<p>I was asked the following question in a PM. I'd like to see if there's a consensus of opinion from everyone.</p>
<p>
[quote]
DS was at (an Ivy) over the weekend for a tour and met with the assistant coach. The head coach is out of the country. </p>
<p>The assistant coach said that the head coach made all the recruiting decisions, and to email him and ask if he would support DS with admissions. </p>
<p>We just heard back that they were very impressed with DS's academics and although they could not offer full support that they would send a letter of recommendation to admissions.</p>
<p>Have you come across this type of scenario? What do you think it means?.. 1. Nothing 2. If DS is a borderline candidate..this would push him over to the acceptance side even in RD? 3. Does it increase his chance of acceptance?
<p>A great deal depends on the sport and the Ivy. In our experience some coaches have pull with Admissions that extends to students who aren’t offered recruiting spots and some have very little pull beyond their official spots. Every Ivy coach said that they had more influence in the ED round than in the RD round. I would be a little leery of the “letter of recommendation” wording. Some coaches will flag or personally walk over the application of an athlete they really want, but are not recruiting – if this is what “letter of recommendation” means then the coach probably has more influence. If it literally means including a letter in the athlete’s file, then that will probably be less influential. Bottom line, the athlete should ask the coach how much his/her recommendation will help – they can’t/won’t promise anything – but they can tell him or her whether or not the recommendation has yielded results in the past. The athlete should also ask specifically about RD and ED.</p>
<p>Once the admissions department has finished negotiations with a coach about likely letters, how sympathetic do you believe they would be to admitting a few more athletes who were not the coach’s top choices? Although some coaches have more influence than others, my opinion is that it would increase an applicant’s chances of acceptance but not enough to stop looking elsewhere. </p>
<p>There are some insightful comments on this topic in “The Ivy Recruiting Guide.”</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school. I would ask what percent of applicants with this sort of “recommendation” are accepted eventually.
Overall, I would not think it was worth much, except for an Adcom considering otherwise identical candidates, one with a “coaches recommend” and one without.</p>
<p>Oldbatesie, we had this situation come up during D’s recruiting and she asked that very question of the coach - here’s the exchange:</p>
<p>(D to Coach)
"…you mentioned you could write a recommendation letter to help back my application during the admissions process. I was wondering how much weight something like that carried with admissions, or in other words, roughly what percentage of student-athletes that you recommend get admitted? Also, do I understand correctly that the coach’s backing only applies for early action applicants?</p>
<p>(Coach reply)
"I will be backing your application with a recommendation letter. I cant give you a percentage of student athletes that get in based on this because I don’t know it. I do know that only a select few get to have a recommendation put along with their application. _______ is still a highly competitive institution that has its own guidelines for admittance. All we get to do is tell a bit more about you and let the School know that this person would be a benefit for our team.</p>
<p>…you are athletic and talented enough that I believe you would help out our team immediately. remember …I didn’t just pick your name out of a hat and start recruiting you. I am trying to get you here for a reason."</p>
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<p>My feeling is that the recommendation letter is a nice gesture. Maybe there’s a chance that this coach has a special place in the hearts of admissions and they want to give him an extra nod or two in addition to his LL allotment.
But chances are that the student will be evaluated just like any other applicant in the pool and should continue to pursue other options.</p>
<p>^^Yes–“chances are that the student will be evaluated just like any other applicant in the pool…”</p>
<p>The admissions departments of Ivies are under huge pressures these days regarding athletic recruit admits. I believe they want to hold as many places as they can for academic stars in order to quiet the faculty and community complaints. </p>
<p>If the athletic applicant has stellar academics and some other great ECs, s/he may not need the coach’s letter of support. If the academics are so-so, the lack of full recuiting support will definitely hurt their chances.</p>