My DD would like to ED at her school of 1st interest if she gets some sort of support from the athletic coach. She recently visited the school and met with the coach and spent the night on campus. The coach had indicated that it would be good for her to retake her SAT and bump one section up a little. She has a perfect score in the other two sections. Now my daughter is retaking the SAT. With everything going on in senior year she is worried she may not better her score. She will be cutting it too close to the ED deadline. Her other choices are EA schools that are restrictive. She will go to school 1 if they accept her. Should she just have a frank conversation with the coach there?
We’re in the midst of D3 recruiting ourselves. I’m sure that you’ll get some helpful responses from more experienced parents here on this thread, but having done a lot of reading/homework and having navigated these waters over the last several months:
You answered your own question. If she her SAT’s show two out of three 800’s it’s a bit unusual for her to need to raise that last score unless it’s significantly lower. And the coach putting it to your daughter like that without being more specific about her chances for admission is not enough information for her to make a reasonable decision.
The highly selective D3’s with whom we’ve been involved all do academic pre-reads. She should ask the coach if he/she has actually submitted her info (assuming that she’s already sent him transcript, test scores, senior schedule, and possible a school profile) to the admissions committee for a formal academic pre-read. If the coach has not, why hasn’t he/she? If he/she has, what was the result of the pre-read?
Finally, how strong will the coach support her through the admissions process? Based on the coach’s prior experience, how would he/she assess the likelihood of her admission given the results of the academic pre-read and the level of support that he/she will be giving her?
If the coach’s answers remain vague, one might be suspicious as to whether your daughter truly has the coach’s support. It would be a real shame if she went through the stress of re-taking the SAT, got a higher score, and still was not admitted because the coach was not really supporting her all along.
Thanks for your response. I find it very useful. I will pass this on to my daughter. In the past whoever the coach supported has apparently gotten in. The coach seemed like a very straight forward person. My DD thinks he had the admissions committee do a pre read but is not sure. My DD is very shy when it comes to asking for help. One section of her SAT is just under the 700 mark while the other two sections are perfect scores! The coach has indicated that the grades are fine.
RR,
I can’t imagine how hard it must be for a 17-18 year old to ask the hard questions, but ask she must. She should ask: 1) for a pre-read (if it has been done, what did admissions say); 2) will the coach support her; 3) where she is on the coach’s list of recruits; and 4) does the coach have cuts. If it helps her through, she should tell coach that XXXXX college is her first choice and she is prepared to apply ED. I fully understand the shyness, but at this point it is critical that she take control of the process.
Any “wells,” or “it’s a bit late,” or “who struck John” should be highly instructive. Your DD may love the school, but the coach should love her back. Your DD has invested enough in the process to know exactly where she stands at this point – weeks before the ED1 deadline.
DD will do fine on the retake of the SAT, and not to worry if she doesn’t. Two perfect scores is something to be proud of. If it doesn’t work out, there is more than one girl to take to the prom.
Thanks! She is a wonderful girl and will shine no matter where she ends up. We just need to keep reinforcing that! And I am so glad I can bounce these questions off you experienced and helpful folks!
That response from the coach (NESCAC?) seems odd given her already outstanding SATs (sounds like high 2200s). Seems like her academics could be ahead of her athletics at this point. Maybe she is not one of the top recruits in her sport and the coach needs her to be in a higher band academically or needs her to get in on her own. Seems strange, though, given such high existing SATs. I would have your daughter have a frank conversation with the coach about where she stands athletically in the pecking order. I wonder if he wants her on the roster without using up a slot or tip.
That is possible. It seems like the magic number is 700 in each section of the SAT and it is just a bonus that 2 sections were perfect scores. It is a NESCAC college. Hopefully she will get a better idea of where she stands after she has an honest conversation with the coach.
How strong is she in the sport she hopes to get recruited? My thought is that the coach may suspect she can get in on her own accord and walk on the team. Perhaps he is willing to take that risk. (Then he wouldn’t waste a recruiting spot, so he’d have the best of both worlds.) Naturally the coach wouldn’t do this if she is one of his top choices. As said in one of the earlier posts (#3), she must ask the hard questions. If she feels uncomfortable on the phone or in person, then do it through email- but she should ask!
There is a particular NESCAC school that gives out the needed numbers of 700, 700, 700 SATs and 31 ACT. It must be the party line given by the Adcom. However, I understood the number to be an average, not a strict line from which one could not deviate. There could be other reasons for the recommended retesting, such as improving the team SAT average (although I understand that is more of a D1 sort of thing) or the thought that uber high test scores could make up for a weaker high school schedule…
I think it perfectly appropriate to follow coach’s test retake suggestion. My only quibble is that your DD should know why and exactly where she stands. That can only happen by asking the direct questions.
My DD focused mainly on the SAT last year. She did take the ACT once without prep and scored above 31. She has actually signed up to redo her ACT as well. This way if she scores a 34 she may present that as an option. She is in the top 3 in her school team - I think good enough for D3 but not as a recruit in D1. She can probably be a walk on even in a competitive D1. This is what she heard from her school coach.
I must say that she took the most rigorous courses throughout high school and this lowered her GPA. She never had a C, but there are some Bs! She is extremely well rounded and has numerous extra curricular activities that she totally enjoyed and was committed to!