When do Ivy and D3 coaches usually make offers and ask for commitments?

cinnamon1212
Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:35:07 +0000

@Im_Not_Sure ok, here’s a quick primer on offers.

Coaches ask for transcript/scores before prereads because at many schools they have limited numbers of prereads to offer. I know men’s soccer, so, e.g. at one NESCAC the coach has 50 prereads he can have with admissions. He will offer 25 or so kids prereads asap, in July, and the other 25 he will use as he sees kids/decides he’s interested in them through the fall.

The coaches ask for the transcript etc so they can know that the kid they are recruiting is in range for admission with their support. If the kid’s GPA is 2.0, probably better for everyone to know that up front, because that kid is not getting into the Ivy, no matter what caliber player they are. So in that case, the coach would stop recruiting that player. So, since the coach has seen your academic record and is still in conversation with you, that means he thinks you are in the recruitable range.

Coaches make these verbal offers, which, again, have no legal effect, all the time. Top D1 schools make commitments first, and then it filters down the levels. While no legal effect, these are not “nothing”. In most cases they are almost guarantees of admission.

Now, that said, all schools will rightly say that only the Admissions office can make offers of Admission. So – the coach is not offering admission, he is offering his support with admissions. The key is, what does that support mean? At MIT, it means a 50-50 chance of getting in. At most other schools it is tantamount to a guarantee of admission.

That’s why you need to be SO clear about what exactly the coach is saying to you. It’s easy to get confused, and as I said earlier, coaches can be enthusiastic. They’d be happy to have a talented walk on and not have to use up an admissions slot.

Once you pass the preread, which is the Admissions Office signing off, saying “this recruit is admissible” (or not), then the coach has to decide whether to make an offer. Remeber the NESCAC I talked about earlier, with the 50 preread spots? That coach has 6 slots to offer incoming players. He will probably have to make more than 6 offers, because he won’t get every single recruit, but he isn’t making 50 offers.

Kids that have offers before prereads have a situation where the coach feels confident that he’s done this enough times that he knows (or thinks he knows) which kid will get through the preread process and so he makes the offer before prereads. Not all coaches do this. But I suspect some Ivy coaches do, because they are afraid they will lose top recruits to other D1s who have earlier timelines – who aren’t dependent on a July 1 preread.

I hope this clears up some of your confusion. I suggest you read all the old threads in the Athletic Recruits forum for your sport, and/or for Ivy recruiting. They are a great resource!