<p>Yes. I know a kid who had a “verbal commitment” from a Princeton coach, who supposedly had gotten an early read from the admissions office. Nothing in writing, no likely letter. The kid was rejected EA at Princeton. (And received a likely letter from Harvard a week later, four days after applying there with the Harvard coach’s support.)</p>
<p>Something similar happened to a friend of my daughter’s in 2005, at another Ivy. She applied ED there, then was deferred. She was ultimately accepted RD, and she managed to get an athletic scholarship offer from Duke in the meantime. This was a perfectly intelligent kid, by the way, with OK-not-great test scores and less-then-OK grades at a very strong school. (And, to be fair, a decent explanation for the grades.) She did not have trouble doing well at a top college.</p>