<p>Hoopsdad, I’m sorry, this must be really frustrating. On the good side, it sounds like at least 4 schools are interested in keeping your player in their mix. On the frustrating side, that is not reassuring until your son is actually through admissions.</p>
<p>I might be on the side of not putting any more stock into choice #1 at this point, particularly and maybe “especially” because the coach is basically telling you your son is not his priority. There is also no reason to believe that your son will be a priority for his program. The coach could string you along for the entire year this way with no apologies by RD except an “I’m sorry, it just didn’t work out” at the end.</p>
<p>With athletics, you have to get realistic and look at who wants you, not necessarily who you want. This is what recruiting is about. It’s nice to want what you want, but it’s better to get something instead of nothing. If your son has solid ‘slot’ offers at 3 nescacs, get your son on the phone to them and figure out where he stands with each of these schools - yes, get them to say he is on the top of their list and get that word “slot”, “spot” - if you have to be on the call to make sure you hear that language, do it. No need to be pushy, just be congenial and polite and respectful - there is nothing lost to be saying “this is our son, we want to make sure if he gives up these other schools in favor of going with your school, that he will be making a decision that will work out for him.”</p>
<p>Get on the phone with all three of those “offer schools” this way. Then forget about number one choice. </p>
<p>I am not speaking from the pulpit - we backed off of son’s “number one choice” by October when it became clear he was not anywhere close to being a priority for that school, and never would have been, or would be. He then went with the schools that wanted him, he chose one, and it worked out.</p>
<p>Hope this is something that helps. Best wishes.</p>
<p>hoopsgriddad - I agree 100% with ChicagoMama. Move on past his #1. Go where your son is wanted and needed. This is a strong lesson in recruiting as there are much more recruits than roster spots. The supply/demand will always be in the coaches favor. Very few recruits get to pick the program, more often than not the program picks the recruit.</p>
<p>Ditto what hoops and fenway said…unless he feels strongly enough about his #1 school to push forward knowing that football may not be in the mix I’d encourage him to move along. If the #2 OV is possible I’d do that. My son did OVs at several schools and honestly left all of them feeling like he could be really happy at the school. My nosy dark angel is very curious about the school who is playing hardball. :)</p>
<p>I agree with the advice given here. Also if I can add to it. My S had an injury this season that really made “pick the right school” a priority. If he doesn’t play a minute, the school he chose is the one that will be best for him. </p>
<p>Well, we had drama. My S ended up pulling his ED II application at the NESCAC school. Mind you, he had NOT been admitted yet; the acceptances were 10 days off (2/8). As a slotted football recruit, the coach and the admissions office went nuts. I understand the coach being upset, but the language of the ED contract is clear: "IF you are accepted, you will enroll. . . " He had not been accepted yet, ergo he was within his rights to withdraw his application. We tried and tried to get the coach to tell us that he was “in”. He could not do so. My son was getting too worked up over the whether he would get in (regardless of his status as a slotted athlete). As the national signing day for Div I recruits was February 5, he did not want to wait. In hindsight, my son should have made up his mind sooner, but as with most 17 years olds, he was flattered with all of the recruiting attention from coaches. </p>
<p>If the NESCACs truly want to emulate the Ivies - especially in football with the “no post season/short schedule” policy, it is beyond me why they can’t do likely letters or likely phone calls with recruited athletes. Judging from the reaction from the NESCAC school, it is clear if my S were a concert pianist, or a chess grand master or a debate champion, his withdrawal would not have provoked the reaction that it did. It was all because he was a football player. Lesson learned. </p>
<p>^ whew, that’s some drama alright. My guess is that even though ED II notifications were still 10 days off, your son had already been accepted. On the bright side, some kid that felt he only had marginal support will probably get a nice surprise.</p>
<p>NESCAC recruiting is tough, you really are expected to take a lot on faith. I’m sure coaches would love to be able to give a positive early sign- just as athletes would love to get one. </p>
<p>I re-read the posts in this thread twice, and, In all honesty, I think your son was “in” to that ED2 school, and they their going “nuts” was a reflection of their having possibly lost other recruits to other schools for a slot they had allocated to your player. Your asking them to tell you straight on that your was going to be admitted was putting them in a hard place - you were asking them for the only answer they could not give you.</p>
<p>I agree with Varska, there’s some other player who got a nice surprise, and in the end, it all works out. Because you mentioned signing day, I hope your son ended up with a D1 where he will still get a great education while he plays football.</p>
<p>I don’t know what else to say about D3 Nescacs, it’s absolutely true you hold your breath and it felt like reading tea leaves early in the process, but if there is one lesson I learned here, it’s to pay attention to what coaches DO, not what they say.</p>
<p>In your son’s case, it would not have been that they couldn’t tell him whether or not he would be admitted, it would be the part where they went “nuts” so to speak that would have indicated as much to me. A lower recruit would have been let go with well-wishes.</p>
<p>Anyway, it all works out for a reason in the end - congrats to your player and best wishes for his season next fall. >:D< </p>
<p>Having been thru a NESCAC almost nightmare, I can totally sympathize. There is NO likely letter and they are NOT allowed to tell you. For D3, it is not legally binding to play the sport once you get there. There is no contract of any kind for playing the sport-just for attending the school! No one can make you go-the worse that can happen is you lose your deposit.</p>
<p>It is SO important to get a pre-read or “walk-thru” and ask the coach directly if your child has a “slot” or just a “tip”. NESCAC schools agree how many slots for each sport each school has-and those students will be accepted ED unless they end up with a significant drop in grades or a moral failure of some kind-like being arrested. A tip just means that the coach tells admissions they would like to see your child accepted-may or may not help.
For example, at Amherst, there are 4 “slots” for freshmen swimmers. The rest are “tips”.</p>
<p>The 80% figure is accurate but includes “tips” and “slots”. Some people don’t know enough to ask what level of support they have-or the coach hedges-and those are the applicants who are disappointed.</p>
<p>For example, a close family friend was told by the Hamilton coach he’d love to see him come swim, but he wasn’t going to support him with a slot “because he’d be fine”. He was deferred on ED1 and rejected on regular admissions…My son was also strung along til the very last minute by the Williams coach, until Kuster finally confessed that he didn’t have a slot for my son and “the pre-read wasn’t good”. Luckily my S hadn’t hit the send button(2 days before the ED deadline) and he was able to call the Midd coach and be told the pre-read at Midd was “excellent” so he ended up applying to and being accepted at Midd.
The coach has nothing to lose if your child wastes his ED application, with the much higher chance of being accepted, on the wrong school. Be firm, but polite, and be sure to find out exactly how much support your child has.
The reason my son’s pre-read at Williams wasn’t good was because they require SAT1s( or ACT) PLUS SAT2s.Midd only requires 1 set of standardized tests. My son had straight As top 5% of his graduating class and excellent ACTs. His SAT2s were all below 700, which is a cut-off for Williams for getting in without support.</p>
<p>This makes me reflect back to November. Our son had his ED1 application in to a school he committed to the last week of October. This seemed to be the best time to absolutely get the most solid word we could out of a coach, if our son had a slot the last week of October, we were going to trust it.</p>
<p>Oddly, there was another great school who had looked at our son and liked him, but had not really moved on him in September and October or asked him to visit or stay overnight. Two days before their ED1 deadline they called and wanted to know if our son was 100% committed anywhere yet. </p>
<p>I told son to never assume anything and to be polite and gracious and leave the other school open for ED2 if needed (you never know) but son later texted back to me the following: “nah like my school told them committed good luck with rest of recruiting year thanks for thinking of me”</p>
<p>This thread has made me think of how late the ED deadlines get when coaches are still potentially scrambling to fill spaces that open up unexpectedly. </p>
<p>NESCACgrad88, I feel the stress all over again just reading about how your son felt. I hope he is doing ok…</p>
<p>I wondered if my son would get in to his top choice even with the “top recruit” talk. I really had no reason to believe he wouldn’t be admitted based on the positive actions of the coach. However, I let the horror stories on CC permeate and cause doubt at every turn.</p>
<p>It sure is an exhausting journey to watch your child go through. </p>
<p>Speaking of stress, hopefully others can learn from us. My daughter’s number one school is D3 and tough to get into. Due to finances we elected to do regular decision. This week she has been offered athletic scholarships to two different D1 schools and needs to make a decision soon. However, we don’t know if she will be admitted to D3 and how much it will cost (it is 100% need) The coach has had good contact with her throughout this process and said he would look into it, but so far we are clueless. It is impossible to make a decision without all the facts.</p>
<p>She can commit to a D-1 and still be eligible for the D-3 if it comes through. Most people do not want to do that, but it is allowed under the rules.</p>
<p>I’d have her pick between the D-1s, and then talk to that coach, tell her/him the decision is financial. Of course I’d play up how much you love the D-1’s team, but that daughter must decide based on the education and the D-3 is just too good. Is this a ‘Feb 5’ signing sport or an April 16 ‘all other’ sports? If the latter, the coaches might want you to commit but you can’t sign a NLI until April 16.</p>
<p>It is not my suggestion to do ‘bait and switch.’ Accepting a D-1 and then changing to D-3 is allowed under the rules. I suggested you talk to the D-1 coach about it if you need to accept the D-1 scholarship now. I think the D-1 coach would prefer to give you more time than to have you sign the NLI and then not go through with it.</p>
<p>My daughter signed D-2. The coach knew a D-3 was also recruiting her, and that daughter had the right to apply ED there, even though she signed the NLI. Coach did everything she could to make my daughter feel part of the D-2 team, but she told us our rights and knew daughter could still go D-3. The coach was honest with us and we were open with her. My daughter preferred the D-2 school, so that worked, but if the D-2 school hadn’t come up with the right money (and we were doing all this in Oct/Nov so nothing was final), daughter would have gone to a D-3. Sports is a nice bonus, but the school still needs to be right and the finances have to work.</p>
<p>ChicagoMama, varska, oldbatesiedoc, happymomto3, thanks for the comments. </p>
<p>I have purposely been vague about the “drama” given the public forum, but suffice to say it involved angry phone calls between admissions offices at the two schools, between the spurned football coach and my son’s high school coach (mind you, it was the first time the NESCAC coach ever bothered to try and speak with my son’s HS coach), and between the NESCAC coach and my wife. If you read earlier posts, you’ll see that we actually tried to convert our original RD application to EDI after my son’s first NESCAC school took a pass, and we were too late (it was mid November), and so he was part of the ED II pool (despite having his application in since mid-October). If he were able to go ED I, I suspect our deposit check would already have been deposited in Vermont (there, I’ve outed the school). </p>
<p>The behavior of the school’s officials after my son withdrew was unbecoming. I work in DC, so I am used to arrogance and people that are full of themselves; but the attitude displayed by the school was completely unprofessional. With all due respect, the argument that you can’t withdraw your pending ED application because “we are a NESCAC” is absurd. What recourse would my son have had if he were rejected on 2/8, however unlikely that may have been in hindsight? None, of course. The dean of admission did not even bother to return my phone call or email after this all went down. So much for the collegiality of the liberal arts education. . . </p>
<p>We will move on, and my son is extremely happy to be playing D-1 football at a good academic school. As for the particular NESCAC school, I am under no illusion. None of my three other younger children will ever stand a snowball’s chance in hell of being admitted to that school. Then again, I doubt they’d ever be interested in appying. </p>
<p>These stories make me really uneasy. Do the coaches do any amount of vetting beforehand? I continue to be surprised at the degree of interest NESCAC coaches are showing my S, a straight B student with projected mid-1800s for SAT. How do we know if they are casting a wide net and thereby creating false hope? S also wants to keep his own options open, however, we need to make some targeted decisions about visits this spring and ID camps. For what it’s worth, S goes to a top prep school in MA.</p>
<p>NJSoccerParent, unless your son has sent his academic credentials to the school or they are posted on an online profile they are possibly interested but not clear on the academic fit. The name of your son’s prep school may be enough to make them think he is a fit. My son attends a well respected public high school and plays on a DAP soccer team. He is barely an average student, but he gets frequent recruiting e-mails from Haverford although he has no chance in getting into that school. Advice I have been given by a parent of a senior teammate of my son’s is to be upfront with the coaches about your son’s academics now. If he is below the norm for that school they may be able to balance him out with another player who exceeds their norm academically. If they don’t find his academic stats out until his senior year it may be too late for this type of deal. On the other hand, you do need to make sure that he can succeed academically at the school once he gets in. A player from my son’s club is transferring to a slightly better soccer college but a lower tier academic college after only one year. He played a lot as a freshman, but rumor has it that he is not succeeding grade wise. Getting the academics and soccer fit right is very challenging but critically important. Good luck to your son.</p>
<p>I’d also recommend sitting down with the guidance counselor. I guess that’s obvious, but in the beginning we were just working with the academic advisor at her prep school (reads essays, nags about deadlines) and the coaches. The guidance counselors at the top prep school have a wealth of knowledge. While a coach just knows the stats of the players he/she has placed in college, the guidance counselor knows every athlete, male or female, in every sports for years. It was a huge help</p>
<p>Once you have some actual ACT or SAT test scores, you can ask the coach for a “pre-read” and if they are truly interested they will ask you for copies of grades and test scores and run them by admissions. Then you will hear that it looks good, or he needs to improve something, or it is a no go. That should give you an idea of where the athlete stands.</p>