Recently a coach in HYP told me that he will not be able to give me a likely letter but there was another kind of support he could give me.He said he could recommend my application to admissions and that every year 4/5 applicants get this support.
My other option is to commit to Carnegie Mellon where I received a positive pre read for ECE.I intend on studying Computer Science / Engineering.Do you think I should risk applying Early to the ivy(it is my dream school) or take the almost sure shot at CMU.
Tough choice, with the good news that those are all great schools. There are some threads on here on Likely Letters versus other forms of support at Ivies and you might find it helpful to track those down. There’s also a good blog post on this topic at the Tier One Athletics site.
Not all supported recruits get LLs, but to me if the coach is saying he can’t give you a LL, it kind of sounds like you may not really be a supported recruit. Each Ivy coach has a specific number of recruits they can support (ideally expressed through a LL to remove all ambiguity) and I think it’s important to understand if you’re on that list or not.
@lolsji - A great question for the coach would be if 4 to 5 applicants get the non-likely letter support each year, then on average how many are actually accepted. The answer to that question will help you decide where to apply Early.
Great suggestion GrudeMonk. And just to put the answer from the coach in context, for supported/LL Ivy recruits it’s probably over 90% that are actually admitted, as they have all been through a pre-read where admissions (not the coach) gave them a positive review based on grades and test scores.
Not 100% - someone could still have bad letters of recommendation, or bad essays - but with a pre-read already done and real coach support, the chances are high.
Another marker of how invested the team is - did the school pay for an official visit to campus?
Right–the 4 out of 5 applicants get his support isn’t really a promise of anything. You’d want to hear instead that 4 out of 5 who get this support are admitted–which is highly unlikely.
I’m assuming you’ve visited CMU. What did you think? Would you be happy there? A sure bet is great, but not if the school doesn’t feel like a good fit.