<p>I heard through the grapevine that an H soccer recruit made an unofficial visit this month (July), met with the coach and admissions and was promised admission. The player will be graduating in 2012. Does this sound possible? It flies in the face of my experience with the Ivy timeline and procedures. I'm very interested in knowing if H deals with athletic recruiting differently from the other Ivies and/or if soccer at Ivies differs from other sports.</p>
<p>Alternatively, it would be interesting to know if this is an exaggeration of a typical unofficial visit experience. </p>
<p>Thanks to any of you who might have direct experience with this one.</p>
<p>Normal occurrence for football, I dont know about soccer. I never met any admissions officer, the coach took my stuff to admissions earlier and then let me know I was “cleared” and would get in if I committed. </p>
<p>If there graduating in 2012, sounds standard. I mean sooner or later they have to get cleared by admissions within the next couple months for early admission. So I think this is standard, but shouldn’t be expected when taking an unofficial.</p>
<p>Hmm well I know for football in the Ivy league after you go to a camp (late june), if they know they want you they “offer”. So you have to send in your transcripts and test scores, they take it to admissions and admissions tells the coach that they can use that slot on you (pretty much acceptance as long as teacher recs and essays look good).</p>
<p>Or for the next group they say wait until senior tape, and it happens in October.</p>
<p>but then again you have to already have the scores you need in order for that to work out.</p>
<p>I personally dont think it makes a difference if the process starts in July or September admissions wise. Nothing really changes, it’s not like they decide anything major based on teach recs or essays unless it’s something drastic. Assuming the coach wants to use a slot on you.</p>
<p>So in your experience with football, the transcript and test score review took place in the summer right after camp? And top tier recruits were made an offer that they felt was so solid that they could tell people they were “in” at that Ivy, and further that they could and should stop the recruiting process with other schools? Thanks for sharing your experience, Cardinal.</p>
<p>Umm yes. For example at Penn. The coaches said “We can’t give you a scholarship, but we will get you into the school.” Same was said at Dartmouth (those schools get whoever they want…yale coach actually said that at the yale camp too). Especially at certain Ivies, I think you can be pretty certain. Coaches tell the majority of kids they want to see senior tape, so the few that get an offer (after pre-read) can be very certain they will get in. </p>
<p>The only gray area is if the coach wants a player in the 3rd band and they’re in the second when they get the offer. Then it’s not as secure, but the coaches don’t misguide you (at least in my experience). I wouldn’t cut off all options, but I would feel good enough to tell close friends and family. But ya, definitely not cut off ties, but other Ivies will move on because these things hardly don’t work out. So your backup would be Amherst or Williams or other d3s.</p>
<p>However the Yale coach did say 1 kid they wanted out of there 30 person class didn’t get in last recruiting cycle. These coaches can be very sneaky and theres a lot of gray area, but once they take your stuff to admissions and offer, I think you can relax. They may say once you get this score youre in, and then it doesn’t work out. After the offer, it’s usually a done deal though. Not to many horror stories I’ve heard of with Ivy football and coaches using they’re slots.</p>
<p>This is true for women’s soccer. I don’t know about men’s. But, for sure, Harvard will not get even one top 100 player if they don’t offer early like this. I suppose this is one of the reasons they are offering sCEA again. I know, for sure, that teams like Stanford and Duke will offer at the start of Junior year to the top recruits as long they have no D’s on their transcripts.</p>
<p>Hi dasdui,
Welcome to the athletic recruiting area of CC. You’ll get a response to this question if you start it as a new thread with an appropriate title, rather then adding onto this thread about soccer. Please include whether you’re male or female.</p>
<p>Great thread. I’m still not convinced this is standard practice for the recruiting majoriity of non-revenue generating soccer (or other sport). Logic, and these posts tell me it happens in football and basketball. I tend to think this is an unofficial visit exaggeration or something that happens very, very rarely in non-revenue sports by a coach willing to bend the rules. </p>
<p>Ivy ED or SCEA are not going to come close to the time table that other D1s can offer. Other D1s are always going to have the upper hand as long as the Ivys are NCAA affiliated…there is no getting around it. The Ivy conference is a business arrangement, and their are 8 partners. If each Ivy is going to break or bend the rules (or look the other way) for the sake of competititve advantage, why have these rules in place to begin with? In other words, if some coaches are going beyond ED, SCEA and Likely Letters to “get” a recruit earlier, then the system is broken or a joke IMHO.</p>
<p>I’m not surprised, as most soccer recruiting is done in the junior year, and most very good players will know by the end of their junior year where they will be going. </p>
<p>In fact, some schools have already offered 2013 players spots (but not the Ivies). </p>
<p>Check out the ESPN/RISE list of verbal commitments for 2012 here. There are many Ivy League schools on the list, including Harvard and Yale:</p>
<p>While this list is compiled by the student himself sending in his own name, when the official announcements are made the following year, the website will confirm by list by putting an asterisk by the recruits name. In almost all cases, the players are confirmed the following year.</p>
<p>Here’s what I know: in the last three years, at least two men soccer players “verbally committed” to Harvard, one in the Fall of his junior year and one in the spring of his junior year. I also know they were comfortable enough to tell friends, teammates, media outlets etc that they had committed to Harvard.</p>
<p>What I don’t know is whether they were “promised” that likely letters would be issued. At any rate, it seems Harvard is saying enough to make these young men believe it is o.k. to make their verbal commitment public. Both ended up at Harvard.</p>
<p>skrlvr, your statement “in almost all cases…” is the thing that makes my hair stand on end. </p>
<p>evertonnut, thanks for sending these anecdotes. I don’t know that this student was promised a LL, but is doing just as evertonnut describes: publicly announcing definite admission to H. </p>
<p>skrlvr, thanks for the link to ESPN rise. It’s interesting that some sports are not reporting about 2012 grads at all yet, for example track and lacrosse, while soccer and others appear to be filling rosters like mad, well before the start of senior year. </p>
<p>I’m having a lot of trouble reconciling the timelines NCAA sets up with the legal contact window starting in July prior to senior year, and also the tacit agreement between the Ivies about how commitments are made. By that I mean the fall admissions office stamp and subsequent LL. </p>
<p>I thought I understood this process, but maybe I’m just naive about who is actually following the rules.</p>
<p>Hey riverrunner, unless I’m missing something here - I really don’t see anything that flies in the face of what we understand about the Ivy recruiting process. If the student is a rising senior soccer star making an unofficial visit after July 1, meets with the coach and an admissions liaison checks out transcripts and scores - I could see the coach telling the kid something to the effect of, “you have the grades, you have the skills and I’d love to see you wearing Crimson (or a Bulldog, Tiger, etc).” Now if the kid takes that as a promise and announces to the world that he’s committed - well that’s his choice (IMO an unwise one until the LL is in hand - but that’s a topic that’s been done).</p>
I know lax recruiting has already started … check out laxpower.com if you want to see a lot of 2012 commits. My impression is the higher the level of recruit in any sport the sooner the recruiting process is likely to start as the schools want to tie up the prized recruit.</p>
<p>“you have the grades, you have the skills and I’d love to see you wearing Crimson (or a Bulldog, Tiger, etc).” Now if the kid takes that as a promise and announces to the world that he’s committed - well that’s his choice (IMO an unwise one until the LL is in hand - but that’s a topic that’s been done)."</p>
<p>If they say all that, at least with football…there’s no point on waiting before going to admissions. I tend to get that statement from the d3s like Amherst and Williams. To tell you the truth, idk why they can’t just go to admissions early and let me know with some level of certainty.</p>
<p>Can someone explain to me, why every sport can’t have the possibility of summer commits? What really changes from July-September. I am an advocate of speeding stuff up if everything check off well.</p>
<p>varska and Cardinal, I agree with you and think nothing has changed.</p>
<p>The alarm I’m feeling is that this family is completely convinced that their child is IN at H, has announced it to the world and has ceased pursuing other options. After reflecting on these posts and talking with some knowledgable others outside of CC, I’m coming to the conclusion that the family has gotten all the strong positive signals great recruits get, but that they’re not being cautious and are generally too trusting. I’ve not been asked for advice, but boy, would I love to give some!</p>
<p>This will probably all work out fine, but you and I know there are cases every year where things don’t go as hoped for by the recruit. All it takes it a meaningfully better athlete, also academically qualified, to present himself to the coach.</p>
<p>You’re right riverrunner, a lot of things can change in the next 4 months. Better recruits can come along, coaches can change jobs, the number of LLs available can change on the whims of administration. </p>
<p>It will probably all work out fine, but I just don’t see the upside of closing off options this early in the game.</p>