@Tonygrace statement is equivalent to saying that all schools using LLs are spending time and energy conducting a process that he deems of little value and benefit to athletes (who are the majority of those receiving LL). That opinion disagrees with that of all the admission departments issuing LLs. In the end what remains clear is that the admissions department are the only ones who accept applicants.
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I do think that there is a distinction between schools like a D1 Ivy that offer Likely Letters, and schools that do not offer LLs or coaches support with admissions.
For the Ivyâs, they are D1, lower end D1 in some cases, but in general higher athletic divisions than the D3 schools that offer coach support for admissions.
Often that athletes that are being recruited to an Ivy are also being sought after by D1 programs that can offer scholarships/NLI. Since the Ivyâs do not offer scholarships and there is not a NLI, the support and Likely Letter is what they have to offer a recruited athlete that may be looking at a scholarship of some type and signing a NLI.
Sports like football, hockey, etc. have the most LL to offer.
The higher end academic D3s like the NESCACs, are following a similar Ivy type recruiting method, which has worked well for them.
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These are good questions to ask the coaches.
Some of the conversations coaches have with recruits outline what the recruiting process is at their particular school.
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Good advice. I did not have College Confidential to gain insight when my 1st kid was being recruited so it was all new to us, however I found that for the most part, the coaches were informative and upfront on the process for their particular school.
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Thatâs not how I understood the statement. Not at all. I think youâre misrepresenting what was helpful advice.
Look, the Ivies use likely letters because they have to. They are recruiting D1 athletes and competing against schools that can offer scholarship money up front with near-zero concern about admissions. They need a mechanism to provide some reassurance to recruits. The process was driven by the athletic department and the realities of recruiting.
Most D3 schools do not have comparable pressures and do not need any sort of early notification system.
Yes, the likely letter provides a level of certainty that waiting for ED admission at a D3 doesnât, at least on the surface. Itâs very nice and reassuring to get one. That doesnât make the D3 processes any less legitimate or necessarily less reliable or predictable.
In practical terms, they all require trusting the coach and process at some point.
Even the Ivy process, which seems to provide so much certainty, relies on trust at various points. The recruit has to trust that the coach will actually do what she says she will and support the application, that she wonât stretch things out and then drop the recruit after a commitment is made.
Anyway, understanding general timelines is fine but you really need to pay attention to what individual coaches say about their process. Everyone is different.
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Yes. Exactly!
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I think people are saying LL are great to get but are rare, so donât pin everything on getting one. In some sports they are more available than others.
LL come from admissions, not from the athletic department, and the two departments might not be in total sync. Coaches would like all pre-reads to be done on July 1 about 3 pm, and for all recruits to be thrilled to get a call from the coach the next day asking them to accept. It just doesnât work that way. The admissions office is in charge and we all just have to live with it, even the coaches.
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^^THIS^^
@NiVo, you may find the LL section of this helpful:
At this late date for '24 recruiting, you should be less concerned with what all of the experts on CC are posting/recommending/explaining, and more concerned with what, if anything, the coaches who may (or may not) be interested in recruiting your daughter are saying about her chances.
Sharing what the coaches say to you/your daughter may allow this board to be more helpful to you. Sharing what you have learned (not well I might add) on this board with the coaches may be at your peril. These coaches know what they are and are not offering.
If you donât have something yet, you need to widen your universe.
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weâre late in the season, and D24 perseveres with her coach calls/emails, even adding schools as others drop off (as suggested by suggested by @superdomestique). The conversations are both clear and encouraging, with takeaways basically falling into three buckets: either her times arenât competitive enough yet (reach), are competitive/close to the line (stretch), or qualify her as a strong candidate for that team (expected).
One unknowns remains
- whether sheâll qualify for pre-reads at her âreachâ schools
- whether some coaches have early discussions with their AOs before the July pre-read days
- how many pre-reads does the coach typically send to his AO
Since the original poster has long left the discussion, I am closing this thread. The journey for @NiVo 's daughter can continue on the thread they started.
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