My D16 junior and I just got back from a round of unofficials with most of the ives. She has strong academics (IB program), 2Ks in the low 7:20s, did well at nationals and regionals, and is a HW. Quite a few schools have expressed interest, emailing and setting up calls before our trip back east. The rule update allowing official visits to begin Sept 1 of the athlete’s junior year of high school seems like it has accelerated decision making for some of the schools. A few programs said they already hosted several OVs and have verbal commits from potential recruits. Several coaches asked her to let them know if she is serious about their school in a few weeks. This seem premature to me. Is this the way things work now with the rule change? Does she really need to narrow her list to 2, maybe 3 schools at this point and write the others off?
Just a quick clarification…Do you mean D20? (daughter who is a high school junior graduating in 2020?)
In crew, it seems at least at our local school, that a number of athletes over the years have verbally committed soph and junior years. We usually have 10ish rowers commit to colleges, many at highly selective colleges. I am not sure allowing OVs in junior year has accelerated the verbal commit timeline, because students historically just took unofficial visits thru junior year to meet coaches, assess fit and verbally commit (or not).
Regardless of what you or I think about the process, you and your daughter are going to have to respond timely to the inquiries of coaches and adhere to their recruiting timelines. LOI signing day for seniors is only 6 months away, so it is not early to the coaches. Even though the ivies don’t do LOIs, many coaches will want their recruiting for class of 2020-2021 finished by the end of this summer. If your D commits to an ivy, she will be expected to apply in the earliest round of applications (ED or SCEA), where she would probably receive a likely letter before the admission notification date.
It’s great that you visited, because that’s such an important way to assess fit, both at the school and the rowing program. My advice is to look at many programs, keep in contact with coaches, understand their process and timeline, how many recruiting slots they have, and go from there. Absolutely don’t commit to a program if you feel you are not ready, yet there is a risk of waiting too long and finding there are few, if any, spots left. Good luck.
Thank you for the advice! I did mean D20.
I don’t think the timeline is accelerated at all. The Ivies have always wanted to have recruits ready to go by July 1 as that’s the first day to do pre-reads.
The 4 female rowers at my daughter’s high school all signed (not to Ivies, but to D1 programs) at the Nov signing date. They were ready to go, and that was 6 years ago.