<p>Does the Ivy League use letters of intent or do you simply verbally commit to the school?</p>
<p>Typically, you first verbally commit to an Ivy; the coach then goes to admissions and asks for a ‘likely letter’ to be given to you. They review your application and, if they decide you are a good candidate, they will issue one of these likely letters to you. </p>
<p>A likely letter means that you will, 99% of the time, be accepted to that university- the 1% who do not get admitted typically let their grades drop completely, burn down a building, etc. Once you have been given a likely letter for a certain Ivy school, it’s essentially an official commitment, and breaking it to commit to another school is just… low. So basically, yes, you have to first verbally commit to an Ivy before receiving a likely, and, upon receiving a likely, it is implied that you will be attending that school.</p>
<p>I’m guessing that most applicants do this through ED, however are there any that apply RD and receive a likely letter?</p>
<p>Princeton doesn’t have ED, so yes.</p>
<p>Awesome thanks! Will coaches try to pressure me into ED (assuming that the school has it)?</p>
<p>^^haha, well, it can be used to apply a little pressure. Sometimes if you let the RD coach know you’re facing some pressure to commit from an ED school, he/she may give you the nod early</p>
<p>Coaches will absolutely pressure you to give an answer (yes or no). Some will even make you decide within a relatively short time frame. It’s not you, the process demands that coaches nail down their recruits and if they cannot get you, they move on to the next.</p>
<p>As stated here before, get the coach to commit to seeking a LL for you; without that commit from the coach, you are but a fish kept on the line.</p>
<p>does this mean you are asked to commit before you find out if they’re able to offer financial aid? I know the ivies are ‘need based’ but if they don’t define need the way the family does, that might be a deal breaker…</p>
<p>wilberry228 - When the time comes, you will want the school to do a financial aid pre-read. I suggest you read the other thread in this forum titled “what finaid papers should be ready for pre reads”. You can also do a search on the topic throughout CC. There are a couple of interesting, and detailed threads & advice in there. I specifically like Stemit’s advice about working with the person responsible for your financial aid package. Also there are some financial aid tools at a lot of schools that will allow you come up with some ballpark numbers.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/902396-what-finaid-papers-should-ready-pre-reads.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/902396-what-finaid-papers-should-ready-pre-reads.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks again, Fenway, I did read through that thread. I guess I should poke around and see how we look on those calculators. The thing is, I’m afraid we won’t look good (not low enough) as loss in home equity doesn’t seem to be a factor, however real the effect on your finances might be. This is our problem. I also don’t want to spin my wheels at schools where we won’t end up being considered or seriously considering. I’m getting confused about timing, but I guess it will all become clear as time goes by.</p>