<p>I was wondering if others had experience with this...My son had official visits with Ivy A and Ivy B (non HYP). We submitted all of our financial info for pre-read in early Oct. We asked both schools for the status of the reads in mid Oct and were told they were working on it, but were swamped. Last week, before the reads came back, he was asked by his first choice, A, to commit. A few days later Ivy B coach asked for answer as well, and son said he had chosen A. Now we just received Ivy A financial aid offer and it was lower than we had hoped. They are willing to match any offer from another Ivy, but we have none. My question is- is it wrong/ tacky/ inappropriate to ask coach of Ivy B if the fin-aid read comes through after all, would he consider forwarding it to us for comparison? I realize he very well may have told fin-aid office to drop their work on it after son committed elsewhere. But in case it is sitting on his desk? What do you think? I should add, he is a very nice guy and had been emailing my husband back and forth about the pre-read this month.</p>
<p>I hope some people respond to this thread as I am very curious about other people’s experiences with financial aid pre reads at ivies. I wonder why your son wasn’t able to delay decision if both coaches knew you were awaiting info from financial aid office? Can you clarify that? Thanks! I would not think you can not go back to a coach asking for the financial aid read after you have turned him down, but others may have actual experience with this. Good luck!</p>
<p>The coach is irrelevant in this process. Rather than deal with the Coach, go directly to FA office with your request. Share whatever info you want to share with them.</p>
<p>Hi Rose. Thanks! My instinct is to agree with you about the second coach. Only if others told me it is done, I would consider asking. Both coaches said the same thing; basically “the pre-read is not ready yet, but rest assured we will meet any other Ivy offer.” A third Ivy offered an official visit to my son after he had committed to A- so he declined it. It would’ve been nice to have another possible offer. And maybe we could’ve held firm about awaiting the offer, before committing, but we didn’t. My advice to parents is get your financial info in ASAP after your child is offered an official. We delayed getting ours done, mostly because my husband owns a business and filling out the forms required meetings with financial advisors and accountant. He needed to submit over seventy pages of business related documents in addition to personal financial info and it took a while to process. But we know we probably could’ve submitted it 2 weeks earlier and that may have helped.</p>
<p>Hi Fenway. Maybe every school/ sport is different, but early in the process the coach (B) asked us to only to direct questions to him regarding the pre-read. And I found it interesting that at one point I emailed financial aid office of Ivy A with a question and they responded “Due to high volume… we do not conduct financial aid pre-reads, but please contact your coach for further information.” I found that interesting- especially when we received our pre-read this week from the athletic liaison to FA.</p>
<p>That is interesting carolinab. As you say every sport is different. My d’s sport seems to want to lock them in as juniors. I don’t want to hijack your thread, so I should probably start my own thread regarding ability to get financial pre reads from ivies as a junior. I’m not sure if that is possible. In your case I figured it was something like you explained above where the coach wanted everything to go through him. Thank you for the advice about getting the info in early!</p>
<p>When we went through the Ivy pre-read process, coach gave us the name of the specific person in the FAO to address, and also asked that we let him know once it was sent, otherwise , “it’s going to just sit on someone’s desk”.</p>
<p>re: your initial question about whether it’s appropriate to contact the coach at the school you declined to see if you could still get the FA offer - honestly, I think that would take some chutzpah, probably more than I have. But then again, all he can do is say no - and it might save you thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>Thanks Fenway, Rose and Varska. We are lacking in chutzpah, so I think we will leave it alone at this point! PS Varska, I learned a lot going though this process from your blog and in your online book as well- a huge thank you!</p>
<p>Thanks,carolina, glad you found it helpful!</p>
<p>OP, did you have any recruiting correspondence with H or P? Any postcards with handwritten notes? If yes, - talk to coach A - maybe he can do something.
If offer from A is absolutely not doable but your son can live with school B then go talk to coach B and explain the situation. Tell him that school A treated your family business income unfairly and you are considering withdrawing your commitment. If B still has a spot ask him to complete the pre-read. it was your son who committed to A and snubbed B. You, the parent, can actually call the coaches yourself and discuss financial options. It should not be viewed completely out of line.
While you are sorting out this mess make your son call other Ivies that he may be interested in and find out about current recruiting situation. Maybe the game of musical chairs is not over. Include HYP schools - Y admissions is pretty picky and I think they just had an athletic adcom meeting as some recruits got calls yesterday.</p>
<p>Thanks so much CCD. The offer from A was not terrible, just not as generous as I hoped. We can swing it, though. The coach had asked us to list all the Ivy schools my son was in touch with and the specific type of contact with each (email, phone, official visit, etc). Unfortunately, he had no visits to HYP which I hear are the most generous. I haven’t ruled out speaking to coach A and see if anything could be done. Your suggestions are great- thnx!</p>
<p>If you can swing it - then congratulations to your son. You might be better off getting all available pre-reads especially if you have business income but maybe you did not leave any money on the table. Who knows. Some of our original pre-reads were pretty terrible.</p>
<p>Thanks. It is tricky indeed with a business. They went over everything with a fine-toothed comb. I was surprised that they read through 70 pages and followed up with a question about one lease arrangement on one rental property! A caveat to business -owner parents of recruits: can’t hide anything! 
( and get it done early!!)</p>
<p>CCDD14 why do you ask Carolinab if there was any correspondence with H and P? How would a postcard or hand written note change that situation? I assume you mean any interest from HYP could potentially increase the aid package from coach A? But honestly I’m not sure how this works. We are new the recruiting process and trying to get ahead of this for my D who is a junior and starting the recruiting process with a focus on Ivy/NESCAC schools for now. Varska’s book was most helpful, but still trying to fill in some blanks regarding the financial side. Thanks for clarifying.</p>
<p>The absolute #1 advice I can give a future IVY recruit is to always include HYP in your recruiting efforts. If you are fortunate to get interest from them that gets to the point of getting a FA read, you are able …and expected … to communicate that to another IVY which is also showing interest. We were able to get FA reads from IVYs in the summer/late fall of Senior year. HYP # came in, and we passed it along to another IVY who absolutely would have matched it.</p>
<p>In certain situations recruiting interest from HYP can produce better initial finaid pre-read from non-HYP. For example one poster on this board got a H pre-read from Cornell. It is helpful to have some proof of this interest that the coach can take to the FA office. This outcome may depend on the desirability of the athlete, importance of the sport to the school, NCAA scholarship limits for the sport, level of coach’ influence, etc. Recruiting interest from Duke, Stanford and the like scholarship schools, especially in headcount sports may work too. It is even possible that non-HYP will give you a better offer than HYP. Collect as many pre-reads as feasible especially if you have a complicated financial situation that can be interpreted multiple ways. After you have a pre-read from one Ivy that is acceptable to your family you can now chose among all of them that recruit you without worrying about price tag as they all will match your best offer. You do not have to wait for the OV offer to start pre-read process or do not have to wait for an actual LL offer to ask for financial offer matching. Try to finish all financial part well in advance of your decision and do not commit until you have everything in writing.</p>
<p>I would recommend getting your financial pre-reads prior to accepting an OV. Some coaches require this; others do not. But you don’t want to waste an OV on a school that you can’t afford so you are better off knowing up front. Even if the coach tells you they don’t do financial pre-reads, you should call the FA office. We have been able to get very speciifc pre-reads in most cases.</p>
<p>Thanks imafan for that info. carolinab I totally understand the position you were in I think it’s hard for the athletes to put the verbal off until the FA read comes in when all they want to do is say yes once he/she decides. Anyone with experience getting financial aid read from HYP or S before January of junior year? I am going to have D ask coaches about FA reads soon, but I wanted to know if anyone has experience getting the FA info during junior year. I imagine it would be the same as getting it summer before senior year. I understand everything is looked at again before the App going in for EA or ED but at least you have an idea what the EFC will be at each school. Am I thinking about this correctly? Thanks</p>
<p>I have experience with financial pre-reads for HYPS. It is very unlikely that you will be able to get financial re-reads from the aid office before the spring of your athlete’s junior year (non-revenue sports). Most coaches would not get the aid office involved till the prospective athletes past the pre-reads which happen typically in late spring or summer. S is very different from HYP in the timing of the process as well. The truth is there will always be uncertainly in terms of the final exact amount the athlete will receive. We decided to accept the S offer even though it’s not as generous as the HYP’s, hoping that it can be adjusted in the spring. Please feel free to message me if you have specific questions.</p>
<p>Thanks 5amriser. I guess I need to have 15 posts before I can message you, but hopefully I’ll get there soon and will send you a PM.</p>