<p>There is a streamlined process and it happens in Sept /Oct. I doubt these athletes are required to submit essays–having already been accepted but I don’t know for sure. The critical factor for the Intl athlete was the SAT. The schools wanted to make sure she could survive the academics. (She has).</p>
<p>Can’t speak for the Ivies, but once they have submitted paperwork to the NCAA Clearinghouse the apps are the same just either redirected of marked as athlete. If they are a blue chip athlete it’s practically rubber stamped. Typically just as with all students after signing the letter of intent, the scholarship is contingent on the student athlete maintaining grades, passing standardized test scores where applicable and not getting into trouble in the interim.</p>
<p>My son was sent an application marked “RECRUIT” and the name of the sport.
The coach (Ivy) got a pre-read during the summer and told my son that he had only had two instances in 30 years where an applicant/recruit rated as “very likely” in the summer did NOT get in during ED. That was reassuring. One of those instances was a case where the school principal had written to the Dean of Admissions and told him the applicant was a bad kid and not to take him! </p>
<p>The answer to the question about how much of a boost you get at the Ivies really varies from sport to sport, school to school and even coach to coach. Some coaches develop really strong relationships with admissions directors/reps and have a lot of luck getting kids in. Also, I was told a new coach that the school has gotten may be given some leeway to build up the team he wants and may get more kids in. </p>
<p>One Patriot League coach told us that he gets a very honest and definitive read on his recruit before they apply ED, and if the kid isn’t going to get in, the coach tells him so the kid doesn’t waste his ED shot.</p>
<p>Our experience was similar to MOWC’s S. Our S was handed an application at an unofficial visit in July after an exchange of verbal committments. He was told to fill out the application, write the essay (actually it was 2 essays, but he was allowed to combine them into 1 … it was the Why this U essay), and send copies of report cards and SATs – which had better match the official ones sent later. Coach walked the folder over to admissions – and three weeks later we had a verbal acceptance. At that point, he was given another application to copy the first onto along with a special colored envelope to mail all his stuff to the school.</p>
<p>The likely letter arrived before Thanksgiving; official ED acceptance followed.</p>
<p>He’s a D1 athlete at an Ivy and “living the dream!!!”</p>
<p>cnp55: revenue sport? (Is there such a thing at an ivy as a revenue sport?)</p>
<p>My twin Ss are going throught his process right now in a non-rev sport (duh, fenicng). Some coaches seem very interested - some non-committal. Hard on their egos since here at home they are big fish in a tiny pond. </p>
<p>Still, my D, who is just a year behind, is already being “romanced” by some of the coaches and her skills are nowhere near those of her brother’s. Thanks to Title IX, she’ll have many more choices if she wants to go the Div1 route.</p>
<p>One of the things I am concerned about for scholar/athletes is the workload for Div1 athletics. This year, my Ss take 16 credits at two local Us (no baby coursework - physics, adv. Calc, Arg & Research, General Psych [well, this one might be a baby course], Hist of Western Civ), plus they have a 1/2 high school load . they are swamped! How will they handle Div1 athletics in addition to all their school work? ouch</p>
<p>Most Ivy schools have a couple of sports they tend to emphasize and that’s where the best advantages come. For Penn and Princeton it’s basketball. Cornell and harvard ice hockey, Brown crew. Yale football.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This should be of serious concern. D1 athletes are virtually “owned” by their coaches/sport. There is not a whole lot of time left in the day for a D1 athlete after classes, practice/games, homework and and the extra sleep needed. Their course selection can be limited by mandatory practice schedules. While there may be a little less pressure at the Ivies because after all, all Ivy athletes are volunteers, the D1 scholarship athletes are under extreme contractual pressure to perform 6 days a week and maintain their grades. </p>
<p>I once told my D that I thought her D1 scholarship athlete former boyfriend was too one-dimensional for her. All he seemed to do was practice/compete, study and sleep. Now that my D is a D1 athlete, I understand why this happens.</p>
<p>Don’t forget eating! Eating is very important to the athlete!</p>
<p>I will say that in the fall (for a spring sport) the coach is working the practice schedule around the team’s collective class schedules. In the spring, in season, the team is expected to finish their academic committments by 4 pm, although my S had an evening class last spring and it wasn’t a problem.</p>
<p>A D1 coach that spoke to our lacrosse group a few years ago said there was a tripod of things that every student needed to balance – academics athletics, and social life – and that most students could only make two a priority and the third was an extra.</p>
<p>i would agree that one of those three has to suffer. for my son, it was all athletics and academics. the time commitment for his sport was huge–not only in season, but in the winter and spring as well. it became such an issue, that he chose not to participate in the sport this fall. he figures he will have 4-6 extra hours a day for academics. or whatever…</p>
<p>It really depends on the sport. Although every D I sport is time consuming some have seasons that span more than one semester/quarter. When the travel and missed classes span two semesters, it can hurt their grades a bit more. Athletes are busy and don’t have a lot of extra time, but there is enough time to get their degree. (Not any degree mind you; it is next to impossible to get a degree in a field with 20 jours of weekly labs, for example.) A lot of athletes go to summer school so they can take a lighter load during their season of sport and miss fewer classes as a result. I think my son will try to take as much as possible during summer because there is nothing to get in his way of studying with the exception of voluntary conditioning/training. I think most D I athletes are having the time of their lives, socially and otherwise. It’s hard work, but a great experience. I highly recommend it to any kid who has the passion for it.</p>
<p>It’s the time commitment that is the killer. 3-4 hours each day training does leave very time for a social life or activities outside academics. Most kids out of high school do not realize this and are quite shocked by it. That is why I always tell parents who ask about how a kid can get recruited that you should not wish for it unless the child is really committed. Using athletic recruiting as an admission tool without commitment is crazy!</p>
<p>throughout high school my d’s sport IS her social life. Part of her decision to pursue a college athletic career stems from this experience. Realistic?</p>
<p>At my son’s school, his social life revolves around the athletics. The teammates are his roommates and his best buddies. That’s why an 'official visit" is important to meet the team and absorb the chemistry of the group. Also junior days are important – gauge the feel of the team and the coach and see if it’s a program she wants to pursue. </p>
<p>(A short aside: my son has been sports obsessed since he could walk. Seriously. At 10 months he was dunking basketballs in the toddler hoop. As a preschooler he didn’t just have an imaginary friend … it was a whole imaginary team. He worked very hard from about second grade to get where he is athletically – it’s not something we could push, it’s all self motivation. And the lure of a top team that needed excellent academic stats was the motivation he needed to sit down and study and achieve the academic stats necessary to play for his dream team. When I talk to the parents of other kids on his college team – their sons are the same way. This was not true of his high school teammates. The upshot is that the kid has to really really want this particular sort of college experience. We’re very lucky that it happened for our son.)</p>
<p>cnp55, thanks for the post.</p>
<p>I have this kid, too, only in female form. She will never see participating in her sport as a sacrifice, but rather, as the best part of her day. She has rarely chosen typical HS activities like dating, “hanging out”, going to movies, and so on. Between studying and practice her day is full. However, she DOES have a social life: study groups at coffee houses and working out with her training buddies (male and female), some of whom share her twin goals in academics and sport. The student/athlete path is an interesting one, and, as you say, the choice and drive to do it come from the child.</p>
<p>D is in the recruiting process now, and also feels like the luckiest kid on earth. Having watched her work so hard for so long, I can say luck was only a little part of it. </p>
<p>Thanks for encouragement to take the visits. It is so hard to fit these in right now because we live far from the schools she wants to go to, and her sport is in mid-season. You are right that she needs to EXPERIENCE the team dynamic before commiting, not just hear about it from the coach over the phone.</p>
<p>Again, I appreciate your input.</p>
<p>I will chime in as well that there is no way to gauge that team dynamic without a visit, hard as it may be. Our athlete pulled off a big trip junior year for unofficial visits (flying coast to coast) to catch teams in action. Quite an eye opener in one case. Sitting behind the team, the whole experience just felt “off”. Maybe the team and coach were having a bad night at the same time, but that was the end of that! Everything felt wrong, sounded wrong…bad vibes all the way around.</p>
<p>Early going still, but the team does represent quite a bit of the social life; some of it “required”, some of it because the new crop of first years really seem to like each other! Lots of bonding with other athletes as well, which is par for the course with this one. This ready made “family” has made the transition to college SO much easier, from a parent perspective. Fingers crossed, this honey moon phase lasts a very long time!</p>
<p>My D, a recruited athlete and top student in her high school class, is at her dream school (an Ivy), but not as happy as she thought she would be. She’s been playing her sport since she was 6 and has competed throughout the summers for the past 5 years. She knew going into this that the sport would be time consuming, but feels like she has no time to breathe and it’s taking over her life. In addition to the practice time, she has also hosted three recruits in her first month there. Her sport is played in both the Fall and Spring, so she really doesn’t get much of a break from it at all. It doesn’t help that she has a horrible, inconsiderate roommate (a non athlete). She tried to get a room switch but the college won’t allow it. So she dreads going to practice and dreads returning to her dorm room. It’s been quite an adjustment for her.</p>
<p>can you share which school she attends? your post is scaring me, since my d sounds like your d one year ago…</p>
<p>The recruit hosting can be a lot. At D’s school, freshmen only are asked to host once in the fall, so that they can get adjusted.</p>
<p>TLR - sorry to hear your D is having a rough adjustment. How supportive is the team? I would have thought an Ivy coach would be pretty careful about this kind of thing, since nothing stops the recruit from leaving the team if she is not happy.</p>
<p>I would second the other voices here about how wonderful the team thing can be when it works for a freshman adjusting to a new environment. And how important the official was for judging that in advance.</p>
<p>blood pressure dropping. thanks Kate</p>
<p>I think thelongroad’s daughter is at Yale.</p>