My D has been asked to apply ED with the full backing of a NESCAC coach. Our concern is that all the NESCAC schools contacted to date refer us to their on-line net price calculator and how this is reflective of the actual offer. We are afraid that the FA package will be less than what the calculator says and that we will be in a bind being ED. FA offices cannot give us any assurance other than to say that their calculators are quite accurate and the coaches have no say in the FA process. Any advice would be helpful. It has been this forum that has led my D to where she is in the process.
Have you asked for a FA pre-read? They are better estimates.
@mcr976, we have found the on line calculators to be accurate. My son did have a preread done, and is now in school so I have seen three parts of this process - on line calculator, pre read from the FA office, the actual bill at the end of the day. I believe there was a $50 difference in the on line calculator and what his actual award was.
That said, our finances are pretty straightforward. We do not own a business or any trusts, things of that nature. If you have some variability in your finances, I might try and talk to the financial aid office about that specifically and see if they can offer some guidance even if they will not do a full blown pre read.
None would do a FA pre read
That’s annoying! I found the FA pre-read helpful AND essential in my son’s decision making process.
Exactly. We would feel more comfortable if we had more of an “official” word from the college
So a college planning expert advised us not to apply ED and to go RD so that we could play other schools against my Ds NESCAC school of choice for FA. Coach can’t support RD so I think this is a risk. Thoughts? Do NESCAC schools compete when it comes to FA? So far I have been informed that they do not match FA packages.
I agree with others that the calculators are pretty accurate. The main thing, IMO, that makes the pre-reads more accurate is that you provide more information.
I found the calculators mostly useful for comparison purposes. If you input the same data into each, you’ll get a clear sense, I think, of which schools on your child’s list will offer the most and the least aid. For the purposes of this apples-to-apples comparison, we simply added tuition, room, and board together, and subtracted the college’s grant–ignoring estimates for books, travel, etc. and loans/work study etc.
As long as the ED school is somewhere in the middle to high range of the FA offers, I’d personally feel comfortable that my student was unlikely to get a significantly better offer elsewhere and green light him/her to submit that early application.
Coach can’t support rd at a nescac? That seems odd.
Okthen,
The coach can in fact support an athlete during RD, however that support does not hold much sway with the Adcom. I know of a number of recruited athletes who have chosen to apply RD for FA reasons who were in the 50-75 percentile of overall applicants who were waitlisted or rejected from NESCAC schools.
Let’s break it down a bit. We’ll agree – I trust – that a slot will NEVER go to an RD applicant. Why would a coach waste close to an admissions guarantee if the applicant might well go elsewhere. The coach looks bad to the Adcom and loses that a roster slot for an impact athlete who chooses another school. Never say never, . . . but never. If I were the coach, it would be simple – you want my slot, you have to apply early.
Moving on to the tip. The Adcom sees a letter of support for a recruited athlete who applies RD. What would that say to you as the Adcom? Most likely, it says “I am a talented athlete who could really help your athletic team, but you are pretty far down on my list – in fact you are my fallback if nothing else comes through.” The rule of thumb is that if you are applying RD, your athletic prowess counts about as much as any other EC – such as the debating team or orchestra.
My suggestion is that you talk to the coach about this. Tell him or her about the varied advice you have been given. Then ask the coach what percentage of his or her supported recruits are offered admission through ED and alternatively through RD – and ask him or her to compare that with the academic stats of your kid. That may be the best information you have to determine what application route is the best choice.
Ultimately, this is a true personal decision. You have to balance how important it is for your kid to attend this school (and the relative chances for admission using either RD or ED) against the importance of financial aid to your family. With athletic recruiting, you have to roll the dice and place trust in a lot of people that you have met for maybe 2 or 3 times. If the need for FA is so great that you truly need to compare packages, then by all means apply RD. In that case, however, I would suggest also applying to some other NESCAC equivalent schools (Kenyon comes to mind) that give merit aid.
I think this may be one of those areas where the sport’s own recruiting calendar, and the vagaries of the specific school, may be important. My son did not apply to a NESCAC school, but he was recruited by a lot of them. In his circumstance and his sport, no coach ever raised the requirement that he needed to apply ED to get support. I had pretty detailed discussions with three different coaches about the recruiting process, and none ever mentioned slots or tips. They all talked about above the line and below the line recruits (the line being the median admitted stats for the last class).
The NESCAC seems to be a conference with a lot of variability in the way recruiting is handled. I would try and have as detailed a conversation with your daughter’s recruiting coach as you can about your financial concerns, and maybe make it known that if the actual FA award varies from the online calculated award by some percentage (say 10%), that you will consider the school not financially feasible and therefore not be bound by the ED agreement?
I have had experience with NESCAC and other D3 recruiting, and I can tell you that based on this experience there are definitely tips–and possibly slots as they are known in Ivy recruiting. The practice of NESCAC and other D3 coaches “highlighting” applications for the Admissions Office is something that comes up pretty early–say in the first two minutes–of a lot of recruiting conversations with coaches.
In each of my experiences–not involving football–the recommendation was to apply early. As @gointhruaphase said, this confirms the recruit’s first choice interest in a way that RD cannot. After ED (or EA) there may none, or at best a few roster positions remaining.
If you are a stud, and you think you would be in demand regardless of a tip or a slot or getting first in line, you can hold out. If you are sweating out the situation like most kids, applying early is a distinct benefit. If you are ready to apply early but the coach tells you to apply regular, this is an indication–not confirmation–that while you may still very much be admitted, you are probably a lesser priority recruit.
As far as unilaterally opting out of the binding aspect of an ED application…well talk to your guidance counselor prior to the time your guidance counselor sends ED materials to the school before moving ahead with that one.
I am worried that I agree with FenwayP way too often.
I have circled this wagon on several different occasions with different NESCAC coaches and ED always comes up, along with the warning about the diminishing strength of coach support after ED. But don’t take my word for it. This quote about NESCAC recruiting appeared in LacrosseRecruits.com, and was reprinted by none other than Tier One Athletics:
“To get started, it has become increasingly important for recruits to apply early decision. Almost 95% of recruited athletes will apply early decision at an institution. This is a way for the coach to know that the athlete is reciprocating the effort they are making to bring a player to their school. The effort is also monitored by admissions liason who goes between the athletic department and the admission’s office. By going early decision, the coach knows that if you are accepted, you will be coming.”
I would ask the coach, underscoring the importance of FA in the conversation.
I don’t have anything further to add about ED v RD in the NESCAC. Talk to the coach. See what they say about your particular situation.
I will say that the common app ED agreement specifies that you are not required to withdraw all other apps if you are seeking financial aid until an award is received by the admitting institution. I thought it was universally understood that this language existed so that the party footing the bill could ensure that the actual award was adequate, and that parents would not be on the hook for unexpectedly large expenses. But apparently there is some disagreement on that point. So by all means talk to the high school guidance counselor in addition to the college and see if they can help you understand why the common app agreement is written the way it is, and what it means. Sounds like you also have a private counselor. Ask that person as well. As always, the more information, the better.
@gointhruaphase “We’ll agree – I trust – that a slot will NEVER go to an RD applicant. Why would a coach waste close to an admissions guarantee if the applicant might well go elsewhere.”
I disagree. Because it’s not true.
Okthen,
If you know of an athletic recruit given a slot – not a tip or other coach support – at a NESCAC school who was told he or she can apply ED or RD (it matters not to the coach) and still keep the slot, then of course I stand corrected.
However, most people do not truly understand tips and slots at the NESCAC schools. There are only 2 slots allotted per sport to NESCAC institutions (the exception being football, where there are 14). I can’t imagine a coach saying to a recruit “go ahead, take one of my two coveted slots. Feel free to apply RD, compare FA offers and choose a different school that offers more FA. That’s fine. No matter what, you still have that slot.” That just doesn’t make sense.
Take for example a basketball coach. His star guard and center have graduated he needs desperately to replace the both positions. He has his eyes on a 6’7" center (whom he prefers) and a 6’5 center who is close but not quite as good. They both have a 2.78 GPA and 25 ACT. The 6’7" center won’t commit to early decision. Do you really think he is going to waste one of those two slots on the 6’7" guard who won’t agree to apply early and lose the 6’5" center because he needs to use the other slot for the guard?
Tips of course are quite different. They may be used on players who may not be in the top 25 percentile of applicants, but are well within the 25 to 75the percentile. Those players could get in without coach support – or not. The tip helps them over the hump. Those recruits might get in RD and then again they might not, but why would you want to leave that to chance?
My experience with the NESCACs has been that they want recruits to apply early. MCR’s experience seems to be in line with this because the coach wants the D to apply ED. Other D3 schools (such as the midwestern LACs) have been more accommodating. I stand by my advice. Ask the coach how many slots are are admitted ED and RD, how many tips are admitted ED and RD, ask how those tips and slots compare academically and athletically to D. Then make your decision.
@goingthru “If you know of an athletic recruit given a slot – not a tip or other coach support – at a NESCAC school who was told he or she can apply ED or RD (it matters not to the coach) and still keep the slot, then of course I stand corrected.”
I do know one, I see him every day when I look in the mirror in the morning. 
But to be fair, I don’t know if my situation is the same at every NESCAC school, with every coach, etc. There does seem to be quite a bit of differences in the way each school, and each coach, operates in the NESCAC. Not as uniform as, say, the Ivies.
I know we are far afield from the initial question in this post, but for anyone still interested, there is a series of articles on NESCAC recruiting published by Bowdoin in 2014 that I thought was pretty illuminating.(http://bowdoinorient.com/article/9151)
So we questioned the coach on ED1 vs ED2 and was told it didn’t matter. The coach went on to say that my Ds ACT (31) is right in the 50% and her rank is just outside the top 10%. This together with the fact that my D lives in the same state as the NESCAC school will be tough if she doesn’t apply ED. I think we need to confirm we she stands in the recruiting list to make a final determination. Advising my daughter to have a ED2 backup plan to another NESCAC school.