I’ve been curious on this subject for a little while.
One kid at my school is really good at football and he has been receiving “offers” at Ivy League schools. From what I understand, Ivy League schools don’t have scholarship offers and you first have to be admitted before being recruited as an athlete.
My friend who’s being recruited has a pretty good academic record, but nothing Ivy League level. He hasn’t taken any AP classes (we have a lot at our school) and doesn’t do too much outside of football. I’m just curious as to how this process works and how he’s gotten “offers”.
Sounds like this student has received verbal offers to ‘commit to the process’ of becoming a student-athlete at an Ivy League school. This verbal commitment is not binding on either the student, or coach.
Before the coach made the verbal offer, it’s highly likely the student received a positive pre-read from an admissions staffer. The Ivy league uses an academic index (AI) which is 1/3 based on GPA, 2/3 test scores…and there are different ‘bands’ of acceptable ranges of AI. Coaches can only have X number of recruits in each band. Helmet sports often have the lowest AI average.
This student will have to apply in the earliest admission round at whatever Ivy they choose, and nothing is final until they receive their formal admission, from the admissions department. Students fall out of the process at every point along the way.
Ivy league schools do not offer athletic scholarships. They offer need-based aid only (there can be some small departmental merit awards).
Good summary above^. I’d just add that there’s a lot of variation across sports in process and language (offer isn’t used the same way in all sports) so if you want to understand how the process is going for your friend you should ask him.
I would agree with the advice above and would add that it is possible that the student received a “likely letter” from one or more of the Ivies. If you are truly interested in the subject, you can look up threads with those words. If an Ivy coach really wants an athlete, they can ask admissions to give the student a “pre-read” of even a partial application if a full one has not yet been submitted. If a LL is received it is tantamount to an “offer” of acceptance so long as everything submitted (scores, grades etc.) have been honestly represented and so long as grades and behavior do not deteriorate later. Each coach usually gets a number of these LLs to give out within the “bands” mentioned in a post above. The athletic director likely decides how many each sport will get. The league has some guidelines so that no school can give out more LLs than others in the league and therefore dominate all sports. The AD’s control of the allocation of these LLs allows them to decide which sports the school will focus more or less on. Football will always get the most LLs. This is the only way that they can recruit a football team where the players would otherwise be accepting athletic scholarship offers from schools that give them. The student athlete can also be working with the FA office to see what kind of aid they will qualify for, but that aid is financial based and not athletic based. This was true a couple years ago when last I delved into this subject.
Likely letters only go out after the student has applied. Never before an application has been submitted.
Student can ask for a financial aid pre-read at most Ivy League schools, at the same time the coach is doing the admissions pre-read. Admissions pre-reads happen before a coach offers the athlete a spot, so before an athlete has 'committed to the process".