For a rising senior (daughter) being recruited by an Ivy in cross country and track and field, I am not sure of the order and timing of things. We are being told that the Official Visit will likely be September. I have seen posts here saying people received their likely letters in November, but the ED date is Nov. 1. So must one apply before they get their likely letter? That would seem defeat the purpose of the likely letter.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
In Harvard’s case, the earliest LL are given out on October 1 although the scea deadline for the non athlete is November. To be considered for the first wave of LL, the application had to be completed and sent in, along with all the LoRs and on campus interview one wk before the first LL admission committee meeting, which was September 26 this year. Then the committee decisions if they decide to admit the student athlete are sent via email on October 1. Even though this year it landed on a Sunday, the notice was still sent out that day. Hope that helps.
First, no Ivy has ED1. It’s either ED or SCEA.
But to answer your basic question, and this may vary slightly by sport and college, but in general, OVs are in September, and the athlete submits the completed application by the end of September, which yes, is in advance of the due date. LL can start going out on 10/1 (not earlier, but can be later, depending on both the college and when the application is sent). No LL will be issued (or at least should not be issued) without a completed application.
^what he/she said pretty much. I just would caution you not to read too much into the timing that is reported by others. First, my own experience tells me that there is some variation between how different schools operate even within the same sport in the same recruiting cycle. Then layer that on top of the fact that each individual coach is going to have his or her own relationship with each AD’s office which sometimes changes cycle to cycle, and I think it is dangerous to develop a pre conceived idea of how things will fall in your particular circumstance. As an example of what I mean, when my son went through the process a couple years ago, his application packet was “due” on September 15, his OV was in December and his likely letter came in November. In the grand scheme of things that is not all that different then what is laid out by @skieurope and @noanswers. But when you are in the midst of the craziness sometimes these little details will drive you nuts, if you let them.
As always, the very best information will come from the recruiting coach.
A full application does need to be submitted to be eligible for a LL.
The benefit of being asked to submit your application for the first LL deadline (Sept 15th), is that if there is a problem, you will know October 1st (well before the Nov 1 EA/ED deadline) so you can make alternative plans/explore other options.
If you submit your application on Nov 1 with the expectation of LL and for some reason it doesn’t happen, your recruitment options become severely limited.
With respect to the OV, this year will be interesting as OVs can now be taken as early as September of junior year.
However, as a rising senior, you have to decide if an OV will really affect your ultimate decision.
In our case, as most coaches wanted an answer before senior year began, we never took any OVs (but did do UVs during the summer).
However, the coach who we committed to in August, said he would pay for an OV later in the fall if we wanted one…
Under the Ivy Common Agreement, a LL (“probabilistic communication”) can only be issued after a full application packet is submitted absent “compelling reasons”.
Here is the relevant language
We were told if the coach was interested he’d invite the kid to an OV in September, and encourage a fully completed ASAP after that visit, so that when likely l letters can be issued starting October 1 everything would be ready for final review and the kid would get an answer back faster.
An athlete in my DD’s sport is posting her commitment to UPenn for 2019. I wonder if the ivy league has backed up the date based on new ncaa guidelines.
S’s sport has had commitments posted for months. Last I looked maybe 10-15, and I think only 2-3 at most were in July all the rest were before. They are all obviously contingent at this point, even with a positive preread.
When you post a commitment for an Ivy early you do get a nice letter from both the college and the Ivy League offices reminding you that only the school and not the coach can offer actual admission!
@MAandMEmom and @dadof4kids we saw this frequently with lacrosse and hockey.
In lacrosse, the Ivy recruits used to post ‘commitments’ along with those going to other D1 schools as sophomores and occasionally as freshmen. None of those recruits had been accepted (or even applied) to the schools . None of them had signed NLI. Now no one is allowed to commit or discuss recruiting until Sept 1 of junior year, but come Sept 1 there will be a ton of immediate committed recruits and those students will not have had pre-reads. It’s just how it is. The Ivies are competing with Duke and ND and the high ranked public schools (Maryland, UVA) for the best players.
The Ivies can’t wait to give commitments until after pre-reads or LL. Offers are made to juniors.
@crawdady the order (at least in my son’s experience in T&F) typically goes OV, application by ED deadline (Nov 1), then LL from admissions in December. The coach can give support for the athlete but it’s the admissions office who have the final say. My son’s recruiting timeline was a bit off/later and maybe unusual, but he didn’t apply ED; went RD with coach support and received his LL in January.
Have any of your kids been invited to an Ivy sport “open house day” ? We’ve been to one and going to another one and I just wanted to see how that worked out for your kid. The first one we went to had about 30-40 kids, split kind of evenly between male/female. The coach said they usually take in 11-14 kids of each gender and they are usually trying to fill their needs with a variety of kids in different events. After the info session and tour the coach met with their prospective athletes and said he’d definitely be in touch as the summer went on. My son has sent a thank you note and expressed interest and submitted all of his academic info. I’m guessing they probably wait until they get their OV night set in place before starting to offer visits. It just seems like a weird process.
I am friends with another family locally whose son will be playing on a smaller revenue producing sport which he has committed to since last year, and they don’t have an “open house” or anything, but he has already been invited for an interview with admissions which takes place soon.