I’m applying early to a certain Ivy school and have not received a likely letter. The coach has, however, stated, in one of his emails that “they will do everything in their power to make sure my application gets every consideration”. That seems a pretty bland statemend to me as every school emphasises that they consider every applicant holistically. If anyone has been in such a sitiation before, would this give me any boost whatsoever in the admissions process? I’m just trying to prepare myself mentally for when the decisions come out, so any insight would be welcomed.
I think it means you have to get in on your own, but if you are ‘tied’ with other applicants, you might get a ‘tip’ from the coach’s list of recruits he’d like to have. They are limited to the number of slots and tips.
I think it means you’ll have to get in on your own accord but the coach will do everything in their power to help you. I would take it as a good sign. If a coach didn’t want you they wouldn’t have taken the time to write that. When it comes to the admissions process a boost from the coach could definitely put you on top. Good luck and keep us all updated.
Call the coach and ask. This is the school you will be committing to for 4 years, you need to know where you stand with this coach and whether you should look elsewhere.
Was there more? Did the coach say, “we’d love to have you on the team” or 'if you get in we can talk about your involvement on the team?" Since there is more than one email, it would help to get a sense of the entire message being conveyed. What did he or she say in telephone calls? Did the coach get you a pre-read?
Based on that sentence alone, it doesn’t sound like a commitment to support or highlight your application. That said, it is dangerous to read much of anything into one sentence. The best bet is always to have an open discussion about whether the coach will support your application, the extent to which he or she is able to do so, and how many applicants with that level of support have been admitted or denied. At this point, I wouldn’t worry about it. Hope for the best, and whatever happens there will be other options – some may end up being much better than this option.
@gointhruaphase He did say multiple times that they would LOVE to have me on the team, and that if I get in, I’ll have a spot on the team.
He did also state that there are 1-2 freshmen who get in without a LL, but did not specify how many did apply and were not admitted.
Thank you to everyone for the replies, I’ll keep you posted.
It seems obvious that you’re not a slotted recruit but someone the coach is hoping will get in on your own academic merit with the hope that his influence may give your chance a little boost. The LL letter recruits usually would have been told they are being considered for LL. For my son’s school, he had to apply 1 month before the EA deadline and received his LL few days after he submitted the application. The Ivys have LL admissions meeting several times during the early admission cycle, and the athletes are informed of these meeting dates. Anyway, the EA decisions will be coming out any day now, so the only thing you can do is just wait it out and hope for the best that the coach’s influence helped you to get in. Good luck.
I would think, given the pre-read and the coach interaction, that you have a better chance than a regular unhooked applicant of getting in but that it’s not yet a done deal. If I were a betting person, I would bet that you will get in.
As @noanswers notes, you will know shortly. I hope you will come back to this thread and let us know the outcome.
@noanswers Thank you for your input. Perhaps I didn’t make it clear enough; I knew that I wasn’t getting a LL when I applied, and am now wondering how much influence can a coach have on the admissions decision.
This whole post was just a product of my nervousness and impatience to try to prepare myself for the outcome.
I am in the same situation. Two coaches have said they will support my application. Not sure what that means.Wondering if such applicants (with coach’s support) were ever accepted by the schools.
Not to be too much of a wet blanket, but in the two cases where my daughter received similar messages from Ivy coaches, we took it as a “I like you, but you’ll have to get in on your own, kid”.
“Support your application” or “Your application will be tagged in admissions” means you are a recruited athlete. The more tepid statements like “they will do everything in their power to make sure my application gets every consideration” sound like second-tier designation.
D3 schools differ in the priority they give athletics, but those that do give priority have arrangements with coaches that are not talked about openly. Confidentially I’ve been told by a D3 coach that he had a certain number of admissions “slots” each year provided test and GPA minimums were met and also a certain number of merit scholarship dollars. The latter, of course, is against NCAA rules and the scholarships themselves don’t officially say athletic or else sanctions would follow.
Of course, there is no way you can know these unpublished arrangements, but in most cases the college coaches are given specific wording they can use in communicating with recruits. A “sponsorship” typically means you are in one of the slots - unless there is something wrong with your application you’ll get in. Former admissions counselors have stated that these recruits typically have a 95% acceptance rate. Anything less means you are in the normal admissions pool but the coach is saying he wants you on the team - think of this as an additional reference, perhaps with a lot more weight. It does make a difference, and can be a tiebreaker in your favor.
@GocartMozart, any D3 coach that claims they have athletic scholarship money is bending the truth to secure a recruit. Many D3 schools offer merit scholarships and the less competitive offer what is effectively a tuition discount - while the coaches like to tell parents what they want to hear by saying its athletic, it’s not.
@Chembiodad … this wasn’t a claim to a recruit. If a D3 coach said to any recruit that there were athletic scholarships that would likely lead to NCAA sanctions. No, this was a D3 coach talking privately to someone he’d known for many years who he wanted to hire as an assistant, explaining how things worked on the team. The scholarships are presented to the students as merit - the unofficial arrangement this coach has with this college is that he can direct some merit scholarship money to recruits.
@GocarMozart, no major conference D3 school would go down that path - that’s an urban legend to make everyone feel loved as the lower ranked schools, which are experiencing a continued decline in enrollment, are discounting like crazy to get whatever $ they can.
I have to agree that no coach is ‘directing’ merit scholarships at D3 schools. The NCAA requires that schools report which money is going to athletes, even if it is for merit or financial need, and those numbers have to be in line with amounts given to other non-athlete students.
Do D3 coaches know what a student with those stats typically get in merit? Sure. If the coach has been there for several years he may have seen 20 kids with 3.5’s and 29 ACTs get the ‘president’ merit scholarship, or the ‘Deans’ or the ‘Alum’. I had coaches in D1/D2 tell us that they expected daughter to get $X in merit, that they could give $Y in athletic, etc. They weren’t ‘directing’ those merit scholarships to athletes but knew what could be expected in the package. In fact at the school my daughter attends, at the first meeting the coach had checked with admissions and told D she’d get $$ in merit. I’d looked into it and told the Coach I thought she’d actually get more in merit (she did, the coach was working off old stats) and the coach shrugged and said “I don’t know, $$ is what they told me.”
I do think the coaches make sure the student gets every cent possible for the athlete, but they are still playing within the rules.