So I’m a junior in high school who’s been heavily recruited as an athlete for my sport, and would like some perspective about
Ivy League Recruitment from any member who’s been there. I know the academic index, rigorous course load, and other basic parameters that come with Ivy League Athletics, but I’m wondering if there are any personal examples to alleviate the pressure I’m feeling regarding making my verbal commitment.
I feel confident with my athletic skill, course load, EC’s, essay writing, and personality for the universities I’m considering, but I’m still very nervous about the ACT/SAT tests. Is there any advice out there on battling test anxiety?
I’m struggling with doing well on the test, not because I don’t know the content, but rather because I’m so worried for what will happen to my recruiting timeline if I don’t get “the scores” needed for Ivy Leagues. I know Ivy Leagues aren’t the only option, but based on the fit I’ve gotten with coaches/curriculum/location/athletics/majors at one specific Ivy, I’m unsure on how to go about this one part of my application.
(Sidenote: I’ve already met the coach and she’s practically stated she wants me there, but I don’t know how good my standardized tests will be because I’m pressing to do well in order to stay on the recruit list).
How important are these standardized tests in deciding between two athletes?
Just relax. You have some time to plot this out.
I’d suggest you take the SAT early as junior (January) to get baseline and ACT June of junior year or even fall of senior year.
Depending on how you do retest as needed.
Some of the Ivys favor high GPA some high test scores.
What is your sport? Can you reach out to any student athletes who placed at Ivys from your HS?
Utilize any resources you have for feedback.
Good luck!
Your post is confusing. You talk about feeling pressure re a verbal commit, but then suggest you have not taken the act or sat.
I can tell you that without act sat scores, you are not a serious recruit yet for ivy league. You can’t be feeling pressure for a verbal commit because you can’t have an offer yet.
You need to understand that this type of an interaction with a coach is far different than an offer of support for a likely letter. You shouldn’t feel any pressure to commit, because from what you have told us, there is nothing to commit to. Don’t jump ahead of where you are.
In my experience, the Ivy recruiting process is very segmented and linear. It helps to think about Ivy recruiting in three general steps or phases, each with an academic and athletic component. It seems you have passed the first step, which is identification of prospects with the athletic and academic potential to succeed in the Ivy League. Now it is time for step 2, where coaches begin to take a closer look at the athletic ability and academic performance of the prospects identified in the first step. In my opinion, your task in step 2 is athletically to lay out good tape (or times, whatever). Academically keep your GPA up and put up a good standardized test score. Phase 2 ends with a formal admissions pre read which can happen beginning July 1 before your senior year. Once the pre read is done, step 3 begins, where the coaches decide how they value your athletic ability within the context of their team’s needs, the recruiting restrictions placed on them by the athletic department and the AI. Real offers are generally only going to come in step 3. Sometimes, and at some schools, offers do go out to exceptional student athletes before the formal pre read is done, but I have never heard of an actual offer being made by an Ivy coach before the very end of junior year, and after acceptable SAT/ACT scores were already posted.
Right now, it sounds like a number of schools are potentially interested in you, including at least this one Ivy school. That is a great place to be for a first semester junior. In my opinion, you will drive your self crazy trying to “jump the line” and worry about where to commit when there is still work to be done. Concentrate on what comes next, which is handling the ACT/SAT tests, and performing well athletically this season.
All that said, the SAT/ACT scores are very important in Ivy League recruiting. You need to prepare yourself for taking the tests, and as advised above, leave yourself some time to retake one or both if necessary. Not to put too fine a point on it, but what is going to close the deal as a recruit in the Ivy is your GPA and standardized test score. The rest, extra curriculars, essays, course rigor, etc. are of comparatively minimal importance.
I agree with all who are telling you to relax, yet I recall how hard it was to do that for my kid who’s now an Ivy League senior athlete. The scores are important, and practice does help. As for what score is needed it depends – on what sport you play and how badly they want you. My high school kid has a classmate going to Princeton with a 3.4 and a 26 ACT – kid is probably one of the top recruits in the country. My college kid has a freshman on the team who could not surpass 1800 on SAT and is unlikely to be a game changer. On the other hand, my kid probably got recruited as much for the 2270 SAT as for the athletic ability. Maybe even more for the SAT! They try to average things out.
And as for recruiting timelines, that depends on the sport, too. Just got back from visit to college kid. They consider the classes of 2020 and 2021 to be done. They are recruiting for the class of 2022. I met and spoke with a few HS sophomores and their parents who were in for a recruiting weekend. Ohiodad has written extensively and well regarding his son’s football recruiting journey, but every sport is different. From various posts of yours it appears that you perform well in school and sport. Practice for your ACT/SAT and I’m sure you can perform well on those tests. Good luck and try to relax.
But look, you posted in this forum about a month ago that you got a 27 on the ACT as a sophomore, and the Ivy coach (presumably the coach at your favorite Ivy) was not fazed by that.
I think you have early symptoms of “impostor syndrome”. You can Google that. Once you understand what it is, maybe you can deal with it in a positive, productive way.
You asked how to battle “test anxiety”. Not too much different from how you would battle game anxiety, I think. Pressure comes from not being prepared. Prepare to the best of your ability and just let 'er rip.
@doubtful. A question I have alway had that maybe you can answer. I get that a lot of sports recruit early, but it is October of junior year in high school for the class of 2021, which is my daughter’s class (God, I feel old just typing that). Those kids haven’t even taken the PSAT for real yet, and I can’t imagine many have taken the ACT or SAT. Leaving aside the fact that by rule pre reads can’t be done before July preceding your senior year, how can recruiting be completed? I mean a one or two point swing on the ACT can make a substantial difference on the AI calculation. People aren’t that accurate when predicting test scores, are they?
This is from a national publication, not a blog. Doesn’t make it the NYT, but it’s not just kids reporting it, either. And it came out in early September. Check back in January and you’ll find double the number of Ivy League listings. Now there are 50 kids in each group with a half dozen to Penn, Cornell and Ivy League. I presume Ivy League here means Yale, Princeton or Harvard but somehow Penn and Cornell are considered differently. Funny. And no way have these dozen kids completed their testing. I’ve been watching this for 8 years now and these kids will, by and large, go to the schools listed here. It’s crazy and I don’t know exactly how they do it. I don’t have the answer. I can only presume they get by with the 170 floor because that’s a pretty easy AI to achieve and then look for averages amongst their recruits. Also, I’m not aware of AI bands as there are in football. My kid had an AI of 224 and I recall reading that your son was in that vicinity as well. I think the coaches love these kids for the flexibility they give them. In this world step 1 is identification, step 2 is wise and sagacious coach knowing what academic creds will float by admission, step 3 is the offer, step 4 is merely formality. Official overnights? Done only for the kids getting likely letters. It’s a victory lap. The coaches have to know what works and what doesn’t. If they make an offer, they have to come thru barring total breakdown on recruits’ part or their name will be mud in the recruiting world. In lacrosse, the overwhelming majority of kids have their offer in hand by the beginning of their junior year. This sport recruits earlier than any other I’m aware of. It’s a source of a lot of consternation for many and a google search of early lacrosse recruiting will get you some idea of the problem. The Ivy League schools are sometimes nationally competitive in this sport ( along with ice hockey) so they have to follow along to some extent if they want to stay competitive and it seems they do. It’s kind of pathetic.
He’s right that the coaches will say they are done recruiting for those classes (usually jr and senior h.s.) long before junior year tests. The schools are posting their recruits names and club/high school and do it to ‘show’ to other schools that this player is taken.
The coaches for women’s lacrosse have just request no the NCAA to change recruiting times so that no one will commit, and there will be fewer on campus meetings with coaches before Sept 1 of Junior year. The NCAA hasn’t been accepting specific requests from specific sports for years, so we’ll see how this pans out.
Many students do not have scores when they commit, but the understanding is if they are close, they will have a spot. Kids are committing to Air Force and Army when they are sophomores, so of course haven’t even applied, received a recommendation, past the physicals yet. I know one who ‘changed his mind’ and went to another school, but I think in the end he just wasn’t accepted, and one who went from a commit at Princeton to Army. More girls seem to go to the schools they committed to as high school sophomores than boys, but many boys also seem to get in where they originally wanted to be.
My daughter didn’t decide to play in college until her junior year, and she heard from many coaches that they were only looking at the class of 2016 and later (she was 2014) at that time. It’s kind of a Catch 22, as I don’t think she would have been recruited hard when she was a sophomore in high school because she was tiny and played on a mediocre team. As a junior/senior, she was bigger and more skilled. It is what it is.
I get that recruiting is getting earlier and earlier. About five years ago, Lane Kiffen when he was the head football coach at USC made headlines when he offered a kid starting his freshman year of high school. Now it happens a handful of times a year. But not in the Ivy or the service academies
I can even kinda get my head around how coaches will say they are done with active recruiting before the end of junior year. At least by then you likely have SAT/ACT results, most of a gpa, and a an experienced coach probably has a real good idea of what will fly and what won’t. But wrapping up your class almost a full year before you can even guess at an academic index number? It is just very difficult to believe that Yale for example is that enamored with women’s lacrosse that they are taking multiple kids in the 170s or 180s every year when they are
only taking a couple at that level in football and men’s basketball. Plus, how in the world do the coaches even know how many recruits they can support in a given year, or what number will be within a single deviation of the preceding four classes?
I don’t mean to come across as contrary, because I know bupkis about lacrosse. But it just doesn’t make sense.
One last thing. I can not believe that colleges are the ones posting commitments on the recruiting web sites, if that is what is being suggested. That would be clearly as directly violative of Ivy and NCAA regulations. Club coaches, maybe. In football, early commits are tracked by stringers either trolling Twitter or talking to kids at games/practices. I gotta believe this is happening the same way.
We had an Ivy League girls lax commit in our high school when the recruit was a sophomore with my daughter. This was before any testing, etc. Girls lax recruits ridiculously early.
The problem with the college athletic recruiting process is that many students (and their families) only hear what they want to hear, with very little understanding of the regulations and process.
While the bragging rights of early interest from college coaches can be intoxicating, it is important to understand the framework of athletic recruiting and to think critically about what you have been told vis a vis the stated Ivy and NCAA rules and regulations.
With regard to Ivy athletic recruiting, a coach cannot with 100% certainty make any admissions promises until a full academic preread has been completed (in July prior to senior year) by their admissions committee. This preread must include full junior year grades and all major test scores. A Likely Letter, which is the holy grail of Ivy athletic recruiting, cannot be issued until October 1st of senior year and to receive this letter, a complete application must have been submitted. A written confirmation of admission (an acceptance letter) cannot be issued prior to December 15th of senior year. These are the Ivy rules and timelines.
Anything less than the formality of the above is non-binding on both the school and the student. In my opinion, non-binding commitments are the equivalent of flirtation at a high school dance. Sometimes flirtation results in a long-term relationship, sometimes it does not.
One cannot fault the college coaches for this flirtatious behavior; what better way to ensure attendance to summer camps and showcases that advertise their presence and participation?
These camps are incredible sources of compensation to college coaches and the promoters of these events (like lacrosse magazines).
While I am sure some of these early “recruits” do end up matriculating at their “commitment” schools, I am similarly sure that many do not. It would be extremely foolish for a student not to keep all options open until a Likely Letter is in the mail.
The bottom line is that academics matter at the Ivy League and anyone who thinks athletic gifts in the absence of academic excellence will win the day may be spiking the ball before the goal line has been crossed.
Definitely agree, superdomestique - good advice. But I can tell you that in the last couple of years in our high school we have had early girls lax and soccer Ivy commits that have definitely ended up going where they committed. If the coaches had reneged, that coach’s reputation would have been seriously tarnished. In the cases I’m alluding to, though, all early Ivy commits were top students in addition to being incredible athletes, so the coach was not taking a huge chance. And the offer was contingent on the students keeping up their grades.
But definitely good advice for all.
I don’t want to speak for @superdomestique, but I think this is the point. An offer that is contingent on hitting certain academic targets (“if you can keep a 3.8 and get a 30 on the ACT next year we will support you to admissions”) is not a committable offer, much less a committment, and it is as dangerous to rely on “offers” of this kind as it is to rely on more traditional contingent offers (“if you come to our camp and play well, we will offer you”).
And yes, coaches who renege on commttable offers take a hit in recruiting. Just ask Bobby Petrino. But really, in a sport like lacrosse which is still a primarily regional, upper middle class sport, how big of a hit are the top academic schools taking when a kid on a list as “committed” to Cornell as a sophomore ends up at JHU? For the top 15-20 recruits it might make a difference. But in the next tier? I just don’t see why lacrosse would be categorically different than any other sport in that respect.
One reason that you seldom see a report of a coach that reneges on an early commit in the Ivies is that it’s in everyone’s best interest to report that as a recruit that found a better opportunity.
If Brittany the sophomore Ivy commit finds that she can’t crack 26 on her ACT, it’s going to be better for the ivy coach and less embarrassing for the kid to report this as a kid that got a great offer elsewhere.
Every case is different, but I believe generally that oral commitments earlier than fall of junior year tend to favor the school more often than the athlete. Why?
(Note: the term verbal commitment is a misnomer. All communication is verbal: both written and oral–unless it is by smoke signal, wink or emoji or something. The distinction is between written, which is binding, and oral which most often is not)
Athlete is "off the market". Maybe the athlete wants this and is just tired of the recruiting rat race, or the school is (currently) the undisputed "dream" school, or bragging rights swag is the currency of the day. (True though, that other schools can still try to make contact, but a lot will shy away while filling slots or committing scholarship money to others.)
Coaches change. Oral commitments are not commitments of the school. Four of the eight Ivy baseball coaches have changed in the past three years.
If a coach really wants to change his/her mind on an early recruit, there are ways to do it without making it look like a renege. This probably is easier to do in non-Ivy D1. Bringing in a top recruit at the same position one year ahead. Blaming it on the AI or financial aid. In non-Ivy baseball, the typical one is that "so-and-so" didn't get drafted by MLB like we thought, so he is still here and now we have less money for you, and oh, by the way he plays your position, so we are still committed, right, even though you will probably ride the bench or redshirt? In these cases, the way it usually comes down is that the athlete decided to go in a different direction.
Athlete falls for the line, that if you do not (orally) commit as a high school underclassman your slot will be gone. Maybe with that coach, but if any Ivy is seriously looking at a high school soph for example, you can be sure that other Ivies will be interested--if not now, then eventually. Same with non-Ivy D1 recruiting. Precocious athletes need to stay confident.
Every case is different. I am sure there are exceptions to these “rules”. But I still think these are the rules.