<p>parisrosaries, when they started using likely letters, the Ivies ONLY sent likely letters to athletes. Over time, pretty much all of them have started also using likely letters to recruit applicants who are especially attractive for one reason or another and whom they believe will have lots of attractive choices. But the main use is still with athletes.</p>
<p>The issue is that Division I schools offer athletic scholarships, but usually require a recruited athlete, in order to get one, to commit as early as the end of 11th grade and usually long before the Ivy ED date (12/15) or RD date (4/1). And Division III colleges (and some Ivies) use ED a lot in athletic recruiting (as in, the coach says, “I can help you get in, but only if you apply ED so I know you are committed. If I use up all my slots at the ED stage, I won’t be able to help you if you apply RD.”).</p>
<p>It would be awfully hard for Harvard to recruit a football player if the Florida coach is saying that you have a scholarship, but only if you commit NOW, and the Penn coach is saying that you’re in but you have to apply ED, and all the Harvard coach could say would be that he was pretty sure he could help you but you wouldn’t know for sure until April. So the Harvard coach gets admissions to write a letter saying we looked at your information and assuming nothing major changes, you are likely to be accepted in April. And that gives the recruit – assuming he wants to go to Harvard – the backbone to say no to Florida and Penn. (And Penn would use a likely letter to get the recruit to wait until the December 15 ED date, since the most desirable scholarships would be gone by then, too.)</p>