Thanks so much @cinnamon1212, those details do shed some light on what all might be going on behind the scenes at various programs. What a total mess for upcoming classes.
Cinnamon1212 - I’m not a regular poster here - but do read a lot - and I think you might be able to help me. Is there a way to send you a private message with some questions? (sorry I have no idea how to do this.)
@LizzyMay you have to have 15 posts in order to send a private message. I just sent you a PM so you should be able to reply.
We heard from one Ivy, as others have already mentioned, that athletes deferring from the class of 2020 count against the 2021 slots for admissions. That particular Ivy told us they spread out all the athletic deferral slots across the sports. So I don’t know how many, if any, deferrals were in her sport, but the team was only able to offer half as many slots for 2021 as they had said (in the May Zoom call) that they hoped to recruit.
As teams continue to get cut, that is going to also squeeze the next few years of high school recruiting classes, as there are more and more transfers vying for the same spaces. D21 was offered a spot on a team that then was cut, which was no fun for the recruiting process, but much less painful than if she were already attending the school.
My one piece of advice from the experience would be to contact a longer list of “match” and “safety” schools as far as athletics goes, because the increased competition for fewer spaces will be moving many athletic “matches” to “reaches,” plus you never know which sports will be cut next at which schools (even if you ask all the right questions!). In the end my daughter has offers from three amazing schools, but they were not on her radar until recently because (pre-Covid) she was aiming for as high athletically as she could get. And since her process bumped her down a notch, it means she’s “that” person falling into a D3 school’s list at the last minute, and bumping out someone else who may have been talking to that school for months…and so the dominoes keep falling…
Thank you for that insight. I was interested in the idea that all the athletic deferrals get grouped across sports and then counted against the 21 allocations…that make sense from what I’m picking up too. Wonder if that’s how most colleges are handling things…
Excellent article in the Atlantic titled the Mad mad world of niche sports. Worth a google search dated November 2020.
D20 is a freshman at one of the ivy’s. When she was contemplating the deferral, her coach told her that if she defers, one of the 2021 recruits at the same sport will lose the offer in the same sport. The way it was phrased sounded like it would be handled within the sport at her school.
Thank you for sharing that. It’s really insightful as to exactly how brutal things are for the 21s. My daughter tells me most of her year are reluctant to take a PG year and are rapidly scrambling for any offers. Perhaps those 21s who opt for a PG year will be better off despite competing with the upcoming 22s.
For D3 Nescac schools, availabilty of slots and tips are not solely about the frosh who are deferring, it’s also impacted by upperclassmen taking gap years. My kid’s sport had a large relative number of gap year soph juniors and seniors. From what I hear a ton of kids who posted their “commitments” to nescacs back over the summer may be receiving some difficult and unwelcome news from coaches pre ED. Very unfamiliar territory for these coaches, even those with strong ties to the admission dept.
This is exactly what my son’s college counselor was worried about.
So basically a good strategy would be to commit to a school that had an open campus this year, which is undergrad only, and requires graduation in 4 year/8 semesters no? Because that would at least lessen the risks compared to other schools with a high percentage of gap year takers across all class years. And that presumably would carry through over the next few years…because those schools more likely won’t be impacted with students staying on? Or, huge schools that can carry giant rosters maybe. Assuming of course that the school is a good fit and chosen on the basis of the school itself, and not only the sport.
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This was a great article, thanks for the link. As someone who grew up in Fairfield County (a long time ago, in a midtier social class in a midtier town, but still…) I just laughed through the whole thing, even though it wasn’t actually funny.
Edit: well not the actual link, but close enough.
2 local seniors who committed to D1 were just called and their scholarships released for lack of space on the team. Now they are scrambling to talk to other colleges where they were offered spots to see who still has interest.
Not that easy imo. The issue is that a high percentage of athletes took gap years, even though their respective campuses were open. They knew (for fall sports) or expected a marginalized season at best, and decided to gap it to preserve a “4 year” experience - not about eligibility for most of them, because most kids aren’t going to be doing 5 years at a nescac. Better to take a year off and hope all is better by sept 21. So next year will have nearly identical rosters to what should have been this year, plus a new freshmen class. So what gets cut? New recruits…
Our head looked grey today as he presented a college talk. This years slots have been almost completely wiped out by the existing enrolled students taking a gap year so rosters staying exactly the same as last year. He says that makes it a 4 year issue. Of-course different sports and different colleges have varying experiences - probably according to how academic they are - he cited Williams as a school that likes to keep them all tight and keep pushing them through so may be less affected - as one example. The top team - an Ivy filled with many national team players - is seeing 100% deferral by the whole roster. Knock on effect huge in a small sport.
This is what I thought too - until I heard that every senior men’s soccer player at Amherst was taking a leave so they could play next year. Honestly cannot remember where I heard that - it could have been on this thread ?.
From the New England Soccer Journal:
” In the latest episode of New England Soccer Journal’s podcast, head coach Justin Serpone revealed that all seven of their seniors will return for the 2021 season. The Mammoths will also welcome back-to-back freshmen classes, strengthening a roster that’s already among the country’s best.”
Lol. That’s where I heard it!!! Thank you @GKUnion
https://ephsports.williams.edu/sports/msoc/2019-20/releases/20201002gj8tpq
Interesting – Williams men’s soccer only had 5 players on the team return, the rest have all deferred. Midway through the article Sullivan talks about COVID’s imact on recruiting.