Do you mean April of Jr year? I see several Ivy commitments early Jr year but that seems so early… I am a little confused on the time line for these things (OV, pre-reads, etc). Could you clarify the process from a timing stand point? @dadof4kids feel free to offer your insight too.
Ivy League schools cannot do official pre-reads before the July going into Senior year. Coaches have a decent feel for what it takes, and sometimes go out on a limb. Any student who commits Jr year does so without an official pre-read.
OVs used to only be allowed in the senior year, but now can be taken in the junior year. Some (at least 1) of the Ivy League track programs are taking advantage of Jr year visits, some (at least 1) are not.
When my son went through this, prereads happened in July, but I am not sure my son ever got an official thumbs up. Visits were palnned in August. Visits occured in Sept and early October. Committed mid October, aplied by Nov 1. Likely letter recieved maybe 3rd week in November.
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It also varies a lot by sport. @LurkerJoe ’s description of the timeline for track/XC fits with my experience. Those recruits can start contacting coaches late spring of junior year and be okay. It’s different in other sports (although the formal Ivy League rules are the same).
Big no-no for the Ivy’s to offer any definitive commitment prior to the official application process, so there isn’t any such thing as a ‘commitment’ in jr year. Maybe a strong we like you, but even then they seem to be super careful.
I think it’s usually the athletes posting commitments. Usually “committed to the process” based on finalizing a choice and a coach promise of support.
There’s pressure to do this in some sports/clubs/schools on whatever timeline is common for the sport.
For all the athletes I know it was as much about stopping the noise as anything else.
Personally I’d feel more comfortable with a LL in hand and the timeline for track/XC does usually allow for that. If my kids were involved in sports where those announcements happen earlier though, I’d probably just go with it as long as the recruit understood what it meant (and my experience is that those in the know do understand what is being communicated with an early Ivy “commitment”).
Student athletes are told to use the term “committed to the application process” when they commit to apply. Until they submit an early decision or restricted early action application, they haven’t made a commitment beyond their word. Strictly speaking, the school makes no commitment until Admissions sends the likely letter, which only comes after a full application is reviewed. There is a stressful gap between applying and the likely letter arriving where you just have to trust to coach’s support.
Different sports and different schools seem to encourage announcements at different times. Both my son and his coach were happy to have him wait for the likely letter before announcing to the public. He didn’t even tell his grandparents where he committed to until he got the likely letter. However, there was a student athlete from his HS who is a year younger who announced for a different sport at the same university fairly early in junior year.
It’s always the athlete (or parent or coach).
As noted, the student does not always adhere to the terminology.
But despite some athletes posting to the contrary, there is no firm commitment on either side for any junior (or sophomore or freshman). And when they further add that they have committed with a full ride, one can roll their eyes even more.
Admissions makes the decisions, not coaches. And nothing is firmly decided until that Likely Letter comes out in October.
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Thank you for this. My D '24 soccer player saw a few Ivy soccer commits this summer (before junior year) and started to panic.
Good input as usual. It’s interesting how even today there is still a fair amount of confusion above Ivy League recruiting and athletes committing early.
When we first went thru this we did not have Coll Con to draw on for good input and advice so it was new and a bit confusing, though in the end, the coaches were all fairly clear on what the actual process was. Even the non-Ivy coaches.
Most of the misinformation out there seems to come from parents, or perhaps travel coaches in some sports that are promoting and recruiting for their program.
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The Ivy League schools absolutely have their list of most likely recruits for 24’s by now. No, technically there is no commitment but also yes, it would take a break out season to get onto an Ivy list for a 24 right now. Ivys are focused now on the class of 24 and are also looking at 25,26 kids already.
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@one1ofeach – did you mean to say Ivey’s absolutely have their 23 lists by now? suggesting that Iveys already have their lists for kids (2024s) whose junior years are just starting seems incorrect to me.
The timeline for team sports is much earlier than that for TR/XC.
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Recruiting is stressful - it would really help if posters indicated the sport.
Our child is an official visit chaperone for CREW at her school (Ivy) and she won’t get a list from the coach to start making intro calls until early September (coach would have done invite) to talk about OVs and if like last year, there will late add-ons into mid October.
She will unofficially meet HS class of 24 and 25 to just say hello at Head of the Charles and hopefully get them excited about her school program vs the others. That is how it started for her in 2019 and she came home with stars in her eyes 
Class of 23 in our understanding (and experience) is still in play until OV’s happen.
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For crew, does your D’s school do OVs for juniors (so this fall for 2024s)?
oops - fixed my mistake. Only class of 2023 !!!
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Ha! Wasn’t trying to point a mistake, as OVs can happen for women’s crew starting Aug 1 before junior year…just was curious if any Ivies tend do that or not for womens’ crew. Some sports definitely move earlier than others!
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I don’t know if anyone getting an OV jr year for women’s crew - interesting - but my knowledge is limited to our daughters experience and that of her friends.
My daughter was invited to pay your own way and parents too for a getting to know you weekend jr year February/early March at one Ivy and one top D1 program - the DI happened and the Ivy was cancelled at start of Covid. Big invite list - D1 included tours, meet 1-1 with admission advisor, school sporting event and dinner (paid by athlete) on campus - memory a bit foggy, as my spouse attended.
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The timing will vary a lot from sport to sport, and even from program-to-program.
I wouldn’t get caught up on the semantics about whether an offer is an offer. Technically none of them are in the Ivy League or for the high academic D3‘s, because none of those coaches can technically offer anyone a spot. They are just offering their support.
Having said that, for all practical purposes it’s the same thing. That offer of support is more solid after a preread, but most of those coaches can tell with most kids whether there will be an issue or not. And the bigger risk to a sophomore offer falling through in probably that they don’t continue to get the same grades in the more difficult classes, not that they didn’t appear to be on track as a sophomore to getting an easy approval from admissions.
Sometimes coaches tell kids they are on the fence and need to do XYZ. Those probably are mostly not getting reported reported as offers because the kids know that they may fall through.
I guess my point is that there are definitely offers in some sports being made and accepted well before fall of senior year. All offers especially in the Ivy League are subject to academic performance continuing at the same level. My son committed in spring of his junior year, and the class was already half full. I’m pretty sure all of those guys that committed before him ended up coming to campus.
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@TonyGrace I was on my phone when I did the last answer. I think you probably have figured this out, but to more directly answer your questions:
No one who is getting an offer before the summer between junior and senior years has had an official preread. Having said that, with few exceptions a coach can look for themselves at the transcript and scores and know if admissions is going to come back with green/yellow/red. Also for some of the top recruits, they can dip a bit deeper, so they know that they have some cushion for that top echelon of the class, and that is typically who is “committing” early. My understanding is that most coaches have 2 sets of standards to worry about. A floor and an average. No one can be below the floor, and the team has to hit some average. As one coach explained it to me, “a freshman starter can have a 27 ACT (probably his floor), but a guy who may never leave the practice room needs at least a 34. The rest of my recruits usually slot somewhere in-between (probably so he can hit his average of 30-31, or whatever it is).” I only used the quotes on “committing” because it isn’t technically binding on anyone, but if the coach is accurate on their unofficial pre-preread it’s as solid as an offer at Iowa State (or whatever other random school you insert here). It still can be pulled by the coach, and even at Iowa State, etc. if there is a big issue admissions can override a coach.
I think the majority of OV’s are still seniors, although some juniors are taking them. From my limited anecdotal experience, the juniors tend to be either superstars, or kids on the cusp but not quite there, so a coach is trying to lock them down early (maybe a wrestler who has potential to be a Cornell recruit, but is currently more likely a Harvard recruit). I guess that’s probably meaningless to most people. A better example may be a smart football recruit who is currently recruited by Harvard, but if he has a breakout season could end up at Alabama. In that case, it benefits Harvard to try to lock him down before he lands on Nick Saban’s radar. Also I have no idea if that really happens that way in football, football especially D1 operates in it’s own universe. But it’s an example most people can relate to. You probably have no idea that Cornell is a D1 wrestling powerhouse and Harvard is mediocre in the Ivy league and low D1 overall. Likewise I have no clue who is a perennial powerhouse in track, and who is consistently awful, year after year.
OV’s happening in junior or senior year is also probably very sport dependent.
Is it wrestling that you have experience with?