I am now in contact with some colleges like cornell, nyu and chicago. One thing that i am not too sure is when to apply for swimming recruit. Is is ED? Or RD? Is early decision only for swimmers who gets pre read from coaches?
From our experience if a coach decides to support you in the recruiting process, you will need to apply ED in order to get that boost from admissions. Just getting a pre-read doesnât mean you will make the final cut on the recruiting roster either. It all depends on where you stand agains the other recruits. The coaches from these teams should be able to give you more definitive answers.
So can you apply ED to multiple schools at the same time? What if there are 3 cosches supporting at the same time?
No, you cannot apply ED to multiple schools at the same time.
Cornell has ED only - so their ED date is the only one.
NYU has ED1 and ED2 - so you can apply to one of the others as your âtopâ choice and put in an application to NYU ED2 if you donât get in to Cornell IF the coach is willing to support your application ED2.
Chicago has EA, ED1 and ED2 - EA is âearly actionâ - not binding on your part. ED1 and ED2 are like for the others - binding.
So you have to decide which school is your top choice, put in your application there for EA or ED1, then if it doesnât work out, you can move onto whatâs still available for an ED2 application. The coach support helps, but doesnât change the rules regarding early decision applications - only one (per round) allowed, and if they admit you, thatâs where you get to go (with very few exceptions).
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There have been a number of debates about applying ED vs. RD on this site. Coaches that support an athlete through admissions usually make it pretty clear that the recruit should apply ED. The reason for this quid pro quo is fairly obvious. If you are getting a boost in admissions from a coach with admissions (to the detriment of another qualified applicant) the coach should know that you are going to attend the school and be on the team. So, if an applicant applies RD it is a message to the coach and admissions that the recruit isnât sure that he or she wants to attend.
There are some notable exceptions. There are some midwest LACs that donât essentially require ED applications as a part of the recruiting process (Macalester and Carleton come to mind).
It is difficult to determine your situation. You ask âIs early decision only for swimmers who gets pre read from coaches?â Does this mean that the Cornell coach has turned down your request for a pre-read? If so, I strongly suspect that you will not be supported by the coach as a recruit. In that case, follow the ED rules for non-recruits. If you are a true recruit, then you should ask the coach how he or she wants you to apply.
@gointhruaphase Cornell coach did not turn down on meâŠI just started emailing him and all he said was âi am lookng forward to working with you over the next year.â That being said, I have not requested him for a pre read or anything, he just want me to fill in the questionairre and keep in contact with him because I am attending college in 2020.
Note - just because you get a pre-read, coach support and put in your application ED, that doesnât mean admissions will say âyesâ. We have a teammate, a male swimmer actually who applied ED to one of the schools youâve mentioned âwith full coach supportâ through ED and did not get accepted. This was last year, with the coach that is still there now. That coach boost can help, but itâs no guarantee.
Cornell is DI and Ivy League however and the process will work a little differently.
@jmtabb may I ask which school was it? was it because of his academics?
Coach contact is only 1 small step in the recruiting process. Just because a coach is willing to exchange emails with you does not mean you are a recruited athlete that will receive full support during the admissions process. If you are entering college in 2020, you are still 1 admissions cycle away. Normally coaches will cast a wide net early and begin to narrow their lists significantly the summer before the year that recruiting class applies, in your case next summer. That is also when pre-reads occur (getting a pre-read does not necessarily mean you are a recruit as stated upthread). If you are being recruited, the coach will tell you what he/she expects in terms of a commitment from you in the application process. You have a long ways to go.
If you are applying to colleges this year but taking a gap year to enter college in 2020, you probably have missed the boat on being a recruited athlete.
agree with all @bksquared said. Also it is appropriate to update the coaches with times from your upcoming season, especially personal bests, top finishes, etc. Again, target schools where your times, GPA and test scores are competitive. Ultimately (next summer), you will need to find out from each coach where you stand in their recruiting list. Finally, regardless of the school @jmtabb references, even a green light on a pre-read is not a 100% guarantee at any school. Poor first quarter/semester senior year grades can certainly torpedo âcommittedâ candidates.
Iâm not going to name the school - there are three youâve listed so thatâs already making this pretty narrow. And no-one will tell you why admissions says no. You are talking about schools with low acceptance rates. Most of the kids who apply are in the ballpark academically. It could be because a student applies for a major with high demand and doesnât make the cut academically for his major. It could be because the coach doesnât have that much influence. Or it could be because the kid did something goofy on his application. Weâll never know.
Also want to point out that this process doesnât completely end with the ED round. The swimmer that didnât get accepted ED got signed at another school, DI, and could not be more excited about his upcoming college studies and swimming. The NLI was signed in April. And another teammate did not get the coach support and interest from his dream school, had planned to take a gap year and train to try again this year and ended up signing with a (different) D1 school last May.
And we know another student who swims in our area has ended up at MIT, and was not accepted EA. He made his commitment to the school and the team in April. We do not know if his application was deferred or if he only applied RD, but we know it wasnât all firmed up for him until RD timing.
At this point, keep talking with the coaches, send them regular updates on your swimming and studies, and donât narrow down the field too much. Pre-reads for fall 2020 admission will likely happen next summer - but as each school term end and you have updated grades go ahead and forward them.
Keep in touch with the coaches that you are interested in swimming for, update your swim times as well as your test scores. My DS20 has contacted one of his top school coaches (D3) with his best times, he immediately asked about his tests scores. So if you have not already done your SAT/ACT, you should start planning to have them done soon. Good luck.
This site can be quite valuable, especially in interpreting âcoach speakâ and seeking the experience of others who have gone through the process. As you note, it is important to understand the outline of the process before being recruited. You are right to be planning in advance. Still on the issue of whether you should apply early to any given school, that is a decision that needs to be made based primarily on coach input. For example, I want to attend X college, the coach will support my application in the ED round(s), so if I want to attend X college, I had better apply early. By contrast, if the coach tells you that you can try out for the team if you get into X college, ED would not be the best option unless that is your preferred school for other than athletic reasons.
I do think you should assume that as a recruit you will be expect to apply early, but that is not a foregone conclusion. Before you get there, plan on a lot of coach interaction, an official visit to the school, a pre-read, and (for Ivies and some limited others) a likely letter.
@jmtabb i just have one more concern. If i were to apply lets say cornell as my top choice for ED1 and chicago for EA, how will i know if that will work out well or not before applying to other college for ED2? I mean if i put cornell for ed1, the result will come out after the deadline of ED2 for other collegeâŠ
So is it like a really hard gamble? If you fail ED1, too bad I am no longer a recruited swimmer
Itâs a gamble, thatâs for sure. And the answer is that IF the coach for the EDII school is willing to support your app for EDII, you put in both applications before the November application deadline. If you get in to the EDI school, then you withdraw the application for the EDII school.
Thatâs a discussion you would need to have with the coach at the school you want to put the app in for EDII.
I know that coach support happens at the EDII level. I donât know how much it happens, if itâs the same level of support for the application, if you need to be higher on the recruit list for the coach to agree etc. Thatâs all stuff that would need to be discussed with the coach.
And of course like I said before, I know that the recruiting continues through in the regular decision rounds too - as the coaches fill up their teams, their ability to support an application may change, and your ranking on their recruit list may change as they firm up their roster. That can be both good and bad.
For DI and DII schools, most recruits sign a National Letter of Intent (NLI). Generally athletes apply ED, EA or SCEA/REA, but not always. NLIs are binding contracts, although typically there are stipulated reasons that the parties can back out (eg. poor senior year grades, coaching changes, and more).
On your current list, Cornell is DI, NYU and UChicago are DIII. DIII recruits do not sign an NLI, but there is often a non-binding commitment letter/celebratory signing form of some type. At DIII schools there can be less clarity as to where you stand, but you need to find out from coaches if they are using one of their slots for you regardless. This typically happens after a pre-read, because if you canât cut it academically, the coach canât recruit you.
You typically find out about EDI (and EA/REA/SCEA) results before the ED2 application deadline. But, you would have to have an understanding with the ED2 coach that you have a spot if applying ED2, or even regular decision. This can be tricky, because the ED2 school and program was obviously not your first choice. Some coaches will not like this, others will still take youâall depends on how much they want you, and their recruiting success in EDI round.
Athletic recruiting is complicated and I encourage you to read the many threads on CC to become educated on the various divisions, specifics and terminology. The NCAA website is a good source, as well as swimming specific recruiting sites like collegeswimming.com
@MrDiaz The Ivy league recruitment will result in a Likely letter, which is received much earlier than the ED decision date. The earliest Likely Letter date is Oct 1 for an Ivy league. Although each Ivys have different deadline in terms of the adcom LL meeting, the coach will be able to tell you when the first LL meeting will be, and usually about 1 week after the meeting the LL is decided and distrubuted. Therefore ask the Cornell coach when the earliest LL meeting will be and the deadline for your application. In the case of Harvard this past year, the first LL meeting was Sept 26, application material deadline was 1 week prior to this meeting and the LL was given out on Oct 1. So if you do not receive the LL, then you can move on to your plan B school. Again, the LL was received even before the first EA/ED deadline.
@downallunder Not all Ivy League recruited athletes receive a likely letter. Further, OP would have to clear this strategy with his school GC, as it sounds like what you are suggesting is to pull the ED app if he doesnât receive a likely letter. Not all GCs would allow this, nor would they allow the student to then apply elsewhere ED1 or 2, as it sounds like you are suggesting OP would do. This also risks hurting the relationship with coaches that were not the first choice, and there are no guarantees they would still welcome the student-athleteâs application. Lastly this strategy could violate the NLI (assuming one is executed at a DI/DII school). It is a complicated dance for sure.
@Mwfan1921 In the Ivy league, yes not all athletes will get a likely letter if they are not a slotted recruit. In other words, if the coach is saying he/she will only give a letter of support for their application, but not able to give the athlete a specific recruitment slot allotted to them by the athletic depart that year, then if the athlete gets admitted he/she will not receive a Likely Letter. But if the athlete is officially recruited by being given a verbal commitment to be offered a recruit slot, then their application will be submitted to the Likely letter meeting by the adcom. Therefore if an Ivy coach is not willing to offer a slot, then the application will not have any significant hook and really wonât be any different than all the other non athlete applicants.