D22 is a strong lacrosse player. Has D1 interest and is more interested in pursuing high academic D3 schools. What is the timeline? She has spoken with a number of coaches. In particular, with NESCAC or other high academic schools, is nothing close to final until the summer after junior year? Based on Naviance, she has an in-range GPA and test scores without any support. We are just wondering if she will hear something definitive on the sports side before the official pre-read dates at these schools. Most of her friends chose the D1 route, so they have already committed. We just don’t know if high academic D3 coaches can say a spot would be available until after the admissions pre-read.
D21 had this issue last year. D1 and top 10 D3 interest/offers. After the fall prospect days, her interest moved to top 10 D3s/NESCACs because most of those programs had almost their entire Jr classes abroad (D wants to go abroad Jr year), smaller team sizes (she wants a chance to play and not spend 2 years sitting on the bench) reduced practice commitments and top academics.
Sept-Dec = Prospect days
Oct = Top 10 D3 Jr Day (about 15-20 invited juniors on campus to attend class, eat with the team, interview with coaches, watch practice, sleep in a dorm, watch scrimmage vs D1 teams)
- Top 10 D3 Offer
Feb = NESCAC Jr Day
Apr-May = Unofficial NESCAC offer and explanation of the pre-read and ED process
- Pre-read materials requested
July 1 = Official NESCAC offer
She ended up committing NESCAC in July.
Still have to apply (essays+get more A’s than B’s and no C’s prior to ED date).
It all depends on where you rank on their prospect list. The higher the rank the more open and flexible they will be. I think there are 7-8 recruits with 6 getting support.
With Covid who knows what the timeline is. I hear D1s have surprisingly been more aggressive with players from established clubs this fall. I don’t think Ds coaches have been off campus or out of the state since March. But coaches are leading practices this fall for the first time in years. There has been no indicated change to the ED process due to gap years/deferrals.
It could be argued that nothing is final until you get the formal acceptance for the school.
It helps to understand the process for NESCACs. For a Lax team, most likely each NESCAC coach has two slots and three tips (some years more and others less - just a general rule). The slots are guaranteed for the team, but not for any given applicant. Tips are recruits whose academics are roughly equivalent to the matriculating students, while slots can be somewhat below that.
Since all applications decisions in the NESCACs are made by the Adcoms, it makes sense that a coach would not offer admissions support without first getting the results of the preread. To the extent that you want any degree of certainty, you probably won’t get it until the preread has been finalized.
With respect to the timeline above, just remember that most coaches request quite a few more prereads than the number of offers of support. In other words, a coach can request a preread, but not offer support, even if the results are positive with admissions.
OP asked about the process for a D1 prospect looking at high academic/NESCAC. I gave a 2019 timeline based upon Ds experience. Nothing is final even with adcom preread and ED acceptance. As I’ve told my D, until she sleeps overnight on campus in Aug/Sept nothing is final these days.
Everyone needs to have a safety school with athletics or no athletics. With Covid, gap years, deferrals, and the transfer portal, it’s all an unknown.
Other high academic D3s may offer (spot on the team) prior to July 1. NESCAC is July 1. D1s/D2s watch who commits that first week of July after Jr year to the NESCACs. They may follow up even after the commit to see where things stand. They definitely are aware of NESCAC commits that first week of July.
Jr days gave prospects an idea where they stood prior to the preread. It at least let them know they were in the top 15-20. Prospects weren’t invited back unless they had appropriate scores/GPA. Pretty sure almost all the final commits were at Jr day.
Many of them already knew each other from other Ivy/NESCAC prospect days.
Your daughter should also look at UChicago since she wants high academic. In USNWR they are tied for 6th with Stanford, down from tied for 3rd with Yale. They started a women’s varsity Lacrosse program a few years ago. In women’s D3 sports they are consistently very highly ranked so I imagine the LAX program will be as well. You won’t get any higher academically. My child is a recruited athlete there and absolutely loves everything about the school, despite initial worries about how tough it would be. Your daughter would submit full application October 1 ED and get an early admission a few weeks later from the admissions office (more than a likely letter). Not all recruits get this I don’t think.
U of Chicago is not a powerhouse in lax and, IMO, won’t be for a long time. It will dominate its conference, but it’s not a strong conference.
Understand that no commitment, not D1 or D2 or D3, is final until the student has an admission to the school, and no one gives those out until fall of senior year. A D1 (or D2) is not a commitment until both sides sign that NLI and the financial grant (so even an Ivy isn’t a commitment to the school). The coach should have a pretty good idea who he/she can get through admissions. I’d trust a coach who is offering a spot and saying he can get a player with those grades (and scores?) through admissions.
I think this year, and probably next, will have a delayed timeline just because there was no spring season and no showcases in 2020. Coaches weren’t ready to make offers and didn’t even know which current team members would be back. A student who might have picked a small NESCAC might instead go to a D1 program just because the D1 program is on campus and practicing, in a conference that has committed to play in 2021. If I were looking at a D3 that didn’t have students on campus this fall, I’d assume they aren’t playing in spring 2021.
On the boys’ side they are starting to have smaller tournaments and showcases. Not sure what the girls have planned. Of course, everything is flexible. My daughter was supposed to try out for a national team in NYC in November but they had to cancel try outs because half those trying out would have to quarantine for 14 days in NY before attending the event, and that just isn’t possible. (I’m not hopeful for the tournament taking place next summer either).
@twoinandonedone perhaps uchicago isn’t a powerhouse in lax, but they of course are academically. And if you can get a likely letter it’s as binding as an admission offer is, and is given out in October; I’ve read one so please don’t dispute that unless you have read one as well, and then I’ll be happy to discuss. I was suggesting UChicago (or a John Hopkins) in addition to the NESCACS by reacting to the OP who valued academics above all.
My friend was definitely “concerned” that his son turned down Harvard to go to UVA in LAX (he was a top 10 Inside Lacrosse recruit) but it worked out well as he started on the national championship team and ended up playing pro. Plus UVA is a great school. What we parents want is not necessarily the best outcome for our kids!
Hopkins is D1 for lacrosse so you can’t compare recruiting there. They do give scholarships for lax, so are under NCAA and NLI rules.
I’m not saying a likely letter isn’t good for admissions, but those aren’t given until after July 1, so only to seniors. The OP wants to know when juniors commit, and I’m just saying that nothing is binding until the academic admission is received, for the school or player. Do juniors commit? Sure, but it isn’t binding. In the olden days (5 years ago), there were hundreds of sophomores, even freshmen, who had committed to schools in all divisions, pages and pages of names and schools listed on lax forums, and most of them did go to those schools. Some didn’t because they got a better offer, didn’t get accept to the school, or decided not to play lacrosse. Their commitments weren’t binding. Daughter had sisters who committed to her school, posted it, and then the older one didn’t get admitted academically; both went to another school (in our conference). A friend committed to the USAFA, but then decided he didn’t want to go there. Another to Princeton but then went to West Point. Sixteen year olds do change their minds.
Now this sounds like you are talking about an ‘early write’ (a formal offer of admission prior to decision day), not a likely letter (which is not a formal offer of admission, no matter the school sending it).
U Chicago is known to send out early writes each year, not many D3s do that. Amherst typically does in the RD round, there are probably more schools that do too.
Yes, that’s correct; it’s more appropriately called an early write but many don’t know that term. It’s just an even earlier ED acceptance.
Thanks for clarifying. Early writes are different from likely letters, and making the distinction will help people reading this thread in the future.
Are the early writes given before July 1?
The Ivy likely letters are early writes too.
In our experience October.
I’m sure it varies.
Ivy likely letters are not early writes. Early writes are a formal offer of admission. LLs just say something like ‘come admission day, you are likely to hear good news’, they aren’t a formal offer of admission.
Early writes are generally only given after an application is submitted, same as an LL.