I am curious at the timing and peoples experiences for the pre-reads in all NESCAC and UAA schools. My son has had three pre-reads so far - a smaller division 1 in the patriot league, a UAA (which I thought was early?) and another small D1 down south. When do other D3s start? I am aware that NESCAC is July 1. Also, can people share how many positives versus negatives they had pre-reads? Were you shocked at all? Did you need a writing sample anywhere else besides Williams? Thanks!!!
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Coaches usually have a sense of who will pass a preread (and don’t submit those they think won’t pass), so I would guess that most kids do pass their prereads.
I suspect others’ experiences won’t necessarily apply to your student, as grades, the sport, the talent level etc varies. But to answer your question, my son passed all 5 of his prereads, only needed a writing sample for Williams, got his UAA offer in May. The only non nescac he had a preread at can do them before July.
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I agree with @cinnamon1212 on this one, most kids pass their prereads. For my D she had her first UAA and a D1 offer late April and early May. Another UAA late May, early June along with a Liberty League offer. There were a couple of other offers in July and all of her NESCAC offers were Aug. 1 (which is back to July for this year). Her last offer was mid-August. There was never an issue with pre-reads.
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Agree that most students pass the pre-reads. Most coaches ask admissions for more pre-reads than they have slots.
S21 received a NCAC pre-read and verbal offer in early summer after junior year and verbally committed (recruiting was a mess because of covid.) He had a couple of verbal offers from high admit rate schools that he wasn’t interested in while attending a camp (none did pre-reads with admissions.)
D19 had five pre-reads in NESCAC, one in UAA. Some were July 1, some later due to coaching changes (two went into October.) Pre-reads materialized into two offers that did not align timing wise. First offer came in late August, D19 turned that offer down in 10 days or so at the coach imposed deadline. Accepted an offer that came at the very end of October.
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Same experience as above. No issue with pre-reads as GPA/test scores were never an issue (coaches had data by spring junior year). The situations where pre-reads may be in question are for “impact” players whose academics are putting them in the “lowest band” or other type of index that the coaches follow. If you are not an impact player and academics are subpar vs regular admitted students, coaches generally will pass early in the process, and before prereads.
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These are very good points. My D made sure that the coaches were well informed on the academic side early and often with updates. She had a lot of rigor in her HS coursework and took her SAT after completing her sophomore year. Her score was high enough that it would not be a worry anywhere. NESCAC coaches asked her to provide unofficial transcripts at the end of her junior year but the feedback was consistent that academics were fine after the end of her first semester of her junior year.
We do know kids who did fail their pre read but they are exactly as @BKSquared described; true impact players who were on the edge academically.
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Thanks so much - super helpful. Will be a long and interesting summer! He has to wait for his grades to come in now. He has strong ACT scores and good grades but rigor is lacking because our school is difficult to get it. And simply they just sort of screwed him out of most of the high rigor classes. Of the three schools, he passed one that seems pretty rigorous and low acceptance rate and the one I thought he would have an easier time with he got a “not on you own at this time” but coach said she will resubmit when grades come in etc. the UAA school was just feedback only at this time and it was good on the grades and the ACT but a flag a little on the rigor (which is to be expected) but they had a call and she asked where the school falls on my sons list (it is the top right now) so in light of that she said she goes back now to say they are super excited about my son so… I am hopeful? But who knows?
How did the UAA handle waiting since you knew early but did not hear from the NESCACS yet?
How did the UAA handle waiting since you knew early but did not hear from the NESCACS yet? Or did he just accept the UAA one early?
There was no time constraint on the offer. My son declined it in August.
It varied as coaches are all different. One school pushed quite a bit saying that they wanted their roster complete by end of June. It was pretty obvious that they were trying to front run the NESCAC schools if possible. When my D said no because of timing (there were other schools higher on their list) the coach stepped back and said that she would wait. Another one (her very first offer) accepted the schedule and said that an August answer was fine. The third one offered in August same as NESCAC. My take on the UAA is that they can do what is right for their program. Two of my D’s close friends accepted UAA offers in March/April and were done.
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My son’s recruiting was at the tail end of COVID so things may have been a bit different, as his some of his on campus visits did not allow visitors inside buildings etc. He brought an unofficial copy of his transcript and a list of courses for his senior year, and since his academic record was very strong the coaches did not seem to worry about whether he would pass a pre read with admissions. None of the schools he was looking at required a writing sample, but he was not looking at Williams.
He passed pre reads everywhere he submitted and offers came in late August, which was later than the top NESCAC recruits in his sport. The Head Coach gave him a timeframe to commit to the application process, but he was ready to commit to one school right away, but still took a few days to discuss everything with his HS coach and teachers (and his parents 
) before making the commitment.
Best of luck with the process!!
Thanks - all the information is helpful. One UAA pre-read offer just happened today as well as a NESCAC. Someone described this before as dating… good analogy!
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