I’m a current HS junior and I’d love to learn a little bit more about the recruiting process for athletes at Harvard. What does the recruiting time line look line? What does Harvard target academically? How valued are athletics in the Harvard community, and what’s the general attitude towards athletes? I mainly ask the preceding question because some schools are known for being really into sports while others view athletes with disdain due to their path to college being slightly different. I’ve heard mixed ideas from Harvard insiders about athletics in Cambridge so it would be great if anything could be clarified in that regard.
Aside from recruiting, what is Harvard like for athletes once they are there? What are the resources available for student-athletes? Do sports schedules typically interfere with class scheduling? How is the food/dining? (Sort of unrelated, but important for athletes)
TIA for any information/insight/experiences you may have. I’ve become increasingly interested in Harvard recently and would love to learn a little more about the school as I move forward in the process.
Aside from one football game a year (the Havard-Yale game), the majority of Harvard students pay very little attention to sports or athletes. But, why does this matter? Are you playing for yourself or the accolades of college sports fans? If the latter, you should look beyond the ivy league, as it’s pretty much the same at the other 7 ivy league schools.
Playing a Division 1 sport at any ivy league school does NOT interfere with classes. However, as half of your meets or games will be at away-schools, playing a Division ! sport means having no classes on Friday (that’s a travel day) and competitive meets on Saturdays and Sundays, with late-night travel back to campus on Sunday night. This DOES make studying for tests and doing homework a challenge; ditto with having a social life outside of the team and your fellow team members.
FWIW: If you haven’t already registered with the NCAA, contacted coaches at teams providing them with your times, current coaches name and contact information, and q video link you’re way behind schedule.
Thanks for responding! Thanks for those links, they are very informative. As for the first question you highlighted, my main reasoning for it is to understand the Harvard community. Do students look down at athletes as undeserving or less intelligent (I’ve heard some pretty terrible stories) or do they support their classmates and take pride in their accomplishments while representing Harvard?
It’s good to hear that class and school are able to coexist without much interference. I understand that being a D1 athlete is time consuming and difficult, but it’s good to know that I won’t be pressured into certain majors or classes to focus on my sport like at some bigger schools.
I’ve been in contact with many coaches and I posted this because the Harvard coach has seemed very interested in me, and after some research here on CC and other areas of the web, I’ve come to like Harvard a lot (Despite what my older Yalie brother tells me). I am not registered with the NCAA yet, but I will probably do so next summer. I didn’t really think that was a super important part of the process.
The majority of Harvard students don’t care if a student is an athlete or not. Most students are there for the academics and take pride in their own academic achievements, so athletics is more of an afterthought – that’s true at Harvard and Yale. For example, my daughter roomed one year with a girl on Harvard’s ski team, but saw very little of her because November to March she was in practice or at meets – and no one outside of the ski team attends those events. So, it was like “Oh, you’re on the ski team, good for you. See you later!” And I think my daughter was probably typical of a Harvard student. Athletes are not looked down upon, nor are they looked upon – it’s just what those students do.
Harvard plays in Division 1 sports under the NCAA. You need to be registered with the NCAA to verify you have not been paid professionally to play your sport. It’s a hoop you have to jump through at all Division 1, II, and III schools – and coaches and the Admissions office care very much about hoops. This from Harvard’s recruiting page:
If you’re a junior, you should start the process today, as it takes about 6 months (or at least it used to) for a student to complete all the NCAA required paperwork.
The kids I know who were recruited to a Harvard niche sports team had to have just as impressive academics as was their athletic stats. Harvard had the highest mandated Academic Index among all the Ivys for the non revenue sports. Which means those athletes’ GPA and board scores are pretty much on par with the rest of the admitted class.
For most sports the official recruiting period begins July 1st after the student’s junior year, and most of the “musical chairs” is completed by October. To prepare for this, I’d recommend making “unofficial” visits to all of your target schools during your junior year, during which the coaches are free to discuss your particulars with you.
Very good students. What a Princeton coach told me would apply equally to Harvard: “7xx on all SAT sections and Subject Tests; at least 3.8 unweighted with a rigorous course load.” Football and hockey are more lenient.
Agree with @gibby’s comments above. I’ll add that my son, a Princeton athlete who started with a mild case of “imposter syndrome” (wondering if he really belonged, which was silly because his stats were above the overall HYP median) and eventually came to resent the presence of some academically underqualified athletes on campus. Harvard will be similar. Resentment of athletes is higher at Yale.
Your sport will be your main EC and your teammates will serve as an instant social group.
The Ivy League prohibits special academic support exclusively for athletes.
I can’t speak to this at Harvard, but at Princeton classes for all students end by 4:00 p.m. so that athletic practices can be scheduled outside classroom hours.
Hey, I’m not sure what sport you do, but in general, Harvard (and Ivy athletics in general) keep getting better and more competitive each year. This past year Princeton signed a 3 or 4 star QB who had offers from Tennessee and Arizona State. Harvard’s men’s swim team has been ranked in the top 25 of all D1 programs over the last couple of years. Princeton’s men’s basketball team played in March Madness earlier this spring. I think Yale’s baseball team went to the postseason this past season. I’m sure many teams on the women’s side are strong, too.
That being said, depending on your sport, now’s the perfect time to talk to coaches. It’s good you have interest from the coach, though until you get that Likely letter commitment next summer/fall, nothing’s guaranteed. IMO, depending on your sport again, your academic stats can be lower than the rest of the applicant pool (I’d say over a 29 or 30 ACT probably)… from personal experience I know that NESCAC schools have higher academic standards, though obviously the standard of athletics is lower.
You do not have to start the NCAA clearinghouse until you want to take an official visit. It is not difficult, but it cannot be completed until you graduate from high school as the last document is the final transcript from your high school saying you have graduated. You can use one of the free SAT/ACT reports to NCAA (code 9999) and then you don’t have to send reports.
Many people on CC will look down on you for having been a college athlete and assume you were accepted only because of athletes. If you don’t care, it doesn’t matter. It may be the same at the schools, that they consider all athletes to be an academic step below them. Do you care? Do you know that you are just as smart and worked just as hard? Will you diploma be exactly the same? (Yes!, yes it will).
My D walked on to a sport in which she had participated in high school but had not planned to do in college. She loves being a varsity athlete at Harvard, but it does take a huge amount of time. She has been able to schedule section and classes around her sport. She feels okay about the time commitment; I feel a little sorry that she occasionally misses the opportunities (lectures, concerts, visiting professors, etc.) available at a place like Harvard. She has many close friends from her team and some other athlete friends; she does believe she is less close to some of her roommates because she spends less time with them.
My daughter just went through the recruiting process at Harvard (and other Ivy league Schools) and I have the following advice:
Do/submit as much as you can as soon as you can. Get the easy things out of the way to prepare for the hard things (test/decisions/visits). For instance, complete your NCAA clearinghouse asap, schedule your SAT's, ACT's (take both) and SAT Single Subject tests to be completed by August of your senior year. Plan all these things now so you know what to expect.
Visit all the schools you are considering as soon as you can in your junior year. This can serve as a pre-screen before official visits in September of your senior year. You may be able to prioritize certain schools based on atmosphere, feel, facilities, etc. (Assuming all other things [academics] are close enough to equal).
If you are looking at multiple Ivy League schools, try and narrow your list to 3, 2 is even better if you can.
Reach out to the coach of every school you are considering and start building a relationship(s). A coaches support in the application process is very important. Each coach can only support a certain number of athletes depending on the sport.
Take official visits to each school you are considering. Wait to make any decision on a school until you have completed all your official visits. You will get the best feel for the school at the official visit.
The general recruiting timeline looks like this.
Fall Junior Year - take SAT/ACT (first and second rounds as necessary), determine which schools you are interested in and start visiting. Complete your NCAA Registration.
Spring Junior Year - Reach out to coaches, email at first, then setup calls, you can call them at any time, they can’t call you until July 1 of Junior/Senior Summer. Start compiling letters of recommendation from English, math, one other subject teacher and your coach. Get a .pdf of your transcript immediately after the end of school. Transmit these to all schools you are interested in.
Summer after Junior Year - Finish up any SAT/ACT/Single Subject Tests. Write two essays, your personal statement and a supplement. On August 1 start to fill your common app, have it completed except essays by August 30th.
Fall of Senior Year - Take all official visits in September. Essay Questions are posted sometime in late August/early Sept, complete essays as soon as you can. Be ready to decide by the last week of September after all your visits. Again, make sure you have coaches support. Once you decide immediately submit your common app, you will have a decision by the second week in October and hopefully can relax and enjoy your senior year. If the school doesn’t work out you still have plenty of time to apply to other schools RD. Talk to your schools guidance counselor and the teachers who will need to do online recommendations as they will be crucial to get info to your to the school in a timely manner.
Lastly, and most importantly, carefully consider how much of a priority you want to give athletics in your choice of school. Athletics will certainly be a fun experience in college but at the end of the day it's the diploma on the wall that counts. Make sure you fit the school/the school fits you first.