I recently got deferred from my first choice school (MIT), and I’m starting to look at RDs. A bit about my profile, I play a sport at a pretty high level, not really good enough for D1/Ivy leagues, but good enough to be recruited by a lot of D3/Nescac schools. I’d also consider myself a relatively strong academic profile (good grades, hardest rigor available, good test scores, lots of research experience, top summer research program, published paper, and some other decent ECs). Before the application season, I didn’t really try to talk to any coaches (other than my EA school) because I figured if it didn’t go well I would just end up applying to schools regularly without athletic support. My question is whether I should try contacting Ivy League coaches for soft support. Does anyone have any experience with receiving soft support? I know my profile is kind of weird, but I’d love to hear some input. Thanks in advance!
It is very late to just be starting the recruiting process, but if the coach needs your skills on the team, it may not be too late. It will all depend on the the shuffle of the recruits and if there are any spots left for RD.
I don’t think any coach is going to try to recruit me, nor do I really want to be recruited. I just feel like I have a somewhat competitive profile academically and if the coach is able to offer some form of soft support to admissions it could be a boost.
I don’t think any coach is going to try to recruit me, nor do I really want to be recruited.
I am not an athletic parent so perhaps I speak from ignorance - but if a coach isn’t aware of you, doesn’t have you on their recruiting track/mind, etc. - why would they care about your academics?
Since they have no plan to have you involved athletically (as they don’t know you, haven’t recruited you), why would they get involved with you admission wise?
I just think I have a solid academic profile, one that could be competitive for admission to these schools. I was thinking that if coaches told admissions “hey, this kid isn’t on my recruiting list, but I know can play the sport at a high level, potentially valuable to the team” then it could provide a boost to my application. I don’t think it’s that far-fetched considering I’ve heard stories about people getting some form of support from coaches in the admission process.
Honestly, you might be better off reaching out to the coaches at some of the NESCAC schools for their soft support (if you are planning to apply to any of them) – admissions are super competitive and it could make the difference between an acceptance or a rejection. Unfortunately, the Ivy League is rife with applicants that have a solid academic profile and most of them are rejected. If you aren’t good enough to compete at that level (as you mentioned above) I’d be surprise if a coach would offer you soft support. Of course, there is no harm reaching out but I’d temper your expectations.
But again they don’t know you - haven’t seen tape. U can always ask and I’m not an athlete parent but it seems far fetched.
If they knew you could play then they’d have recruited you.
You say you don’t want to be recruited. Do you even want to play.
I’ll stop and let others answer as I’m not an athlete parent but logically your thought process (to me) makes zero sense.
I think it would be very unlikely that any Ivy League coach would offer any admission support at this stage of the game. You have admitted that you are probably not D1 athletic material. And RD application deadlines are just around the corner. They give support to athletes they have been in contact with for a long period of time(varies by sport). You should put your focus elsewhere. Spend your time working on essays, etc.
Coaches get a limited number of applicants they can offer support to. At the Ivy level those spots are determined by late summer going into senior year. Similarly for the high academic D3s like Hopkins, NESCACs, UAAs and MIT caliber schools. Coaches recruit athletes they are interested in based on athletic value to the team and then offer academic pre reads to a smaller pool of recruits to see where they fall with ability to be admitted. From that group they offer a very limited number of supported applications. At this point, unless you are a power 5 d1 type recruit, the coach is much more likely to offer you a spot if you can get in on your own merit. There is no way they are offering support to an athlete who wasn’t on their radar prior to December of senior year unless you are a top national level player.
Did MIT support your application? Did you ever attempt to be recruited? Do you have interest at all in playing your sport in college?
That’s a good question - I assumed he was recruited by MIT but maybe that isn’t the case. Since coach support there isn’t as impactful (friend whose child was recruited at MIT said coach told them 50/50 at best) I just assumed he came down on the wrong side. I also assumed that NESCAC’s had recruited him but that he went with MIT instead - thus my suggestion he reach back out - but maybe I’m reading it wrong.
What sport? Some sports do tend to recruit later.
Regardless, the only way you might get any level of support is to contact coaches via email detailing your academics and athletics, and attach a highlight video. Send a resume too, if you have one.
D went through the process with several Ivies, including receiving positive pre-reads, but was not offered support. The only school at the time that offered to write a letter was Harvard. There is a separate athletic rating in the Harvard admissions process where such a letter may help.
Things may have changed, but our impression from the coaches was the the coaches’ influence with the AO was limited to their recruit quota for the year.
I do not know the sport though it does not hurt to try to see if there is any interest that could turn into support.
If there are schools, assuming D3, perhaps D2, that you are really interested in, I would email the coach right away.
If you applied to MIT were deferred, then I am assuming that you have very strong academics, and would get into many other good schools.
I am not sure what area of study you are interested in, or what other schools are on your list, though Tufts comes to mind as it is not to far from MIT, has an excellent reputation in STEM as well as other areas, and it is a NESCAC so they do recruit.
Tufts is also a bit of an outlier (which I like) from the other NESCACs in that is much larger than most of the NESCACs yet is not too large, is a university, and is near a major city, not in the middle of NE.
Ivy league coaches provide a list to admissions. And the admissions officers give thumbs up or down. If you’re not on the coach’s list then any sport is just considered as a regular EC.
The coaches generally don’t like to contact admissions about students who are not on their list. But I’ve seen exceptions. In particular at Brown, I know that the varsity coaches can submit letters of recommendation to students who are not on their list, but who they value. But the value of these letters are very limited.
Our son is a runner and was not recruited. In the fall before he applied to a bunch of D3 LACs, he reached out to coaches via each school’s website. All of the coaches responded to him and said they were impressed by his academics and, if he got in RD, they would be happy to have him on the team. He was just short of recruitable times for track. (He’s a distance runner.)
We do think that coaches might have helped get him accepted in certain cases but we will never know. Knowing how he would contribute on campus could have helped him. XC/track is different than sports that don’t take walk ons, though, so it might not help with other sports. He was accepted to Bowdoin in RD and is currently a senior on the XC and track teams and was captain this last semester. Bowdoin’s team is good but not great. He was rejected from Williams and we sometimes wonder if that’s because their team is amazing and his times would have put him further down the roster there.
He did not ask for soft support outright- just showed interest in attending and running on the team. He just reached out initially in Sept and then reported new running times in February before RD decisions came out.
There’s no harm in reaching out if it isn’t taking time away from your other apps.
But I’m not sure why any Ivy coach would use resources to help you if you say you aren’t at that level athletically. Your chances of support are better at schools where you’d have an impact.
I’d keep in mind that every coach turned away recruits they wanted because they have limited support to give.
Given that you were deferred but not rejected from MIT, the natural question any coach will have (if they are interested at all) is whether you will attend their school if they can get you in. Some might be willing to play the odds either way but many will focus their time elsewhere.
Still, a brief email to coaches at schools where you’re planning to apply, explaining your situation and asking if there might be a spot on the team for you if you’re admitted, might be worthwhile even just to start developing some relationships.
Thanks for the advice everyone.
I was technically a “recruit” for MIT. Although, MIT coaches tend to just put a lot of people down as “recruits” since the admission process is so unpredictable. I think I have an academic profile that’s competitive for Ivy League schools because of strong grades, strong test scores, pretty good research, and some other good ECs. I’m emailing coaches with the hope that maybe they will be able to speak some words about my athletic abilities. I know for example Harvard rates each applicant with an athletic rating; it’s possible to not be an athletic recruit but still receive some form of support in the rating. I’m just going to hope that there’s something like this at other schools.
This exactly is I think the correct way to handle. My child did this and a coach of their top choice school did put in soft support with admissions and confirmed to my child there would be a roster spot if accepted. So a tip not slot. It sounds like you are highly academically qualified based on MIT deferral so even a tip could help at certain schools, if you let a coach know you are applying anyway and asking whether there could be a roster spot for you if you get in (rather than asking for support somewhat out of the blue at this stage). I think have to be upfront that if MIT RD pans out that’s where you would go (I assume) - I understand there are some deferred MIT athletes with coach letters who do get in in the RD round. Am curious about your academic stats in particular SAT/ACT and math scores if you are willing to share. There is really good info in this thread and appreciate knowing in which high academic schools soft support could be helpful for admissions for an extremely high academic child who is also successful athlete but maybe not slot material.
As an athlete who was recruited by a few Ivies, I can tell you that “soft support” doesn’t exist for those schools. If you haven’t been offered a spot and subsequent admission support, most coaches will tell you that you’re better off applying as a normal applicant. Of course, you should still mention your athletic involvement, and it is possible that you can be a walk on if you are ultimately admitted.
I think it is sport dependent - we know several rowers and even more swimmers both male and female that got into ivys plus duke and stanford with soft support over the past 3 admission cycles.
All had the academics and athletic skill - but so few full support slots.