<p>What is the best way to handle offers of official visits from schools that are lower on your list when you are still hoping for offers from schools higher up on the list? How long is a reasonable time to hold off on accepting an offer? And thank you again to all you wonderful parents and student-athletes for your support and guidance through this process. Your willingness to share is so greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Well, one option, although it may seem a little bold would be to ask the coach of your top schools if they foresee an official visit in your future. Just explain that you want to make sure you don’t use up your 5 on other schools if there’s a chance they’re interested.</p>
<p>If there are schools your child is interested in who haven’t contacted her, give this a few more days. It’s a bit of a musical chairs game right now: coaches are offering visits, recruits are accepting and declining. I would think if she hasn’t heard from her top five by about Thursday of next week, she should contact them and let them know her calendar is filling, but that she would love to be considered for recruiting. The coach should be able to offer an OV or politely communicate that she’s not high enough on his list yet to get a visit. </p>
<p>This isn’t a perfect system: coaches don’t know every recruit, and are happy to have good, interested recruits identify themselves.</p>
<p>Hi varska- I think we’re saying the same thing.</p>
<p>Wow</p>
<p>so if within the first 10 days of July–they don’t have OVs…we should worry?</p>
<p>I thought other threads said that there are coaches that contacted for OVs in late July and Aug–and not to panic…</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>Don’t panic! One ivy coach who gave my D an OV in April/May said that they have another round of invitations that they send out in August. I am sure every coach has a unique way of handling it.</p>
<p>The way to diffuse worry is to take control of part of the process in an appropriate way: communicate calmly and clearly with coaches. Come here to panic, and it’s wayyyyy to early for that!</p>
<p>Good
My student is competing this very day…
and this week didn’t get to talk to the coach who called–as the team was practicing…</p>
<p>no time for our student to call the coach back until Monday or so…</p>
<p>and almost every coach our student is speaking with is at this week of events–so plenty of time for face to face–AFTER competition closes - per NCAA regs</p>
<p>I was given some preliminary dates for Ivy recruiting visits, but was told that they were not ‘official’ until August… however, the dates were given in good faith so that I could mark my calendar.</p>
<p>If you’re not sure about invites from lower-choice schools, just politely tell them you’re waiting on some other schools so as not to overschedule yourself for certain weekends. That, and you can always call and ask your upper-choice schools when/if you will receive an invite for a trip.</p>
<p>I personally had a trip scheduled (due to a lot of pressure from the coaches) which later I found to interfere with a trip for another school; I had agreed to a certain weekend before I had gotten final dates from another. I was very interested in both schools, and the coaches at school A were very accommodating about moving my visit; school A had more weekends available than school B, so school B was less flexible.</p>
<p>It’s all about communication! All of the coaches I spoke with were very understanding.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the input! My daughter has been told that she will be offered an official by a school that is a safety, nothing in writing yet. It is in state, a large, well-funded team, top of the line equipment, solid coaching, outstanding athlete support and perks. She likes the coaches and had an immediate rapport with the head coach due to very similar athletic backgrounds. The school would be virtually free because of my daughter’s stats, but it is very large and she really wants to go out of state. Lots to consider, but it is still early in the process.</p>
<p>fishy, it sounds like that’s a school she could visit without using up and official…</p>
<p>Thanks River, that is the plan for now.</p>
<p>It’s funny how taking five official visits sounds great in July. Once the fall rolls around with classes again, homework, tests, sports practice and weekend competitions, it is often difficult to fit all five visits into a senior athlete’s busy schedule. Use the visits wisely as your child may get burned out after three and may groan about scheduling two more. I agree that if your child loves taking visits on the other hand, you could save the close school for an unofficial visit if need be.</p>
<p>Good advice^^. Try to narrow down the schools before the fall pressures of classes and sports. If you have to fly across the country for officials, the student will be exhausted after 3 weekends, much less five. I would encourage you to visit this summer, unofficially, if the schools are in driving distance.</p>
<p>As exciting and exotic as the officials sound now, multiple nights sleeping on dorm floors in sleeping bags grow old quick. (Assuming she is travelling alone, without a parent hotel accomodation.)</p>
<p>I had 4 trips lined up because I had narrowed down my choices that far- I turned down many offers of a fifth trip. However, I canceled my fourth trip due to some… issues that turned up with the school, and I’d already fallen in love with Princeton, which was my third visit.</p>
<p>That being said, trips ARE exhausting. You really don’t sleep much at all during them. Take into account the fact that you’ll likely be flying to most schools, which involved, for me, getting up super early to leave schools after my visit. I also got sick after my first trip and it plagued me through my third, which made them all slightly less enjoyable. It’s hard to keep up with school work when you’re missing every Friday for a month in a row, and come back exhausted.</p>
<p>^^^ And Fauve, typically recruits are given their host’s bed. They try to win you over any way possible. ;)</p>
<p>We are hoping that our student will get offers for the OVs to the schools on the top of “the list” and will likely try and limit them as well…if practical</p>
<p>A heavy academic schedule this fall–
a heavy sports schedule
flying - and not necessarily non stop convenient flights—
not to mention apps
sleep etc</p>
<p>Its too bad that when the schools are in the same region–that the OVs can’t overlap and eliminates the need for multiple trips…kwim</p>
<p>Zeinx- Wow, you had gracious hosts–my DD was relegated to the floor a few times!</p>
<p>fog- I agree, there should be some system of combining 2 visits for nearby Ivies. It’s silly to waste the time and fuel recrossing the country each weekend.</p>
<p>Really? Wow, I was always told that they HAD to give us the bed, haha. I even offered to take the floor on each trip and was denied. Guess maybe the schools I visited were extremely nice, then.</p>
<p>DS combined two OVs - Columbia and Dartmouth - in one long weekend. Both coaches knew about it and coordinated flights and it was fine. They saved money in doing so as they each didn’t have to fly him across the country and back.</p>
<p>That’s great to hear, 3X. We never had a combination of schools to visit that we could work out to combine, and I’d been told it wasn’t “done” but soooo glad to hear it’s possible to double up. CC athlete families, please let us know how this works this year so we can advise future classes about which schools are open to this idea.</p>