<p>Do all ivy coaches and sports have the same number of athletes they can get through admissions? Or is it at least consistent by sport across all ivies?</p>
<p>Another question: if you are an athlete who hopes to improve later in the season, and aspires to get into HYP, but don't apply ED - do you still have hope of getting in with a coach's support, or will they use all those 'passes' up with the November commitment?</p>
<p>The problem is that applying ED (without LL) and not getting in means you cannot reapply that year. So if your hope is that athletic improvement by December/March/April might help get in with coach's support .. is that likely to happen or do you miss the boat?</p>
<p>I was just chatting with some other parents today and these questions came up, so I thought I'd ask.</p>
<p>That’s a great question, wilberry, and I’ll bet it’s pretty sport-dependent. I can only guess about track and XC, and I would speculate most spots are filled in the fall, but there are always kids (usually at the top of the sport) who seem to hang out into January before deciding. A very few years ago, spots were still open as late as April, but it seems to me students are becoming more aware of the need and the opportunity to commit earlier and are doing it.</p>
<p>I have a little bit of insider info this year, and will try and give an accurate report of the timeline for signing for this sport in the Ivies as the months go by.</p>
<p>IVY league recuiting is split a couple ways … first football has its own allocation of recruits … then for all the other sports each school is allocated a set number of recuits per AI band … the school is then free to allocate those recruits to different sports as they see fit … so, for example, one Ivy may give more slots to hockey while another focuses on women’s soccer.</p>
<p>I agree with 3togo - I don’t think that there is a fixed amount of recruits per sport that all Ivies have to abide by. Some schools clearly prioritize some sports in different ways than other schools. Also, one particular team may have had a large graduating class and have many roster spots to fill, resulting in a large number of recruits while other sports at that school get few recruits through admissions that year. </p>
<p>It sounds like riverrunner’s “insider info” will be helpful about the time-line, but I think there is unlikely to be a definitive answer to this question: " if you are an athlete who hopes to improve later in the season, and aspires to get into HYP, but don’t apply ED - do you still have hope of getting in with a coach’s support, or will they use all those ‘passes’ up with the November commitment?" Of course, HYP don’t actually use ED, so I think the issue is whether or not they will have filled all their roster spots with LL’s (or for Yale also with EA) and I think the answer is probably variable across years. The year our athlete applied, I know that Dartmouth had filled all their roster spots in his sport through ED, and Yale had filled all but one of their spots by Dec. So I think you’d have to weigh the relative likelihood of the athlete making significant improvement vs. the risk of having the roster spots be filled. I expect there are typically a few spots left open (depending on the sport), but the competition for those few remaining spots may be pretty fierce. Best of luck navigating these murky waters!</p>
<p>Thanks all,
I think someone else told me this particular school can “support” six in this sport. That doesn’t seem like many with so many official visits already going on, for one who hopes to get to that level in a few months. I thought it would be better to just apply, and hope to get in on your own merits, but I guess the fear of being rejected and then unable to apply later is getting in the way of that?</p>
<p>HYP are not on our radar in this house, so I don’t really know much about them; I know it’s tremendously competitive, but that’s about it.</p>
<p>Of course kids in spring sports aren’t really going to be able to demonstrate improvement during their senior year- track athletes can compete into the summer at national-level meets after junior year, but the senior track season is somewhat of a victory lap. Senior year performances are great for setting school and state records, but not of any help with college recruiting.</p>
<p>^^^Completely agree with riverrunner - what you can show in a spring sport is really only good for recruitment purposes through your junior year spring and the following summer.</p>
<p>The intense competition is such that I don’t think the coaches of top/elite college programs will be waiting to see what recruitable talent a current senior has developed to bring to the table in the spring of their senior year.</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s what I figured. If it were my kid, I’d encourage application as soon as possible, using academic merits. I’m sure the kid is good enough to join the team as a walk-on. But it’s not my call! I was just wondering, and you pretty much confirmed what I thought.</p>
<p>Might be more sport specific. I know in swimming it is common for the kids who are not the tippy top recruits to sign in the spring, after their high school and USA Swimming championships. Here in Florida, with swimming a fall sport, lots of kids don’t sign in the fall because States is after the signing period. And the fastest short course meets are in late winter, early spring. April signing gives them a chance to better their times in the fast meets. In November, kids have only been swimming short course for two months or so. The faster a kid is, the better the money is!</p>
<p>do you think that’s true in the ivies, too, though - or do they just think if you couldn’t cut it as a junior at champs, you’re out of luck for coach’s endorsement?</p>
<p>I don’t have a lot of experience with the Ivy League. I know three swimmers who went to Ivies in the past 8 years. The boy who went to Yale, 8 yrs ago I think, knew early. Two girls, one 6 yrs ago to Harvard didn’t know until spring and 1 girl last year to Cornell took her official after spring champs. I know a diver at Brown 3 yrs ago, he had his LL early, before the NLOI early signing period. I do think it is a bigger deal for boys since they develop slower than girls, so 5 months can make a huge difference!</p>
<p>Fishy, perhaps you could offer advice to the OP of that “other” thread…since that OP is a swimmer, a Sr and wants to be recruited. He sounds like he needs some advice w/experience kwim ;o)</p>