<p>My son is looking to play a sport at either Princeton or Harvard. He has had contact with both programs. Harvard has only two "tags" and cannot use that tag on my son as due to the limited amount of tags, they need to be "position specific". The coach feels my son is as good or better than his current players but needs to use his tags wisely. He says he will "support" my son's application. Please let me know what you think. My son's stats are as follows:</p>
<p>GPA 4.25/4.00 (School doesn't 5 scale Honor's or GPA would be 4.65)
Class Rank 19/597
AP Classes 7
SAT Scores: 1970, Math 740, Writing 680, Critical Reading 550.
SAT II's: Math II 770, Biology 720
ACT: Composite 29</p>
<p>Will be taking both in the fall to try to raise scores. He has been named a High School All-American in his sport and has won two Silver Medals in the Junior Olympics National Championships.</p>
<p>Any advice and does he stand a chance? We know he needs to take on more Subject test for Harvard, but not for Princeton.</p>
<p>Looks like he has a great GPA and is a terrific athlete, but his CR score is low for these schools. I think you need to clarify what the coach means when he says he will “support” his application. Without very influential “support” from the coach, admission would seem much less likely. When we were going through this, we learned to ask very directly, “what kind of support can you give, because we’re concerned that his chances of being admitted without specifically being recruited to play may not be good enough.” We felt that all of the coaches we dealt with were honest about the extent of their influence. Good luck - you must be proud of your S!</p>
<p>Hi ChargerFans,
Have you read up on likely letters? This is the most important concept to understand, when it comes to Ivies and support in admissions from coaches.<br>
Your son sounds like a great kid. Best wishes. Continue to ask lots of questions, or PM people who look like they might have more info specific to a school/sport.</p>
<p>I am very proud of him. He’s done a great job of being a student/athlete. He will be taking the SAT and ACT over again and from what I hear from teacher’s etc. he should do way better. Both tests were done in January of this year, so he should do a lot better. He had not studied or prepped for either and now he’s being tutored so hopefully the scores will be a lot higher.</p>
<p>I am aware of the likely letter. He already has visits lined up to four schools including MIT who thinks he has a great chance to get in. We’ll see of course. But I’m pushing for the education over the athletics.</p>
<p>MIT coaches do not really support an application. They write a letter and have the file tagged “athlete”. But their support is not a “tip”. It’s just another letter. They really don’t have pull in admissions. </p>
<p>MIT was courting (no pun intended) my D2. However, if she couldn’t get in on her own there was no way for the coach to help. He even said that he sees who shows up on Accepted Student’s Weekend to see who will be on his team. The entire recruiting time he told D2 she had a great chance of getting in. She ended up being deferred early action. Even with that he kept saying she had a great chance in regular decision.</p>
<p>Do not count on MIT! We weighed the probablity of MIT vs. the certainty of other schools. D2 went early decision elsewhere with the express support of the coach and an early read from admissions. </p>
<p>(I can’t believe my setter will be playing college vball in 3 weeks!)</p>
<p>^I disagree; being recruited by MIT can hold considerable clout in admissions (but usually only if the applicant already has pretty strong statistics, like a 2200 with at least 750 math).</p>
<p>ChargerFans- The offer to “support” by the coach of your son’s application will not hold much, if any, sway with admissions. They have so many different sports slots to fill that only the top recruits “tagged” will receive special consideration.</p>
<p>For SAT Is, your son will want mid-700s or higher to be a competitive applicant. While increases in the math score is easy with practice, CR is more difficult as it requires fast reading and critical analysis. Does he have some match schools with coach support if he doesn’t reach the higher test scores?</p>
<p>Hi! He has two official visits lined up and two unofficial visits lined up. MIT has offered an unofficial and that is all they offer. I do know that they only offer a select few even an unofficial visit to their recruiting weekend. My older son was recruited by MIT in the same sport but was not offered an official visit and was waitlisted. He had excellent scores but not as high as S2. Also, this son is deemed to be D1 ability and the coach is aware of that. So we’ll see where it goes.</p>
<p>I do agree about the critical reading as being tougher. He takes the next ACT first in September and we hope he can get that score over a 32. Hopefully that will make him more in line with the “regular” Ivy applicants.</p>
<p>Well I would take the official visit schools more serious than the others. But I don’t have much first hand experience. Maybe someone could comment on that.</p>
<p>Definitely! But again MIT doesn’t offer official and they only offer a select few to their recruiting weekend. We are just starting this process so we’ll see where it goes.</p>
<p>D2 went on the MIT recruiting weekend. Her ACT was 32 and GPA 4.31. I stand by MIT recruitment as just “tagged”; coaches don’t have the pull there that they do at other schools. You have to get into MIT on your own merit.</p>
<p>IMO, the most important issue for student/athletes is to choose a school where they would be happy, even in the event they are no longer participating in their sport.</p>
<p>Is MIT his first choice, and where he feels he would “fit” the best in terms of academics/social culture/geography/size and so on?</p>
<p>Jimmy Bartolotta was admitted to MIT with a 1430 SAT score (old scale). That is outstanding for an athlete, but it is not MIT caliber. You can see from Cal Tech results what you get when you don’t make substantial allowances.</p>