I know that I shouldn’t worry about it, but I don’t like wasting other peoples time or money. My DD had four Ivy OV’s scheduled, after Ivy visit number two, she decided to verbally commit. She called the coaches from Ivy three and four to cancel her visits and, to thank them. She wanted to be sure that the coaches could move on to their next choice and extend them an OV. Both of these schools, had already emailed her flight details. My concern is whether the schools lost the money spent on DD flight. Are they able to simply convert the tickets to another recruit?
I don’t know the “official” answer but my guess is that with the number of students who come on official visits combined with the number of varsity athletes each school has travelling throughout the year, these schools would have a very robust relationship with the airlines and there is likely a much greater degree of flexibility with the flight changes than what individuals who book the occasional trip might experience. You are certainly not the first people to ever cancel an official visit so I would not be too concerned.
This would bother me as a parent as well. One of my kid’s backed out of an OV, but in the summer, well before tickets were purchased and in time for the coaches to grab another first-round recruit. Even if the school can recoup costs, canceling a visit obviously slows down the recruiting process. The larger question I have is why athletes agree to official visits unless they are genuinely interested enough in the schools to visit them all before committing.
I think the OP’s daughter did the right thing by calling to cancel OVs after a decision to commit to the application process at another school was made.
From the perspective of the coach who received a cancellation, this saves time for both the coaching staff and players. And yes, it also saves money and allows the coach to bring in another recruit. If I were a college coach I would certainly prefer to bring in an uncommitted recruit with interest in my program, than a recruit who was certain about committing elsewhere.
I think coaches fully understand that recruits can be honest in expressing interest in an OV before any have been taken–and that things can change after they start to be taken. This is why the OV to slot ratio in the Ivies is often greater than 1. I expect coaches consider situations like this to be part of the game.
I’ve got no problem with the OP’s daughter or the OP on this one.
I’m with Fenway. The visits are time-consuming, draining, and can affect the senior grades-or sport season! My son cancelled 2 ovs and also called other schools once he made up his mind. He got very positive feedback from most of the coaches, and a few “well, if it doesn’t work out, call us back” comments.
I agree they are time consuming and draining, which is why my first kid’s school–and my second kid’s parents–limited them to 3 OV’s. This forced them to choose schools they could find compelling and different reasons to want to visit. . They did 3 visits in a row, called the coaches soon after, and were done.
While it’s possible to cancel visits at 2nd choice schools, it’s also possible to tell coaches, “Hey, I’ve already got two (three) visits scheduled at my current top schools, but I’ll let you know as soon as they’re over if things don’t work out.” Why set up the visit at all if 2 or 3 schools are top runners? If the recruit is ready to commit after the second visit, that tells me that the other schools were second choice from the beginning,
I honestly just don’t get it. It seems like a waste of everyone’s time.
I disagree with classicalmama. This is a big decision, and each athlete’s decisionmaking process is very different. If the they want to set up 5 visits and cancel after the 2nd, that’s their right. They can hold cards as close to the vest as they want. I would say the same thing to a job seeker who set up interviews with 5 firms and decided to go with the first one. The schools know all of this and plan accordingly. From a personal perspective, my daughter just accepted at the school of her 4th ov.
This is really interesting to me. I’m guessing we’d be up in arms if a coach called and cancelled an official visit because his roster was full. The athlete would have potentially lost the opportunity to accept an OV slot that was available earlier but has now (2 or 3 months down the road) been filled by another recruit. Coaches have limits on the OVs they can offer, just as athletes have limits on the number they can accept. Why is it okay for the athlete to cancel out but not the coach? Or do coaches sometimes play their cards this way as well?
If a coach had no intention of offering a slot, I would not want to waste my time going on an official visit to the school, even if it had previously been scheduled. What would be the purpose of that? I would prefer to know that the coach no longer has interest in me asap so I could get on with other possibilities.
In my experience coaches do not offer their final slot until all scheduled OVs have been completed. But if the coach was sincere when the OV was offered, and your hypothetical materialized, I would want the coach to tell me.
Getting back to the topic, OP and OP’s daughter have nothing to feel guilty about. If there was sincere interest on OP daughter’s part when the OV offer was made and accepted, and then the facts changed in the meantime so there is no longer sincere interest, it serves everyone’s purposes not to go through with the visit.
It would be contrary to everyone’s purposes to go through with the visit in these circumstances.
I would imagine the school gets a “credit” back when the flight is cancelled. Don’t sweat it.
Work. Marriage. School. As an employer, how would you feel if someone who had accepted a job was interviewing with one of your competitors? Would it be reasonable for your fiancée to go on a trip he that had planned a year ago with his ex? Should a coach that you just accepted an offer from question your commitment if you are still going on OV’s?
The only reason I would suggest going on additional OV’s would be that there is some level of uncertainty about one’s admission chances. Since academics weren’t an issue, my daughter cancelled any remaining OV’s promptly after accepting an offer of a LL. We offered to reimburse the team that had bought a ticket if it wasn’t refundable, but the coach neither expected us to do so or took us up on our offer.
It is in nobody’s interest for a recruit who is not going to attend a school to go on an OV. It takes the coach’s and teams focus away from those athletes who might want to commit to their school and ties up an OV spot that could be reallocated to another athlete. Most athletes and coaches are quite busy and would not appreciate wasting their time entertaining a recruit that had no intention of going to their school.
Like fenwaypark, I would prefer that a coach tell my child that he or she has no remaining spots so that he or she can move on with the recruiting process.
Obviously, people are free to do as they please, but I think it’s a very good idea to take all 5 of your OV’s before deciding. Yes, it’s quite exhausting, but you definitely learn a lot more staying a weekend with the team than you ever could from a normal admissions visit or athletic open house. You get to experience your potential teammates and how they interact with each other and the coach. D got a good idea of which teams would be catty, which teams didn’t really like their coach, and what type of attitude the non-athletes on campus have toward the athletes. Furthermore, you can’t tell if you like something you haven’t seen. D took 4 visits in the fall and one in Feb., and ended up at the last school even though she was “sure” she’d attend her top choice from among the first 4.
Finally, the smart coaches know they are more likely to get a commitment if they get you to their school first before their peer schools. It’s like the old adage that a bride almost always picks the first dress she tries on. That’s why one of the Ivies requested D’s athletic schedule the minute school started and was pushy about scheduling her for the first available weekend of the fall. It almost worked.
In summary, I don’t think it’s wise to allow yourself to be influenced by an irrelevant factor like order of visits. Why make a decision before you have all the information?
Over the last 10 months, DD and I have made 2 unofficial visits to each of her top 8 schools. She spent time with prospective coaches and teammates during the track and field outdoor season. She also made an additional open house visit to 3 of the schools this summer. Before stepping on any campus, Ivy 4 was her top choice, and then Ivy 3 moved to the front. Well after this summers visits, Ivy’s 1 & 2 where a dead heat, pushing her former top choices to 3 & 4 respectively. So, the official visits became her 4th overall visits to Ivy 1 & 2. After her official visit to Ivy 1, she came home and reported that they had really set the bar high. My DW and I thought that she was going with Ivy 1, especially considering that they are “the brand”, and are the current 5 time Ivy champs in her sport, but after her official visit to Ivy 2, she reported, that not only did she love the coaches and teammates, but the other students were extremely welcoming. She didn’t accept official visits to schools that she had no interest in. DD had LL offers from 6 schools, but only scheduled 4 visits. She just knew that she’d found her home at Ivy 2. I am certain that my DD had enough information to end her recruiting journey. My daughter knew that Ivy’s 3 & 4, are some other athletes “dream schools”, and she wanted to leave the door open, for them to follow that dream. Official visit slots are limited and precious, and she didn’t want to waste them. Again, I realized the folly of worrying about schools with multi billion dollar endowments losing money on $400 dollar plane tickets, but it bothers me no less.
Pretty sure I’m going to be hammered for this, but what the heck.
First, I’m not sure that the work and marriage parallel really work. OVs are part of the process, and coaches expect athletes to go to all of their OVs before committing (though they sometimes like to hear that their school is the current first choice). The athlete isn’t going to lost the “job offer” by putting the yes off for a few weeks; nor have the athlete and the school been “dating” long enough to know for sure that one match is better than the other.
Absolutely, lots of kids have a first-choice school that remains a first-choice school throughout the process. But as TheGFG points out, other kids have changed their minds as a result of the visits. The dynamic of a team can vary greatly from year to year, so even an unofficial the year before can feel remarkably different.
So, if an athlete cancels after two visits, I assume that some of the schools were clear second-runners from the beginning. And so my question remains: if two schools are clear enough front runners that the athlete is willing to commit without going on the other OVs, why schedule those “lesser” OVs in the first place? At that point in the process, the athlete has passed a pre-read and if an offer is being made at the time of the visit, the athlete is clearly one of the coaches’ top recruits (since all recruits are not offered slots at the OV)–something the athlete should know going in. In this case, the OV is more of a formality than a final test.
As trackcoach79 points out, OVs are precious commodities, and one athlete’s dream school is another student’s second choice. It’s true that a coach can go on to offer that OV to someone else in October, but at that point, the original athlete has often turned his/her attention and commitments elsewhere. October OVs often don’t go to the same caliber athletes as summer OVs, so I don’t think that canceling an OV in the fall is the ethical equivalent of turning one down in the summer.
Obviously, lots of people play OVs this way, and coaches are probably not surprised when cancellations happen. It just doesn’t feel right to me; in the many lessons my kids have to learn from athletics, this-take-stuff-because-you-can-just-in-case-even-though-you-don’t-really-want-it isn’t one I want them to learn.
I for one would never hammer you on any view but I do think that by cancelling the OV they are doing the opposite of taking something that they really do not want. Most kids would go just because they can. Who would turn down a free weekend,possibly going to a college party and having fun. By cancelling, the coach knows to take said athlete off of their list and allow someone else to possibly have their dream come true
Granted I am biased as my boys cancelled OVs once they made their decisions but its much more enjoyable to just go and hangout for the experience than to turn down that opportunity
I just don’t understand the reason behind scheduling an OV at a school if it is not a serious contender for the student. I like classicalmama’s suggestion in post #5. D also had made unofficial visits at the her 5 OV schools (and at countless others too), so it’s not as though she had never visited them before the OV. Still, the OV was a different experience that shed new light on each place. To each his own, though. Being honest is certainly good.
I was interested to recently learn that at University of Hawaii, if you take an OV and don’t commit, you have to reimburse the school for the cost of the trip.
One can make cases for and against cancelling OV’s once a decision has been made and nobody should or appears to be hammering others for their point of view. Although there is merit in the argument that an athlete committed to an OV and should feel obligated to go, I believe that once an offer is accepted the athlete should cancel any remaining visits.
Some athletes have the luxury due to their talent and hard work of having coaches wait for them to decide before offering the last couple of spots to other recruits. Many more recruits are on the cusp of being offered a spot and may lose an opportunity if they wait to make a decision. If a coach has six spots and the number 10 recruit lets the coach know that it is his first choice, it might be enough to persuade the coach to offer a LL instead of waiting under the last moment. If an athlete’s number two school makes an offer but needs a decision before all of the OV’s are completed, the athlete might decide to take the one in the hand.
As the spots are accepted, the opportunities decrease. If you are the number 2 recruit in your position and the number 1 recruit commits before you make a decision, it’s possible that you won’t receive an offer. If playing time or being on a medley relay is important to you, knowing that you may never start or being on a relay because the #1 recruit will probably be in front of you may influence your decision. My daughter had five schools that she would have been happy with and when her first choice made an offer, she accepted and let the other coaches know. If she had gone on additional OV, everyone would have known that she had already made a decision and it would have been a distraction for the team and the recruits.
One of my children’s teammates, who will almost certainly never compete at IVY championships, was a very enthusiastic recruit and was offered a LL at one of the top programs. If she had waited, I doubt there would have been a place for her. By making decisions early in the process, both the athlete and team are giving up the chance of something better in exchange for some level of certainty. Most of our children would have been happy at a variety of schools and most teams can easily find other recruits.
Although my son is a Div 3 recruit, his story may have some relevance here.
He was initially courted by a wonderful school (top ten in academic rankings), to which he made two unofficial visits. Prior to the actual recruiting season I told him that it was unwise to put all his eggs in one basket, and forced him to make a couple of unofficial visits to other similarly academically excellent schools…
I know that there are no OV’s in Div 3, but the schools do run recruiting weekends. He went on an OV to his #1 choice, and then to one of the other schools just for the sake of completeness. I thought that the latter was really just a perfunctory trip. You can already see where this is going – he absolutely loved the coach and his prosepective teammates at the ‘other’ school, much more than at his prior first choice. Put another way, the recruiting trip provided more info and context in terms of his sport than his prior visits. The schools are similar enough academically that it’s reasonable for him to go where he thinks he’ll be a better ‘fit’ on the team.
Had he cancelled the second recruiting trip he would have missed out on what he thinks will be a wonderful school and team experience.
@trackcoach79, did your daughter actually make 23 college visits? That…just…I have no words.