<p>I am interesting in any recruiting information and the ivies. D is being recruited by several ivies, trying to understand the process. Do the ivies provide financial/admission offers during the official visit?</p>
<p>As you know, all financial aid at Ivy league schools is need-based. Princeton has a calculator that you can use to estimate your award, and Yale and Harvard will likely be about the same. The others probably aren’t all that different. Most of them have “net price calculators” onine too. THey are anonymous. </p>
<p>Ivy recruits are encouraged (required, effectively, I believe) to apply early. You actually have to fill out the paperwork here, unlike many Division 1 athletic scholarship programs.</p>
<p>If you wont’ commit to applying early, you’ll probably not be on the coaches list for admission help. An exception to this might be if you are someone who could place high in a national D-1 tournament, or play professionally later. There aren’t many of those. Don’t count on being the exception. </p>
<p>Most Ivy coaches have enough experience with their admissions officers to know if a student is admittable, and with an early application, they can get a “likely” letter from admissions sent to you early in the fall season. This happens primarily to make it possible to recruit against the other schools (Michigan, Duke, North Carolina, etc. ) who have a different process and where the admissions process is less "tight.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that no coach can give an “official” financial aid offer or admissions offer. But they do want “early” commitments from the recruits, so take your visits and make a decision. :)</p>
<p>Is there a level of support that Ivy coaches provide that is a step below the likely letter (and therefore much less reliable)?</p>
<p>^ I believe every Ivy is limited to a certain number of athletes. Some, like Yale have already reduced their recruited athletes below what is permitted (though perhaps with a new president, that will be reversed), another (Brown) is in the process of reducing the number of recruited athletes. </p>
<p>Logically, if a coach had sway with admissions over and above the number allowed by that school and the league, that school would have an athletic advantage over the rest of the league. (Teams are not limited to that cumulative number - my sons team has a single pure walk-on. He got in on his own.) That would violate league rules (perhaps leading to a type of arms race as schools back door the LL process.) (Note that in most other D1 programs, a coach can get additional athletes through admissions - as many as needed to fill the needs of the program.)</p>
<p>Coaches may say they will give support; that way the coach claims the credit, and dodges responsibility by saying - when the student gets rejected - that admissions make the admitting decisions.</p>
<p>Junemom</p>
<p>there is lots of info about the OV LL process in this board. Use the search tool.
Experiences vary by sport and school.
Fin-aid estimates can be had (through a coach to the fin aid office request)
If your student does an OV- in the prep prior–have your student ask coach about pre read for fin-aid. It will be a non binding estimate
The is not official “admissions” nor official fin aid during OVs.
Admissions admits and your student’s admit would come at the same time as the others get their ED acceptances.</p>
<p>I’m still confused about the ED process, official visits and how to secure a “likely” letter. My child has an OV at Brown–first choice school-- at the end of September. If the coach wants my child on the team, what happens next? Will my child be asked during the OV to apply early decision? It seems that applying ED makes sense for my child only if promised a “likely” letter–otherwise my child would miss the opportunity to apply ED at another Ivy. So how does my child find out if the coach will advocate for this letter? Should my child have the common app and Brown supplement ready to go in September?</p>
<p>Does your child do track/XC? I will be at the Brown OV in September with them if they do. How the track coach explained it to me was that as soon as the application is in, then he can request to have admissions view it early and then at the time you can receive a likely letter. The coach said it generally takes a week or so for them to issue a review the app after his request. He said that if I sent in my app in after the OV, which is the 23rd in my case, then on October 1st, when ivy leagues are first able to issue LL’s, my app should be reviewed and an LL issued if admissions accepts me. And yes, your child is missing the opportunity to apply ED at another ivy. No one can be “promised” a likely letter. That is up to admissions, not the coach. The coach can “promise” his support on your chid’s application, which goes a long way in helping your child w/ admissions. He can also do a financial pre-read and I assume that since your child was invited on an OV that their pre-read went well. I am going to have my common app and Brown supplement ready before my OV and if it goes well I will send it in. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Although it depends on the sport, a couple of Ivys want recruits to submit an application before the OV. The easiest way to do this is to apply RD and change to EA or ED if a LL is offered and accepted. To the best of my knowledge, every Ivy will allow applicants to switch a RD application to EA or ED.</p>
<p>Each sport is given a certain number of preferred recruits. The number is set by the league (and I believe can be found online) but as previously stated can be reduced by a school at their discretion. Short of indicating that an athlete is a preferred recruit I don’t think the Coach has much say over who gets in and who doesn’t, again as previously stated the Coaches can do a pretty good job of letting you know if they can get you in or not. The pre-read (fin aid) can be done before the end of the junior year although you will probably want to wait until the summer of the senior year. Although not guaranteed they can will give you a very good idea of what to expect unless you have a major change in your financial position. My understanding is that HYP will do a slightly better job with an aid package, I have also heard on more than one occasion that “they don’t want you to pick one ivy other another based upon finances”. With that they will suggest that if you are being recruited by more than 1 ivy to provide the pre-read from the other schools and they will attempt to replicate (not match) the numbers.</p>
<p>FA pre-reads can be done now–your student should ask the coach.</p>
<p>It can be hard to find the exact info. you need on this site though there are lots of great threads that will help you through the process. I think what you’d find most helpful is varska’s ebook on the recruitment process–it walks you clearly through the stages of recruitment and will, I think, answer your questions. You can search for and easily find it here.</p>
<p>My take on the relationship between admissions and OV’s: My understanding is that your student should look for a strong commitment from the coach before submitting the app (basically, she should be told that she will receive a likely letter if she submits an application.) If they don’t bring it up, tell her to ask directly. My kid has already done that, and the coaches have been very straightforward. Still, if the coach isn’t ready to offer at the OV, it doesn’t mean he/she won’t do so a week or two later. But I’d advise my own kid not to apply until the coach has provided that commitment. </p>
<p>On the flip side, if a coach tells the athlete she’ll get a likely if she applies, an athlete might still wish to wait until other OV’s have been completed before committing… However, I get the sense that both coach and athlete, once again, need to be clear about this–the athlete that she has another visit or two lined up and the coach about when he/she needs a commitment. ( In my kid’s case, I think the coaches have all asked for a commitment, i.e. application, during the last week of September, right before the first round of likeliies come out)</p>
<p>(And yes, I know that coaches don’t issue likelies, so my wording here is inexact. Coaches can tell an athlete that he/she is a top recruit from the coach’s side; and that admissions has done a pre-read of his/her grades and test scores and should–always with the caveat that essays and recs are strong–issue the likely)</p>
<p>After the application is in, the likely should follow quickly. While it’s true that the student isn’t admitted until the ED admit date, the likely basically guarantees acceptance unless grades plummet or some other major bad thing happens. It follows, I think, that if a student does NOT receive a likely in a timely manner, he/she should be able to withdraw the application to the first-choice school and apply early somewhere else. Not sure about that piece though–and obviously, this would only work for the earliest round of likelies, and I suspect those are the least likely not to come through.</p>
<p>My sense is that this gets mucked up mostly when the athlete has not asked direct questions or misinterprets the coach’s language. However, this is our first time through the process, so we’ll see if our sense of how it should go–based on what coaches have told my kid and on varska’s e-book–is how it really does go!</p>
<p>My son got a letter of support from an Ivy. They spelled out exactly what we needed to do to get him there. We have already submitted the financial aid form and letters from the other Ivy Schools recruiting him. We will do the official visit once he gets accepted and we can meet the financial terms of the school.</p>
<p>Captain: why would he do an official visit after he has been accepted? Do you mean a revisit?</p>
<p>Captain, Be careful being comfortable. Have you submitted the Common application with Supplements, Recommendations etc.? Have you been told by admissions that a Likely Letter will be coming? It may well be that your son is going to be recruited and accepted. However, a Likely Letter (from admissions), the Ivy League form of National Letter of Intent, cannot go out until Oct. 1st. Most coaches wait until the OV to see how the recruits gel with the team.</p>
<p>Our kid has received letters from several Ivies saying that all requirements, athletics, grades, test scores etc. have been met. However, he has not applied with the Common App, there is no acceptance by admissions; has not completed OVs, and has not committed to or received a likely letter. We hope kid will land in one of the top three, but don’t know for sure if or where the landing will be.</p>
<p>A letter of support is not a Likely Letter. Keep options option and good luck.</p>
<p>Hi Captain, I have a weird question. Your post seems to say that you submitted “letters from the other Ivy schools recruiting him” to the Ivy where he is hoping to get a Likely. If this is what you did, I’m not sure I understand what just took place. Do you do this to better secure a Likely by proving your player is being recruited elsewhere and that you would like this reassurance? Just not sure I’ve ever read anywhere else in the forum about that being done and am curious.</p>
<p>^ Not to speak for the captain, but some Ivies are receptive to matching FA offers if you can prove demonstrated recruiting interest from another Ivy.</p>
<p>CM, this is being done to match FinAid offers. They are also interested in fin pre-reads from other schools. We were literally told that we were supposed to share them.</p>
<p>Brown coach told me that they will match financial aid offers of other ivy’s. Brown is ridiculously more, so hopefully they can match Harvard :)</p>
<p>Thanks for clearing that up! I appreciate it. I learn something new every day.</p>
<p>I’m curious about the “will match FA offers” thing (we’ve heard the same thing from coaches). How far does the athlete have to go in the recruiting process to have the FA offer matched? What about in the years that follow? If a parent’s income fluctuates, will the FA offer go back to the original? Curious to know if anyone has any actual experience with how this plays out.</p>
<p>My D will be a junior this fall at an Ivy (not HYP). We got FA prereads from all of the schools she was interested in before she committed to official visits. We did not want her visiting and falling in love with a school that we could not afford. She did get a FA preread from a HYP and her Ivy of choice matched it. The biggest difference between HYP package and her school was no loans. We had all FA packages “in hand” before official visits. We talked to her school’s coach before her visit and told them that the HYP package was a way better deal. Response: “We’ll do everything we can to mach it”. D verbally committed to her school of choice at her OV with the condition of a FA match and assurance of a LL. Both were in hand within a week.</p>
<p>Our financial situation has stayed the same for the past three years and her FA has remained the same with the exception of “students portion to pay” which has increased $500. The revised FA letter we got also stated that there would be no loans as a part of her package for all 4 years.</p>
<p>If your athlete is being recruited by multiple Ivy’s you are in a very strong position to negotiate the FA package.</p>