I was wondering how many kids will apply Early Decision to play sports at school with only 2,000 kids but with 20 varsity programs for both men and women, including hockey, soccer, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, softball, track etc?
A school my son is interested in attending in fall 2017 has a team with 50 players on it that he would like to play on. He’s reached out to the coach a few times, but haven’t heard anything back. He’s probably going to apply anyways as it is his number one choice. He’ll probably apply ED as it stands, he would really like to attend. His club coach is going to try to get in touch with the college coach soon.
We were just wondering how many of the kids from all of the different sports were going to apply early. I can’t imagine a school that accepts the 250 men and 250 women each year to fill up their ED slots with all of athletes they need to fill up their freshman roster spots. My son should be considered for a school slot even without a sports hook, his grades and scores are within the normal range there.
Thanks for any thoughts/info.
A good number of those applying ED are athletes. Not all will be getting ‘help’ from the coaches, but all will have been told their chances are better by applying ED and their chances ARE better, so they want to have the best chance of getting in.
If your son applies ED, his chances will also be better at getting in. It will not improve his chances of getting on the team If the coach hasn’t replied back. Also, if there are 50 players on the team, only 15 or so are freshmen, and maybe 2-3 of those are getting coach’s support (however that school allows support for admissions).
That’s what I was thinking, that maybe a couple of kids had the coach’s backing from each team. I guess the rest of the kids just try out or something. I’m trying to get the details on how their system works. My son doesn’t really care if he can’t make the team, but he’s decent enough that I think he could play there.
Surprisingly, today in the mail came a letter from the dean of admissions telling him to apply. He just contacted the coach again last week, so the timing seems suspect. Cant’s tell if it’s just a mass mailing thing or not, seems sort of legit. But, no mention of the coach. The coach is notorious for cruddy communication as is.
I would recommend reaching out to the assistant coach. I also would advise making an unofficial visit to the school to meet the coach and tour the athletic facilities.Without knowing the school and its acceptance rate you want to feel comfortable with both the coach and the possibility of acceptance. Traditionally, the coach can offer you a preread and if all goes well he will offer you an overnight/recruiting trip. This visit is essential to see if your son fits in with the team. You have one ED opportunity make sure you use it wisely. At my sons NESCAC school 50% of the classs was accepted ED for this fall. Visiting the campus and meeting the coach unofficially is a great way to start a relationship and show him your interest.
good luck
My son has contacted the assistant coach too. We have visited the campus 2x, but did not get to meet the coach yet. My son plans to apply ED regardless of lax or not, it’s his number one choice for academics. Pretty selective school, not NESCAC though. He will be happy there with or without lax, but lax would great a bonus for him. My sons school has sent numerous kids there thru the years, and he is right in their sweet spot academically. Hopefully ED will give him a little edge.
You can check the Common Data Sets for the schools to see how many kids typically apply ED. At a Div3 LAC with a full sports complement, you can assume that at least half of those are athletes
That’s great. Good luck with both the team and school
@RightCoaster, it’s always very hard to give advice in these forums because we don’t have all the facts. Having said that, here are are a couple of my impressions after reading through this thread.
It doesn’t appear that the coach is interested in your son. You’ve reached out to him more than once, you’ve contacted the assistant coach and you’ve visited twice without meeting him. If he hasn’t gotten back to you by now then it doesn’t look good for him to help you out. Many times unfortunately coaches just never reply to kids they are not interested in. It shouldn’t be that way but it is.
As far as ED goes, most of the athletes WILL apply ED. Even the athletes that don’t have “official coach slots” will be told to apply ED. You mentioned that you hoped that applying ED would give your S a little advantage. It will give him a bit of an advantage, but know that ED is used by the schools not only to fill out their athletic teams, but to admit really “exceptional” students (ex: class valedictorians), “advancement” candidates and legacies. There are just not as many spots in the ED round available to “unhooked” kids as many people believe.
Good luck to you and your son!
@farandsure. Thanks. It is hard to give advice without all the facts, I agree.
I don’t think the coach is interested in my son as an athlete, but I can’t be sure that he doesn’t he have an interest in too many kids at this point for 2017. He is rumored to be completely unorganized. Maybe he’ll be interested in the summer after tournament time and prospect days, who knows? He knows my son’s club coach.
The school is a small DIII pretty selective school that has a history of completely average to sub-par athletic teams in general, not a D3 powerhouse. I think they would rather hand out acceptances to academic matches, full pay parents,super smart accomplished kids, and athletes in that order. If they can take care of all that in one kid perfect!
I’d be surprised if they enrolled 100 men, and 100 women as early decision sport recruits. But maybe I’m wrong. Just wanted to see what the norm is at other DIII schools. I know Nescac schools operates a bit differently than some other DIII schools. I’d like to know at a school like Skidmore, Clarkson, Union etc what percent of their incoming ED class are recruited athletes?
. If the coach only has a couple of recruits per team, how does the coach find the rest of the freshman class needed to round out the team? Tell the kids to apply, commit, and then show up in the fall for a tryout?
@RightCoaster, I think if you could talk with some friends or other families from your school/club team that have gone completely through this process it would be helpful for you.
As far as the coach being interested in recruits now for the class of 2017, I’m not sure what school we’re talking about but, for most teams the high recruiting season is now through 11/15/16.
Regarding ED, I agree with what @wisteria100 posted (#5) and was trying to add some more color to that. My comments were gleaned from conversations with a few heads of admissions and a large number of college coaches in D3 at top LAC’s.
The admission process is very opaque and when you layer on an athletic component it is even more so. It’s hard to get all the information you need to make an informed decision but not impossible. To start, I do think that if you can talk with people who you know and trust who’ve been through this it will help you have a more positive experience.
Again, good luck!
A 2014 Article in the Bowdoin Orient suggests that there are between 75 and 77 slotted athletic recruits – of course that doesn’t include the tips. It looks like – very roughly – about half the class is admitted ED. Most of the athletic recruits will apply in one round or the other of ED. So, you can do the math. If roughly 225 student are admitted ED for a class, 75 are slotted, and 75 are tips, it looks like (very roughly) about about 150 of the 225 ED admissions are athletes. At some of the D3 schools, the higher admit rate for ED has been attributed to the high number of athletes applying through ED.
Your son has visited this school twice. If it is not too far away, I would suggest another visit. Let your son call and try to set up a meeting with the coach. If that doesn’t work, I would suggest that you call and explain that you are traveling to see the school and would the coach talk to you and your son. It usually works.
At that point, you can ask all these important questions to the coach and see if your son is a potential match for the team. Remember, however, if your son plays a spring sport, the coach may be pretty busy right now.
It’s spring. Lax is in full competition and the D3 coaches are not out looking right now, even though that doesn’t make sense as the high schoolers are also playing right now. Really, only the top top top players are getting any action right now and most of them are already committed.
My daughter got all the action from D3 schools in the summer and fall of senior year, not much before that at all. Her friends who had committed D1 were all locked in before the spring season. It’s sort of weird, but not much happens in spring of junior year, then it all revs up again with summer play and fall ball.
There are a few exceptions made where a school will contact a junior during the spring. A friend just had an unbelievable game and received a few contacts, but usually from assist coaches. Small D3 programs may not have a bunch of assistant coaches! At daughter’s school, there is one coach (just had a baby), one assistant (about to have a baby), they have their playoff game tomorrow, finals are next week, they have to have the currently players sign their award letters for next year, etc. etc. There just isn’t time right now to contact interested players. In June? Lots of time.
Hard to say in the abstract, but I will say that, at my kid’s mid-tier D3 school, on the Facebook group for admitted students, the ED1 and ED2 kids who were on the FB group were probably 75% or more committed athletes.