I have a quick question regards to college sports for the Ivies: can I still possibly be recruited or receive a “likely letter” if I contact the coaches right now (hypothetically assuming that they’ll be interested in me once we start conversing)? My AI is well above the average so no problem there. I’m assuming that I’m probably going to have to email the Ivy coaches first, but what usually happens next for those who have went through this process? I’m currently a senior who applied already so I don’t know if that will make a difference or not… Thanks.
try posting in the http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/ My guess is you are 6 mos to a year too late
Talk to your coach… but I think it’s too late to be “recruited.” Doesn’t mean that there is no chance though. Your coach should know.
@mikemac Thanks for the notice; I posted in there as well.
@phoenixmomof2 Is being recruited the same thing as receiving a likely letter for the Ivies? Because I heard that likely letters may start coming out in less than a month and I haven’t even registered with NCAA yet, so at this point I’m just trying to figure out if it’s too late.
I think it’s safe to say that it’s too late.
I can’t speak from first hand knowledge… but it is my understanding that likely letters have absolutely nothing to do with recruitment. Some students receive likely letters because they are likely admits based on their applications. I think it’s a way to keep students interested and excited about their school.
Sports recruitment is a process that takes place throughout high school. I know kids who verbally commit to school before they start their junior year of HS.
Being recruited happens way before applications are submitted. My D had a friend that was recruited and she knew where she was going in her sophomore year. I believe most recruiting happens junior year. If you are a senior and you haven’t been contacted by college coaches looking to recruit you yet, it isn’t happening.
Recruiting is what coaches do when they are building their teams. Likely letters are something that admissions does at some schools and one has nothing to do with the other.
If you are interested in playing soccer in college you could try out for the team as a walk on, and of course there are intramurals.
@me29034 I was just wondering if there was any way at this point to possibly use my soccer abilities to boost my chances into getting into an Ivy, such as is there any other way for student athletes to be admitted to a certain school not through the traditional recruiting way (and not the walk on way either since you’re going to have to be admitted first anyways)?
@peanutbutteryay Maybe if you had started last year, you could have contacted the coaches at schools you were interested in to let them know you were available, but its way too late now.
I think the recruiting process has probably been completed for your year.
For girls, recruiting for roster spots at Ivy league schools has been finished for probably more than a year. For guys, most roster spot decisions were likely made by end of spring '15 club season. At least on the men’s side, we looked at the rosters of some top schools – even at Yale, which does not have a very highly ranked soccer program, the team is largely made up of State Championship high school and club players, players who were All State multiple years etc. It is no walk in the park to play D1 soccer.
I know some spots in Ivy men’s soccer have been filled as late as the last 2 weeks.
So it’s probably still technically possible.
It’s incorrect to say that Likely Letters (LLs) have nothing to do with recruiting at some colleges. The Ivies use them as a firm commitment to the students, who are being courted by other programs. This is a “work around” since by Ivy +M agreement, the 9 schools only make firm offers for EA/ED and then in late March. Most other colleges admit throughout and thus it can be an advantage over Ivy + M. The use of LLs counters that to a degree. The ivies also use LLs to target other non-athletes as well but they receive far fewer than athletes do.
@T26E4 Who is the + M? I know about the Ivy Agreement among the 8 ivy league schools but I’ve never heard of the 9th member and google is failing me.
Ivy + MIT. They do a lot together in cooperation. I thought the coordination about admit slots included MIT. It may only be loose Fin Aid guidelines. My memory fails me…
MIT is division 3 though…?
I also can’t find any evidence that MIT is part of the ivy agreement unless you’re referring to this: http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/23/us/ivy-universities-deny-price-fixing-but-agree-to-avoid-it-in-the-future.html and http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/03/us/mit-ruled-guilty-in-antitrust-case.html
If Ivy spots were being filled within the last few weeks, that is almost certainly the result of more than 6+ months of communication, video, camps, watching a player at tournaments, etc. With SCEA and ED decisions coming out a few months ago, there was likely some musical chairs going on among D1 programs, with the result that some players wound up somewhere other than where they thought they were going. But I don’t think it would be fair to suggest to a student that there was still a real window of opportunity for Ivy recruiting. There may well be those diamonds in the rough who did not have access to the ordinary recruiting channels, but for a kid who plays high school, club etc. and has not been pursued before, it is not likely to happen at the Ivy level now.
I couldn’t find anything recent either. In the past, there was some sort of coordination attempted beyond the Joint Ivy agreement on admissions offer dates. And I thought that effort included MIT and in articles, it’d be called “Ivy + M”. (it didn’t have to do with sports)… I suppose this no longer exists.
To the OP: sorry to threadjack. I agree w/the others. The level of soccer play at the Ivies is very high.
You might still have a chance. I’m no expert, but a senior in my class was just recruited to Cornell men’s soccer during his senior varsity season.
My guess that while it’s unlikely, it’s still possible. Perhaps you might be able to be a walk-on if you’re not recruited, but that depends on the program and sport.