My daughter is a junior soccer player that is being recruited by several top (Top meaning soccer wise) D3 schools and one D2 school that is her dream school. She has been in contact with the D2 coach for several months and the coach has seen her play several times. The coach isn’t the best at communicating and she has alluded that to us several times. My daughter went to an ID clinic at the D2 school and requested feedback from the coach after. The coach sent a great email back saying they were impressed with her, etc. A few days later they asked for her high school transcripts and senior schedule and told her they’d get the paperwork together for her admissions pre read.
While these are all great signs, the coach has never actually said “I’d like you to come play for me” or anything confirming my daughter is good enough to play for her. She has mentioned she would be honest if she felt she wasn’t a good fit. So, my question is, how much weight can an athlete put on a pre read from a coach? Does this mean they definitely want the athlete on their team? I’d hate for my daughter to get her hopes up if this is something coaches extend to a lot of players.
I think it all looks promising for the D2 school. Before the coach ‘commits’ by making an offer, she needs to see the pre-read (which may also tell her how much your daughter may get in merit aid), which players are coming back next year, who else she’s looking at, etc. Even though soccer recruits on the early side, D2 still is later than the big D1 powerhouses.
Just keep showing interest in both the team and the school (to admissions). The coach is just finishing up the season and may be exhausted. I think you’ll see more activity in the spring.
I think it means they are definately interested. In my DD’s experience the D2 asked for transcripts to see what type of academic merit she would be eligible for, e.g. can they have her on the team with a nice financial package that doesn’t include using any of their atheltic money. Just part of the jigsaw puzzle on how they put the team together.
While the timing may differ across D1/D2/D3 (my kid is D3 soccer player), the process is similar in that coach needs to determine that wants the player and player can be admitted, and player needs to determine wants to play for that program and attend that school. So, expressions of interest and request for pre-read are all positive, and usually necessary steps. It is not a done deal until the coach says they are offering student a roster spot on the team, and you discuss financials (if applicable) and admission.
Read through some of the older threads on questions to ask coaches as you move through the process regarding admissions and the team. On admissions, questions like, “are you supporting me for admission,” “how many students with my stats that you supported were admitted (and denied) in the past five years?” On team, questions about whether recruits are cut, whether the roster spot is guaranteed for 1-2 years, etc.
It is a long process, and exciting to see it all come together for the student athlete. Good luck!
I’m not sure that is as important at most D2 schools. Those who are qualified are admitted, those who aren’t are denied by admissions. D2 schools don’t seem to have long lines waiting to get in (except for UCSD, and they might be moving to D1).
Our son was just accepted ED1 to his top choice D3 LAC last week. I can tell you that we looked at the initial pre-read as a good sign. I really agree with all of what’s been said above. Here’s our experience:
It was really broken into a few steps:
the initial pre-read was just so that Admissions could give the coach the ok to move ahead recruiting (that’s the super cautionary positive - or the “foot in the door” as I called it). This was really the first step, and while it was significant, we were cautious and urged him to be the same…it was just the start for him.
Then a couple of weeks later the coach felt out to see if ED1 was a possibility for him. Seeing it was, he sent in academic info. again, senior schedule & school profile.
About 3 weeks later the coach called to say the pre-read came back positive, with a big congratulations, if he applied ED1. This was as close to a likely letter as we could have expected, but nothing written, all verbal. I would absolutely agree with @Midwestmomofboys that until the coach extends that offer, it could be a revolving door… nothing’s a done deal…still be cautious.
He went on his ovn which really sealed the deal, especially after talking to the coach, meeting the team, etc.
He applied, let the coach know and waited, and waited, and waited…we felt good when he received very positive sounding emails in November.
However, to be clear, the deal was not sealed at all until we got that letter of acceptance last week.
I also agree with @twoinanddone : keep showing interest. This particular coach said that they don’t follow up if the kids don’t…point blank. It’s a two way street. In my words to my son after his unofficial visit, first tour of the school, “If you want this, you have to work it”. He did :).
Finally, in our situation the coach has been at this school for a very long time. We felt very comfortable with the information given, and felt the coach knew the admissions process well enough to not string our son along. That being said, the coach is not the admissions office, so we always erred on just being cautiously optimistic.
Best of luck to you. It’s a crazy, exhausting, fun, and wonderful experience!
I just finished the recruiting process for D1 rowing, and I can say that if the coach asks for a pre-read that is a very good sign! Most schools would not bother requesting a pre-read if the coach did not think your daughter was a strong candidate for the program. None of the schools/coaches I talked to offered me a spot or said “id like you to come play for me” until I went on my official visits and had a 1-on-1 meeting with the coaches, so don’t be discouraged that she hasn’t gotten a concrete offer yet! Good luck!
Thanks everyone. It looks like another girl my daughter met at the schools camp just committed to the same D2 school. My daughter is still waiting to hear. The girls skill levels were similar but The girls do play different positions. I’m guessing things like position, etc, can come into play for these things too?
Position matters (how many goalies does a team need?) but lots of other things too: a sibling at the school, coach was friends with club or h.s. coach, grades. The other student may have caught the coach on the right day, or she may be pushier.
Just keep contacting the coach (although I’m not sure if your sport has a dead period for recruiting over Christmas).
Thanks for all the responses. Update here, my daughter seems to have received a likely letter from admissions detailing that as long as her grades stay the same, she will get in her #1 choice (the D2 school) with a very nice academic award. Only issue is, we would need some athletic money to still make this affordable. We are unsure how to broach this with the coach. Any advice?
With a lot of honesty. ^^ Tell the coach about the letter from admissions, the amount the admissions office thinks you’ll get in merit money, and what you need to make it work. It may be that the coach divides the money equally among the freshmen class. A friend’s coach did, so if there were 8 recruits each got less than if there were only 6. Kind of hard to make plans that way. Other coaches give a certain amount to the favored recruits (1/4 of a full scholarship, 1/3 etc.).
D’s coach offered a lump sum, and I told her we couldn’t make that work, so coach offered more. There were some hard feelings (for D and me) when we found out another recruit received more - and everyone DOES find out how much everyone else is getting.
Thank you @twoinanddone. Honest email sent to coach with the amount we are comfortable contributing as a family and asking if coach has any ideas on how we can get closer to that number. It’s an $11,000 difference, but we are still close to being able to contribute almost 50% of tuition and room and board, so we don’t feel like we are being excessively greedy or unrealistic. No athletic money offered yet, but I don’t care what you call it or where it comes from if it means we can make it work. Fingers crossed!
We recieved a financial pre-read as well as an academic pre-read before applying ED1 (D3). Was nice knowing affordability before committing. In addition, academic money is better than athletic. As long as you maintain standards, they can’t take it away. No guarantees your daughter will play for all 4 years (might get burned out).
Finally, I have seen lump sums and % of tuitions offered. Nice thing about %’s is that it helps split the price increases between the school and yourself. My daughter was offered a % from a D1 school before deciding D3. My other daughter recieved a lump sum for athletics and academics. Inflation has taken a bit of a hit in the original number.
Also, while the NCAA allows combining of both academic and athletic money, not all schools do. We ran into this with our daughter. She received academic and athletic offers from a school and the combination of them made the school affordable. When we received the NLI, it became clear from the wording that perhaps we were not all on the same page. Some very candid conversations finally led to the truth: we had to choose between athletic and academic monies. And, the school became affordable.
I don’t think merit is better than athletic money, or that athletic is better than merit. You can lose your merit scholarship if you don’t meet the gpa requirements too.
It’s best to get it all! My daughter’s school does allow stacking of merit and athletic.
It’s worked out well for my daughter to have both. At her school the merit doesn’t increase year to year, so even though tuition has increase $2000 every year, no extra money in merit. Her coach agreed to pay more this year…