My daughter (2016) has a few schools she is interested in. She is an accomplished athlete as well as student, but playing her sport for her college isn’t necessarily a must-have - she only wants to play for certain coaches, doesn’t want it to consume her life. (For instance, if she goes to a D1 school, she will just do club).
There is a coach interested in her from one of her top choices - it’s a DIII college she likes very much, and a coach she does want to play for. He asked her if she would consider early decision, and said the majority of the girls on the roster do ED. He has come to our area to watch her play a few times. She’s excited that they are interested in her, but we’ve always planned that she would do several applications and compare financial aid packages. Her academic credentials are good enough that she may be able to get close to a full ride at some schools.
Does anyone know if coaches try to get players to do ED as a way to form solid rosters for the coming year (which makes sense to me), or do colleges incentivize coaches to try to get students to agree to do ED?
How does it work if you do ED and the financial package ends up being less than what you are hoping for? And, do you think if we met with an admissions person and talked about our financial situation and her ACT, grades in the fall, can they usually give you a pretty good idea of what you might get, so you are more informed if you apply ED?
I should add that I don’t think she’d have any trouble getting into the school, and the school that is interested in her for the sport is known for generous merit aid.
I do not know anything about sports recruiting, but I would suggest that you be honest with the coach and explain the situation to him.
So I’d say, yes , your program is a top choice. But we are considering other schools because financial aid is a concern for us. Tell him that her academics (and athletics) make a full ride at some schools a possibility.
Then ask him if he can give you a scholarship offer prior to the ED application. D got that at a school that was interested in her–they called it an early read to determine merit aid–and were going to give us a minimum number before she even applied. So these things are possible.
If he can give you an offer, at least you know part of the information you need to make a decision.
It is also possible that you can tell the next school on your list that you have that offer and see what they say.
You are able to get out of ED if the financial aid package doesn’t meet your need. It gets a bit trickier if you have no need and were only counting on merit aid offers. But if you do decline you will not be able to reconsider that offer later. If you accept, you will need to withdraw all your other apps.
If this coach seriously wants your daughter to play for him that much, there’s room for bargaining, I’d reckon.
DIII schools are not allowed to really roll out the carpet like DI schools in terms of paid visits, athletic scholarships, etc. but if she draws enough interest and has good academic merit, she could qualify for scholarships.
When it comes to ED, I’d make sure its worth her while since its binding. See what the coach could come up with and possibly see if he can get an estimate from the FA office of the college. He may surprise you.
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Her academic credentials are good enough that she may be able to get close to a full ride at some schools.
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You can still apply to these schools, and some will let you know about the awards before Dec ED results come out…so you would be “comparing” those results with the ED aid offer.
Applying ED does NOT mean that you can’t apply elsewhere at the same time.
If you don’t like the ED aid offer, then appeal and if still not good, then decline…no biggie. But be sure NOT to miss any of the scholarship app deadlines at those other school that are likely before ED results come out.
Have you run the NPC on the ED school? Did you like the results? Do you have any circumstances which would cause the NPCs not to work well? Business deductions? extra properties? non-custodial parent?
There are no athletic scholarships at D3 schools - your daughter will get the same need based aid as anyone else with her assets, family income, family assets. Merit aid can be given to an athlete as long as the same standards are used as for other students (gpa, scores). ED is a common offer to the best athletes, and coaches suggest it so that they can give the student a ‘tip’ or a ‘slot’ with admissions. You can get a financial aid ‘pre-read’ before applying ED, but it will not be a guarantee of aid because this is done before filing CSS or FAFSA, so they are using your best estimates.
Many coaches fill their teams with ED applicants. A coach only has so many tips/slots they can offer, only so much pull with the admissions office. Conferences put limits on what the coaches can offer, and the schools limit the help each coach is allowed to offer.
If your student is sure she’ll get many offers and sure she can get into the school on her own, without the tip or slot, she doesn’t need to go ED. Most coaches will understand if you don’t want to do ED, but since you are giving them no promises, they can give you none back. Not all schools offer a club team if they have a D1 team, it really depends on the sport and the size of the school (not all D1 schools are huge).
Don’t think they are trying to pull anything over on you, asking for ED is common for D3 and some other colleges, as it lets the coach fill the roster and give admission tips where needed. Ask for a preread on the financials. But you still won’t be able to compare. You might want to visit the athletic recruit forum here…
Also, run the net proce calculator. This will give you a sense of the net cost of attending this college. You can also ask the financial aid office for an “early read” of your financial aid. Some schools will do this for ED recruited athletes.
Despite the no athletic scholarships rule, some of the DIII schools seem to have sweeter financial aid/merit scholarship offers for recruited athletes.
ED for recruited athletes is a real boon for the coaches, especially at Division III schools. It allows the coach to lock in the athletes he wants and give some shape to the recruiting class early on. It can also help the athlete who would perhaps otherwise be a borderline case for admissions without the “tip” the admissions office gives to the coach; to that extent it can be a kind of permissible benefit in lieu of an athletic scholarship, which D-III schools can’t give. But it’s obviously less valuable to the athlete who would be a strong candidate for admission even without the athletic “tip.” It may also help the admissions office, because they can give the coach as many “tips” as he’s going to get early in the admissions process. Admissions then at least has the skeleton of a structure to its entering class at the end of the ED round, and knows where it needs to go in the RD round to meet its SAT/ACT and GPA targets. I should think it would be harder for admissions to be giving out athletic tips later, in the RD round, when it becomes touch-and-go as to whether they’ll meet their SAT/ACT/GPA targets.
OP, if ED doesn’t benefit your daughter, you’re under no obligation to help out the coach or the admissions office. And any reasonable coach would understand that, so I don’t think you need to worry about burning bridges with the coach if your daughter declines ED. And if it does cause problems, then I’m not sure that’s the kind of coach you want your daughter to be associated with anyway.
@bclintonk I can’t comment on every school but of the 15, D1 and D3, I dealt with the only benefit to the coach was that he got to interact with my son in the late spring and summer before he needed to focus on the upcoming season. By the end of July we had all the answers back from admissions based on junior year transcript, senior year schedule and the high school’s descriptive profile. We spent August and September revisting schools and doing overnight visits and Official D1 visits.
There was never any feeling that applying ED put us in a corner, quite the opposite we had access to admissions and the coaching staff at a time when they are least busy and when visits are easiest. The “slots” you are referring to have more to do with D1 and aren’t related to ED. Boston College does not accept recruited athlete applications until RD. D3, at least in NESCAC, has an A, B and C banding system and we were told that a coach asking for a C Band was very rare, as only a handful exist for all the teams. Really selective schools, even Notre Dame and Stanford, have to balance out “slots” with real admits. NESCAC is the most restrictive, even with practice schedules
So, I guess my point is that it is all upside for the student. How many applicants get a review by admissions without applying? The student has several months to consider options once admissions does the review and lots of time to visit and consider options. The only benefit the coach gets is he or she doesn’t have to worry about incoming athletes when they get busy with practice. I don’t think coaches treat ED as a way to lock students in because they still have to compete for the kid, just at a different time of the year.
We told the top three picks they made the cut in October and didn’t give Bates the final decision until a few days before the ED deadline.
As far as the D3 schools go, if you are confident she will get in without the benefit of ED, and want financial/merit aid and don’t want to commit without seeing all offers, then you should not feel pressured to apply ED. Some schools will do an academic and financial pre-read, which can be helpful if you do want to go ED.
ED is great if you are sure a particular school is your #1 choice, and you are comfortable with the numbers from the pre-read or the NPC. Make sure you understand the NPC numbers and talk to the financial aid folks. If the offer comes in and it is substantially lower, you can turn it down. But, turning down an ED offer is a last resort.
I second the suggestion to post this question on the athletic recruit forum.
I would second the suggestion of a pre read from the financial aid office. The recruiting coach can help facilitate that,. and it is not at all uncommon. It should give you a greater degree of confidence than simply running the NPC, especially if your income is non standard. From recruits I have known, only one was surprised by his actual financial award after receiving such a pre read. But that was the result of a sale of a family business and AFAIK only effected the kid in one year.
I agree with posters who have said that it is standard operating procedure for a coach to ask prospective athletes to apply ED. When our DIII athlete was a high school junior, the coach asked her to commit to apply ED. She did so at the end of junior year. The coach made clear that he wanted a commitment soon. I do not see this as a moral failing on his part. Life is easier for the coach (and for the dean of admissions) if athletes apply ED. The coach is then able to spend the summer and fall scouting the prospective athletes for the class matriculating two years hence. (In D’s sport, athletes typically contact coaches in the summer between sophomore and junior year.)
My son was told by a prospective coach that most of his players are accepted RD not ED.
Coincidentally, they are looking for a goalkeeper in the entering freshman class at this late date…
I would say that if the coach normally uses ED, that is somewhat of a safety factor that he will get the kids he chooses and have them settled instead of hoping they pick his school.
Yes, FA can be an issue, but I would suggest applying to other schools EA to get a FA comparison. If the D3 coach’s school doesn’t have a great FA package, and an EA school does, your child can refuse the ED offer.
For example, we saw more than 10K per year difference between my son’s ED and EA schools, in terms of FA, plus more loans for the school offering less. Luckily, the ED school was the better offer or he would have gone to the EA school.
ED for recruits is standard at D3 schools, at least as my son has been told. A number of programs have said to him, if a student isn’t prepared to apply ED, the coach will move on to other athletes. The coaches need that certainty for building their roster. It may differ depending on the sport and school, however.
NESCAC doesn’t offer merit aid, it is financial aid only, as we have been reminded by NESCAC coaches. Run the NPC if a NESCAC school to get a sense of whether the numbers look feasible. For non NESCAC schools, my son has been told that he pre-read will include estimated merit aid and that, if we are applying for financial aid, to start with NPC and then can talk with financial aid office if there are questions.
It’s the same for the Ivy League and Patriot League. However, NESCAC schools are not allowed to issue likely letters like the Ivy League. Patriot League schools apparently have a policy that if you a coach invites you to an Official Visit, Admissions must concur.