XCTF tends to be later as well. But obviously this can vary by school and by year.
Heard back from a couple of them. Very casual mention of positive pre-reads as if it was never a big deal in the first place. Anyone else heard anything yet?
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Does the official visit for a college [an Ivy in this case] take place on a specific day in the fall where all the potential recruits have to attend? Or they stagger it over several weekends based on individual recruit’s schedule?
It will depend on the program. Some places gave us two or three dates to choose from - usually consecutive weekends - when they spread out the recruits.
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Depending on the sport, I’ve heard some schools save the official visit for the students’ senior year and have all the committed athletes do their official at the same time to meet their future teammates.
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They’ll work with your schedule. Typically they’ll have a few dates/weekends in mind where they try to fit most of the visits in. For those that can’t make those they can usually squeeze something in. But they’re working around their own schedule and those of current athletes (who host recruits) so the flexibility isn’t unlimited.
For XC, which I think is what you’re asking about, it can be a challenge to work around your HS schedule in the fall. A fair number of recruits hop on a plane after a Saturday race, returning on Tuesday. You are limited to 48 hours on campus but they can put recruits up at a local hotel to keep that clock from starting.
Typically a current team member will host a recruit and the recruit will get a chance to hang out with the team, attend a class or two if the visit overlaps with a weekday, run with team members, and explore the campus and area. If you need to get a specific workout in that your HS coach prescribes that’s usually no problem.
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Yes, specific day(s), which did seem to correspond with other sports from what I was told by my kid.
They will work with you. My S/D was playing multiple sports and worked hard to plan and also accommodate their HS fall sport schedule, and communicating with the HS coach (who still gave them a hard time).
If I remember correctly, you should know before hand, or by the end of the official visit if the coach will be offering a Likely Letter.
For one OV weekend that parents were invited and I went to, I do recall the coach having a meeting with the athletes, and then also the parents, at the end of the weekend and some of the recruits were told then that they were not being offered a Likely Letter. They would like to have them on the team, etc. but were on their own for admissions as they were not their top recruit. It was another parent that told me that as their S was told that at the closing coaches meeting.
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Our daughter is part of the “official visits” host at her Ivy school for her sport. Recruits come individually and tend to be at the beginning of a week. In Sunday and out Tuesday and in Tuesday and out Thursday. More visits vs spots - some recruits don’t make the cut after the visit, some decline the spot and some accept after the visit.
They wish visits were weekends to show more of the fun side - but coach ? or school ? not budging, as they want recruits to understand the academic side, attend numerous classes and participate in a typical full long day in the of life as a student athlete at this school.
If parents are there - she has never seen them! ! Her officials were all over Zoom due to Covid - so very different experience vs current recruits.
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Thank you all. Great insights as usual. A couple of follow up questions -
- When do these visits typically happen? First half of Sep, Second Half of Sep, First Half of Oct or later?
- How much importance is given to recruit’s performance [in XC races] in the weeks prior to the OV?
I agree that parents aren’t typically part of the OV, at least for track/XC. Maybe it’s happening occasionally but I think it’d be unusual.
As far as recruitparent’s mention of slot and likely letter offers and the timing of that: my memory of this for track/XC is that in most cases the coaches let the visits play out and then followed up a few days later to chat and talk about support. Some did confirm either before or during that they’d use a slot if the recruit wanted in but I wouldn’t say that was typical, or even really something that was part of the agenda for the visit.
It probably varies by coach, and with the coaching turnover those practices probably change over time too. My point is more that a recruit shouldn’t fret if there isn’t any offer of support during the visit. If there is, I usually advise kids to say they loved the program but want to take a few days to let things settle in and/or complete the rest of their visits.
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1- I’d expect the bulk of them to be in the mid Sept to mid-Oct range. A few of the schools start early enough that they can bring recruits in earlier in Sept. Cornell for example.
2- they can matter but in the general scheme of things won’t be a factor for the vast majority of recruits. If your hs program is the type that tempos through early season races it isn’t going to hurt you at all. If a coach is on the fence about a recruit those XC times might come into play. Honestly, chances are good that your son already has the marks he needs to have great options.
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It’s been a few years though I believe the Ivy OVs my D/S went over part of the weekend. I believe it included a Fri or a Mon to get the academics, or class perspective.
My D/S did all the planning so there may also been weekday OVs that did not meet their schedule.
The one that parents were invited to was part of a long weekend with Mon being a class day. This was probably an outlier by this particular coach that was very attentive and even visited homes on recruiting visits. I had planned to drive and get lost but hung around the area and campus a bit when I heard parents were invited. The kids were 90% on their own with 1-2 team type or open house type meetings that parents could go to plus a dinner that parents were at.
…as they want recruits to understand the academic side, attend numerous classes and participate in a typical full long day in the of life as a student athlete at this school…… Agree. That is the main and best benefit and use of a visit. For a high academic D1 non Ivy on the opposite coast, my D/S couldn’t fit in an OV so the coach set up a short visit for them which focused on academics, attending numerous classes and getting a feel for the campus life.
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Agree, that was the only time we ran into this and was most likely an outlier by the particular coach who probably wanted to include parents where they could that traveled with their kid. This coach was the type that liked to visit the home as well. My D/S didn’t end up at that school but did like the school and the coach very much. It came down to best academics and school fit.
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On my gosh, I forgot about home visits. If you ask our daughter she would say that was the only highlight of Covid recruiting - no home visits! We were told by parents that had been through the process before to expect home visits from certain coaches and while we thought that was good news - our daughter thought differently. Appears we are embarrassing and ask stupid questions 
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Asking for a friend. They live in Maryland (not sure if it matters). Their S is a decent XC/ Dist runner. Their S had reached out to multiple coaches over the winter and almost all of them [incl a couple of lower Ivies] had demonstarted interest in recruting him till the end of winter season (Feb/Mar '22). Their S picked up an injury and could not run in the Spring season. Majority of the coaches appeared to have moved on and/or hardly responded to his emails. A few said that they want to see him run XC season before they make a call on him.
His S has now recovered and is all set to run again in fall XC. He is wondering what are his options now.
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Is there a possibility to reach back out to some of the earlier coaches if he gets a strong start to XC season?
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Will the coaches have any interest and vacancy in their team in engaging a potential recruit in Oct?
3.What does it mean when a coach says that they want to see him run XC? Does it mean they will have a spot available if he were to prove that he is still as good or perhaps better than what he was in Feb/Mar?
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Yes, definitely reach out to the coaches he has already talked with, and if he really wants to run in college, cast an even wider net.
Only the coaches can answer these questions. Getting a fully supported slot will require competitive XC times and availability of spots.
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1-yes I’d reach out to all the coaches and see where those conversations go. Cast a wide net, don’t just focus on a single conference.
2-yes some will have interest as late as Oct. Most of the Ivy slots will be filling up by late Oct although I think sometimes some of the programs will add some recruits over the winter. Outside the Ivy League, quite a few programs/athletes make these decisions over the winter and spring. It’s not unusual for a runner to finalize a college decision after the state meet of senior year (a,though that’d be pretty unusual at Ivies).
3- they probably just want to see that he’s back to running at a similar level, but this is also a good and friendly way of saying let’s wait and see.
But the short answer is that a solid runner will find a good program even if he isn’t getting much interest until XC season ends. It just might not be in the Ivy League or at his first choice school, but he’ll have options.
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This was pre-covid and one of the Ivy coaches reached out and asked to visit us at our home.
One of the other Ivy coaches suggested parent/student visit and meet with them, in which they reviewed how the recruiting process worked at an Ivy. This was a school that we could easily drive too and this we in advance of any OVs.
…Appears we are embarrassing and ask stupid questions:… embarrassing our kids comes naturally for us parents. One of our kids who is very independent, wanted as little interaction with us and the school/coach as possible. Others we a little more open.
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When we finally met the coach this Spring at a regatta, he complimented my shoes. Of course, my daughter thinks my All Birds are lame…next regatta my husband and I plan to wear matching ones She gives us a lot to work with!!!
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What are the chances that a college coach would try reaching out to S’s school coach/s? We are not aware of any such connection so far but just wanted to understand whether that’s a possibility.
If yes, does the S need to prep the school coach prior to such connect?