Where/when do coaches put in their input to Admissions? Again this is not Ivy/preread/LL situation
Do athletes fill out online application and then coaches add something to file or do coaches that have a good relation with Admissions just say I want these athletes and they are in? Son meets minimum GPA/scores for athletes at schools and sent in his transcript so is the application a formality if a coach decides to make offer? I got that impression with one of the selective schools since coach has a good track record for graduation and GPAs. Son is below regular student profile at two schools and at 50-75%ile for rest.
Should athletes just do the traditional application and not do holistic application if available? How much time should athletes spend on Common App essays? Son has weak ECs outside his sport as his spare time was spent on his sport, but he has national ranking in his sport.
Son can probably ask some of these questions to coaches when he meets with them again in a couple weeks. However, if he needs to write essays, he needs to work on them now as school has started but isnt busy yet. If he waits and coaches say they are important, it will be hard for him to do good job between school, competition and OVs. Some schools dont require essay-submission is a choice, other require it. Writing essays-especially creative introspective ones- is not his favorite activity so his tendency would be to wait to see if he really had to do it.
There is this new coalition application this year that is an option at some schools. I assume he would skip it and go the traditional route?
His 11th grade Lit teacher said the 12th grade Lit teachers usually spend some time with students teaching them how to write college essays at the beginning of the year. Hope that happens this year too.
First thing he should do is email each coach and ask them specifically how their admission process works.Ultimately, it is the Adcoms decision about getting in or getting denied. Essays are always an important part of all applications.Some schools have essay supplements as well. The other issue is that most likely your son will have to apply ED to one of the schools so time wise you really have less than you think. Key is to talk with coach and find out exactly what is expected from each specific school.
Good luck
Virtually all D1 schools outside the Ivy, academies and Patriot cede a certain number of admissions slots to the AD’s office. If your son is given one of those slots, he doesn’t have to do anything other than make sure his transcript and test scores get to the school. If he is not being offered a direct admit slot then I don’t know know how much influence the AD’s office has, frankly. I would have the conversation with the coach sooner rather than later.
twoinanddone, most schools do require significantly more than NCAA requirements for recruits. NCAA is only 800 SAT and 2.3 GPA. However, non Ivy D1 coaches do tell students a minimum number for athletes at their particular school-could be 1000, 1100, 1200, etc SAT-number much higher than NCAA minimum of 800 but lower than school average of 1300, 1400+, etc. The number might vary by sports too-lower for basketball and footbal and higher for nonrevenue sports. My question was if students met the school’s generally accepted test score/GPA for athletes and had coach support if admission was almost guaranteed provided students kept up grades rest of senior year. If so then a student might spend some of the hours that he would have spent on his Common App and essays on his regular schoolwork or sport.
@kdbugalpha, since we’re talking about non-Ivy, D1 recruited athletes, we’re probably talking about signing the NLI at some point. While there is a clause in the NLI that makes it null and void if the athlete is denied admission, I think it’s a pretty unusual situation for a coach to offer the spot and have admissions deny the signed student. If there is no NLI, then I suppose technically he or she is walk-on and may be evaluated like any other applicant.
@varska Thanks. Son hopes to make choice and verbal commitment by end of Sept and then sign in November. He just started looking at apps and came up with questions, but he wont be back on campuses to ask questions for a few more weeks.
The application process we were exposed to for D1 varied significantly by school. With all but one exception my son applied via the regular app before talking to the coach, so he had to write the essays. He applied by the normal deadline in order to find out if he could get any academic money.
After discussion with 2 coaches (he applied to ~12 schools in total) he was given a recruit code to add to his app (via an email to the admissions department). Ask the coach if they can give you one. For the school he eventually signed a NLI with (in Feb), the regular application deadline had passed. He was told by the coach, to submit the app online but needed a pre-assigned log in ID which the coach gave him, to even get the app to open. The coach implied that the essay was not required, but we made him write one (we thought it was a principle thing…) and he was able to re-use content from other school essays. We helped him edit, but did not write them. For what it’s worth, we know at least two families who used paid essay services for their athletes.
@OnTrack2013 Can you give me an idea of how you approached these coaches at the D1 schools? Did your son let them know he was applying or wait until after he was accepted to approach them? Did he ask them if he would have a roster spot if accepted to the school? Also, were any of the D1s very selective schools? I realize none were Ivy, but my understanding is that schools such as Duke, possibly Notre Dame and especially Stanford have more stringent requirements than many other D1s. I am just wondering how the process works with those. If you can give an idea of target schools (since there were many) with your son’s general stats and approach at applying it would be extremely helpful.
Oh, my! I am so sorry about post 8 and 9! Embarrassingly, considering the time they were posted, I must have fallen asleep with my phone in my hand, lol!
pdiddy123 - My son emailed the coaches once applications were in with his grades, performance stats and mentioned that he hoped to receive academic money to be able to attend the school, suggesting he was looking for some support but not coming out and asking for it yet.
Early in the recruiting process (fall of senior year) my son was looking to make sure he would have a roster spot at a school he wanted to go to. He applied to mainly the honors colleges at State Us. (Our local state u. is Pac12 and has a coach my son did not really like but since he met the academic requirements for guaranteed admissions, this was always his fall back). At the time applications where due, my son was only receiving those form recruiting letters, no unsolicited calls/emails at all. Until Jan. all he was hoping to get was a guarantee that he would be on a roster and not find himself at tryouts. His older brother went to our local state U., took a chance at tryouts and did not make the team. That was a situation he did not want to be in. His priority was making sure he would compete in college. He selected the schools to apply to by looking at where they had a coach for his track event, and offered his STEM major, all ended up being D1s.
He emailed coaches of the schools he applied to around Thanksgiving time, but most did not answer until Dec. /Jan. timeframe. Once he heard back from coaches, he then told them his admissions status and if he had gotten any academic dollars and asked if there would be a place for him on the team if he elected to attend. Coaches were very factual with responses, but he had to ask specifically where he stood. Responses varied from no roster spots open for his event/year to a guaranteed roster spot but no money, to minimal dollars and the possibility of an increase later. The coaches at two very strong track schools (SEC and ACC leaders) told him he would be on the team, no try outs, but he would not travel the first year. Most coaches were extremely nice and the Va. Tech coach was extra nice and even went so far as to give him pointers on how he could improve (based on his video). During Jan. of senior year his performance improved dramatically and only then did additional D1s contacted him. He talked to Tulane, Wm & Mary, and Wake Forest among others, all offered admissions and grades were not discussed. We did not talk to any of the three schools you mentioned.
We met with a DII coach yesterday. He wants my son to play at the school. His process was that all application stuff goes thru him. We were told to send in a new transcript when school starts, and a copy of HS classes for senior year, and a copy of ACT/SAT score. He started a recruit file for my son while we were there, and said he would personally hand deliver all docs to admissions people for final review. The coach said he stays very involved as the middle man and he would be the main point of contact, not to worry and he would ensure everything goes smoothly.
He said all of his recruits are guaranteed a place on the roster as freshman, but there are tryouts every year. He said he rarely makes cuts, but holds tryouts for some new comers and ts keeps the upper classmen committed to working hard year round and not slacking off. He said he usually loses a handful of guys every year from injury, burn out, or internships/study abroad.
@RightCoaster Congrats to your son! It sounds as if the coach is being straightforward in the details of team dynamic, roster, etc. When he fills out an application, I assume that will go directly to coach as well? Or perhaps he won’t even need to fill it out in its entirety in this instance. @OnTrack2013 Thanks so much for sharing the recruiting timetable for your son. It’s good to know he did get several responses (as well as new interest when his performance vastly improved) during the course of his senior year fall term. I am wondering whether he waited for acceptances before contacting the coaches regarding a roster spot? Or in most cases at these D1s, did he simply send in his applications and then contact the coaches even before he heard the outcome - particularly at schools where he knew he would very likely be accepted?
My son is in a similar position as yours was with regards to one of his well regarded State U’s. The academic and athletic opportunities are plenty solid there but he doesn’t care for the coaches. I too would like to encourage him to keep that door open however.
Yes, be careful with the coach handling the application. My daughter went to an OV and had sent her transcripts, scores and other info to the coach. She applied to the school as instructed. She ended up with two files and we didn’t figure this out till the end of first semester. I had spent a ridiculous amount of time straightening out merit aid as her scores had gone up and weren’t in ‘the file’, her high school final transcripts had been sent 3 times but weren’t in ‘the’ file. She had even been assigned two student numbers. Bright futures was not on her file, but they did find it on the master list (after several calls to BF office and school).
@pdiddy123 Thanks. You know I didn’t really think about it at the time, but I now wonder if my son needs to fill out the common app and apply there, or just have him hand over paperwork. We’ll have to ask the coach about the process more in detail when my son gets his paperwork from the guidance dept in a couple of weeks.
I would advise having your son start sending info to coaches to coaches asap. Write letters to all coaches that he is interested in their school ( mention some reasons), talk about grades/tests/awards etc. and let them know the details of his sport. My son really focused on a few schools and had good results. Most coaches will at least entertain the thought of your kid playing at their school. It’s important to start the dialogue with them sooner than later.
Thank you. He is a senior and did begin talking with coaches and sending info last year. He has gotten interest but I’d like him to have a State U or two option available to him. Of course they have players committed and committing at this time; I think you’re right that he should go ahead and get those contacts rolling. He has so far been concentrating on highly selective schools that seem to require a lot of lead time in terms of gathering of info, character assessment, pre reads and the like.
I’m sure your son will be fine with the app process and the coach working with him; the cautionary tale was a good one though–I guess it’s always best to check and double check when it comes to the (not so small) details!
Pdiddy – my son contacted coaches for the most part while his application was pending. (It came up somewhere in another post), but during this time 2 of the D1 coaches contacted him and gave him a code to add to his application. If he hadn’t heard anything while his app was pending (which was the norm) he asked about his potential place on the team in an email he sent after he got the “accepted” notice. I mentioned he applied to mainly Honor colleges of state Us and the admissions process for each school varied. One univ. sent him an acceptance to the overall univ. in 48hrs. but then took over 2 months to tell him he was admitted to the honors college and what the level of academic money was. We had a family spreadsheet of where things were with each school to keep it straight.
Once accepted he send a note again to the coach which read something like…”I have been accepted and would love to come and be part of the xyz Univ. team but would like to find out if I would know before enrolling if I have a place on the team or if you always hold tryouts for all new potential athletes “…
Just a caution, take my experience with a grain of salt ; We thought we did a great job helping my son pick his school and ended up not getting a good fit at all and he transferred after one year. The level of the school and the strength of the conference doesn’t matter so much if you are not competing regularly. He has been injured on and off for the last 2 years so being happy overall at the school is important for him. He does run into most of the coaches we contacted during recruiting at different times throughout the season so thankfully he was always courteous and doesn’t have any awkward issues. (Dad however has been known to give a very discreet middle finger when we pass the head coach of his first univ.!!)
We thought we did a great job helping my son pick his school and ended up not getting a good fit at all and he transferred after one year. The level of the school and the strength of the conference doesn’t matter so much if you are not competing regularly. He has been injured on and off for the last 2 years so being happy overall at the school is important for him. He does run into most of the coaches we contacted during recruiting at different times throughout the season so thankfully he was always courteous and doesn’t have any awkward issues. (Dad however has been known to give a very discreet middle finger when we pass the head coach of his first univ.!!)