<p>What I’m taking away from this discussion about Ivy recruiting is that each sport is on a different timeline. I’m most familiar with track/XC and I haven’t heard of a runner getting anything like a commitment prior to fall of their senior year. And track athletes are often still going on official visits after the first of the year, and making final decisions into spring. I’ll bet this sounds completely bizarre to families of athletes in some other sports!</p>
<p>Maybe it would be a useful exercise for us to put together a list of sports and Ivy timelines. It might be of interest to rising student-athletes to know when the earliest commitments are made, and when the latest recruits are picked up for each sport.</p>
<p>What coaches usually do, or at least from what I’ve heard from kids who went to D1 and D2 schools from my school, is that by the time pre-season rolls around, there are some 30-40 kids that have been either recruited or are walk-ons. Pre-season is incredibly taxing, so many of those kids get cut, and the coach ends up with a final roster.</p>
<p>The higher ranked a qualified student is athletically, the better his or chances for nailing down an early commitment to ANY DI school… including the likes of Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale, etc.</p>
<p>Team sports with a higher number of slots to fill, like Hockey, Soccer, LAX, Football, etc. also seem to be at the center of these early commitments; as opposed to smaller team sports like fencing, track, diving, crew, tennis, wrestling, golf, etc.</p>
<p>Many of the early commitments to highly selective colleges I have read about, seem to come from private high schools & prep schools, known as much for their competitive athletics, as for the academic rigor. That factor may be the difference in a coach gaining an early AdCom nod with a pre-read conducted with PSAT scores… who knows?</p>
<p>Early DI verbal commitments are made all the time in most sports, without a student athlete having taken an OV. Some highly recruited student athletes will verbally commit to more than one program, so they can be assured a place, until after the NCAA allows them to take OVs. </p>
<p>Big Box State Univeristy commitments may change after an OV… but I’m willing to bet the majority of student athletes who give an early verbal commitment to a highly selective college or university… will wind up not deviating from that plan, by the time aplications are due.</p>
<p>For some sports the OVs are really just victory laps. All decisions for selective schools or competitive teams have been made by that time. The only people invited are confirmed recruits, sometimes after the likely letter has been sent. This is an unfortunate change that has occurred in some sports over the past 2-3 years. Lax is one of those sports. It sounds like track, swimming, fencing, rowing are maybe on a different time line from what others have been posting.</p>
<p>Wow, Harvard, best university in the country, accepting a “commitment” from a high school sophomore. Scalise and Harvard seem to be trying to get rid of any shred of their integrity as fast as possible. Are you trying to become USC football or Kentucky basketball, recruiting and making offers to ninth graders now? Hell this isn’t even basketball or football, this is a sport where 98% of the campus has no idea how they do in any particular year. Perhaps Harvard should focus more on academics instead of signing 15 year old female lacrosse players to contracts. This is ridiculous, and apparently illegal. Stay classy, harvard.</p>
<p>Redman,(Dad2?) I realize your post was intended to be inflammatory rather than illuminating but in the interest of correcting any misconceptions that may arise from somebody stumbling upon it, I feel compelled to respond.
First of all, no contracts have been signed and no binding commitments are in place.
Second, the ESPN verbal commitment site that MaryOC linked is self-reported data by the parent or student with no confirmation by the university. In other words, you may have verbally committed to Harvard when you were 12 years old, but that doesn’t mean they committed to you.
Third, Admission to the Ivy League can only be granted by the admissions office and that will not occur all tests, transcripts, applications and essays have been completed senior year (repeat that 3 times). There is no wink and nod here - that’s the way it works for every sport, period.</p>
<p>Is there an accelerated recruiting timeline in some sports? Yes. Will the self-reported ‘early commits’ end up at the school of their choice? Usually, but certainly not always.</p>
<p>My scholar-athlete was just commenting on how bad it looks when kids sport sweatshirts from their “chosen”/committed U and then later don’t get admitted…</p>
<p>I have read these "commitments’, even from my teens own HS website and shake my head because anyone with real knowledge of recruitment and NCAA rules knows better. Just as bad is when coaches spread the myth of athletic scholarships at the ivies…</p>
<p>In fact, our local paper printed a list of all of the local teens and the Us they would attend and that these were teens going on athletic scholarships. Our student doesn’t have an athletic scholarship and the reporter clearly doesn’t know the deal with the ivies…
This same paper has printed these “early commitment” brags/self-reported commitments from eager parents/kids. </p>
<p>Bad policy in my book, leaving the less aware more confused than ever.</p>
<p>our local paper this week was bragging about a kid starting senior year who had already “committed to Brown” for lax; I really thought Ivies didn’t send out likely letters until October and wondered if Brown had committed to him as well.</p>
<p>You’re correct that the Ivies don’t send out likely letters until October. And there is no official “signing” process, since Ivies don’t offer athletic scholarships. Harvard is now once again offering early admission – with no strings attached. In other words, a student can apply and be accepted in December of their senior year without having to make a decision until May 1st.</p>
<p>As the person who started this thread, I’m reporting that the kid in question WAS admitted to Harvard, and will be attending in the fall. Just an anecdote, but without a data set, it’s the best we can do!</p>
<p>We have a friend with a very similar story. “Committed” to Harvard early and was confident she’d get in. She was a top soccer recruit and was academically pretty good; top 2% and good test scores. I gave her the standard cautionary warnings: commitments aren’t binding, only Admissions can admit, only an acceptance or a LL in hand means anything, yada yada…</p>
<p>She’s now finishing her freshman year at Harvard.</p>
<p>There is nothing illegal about any school, including Ivies, giving a verbal offer to a sophomore (or even younger), nor is there anything illegal about the sophomore verbally committing. You can argue all day long about whether it’s "right’, but it’s not illegal. And it happens A LOT. And of course they are “self-announcing” because NO SCHOOL, Ivy or other can announce a verbal. ALL verbal commits are “self announced”. I agree it’s premature to announce publicly, but to act like these families are making up the offer is very naive, the Ivies ARE out there offering verbal commits to younger players. And as Cardinal has confirmed, they are taking care of the “revenue sport” kids.</p>