I wouldn’t necessarily take anything from discussion of Ivy recruiting for track and try to apply it to any other sport.
What happens in track is that the track program has around 15 slots they can use to support recruits. Typically they aren’t committing many if any of those slots prior to bringing recruits in for OVs. For the most part recruits are coming in without a promise of support. Then, yes, the OV will weigh into who gets offered support. But a recruit who was offered support prior to the OV won’t have it pulled unless something pretty unusual happens.
I’m unaware of coaches pulling offers of support without a prior explanation, such as needing an answer by a particular date.
She had strong pre-reads and offers of full support if ED1.
All of the offers are “open”, but in reality within a week or so.
They all want OV in Sept/Oct with watching a game, spend a night, etc on our dime, of course AFTER she accepts the offer. Ok, trust in the process. ED1 is so precious when there are other options.
Yeah, you are right. Soccer != track. She had a very bad experience with an OV recruited as a top recruit from one school. She was under the impression that she was going to get an offer after the OV. Makes me a bit twitchy after that event. Thanks.
Ivy commitments (soccer) are a tricky thing. The athlete is officially committed to the admission process and there is no guarantee of any kind. There are many cases of athletes either not getting past the AO or the coach changing the offer from a fully supported spot to one where he/she will just write a letter for your admission file stating that if you are accepted, you’ll be on the team.
My D23 finally verbally committed to her school for soccer!
She has been kicked in the teeth a few times during the process, but she walked it off, with a slight limp.
Thank you all for the wisdom, sound advice, and gentle smack downs when I got nutty. No way I would have understood anything without the kind folks here.
She committed to a T-10 and I will give more details after she gets that acceptance letter on Dec 15ish. She has backups for ED2 and EA.
Advice for '06+ soccer players.
Film. Film. Film. 2 mins max. Best stuff first. My stats show coaches do not usually go past 90 secs.
Her club and coaches really didn’t know the nitty gritty of the recruiting process, so ask for second and third opinions.
Targeted ID camps. Avoid money makers. Personal invites are the best.
Be careful of coaches who say that your player is a top recruit early in the process. Got burned very badly here.
Understand your player level, academically and athletically. Honest assessment and readjustment as you go through the process.
Understand timelines of D1-3. This is so important. April for D1. August for D3. Ask the coaches.
So many congratulations!! It’s super anxiety-making going through the process (or it was for us!) but once its over and it turns out ok, isn’t it great?! Hurray!
@SweetCoffee Congrats to your daughter! My 2023 has several offers and can’t make up her mind lol. One is too expensive, one is a little more rural than she would like, ones too close to home, one maybe a little too small…
She’s really nervous about committing and the whole process is quite stressful.
Do parents also attend the OV? My son also got an OV scheduled but unsure if it’s paid for or not/D3 - not NESCAC. We are also visiting the school, coincidentally, in 2 weeks anyhow, previously planned.
He has never travelled alone on a plane or switch transit points. I guess the parent could go with him up to the point where he would get picked up by school team personnel? Any advice is appreciated…and congrats.
Official visit (OV) means the school is paying. Unofficial visit means the student pays. So, your S needs to clarify the details with the coach.
Some parents go, and make themselves scarce. Once he knows the details of the visit you can decide how to handle things. Your S can also mention to the coach that parents are coming because they wanted to see the school, but will do their own thing. Would you still keep the trip in two weeks?
I went with my daughter to an OV to a D3. I had to pay her travel but she stayed at the school. We flew together, I drove to the school, dropped her off, and stayed at a hotel in the area. She called me at the hotel on the Saturday morning to invite me to go on the tour they had arranged for her (a public tour) and that was helpful as I hadn’t seen the school. I then left again for the day and picked her up later that day and we left. The school considered it an official visit even though they didn’t pay for transportation because they only allowed her on campus for 48 hours, provided more than 3 meals over the visit.
On a D2 OV, the school didn’t pay for the transportation but we lived close enough to drive. They did pay for our hotel room for the night (there wasn’t a team, so no students to stay with). There were 5 recruits there for the weekend and all had parents with them, and all our hotel rooms were paid for. The coach gave the girls meal tickets for the cafeteria but not the parents (we could pay to eat there).
On both, my daughter was 16 so could not have rented a car or hotel room. She’d traveled alone many times but she didn’t want to fly to an airport near the D3 school (and that would have required changing planes) and then be picked up by a stranger. She was pretty nervous an liked having me along.
There was a change a few years ago that allows schools (at least D1 football) to pay for parents at some OV. They did that because the athletes wanted their parents’ opinions on the schools, and because quite a few athletes weren’t behaving. That’s not going to happen at D3 schools.
NCAA rules allow a D3 school to pay transportation costs, but that doesn’t mean that all schools will. NESCAC schools are permitted to pay for limited costs, like a taxi ride from a train station. Best to ask the coach about travel costs. You could ask something like “what travel costs are reimbursable?”
It worked best for us when parents accompanied the kid to the school, but had other plans for the duration of the OV, until they were called in, but do what your kid will feel most comfortable with. You also should also ask the coach if he/she needs to meet with a parent. Sometimes that is requested.
Fantastic news! Can I ask what the timeline is for the high academic D1s? Asking for my D24 soccer player. By timeline, I mean attending ID camps, discussions with coaches, OVs, and committing. Thanks.
We did not get reimbursed for any OV plane fares (NESCAC’ss plus Pomona, MIT and Caltech). Schools took care of local transportation from airport to school and back, meals and housed with potential teammates. Kid was already in fall of senior year, so we let him deal with trips by himself as part of his learning/independence process. You need to check with each coach on OV expense policy.
