Thank you all (that was fast!).
My kid is junior STEMMY athlete playing at a pretty high level and has taken a rigorous schedule. This year taking AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Physics, and the usual APs in eng/history plus an engineering course. 35 on the ACT. Close to a 4.9 GPA. Decent STEM activities considering all the time that must be devoted to the sport.
While she has had a little D1 interest, she is absolutely focused on attending a tippy top D3 school. She has fortunately already been contacted by the coaches of the D3 schools she would like to attend and her favorites have kept in close touch for the last year (come to games, text, etc.).
While the coaches have explained generally what will happen after they do prereads in the spring (will need to commit to EA or REA somewhere) and we will have further conversations with said coaches, I was hoping to tap the knowledge of this group for some advance knowledge.
There are a couple of very STEMmy schools that I know donât have âslotsâ per se (MIT is mentioned above) so does that mean the student is competing against the general population and must have absolutely equivalent credentials? Or is there still some consideration for the time spent on athletics even if it means student did not do multiple math/science fairs/research etc?
Re some SLAC that we know have slots, we know kids who applied EA and announced it. I assume those kids were already told by coach that Admissions gave them a green light from the preread and the coach has them on the list so they felt comfy âannouncingâ before they get their official decision from admissions?
However, we know others who claim are being supported by the coach at the SLAC but are going through the EA process without assurance? So is this second group maybe not on the coachâs top list and, thus, the student was not told you are in for sure?
Finally, how can some SLAC âofferâ a kid based only on the preread? Donât they still need to go through the process?
Sorry if these questions are kind of silly. We have been watching others go through it and sometimes itâs confusing. Really appreciate your input.
MIT and Caltech offer coach support, but there are no guarantees. The applicant has to have similar qualifications as non athletes, but that means a 50/50 chance. It is not like other schools where coaches may be allowed to support recruits who are slightly below standards.
2 and 3. Kids still have to go through the admissions process. It is the AO that admits them, not the coach. Coaches may tell a recruit that passes a preread that supported recruits with their academic resume have a â90% plusâ chance of getting admitted if they apply ED. Those kids may be comfortable âannouncingâ but there a chance they will get deferred or rejected even with coach support. Could be a horrible application, kidâs actual senior classes donât match up with what was indicated in the pre-read, kid does something stupid on SM or some other reason.
My â24 son was admitted to a NESCAC and is a recruited athlete. Like your daughter, he is a STEM kid (pre-med). He looked closely at Johns Hopkins, which I assume would be on your daughterâs list. The JHU coach was very upfront that he would not give anyone an offer who did not have at least a 34 ACT. He also emphasized that course rigor is very important. I can only imagine how difficult recruiting must be for a coach at a school like that, so your daughterâs ACT score and transcript will probably generate a lot of interest. I would suggest she state her ACT score in all emails to coaches and attach copies of her transcript and ACT score report.
I do not know what the admissions process is like at JHU. At the NESCACs, the athletes submit their transcript, test scores, and school profile by the end of June, and admissions does a pre-read. In our experience, admissions gives the coach feedback in the form of green light, yellow light, or red light. There is no written guarantee of admission, unlike the Ivies, which issues likely letters. (Ok, maybe a likely letter from an Ivy is not technically a guarantee, but I would treat it that way.) We were very hands-off throughout the whole process of recruiting until August 1 when the NESCAC coach made my son an offer and said he had gotten a green light from admissions. At that point, we did have a call with coach and talked at length to get comfortable with committing based on a verbal âgreen light.â Based on that conversation, I was comfortable with him telling people that he had committed to the admissions process at his NESCAC.
Although my son did not consider MIT, my understanding from the parents of his friends that did is that athletes do not get much, if any, advantage in the admissions process. While most athletes at NESCACs do not get much (if any) break on the admissions requirements, at least they get a pre-read. My understanding is that MIT does not do pre-reads. So, while the coach may have a sense of whether your daughter is admissible (i.e., her stats are in range), the coach has no sense from admissions whether she is likely to be admitted. For this reason, I am guessing athletes who commit to MIT are less likely to say they are committed to MIT until they actually receive their offers of admission in December. The MIT process puts a lot of pressure on the athlete. In my sonâs class, we know one recruited athlete who was accepted early to MIT and one who was deferred. Iâm so sad for the one who was deferred because he is an excellent student who would have had a great shot applying ED or EA to many highly selective colleges.
I want to clarify that an Ivy League pre-read does not return a likely letter. My experience is that the results of pre-reads are not presented in writing. If offered a slot, the student athlete must trust the coach, take a leap of faith and apply. (and tell this to all the other coaches they are being recruited by, too) Once the application is in, admissions looks at it and can choose to send a likely letter. A likely letter is based on a full application. Think of it as an acceptance that arrives a few weeks before Ivy League rules allow acceptances to be sent outâthats all. Student athletes must commit before applying, and the risk of not being accepted feels very real to the student athlete up until the letter comes.
Good clarification, thank you. The kids I have known who have gone through the process all received their likely letters prior to Nov 1. They were very much aware that if they did not receive a likely letter by Nov 1, they could change course and apply ED or EA somewhere else. That, to me, is an important difference from the NESCAC process.
Of course, the student would likely have a tough time getting an offer from another school in that situation, but they could at least apply to another school as a non-recruited athlete.
I would think if they drop down to d3, and if they had been talking to those coaches all along, (especially if they told a coach their program was #2, but they wanted to try for an Ivy) that actually theyâd have a decent chance at being recruited elsewhere.
I think my son got his LL in mid-November. He made his commitment and got his application in by mid-October. Unfortunately, one of his LORs came in a little after November 1, and admissions didnât start to process his application until everything was in. In hand sight, he should have let his letter-writers know that getting their recommendations in early (or even on timeâŠ) would make a difference.
The fall back plan is important, if just for piece of mind. Son had spoken to 2 D1s and a D3 that were ok with being safetys. He would have been fine at any of them if that was how it played out, but he is a pretty laid back kid. Its nerve wracking, but kids often seem to wind up at the right place for them.
Itâs been a few years though for my kid at an Ivy, they didnât commit to the coach/school until early to mid Oct, and submitted their EA application right after they committed.
We did not have College Confidential to draw on for experience so it was a bit nerve racking waiting for the Likely Letter and then for the official admissions. The coaches guided us and I would say they were upfront.
For what it is worth, I believe the Likely Letter came fairly quickly, and ironically I did not believe that it had the word âlikelyâ in it.
My kid also received a call from the school telling them they were being accepted, which was a nice touch.
That said, I still found it a bit nerve racking until receiving the official acceptance.
That was my sonâs experience with MIT recruiting as well (for T&F) (for this past cycle).
No pre-read. So, as much as the coach might say he thinks you have an excellent chance of getting in, it is risker than taking a support offer from other high academic D3s.
Schools are all a little different and the best source for process is the coach. My oldest was recruited by D1s and D3s, outcome sheâs playing at D3. What we learned:
Ivies send out likely letters unlike other D1s that send out letters of intent - which is like a contract.
For D3 there are some schools that give likely letter - my eldest received it after admissions reviewed her full application-scores, Lors, transcripts, essaysâŠ2 weeks after she submitted her application at the beginning of August. She applied EA and once she got likely letter was asked to switch to ED.
All schools are different-so the above timeline is for this particular school.
I think important question to ask Coach âis my student athlete top 3 top 5 on your list?â Depending on sport you get a sense how much the coach wants the athlete.
Good luck! Your athlete has great stats so I donât think admissions (MIT excluded - you never know) will be a major issue.
To get a NLI (National Letter of Intent) the recruited athlete has to get a monetary award, even if it is small like books, to make it a contract. These are signed in November or after, so arenât sent out by schools like the Likely Letters before admission. Many athletes play D1 sports and do not get an award so they donât sign the NLI.
my rising senior just had a call with a D3 Track coach and I wasnât listening and am trying to get clear and concise info from him. He said the coach told him to apply ED and that he would love to have him as part of the team but the connection wasnât great and he wasnât totally sure if the coach meant he was slotting him. I think my son should draft an email as a follow up to the phone call. This is a top choice school and he plans to apply ED but I want him to ask about the coachâs support in the admissions process as he is a bit on the bubble academically. Could someone in this thread help me draft an email or at least some questions to ask? This is new to us.