc.
Again, not all coaches will be forthcoming, some will be vague. In our experience (generalization), coaches who were vague often had my kid further down their list. But, if a student loves a school, has communication with the coach, and the coach has seen their transcripts, grades, etc. in some form, the student should be asking very pointed questions about next steps. In my opinion, these kids/teens don’t naturally understand the amount of communication they actually need to have with these coaches (this does not come naturally to all kids), and this is where parents come in to guide them. It doesn’t have to be all questions, but it should also be regular and frequent updates. Our daughter drove the process, was motivated and mature, but we had to encourage her to communicate more than she would have naturally been inclined to, at 15-16 years of age. The communication (email, texting, requesting calls to clarify specific questions, sharing regular updates) was significant and time consuming for her. No way around it. When she narrowed it down in Spring of junior year, the calls and emails were very frequent.
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We have seen that among NESCACs, kids will turn down a great school like Williams because they prefer the coach or team/players at (also terrific) schools like Tufts, Bates, etc.
The quality of education is comparable at many of the NESCACs such that a little edge in prestige may not matter as much to some as who they will play for and with for the next four years.
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In our experience (non-helmet sport), coaches make as many concurrent offers as they have ability to fully support (so, if they get 2 fully supported admission nods, they offer to 2 kids at the same time), usually with a window of a couple of weeks to decide. And then if either declines, they move to #3, and so on. You can see how if you’re #7, you may still get one of those 2 offers, but it takes time (and luck, such that 5 people decided to go elsewhere).
As for the “do kids at Williams etc also get positive feedback from a D1” question - yes it happens. More so with kids that are at the top of a coach’s list. There is generally crossover between the #1 recruit at a Williams or UChicago or JHU (sport dependant, of course) and the Ivies or other high-academic, not big-time athletic D1s (so, schools like UVA, Rice, etc, but not Stanford, Duke).
Also, remember every Admissions Office has hundreds of pre-reads to complete each summer, and although they presumably can start to review them before July 1, that doesn’t mean that they have completed reviewing all of them by July 1 - especially with vacations, staff turnover, etc. So simply because you don’t hear back in the first few days after decisions may be released, doesn’t necessarily mean anything negative.
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Sometimes the timing gets pretty crammed down to October. S had 5 OV’s to spread across September and early October. He let the last school (Williams equivalent Amherst) know within a week after the OV at the end of the first week of October.
The other thing that happens in position sports is that there may be a pecking order by position vs an overall pecking order. For example, if a pitcher drops out, then who is next in line may be another pitcher.
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Same here
Nearly end of Friday and still not a word. Even if the student fails the pre-read or is near the bottom of the list, shouldn’t there be some sort of communication anyway?
There was a holiday in the middle of it too. Reach out to the coach and ask where they are in the process.
I’m thinking holiday week probably not. Also the admission’s office might not have gotten to every pre read by July 1.
Some coaches aren’t great and/or frequent communicators. Personally I would give them two weeks (from July 1) before your kid contacts them again. Your student should be asking what the timing of the process is and where they stand on the list, at appropriate times of course. Not many students fail the pre-read, and the ones that do are far more likely to be in a helmet sport.
Agreed, no way admissions got thru every pre-read on July 1. Also remember coaches may not be ready to make offers for several months after pre-reads.
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There are about 150 athletic recruits at each NESCAC. Coaches probably get pre-reads for at least double this number, so the AO needs to go through at least 300 files. As a matter of time management, I would not be surprised if the coaches have to identify their priority candidates which will be read first. I agree with @Mwfan1921 that I would wait a couple of weeks before contacting a coach, unless you have an “exploding” offer in hand from another school.
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Hard to know without knowing how interested the coach is/how much specific information they’ve discussed. Has there been a lot of contact, phone calls, etc.? Has your student been given any indication of where they are on the coach’s list? Did coach give feedback on student’s academic/pre-read info? Typically they know if a student will pass. How communicative is coach normally? Lots of factors here. Ideally students ask ahead of time when they can expect to hear, does coach expect they’ll pass, what are next steps if they pass, how many is coach taking through pre-read, etc.
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Mine got her pre read greenlight on July 2 with news tbat she got positive feed back from AO and would love for her to come meet the team late august early sept
Said she was “top 10” (but we know they can only support 4 spots”
Daughter wrote back saying very excited, would love to do visit and reiterating the school is 
her top choice
It’s been 5 days and she is already worried that coach didn’t email back (it’s July 4 holiday)
What is like to be happening on the coaches end right now? Giving offers to the top 4 in the “passed the pre-read” group?
This is a top WASP school and I wonder if some of those who passed pre reads but are better athletes could be also negotiating or waiting for Ivy response?
I think its too early to stress. You will drive yourself crazy if you try to read the coach’s mind the whole time.
I would wait a couple of weeks and email the coach to politely ask where they are with forming their class, what is their timeline for making offers and what is next step for her.
Has she visited the school? If not, an unofficial visit is a good way to show she is serious about the school and meet the coach in person.
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Yeah! Visited with dad for tour and met coach and then we stopped by once more so she could show me.
I think it’s a holiday week and impossible to really know. I would assume they are on vacation and maybe engaging less with their work last week. Maybe they we out of the country and trying not to text? Too many unknowns. What you do know seems super positive to me. Passed the preread and top 10 seems solid. Not everyone in the top 10 will choose that school. We should find out the next stage of this in the next week or two as athletes will start accepting offers places.
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It is possibly any or all of this and all you can control is what you can control. Give the coach time to settle in after the July 4th weekend and then reach out, maybe at the end of the week asking the questions that @TonyGrace outlined.
It is stressful but waiting a bit is likely the best option.
Late August is when the teams arrive back on campus so you can take that as a sign that there is real interest in your daughter but you don’t know exactly where she sits right now. The process often goes on for awhile as offers go out and responses are received.
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Agree. Waiting to hear is incredibly stressful. If she last heard on 7/2, it’s possible the coach took some family time over the holiday, although they’re no doubt honing in on their top 4 first.
I’d suggest to my kid to give it until the end of this week as suggested above, and then have them reach out and ask specific, outlined questions. Does your child email only, or also call and/or text them?
The difficult reality is, they’re likely waiting to figure out who of their top 4 are accepting, and they may have given one or more recruits some additional time to decide/wait to hear from other schools. Definitely have her reach out again, but she just might not know for awhile if she’s not the top 1 or 2. Have her keep lots of options open in the meantime! Keep up vigilant contact with other coaches/programs!
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