@Ohiodad51 Wow…you’ve always been so charitable with your responses! Thank you. The note from Harvard had the money phrase…modified by “one of the few we are considering…” I’m going to have son call coach since that is allowed…and introduce himself…fortunately son kicked at camp as sophomore so they know him. Exciting !
My one son is Ivy other son Patriot League and there is good information here regarding both - Patriot has changed with full scholarships now - which changes their pool and attractiveness - Patriot offering $250k+ is a huge differntiator that Ivies can’t match - but injuries, transfers and requirement to play is also different
Get into an Ivy and play or not, you are in - so Ivy is a bit more of an honor system - which, if you have an athletically talented or enormous son who happens to be a 4.0 excellent student - your son may get more, very direct, “what are your football career goals” and the answer is…regardless “I want to play in the NFL” or if on the fence “I want to put in the work and have the opportunity to play in the NFL” - really, that’s the only answer.
Remember you are talking to career football men who live, breath, eat, sleep football - Ivy and Patriot - but especially Ivy - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UPenn, Dartmouth… want to develop NFL caliber athletes - whether those players choose NFL (or play in Canada, Europe…Japan, China) or Goldman…mission accomplished.
If your son is a hs frosh, soph even junior get to Lauren’s First & Goal - it’s a huge camp but every Ivy, Patriot and NESCAC participates - and direct contact with your top ten school’s coaches and recruiting contact. Make the contact - find the coach - shake hands, pass the eyeball test - and as mentioned above - know your SAT’s and GPA
Take SAT’s as a sophomore (you will know pretty quickly if Ivy is an option or not) and take SAT’s again 2-4 times as a Jr - I had sons take SATs early so they would not stress when they counted - they also were good test takers, so that helped.
The Ivy coaches were more honest than D1 coaches - and you should keep asking where your son is on their list - they will always tell you it’s too early - until it’s not. You need to know where you stand and where you should invest your time.
Camps are expensive and take time - but - your son will get to know the coaching style and football culture… which is different and more important than the University culture - your son is joining a 50 month football family that should last for decades.
Yes you need to attend your preferred school’s camp - Junior year absolutely, Sophomore yr preferred.HS students change, grow a lot soph to jr year -
Coaches know coaches and assistants know each other too - coaches also know real offers and interest versus column-fodder - Ivy prefers to be beneath the radar with offers and interest - so rivals, maxpreps, Scout, 724, etc. are not as important as a heavily invested parent might think. That said - share good/great combine camp stats and results as often as possible - third party validated stats count
Any legitimate D1 offer is currency - and gets coaches and area recruiter attention.
As a parent, the process is frustrating - you want the best for your child - best education, best experience, best football, best coaching and football family - It is best for your son to have a ranked list of where they want to go - Dad may want Princeton but son may want UPenn or Dartmouth, Brown… so make sure your son has a list - that he doesn’t need to share.
Make sure your son asks players about academics, asks players about the class work load and what kind of student they need to be - it does differ by school - but your son needs to buy in.
The first offer is an awesome moment and experience - relish it. It also is the number one indicator of more offers to follow.
Ivies, especially Princeton, are slower to “offer” as mentioned above, and in a Harvard article - the ‘offer to support admission’ is a football and admission department decision. With the continued increase in admission competitiveness, football is an excellent admissions path for scholar athletes.