Hey, just wanted to find out more information about sports recruiting at JHU for non lacrosse sports. How much pull do coaches have? I have heard that NESCAC schools have slots but nothing about the centennial conference.
It will be a bump, the strength of which may be dependent on both how much you are likely to help the team and how strong your academics happen to be. Contact the coach of your sport and introduce yourself. If you are good enough to be recruited, the coach will give a look at your academic qualifications and offer an opinion. If both parties are still interested then you can ask the coach whether you can get a pre-read or “early” read by the admissions department. You will submit a draft of an essay that can be the draft you are preparing for the common app. If they want you, then you will be asked to apply ED. You can ask for a likely letter before you apply ED. Another way to do it is to apply regular admission and if all goes well then you can switch your application to
ED. The athletic center is very impressive and I recently saw a lot of happy, well fed (the cafeteria is incredible) fall athletes in training before school started this semester when I dropped off my kid to train. Lots of committed coaches.
If you search the athletic recruiting thread, there are a few posts about JHU. I think there was one for women’s basketball and a few about swimming.
So does the coach offer a likely letter after an academic pre-read for DIII sport is positive? Does this become part of the application package? Or is it, “your academics make you likely to be admitted, apply ED and if you get in come talk to me”? Or is dependent on how interested the coach is (or isn’t) interested in you? Trying to understand the process so any insight appreciated.
One of my classmates is a nationally ranked top 100 tennis player and he told me a couple weeks ago he received a likely letter from JHU after contacting the coach (he turned them down for MIT though). So assume they do likely letters? Take my anecdote with a grain of salt though, I don’t know him too well.
A coach can never issue a Likely Letter. If schools issue Likely Letters (not all do) it comes from Admissions after the application and file is submitted. A coach can submit a recommendation, or have a list of students they want to have admitted, and each school will have a different method for the coaches to get that list to admissions.
I see, I must have heard wrong or he was faking it then
As I said at the top, JHU does issue LLs. I outlined the process above to the best of my memory, and my kid recently went through the process. @twoinanddone is correct. The review of the applicant is done at the coach’s request, but the admissions department makes the final decision and issues the actual LL.
Did your athlete have an admissions interview during official visit, or locally?
It really depends on the sport. The fencing coach up to last year seems to have a big influence on admission. I agree with the likely letter issue above. The likely letter is not from the coach, but from the admissions committee after all college application materials have been submitted. The coach may have emailed the athlete that he may “likely” get admitted based on the academic stats, but it is not the same as coming from the Adcom. Likely letter is an official letter, typically in the Ivys, stating that the student was voted by the committee to be admitted. Assuming nothing changes for the worse, it is almost a 99.9% guarantee of admission.
I’m still confused. If the student/athlete submits all the college application material, isn’t that just an application? And ALL of those will get in/rejected/waitlisted?
@nowwhat2019 Once the coach and the athlete give each other the verbal commitment, the coach’s support will give a very strong admission boost. It may not be the same level as in Div 1 schools, but with JHU, some of the coach’s have known to have a very strong influence on admission. So yes, it is submitting the application same way as the non athletes would, typically as ED, but being a supported athlete is a very strong hook.
@Sam-I-am or other JHU parents, did your JHU athletes have an interview with admissions or local alumni as part of the ED process?
(sorry to repost, I am new and not sure how to address my question!)
@elizal, my recruit did not get an interview at JHU. Did not need it. My kid did an OV at an Ivy as well and was not offered an interview there either. Perhaps it is possible to request an interview, but it was not needed in my kids case.
Simply put. You have to have the academic goods ( which your coach will tell you) and the athletic goods( which the coach will tell you) then the coach gets a pre-read and then you pretty much know just submit and wait ( no interview). At least that was the case for my d who is happily playing a sport at JHU now. .
Any insight on which of the D3 coaches carry and weight or don’t? Again thanks for the insight all very helpful!
I believe all coaches in d3 carry weight, but you still absolutely have to have there minimum recruiting standards. F For many great schools this will include nearly perfect test scores and perfect grades . There are many normal applicants with these standards who apply and do not get in. It is still a huge advantage to have a coaches backing.
I got recruited years ago for tennis. Coach essentially told me that after I applied (ED) I would be issued a likely letter. There was a mutual understanding that I was going to commit to JHU ED however, typically recruits don’t have much pull in regular decision.
It also helped that I had very good grades in comparison to my athletic abilities. He explained that “Hopkins wants students that are more academically capable” and so they tend to lean toward taking recuits who have good gpa’s and scores rather than purely being good at a sport, due to it being D3.