To add, there is also no “tip” at the Ivies. Coaches only have designated spots/slots. For those spots, they have a targeted avg AI. The AD and coaches have to set these so the athletic program as a whole can meet the Ivy Agmt on athletic AI minimums. Some sports have to have very high AI avgs to offset lower targeted AI’s for other sports – mostly the “helmet” sports. In our experience, the Harvard coaches were the only ones to affirmatively offer support letters but not a slot. I think this is because of Harvard’s specifically evaluating athletics as part of its criteria for all applicants.
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…The coach decides who they want to give full support to, or a slot. …
That is essentially what I was saying. I had a kid that was a high level recruit that received a LL.
They took their time and did not commit until Fall Sr. Yr. so no early verbal commitment. Committed to the Coach- Applied-LL-Admitted, if I remember correctly.
There are full support recruited athletes accepted at the Ivies each year that did not receive a likely letter, often just due to timing.
I can understand not receiving a LL due to timing. So to be a full support thru admissions without a LL, I would think that the coach did not use up all of the LLs or slots that they had available. I believe that they can not offer full support that effects admissions beyond the # of slots/LLs that they have.
A recruit can still apply on their own and have a spot on the team. I do know of strong recruits that were told in the fall of their Sr. year that they were not going to receive full support/LL, but applied as it was their top choice, and got in on their own so to speak.
It’s best to disconnect equating full support with a likely letter, it just creates confusion if one doesn’t keep these ideas completely separate, and they are separate. All full support recruits do not receive likely letters, full stop. (but most do).
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Also, not to belabor the point, but the coach has no say in who receives a LL. That is sent from admissions and under admissions control. Non athletes receive LL as well.
Exactly…I think this was pointed out above.
Yes but it feels like some people are still debating the concept.
But only during RD. And athletes, unless the GOAT, will only receive a LL if applying ED/EA. Princeton being an obvious outlier this year since they only had RD.
Nvm
A couple month ago, Pomona coach mass-emailed students to asked them to send transcripts for the pre-read. My son responded right away. Ever since then up to now, no words from the coach. My son sent emailed to the coach a couple of time because we had arranged to visit the school. We thought it may be good to see the coach at that time. He never responded anything. My son got several offers from other schools in the meantime. While other schools are responsive, and son and these coaches communicated well, Pomona was so silent. My son completely lost an interest in Pomona.
Son’s high school track coach also told him that if the coach is treating you this way, don’t expect him to treat you any better even if he gets accepted there. This is not professional. In the real business world, if you don’t respond anything at all even a curtesy email, you should expect that they won’t want to work with you any more.
The Pomona men’s coach took a job at BU earlier this summer. It isn’t unusual for a program to stop communicating with recruits when this happens. Often there just isn’t anyone else to step in until a new head coach is hired. This is one of the reasons it’s a good idea to have multiple options during the recruiting process until decisions are made.
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Thank you for this info!! This totally makes a sense. Without knowing that the coach departed, there may be many frustrated students out there still waiting to hear from him.
A veritable treasure trove of wisdom in this thread. It ought to be organized into chapters and published as a book. Seriously. Some very good insight here.
I will echo @BKSquared 's advice, which I know is shared by most: pick the school not the sport. We used the “break your leg” example as a mantra. If you break your leg and can’t play anymore, are you happy with where you are? So when some Division 1 schools were recruiting D2 for soccer, we really had to make this point because when you’re a competitive athlete it’s natural to want to be with the best and play up as high as you can. The particular D1s interested in her were not good fits and were places we knew she wouldn’t pay attention to at all if it weren’t for the sport.
As to the DIII admissions black box, I wish I could contribute more, but I have say that in both cases it was one of those rare times in life where the dominos toppled perfectly as planned. We just got lucky I think. It was murky and you clearly had to have a voice and ask questions and get informed.
At the end of the day, my contribution to the conversation is always that you never know how the sports part will work out, so don’t focus too much on that piece unless you have a future Olympian on your hands. D1 was recruited and wound up at a very solid NESCAC program, but D2 was much, much more highly recruited, attended the school she liked and the athletic experience was horrible. It turned out that losing a lot bothered her more than she expected, the coach was surprisingly bad technically (at least as compared to the pretty high level club D had played for), she battled injuries throughout and the team culture and experience was an unmitigated disaster. How she did it for 4 years is a small wonder. D1 OTOH made friends for life, was part of some historical wins for her sport at Wes, and wound up earning All America status along with other accolades. Not at all how I would have predicted their athletic futures in college at the beginning of the process.
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Shortly before leaving for BU the Pomona head coach put my son in touch with the assistant who would be taking over recruiting communication, and there was initial contact from that assistant, but there has been nothing since.
Pomona (and Claremont) has been quite a bit slower and less responsive than MacAlester and several east coast schools, at least for my son.
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I didn’t know that. Under what other circumstances would a student receive a LL?
Applicants beyond athletic recruits who the admissions committee really want can and do receive likely letters…whether it’s for academics and/or ECs, whatever the reason. All the Ivies issue LLs (generally not in ED rounds), some also do early writes (early notice of admission).
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Many of the coaches at the 5C schools don’t have the same influence as schools in other conferences. If they do get back to you and offer a slot make sure you ask what they are offering and what proportion of students receiving that type of support are typically accepted. In cases where the head coach job is open, all bets are off…that team might not even get any slots this year, or maybe they will but not until the new head coach is on board.
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To be clear, which repeats what I said earlier, athletes will only get a LL in the early round at Ivies, unless the GOAT. Non-athletes, will never get a LL in the early round. And the vast majority of accepted applicants will not receive a LL.
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Is your son recruited for T&F also? How is he in the process now with Macalester? Is his pre-read positive and he considers applying ED?
PurpleFaithful, yes, my son is also T&F.
I just sent you a message with details.
Thanks.
I just googled it and it looks like the Pomona head coach position was posted a few weeks ago. The post is for a one-year, interim head coach position.