<p>When do athletic recruits usually receive likely letters? Someone told me in late December, but was that when ED was offered?</p>
<p>I am pretty sure you could start receiving Likely Letters anytime after 1st October, to be followed by an official acceptance on the same schedule as the ED letters, or the same time as the spring acceptance letters for the ivies that don’t have ED (Princeton and Harvard, only, I think). There are others on this site who can correctly confirm or dispute this though!</p>
<p>Princeton does issue likely letters. The earliest they can be given is October 1. If you have a completed application the process takes between 2 - 5 weeks from submission (the closer to October 1 the quicker a decision can be made because of the influx of athlete apps later in the fall).</p>
<p>Several issues: (1) It has been asked and debated whether athletic apps need to have the same degree of “perfection” as regular apps. and (2) how to view the “bindingness” of an LL since Princeton only has RD (about April 1).</p>
<p>S was told by several athletes that they gave short shrift to their essays. We viewed those comments as the type made by young men who wanted to “casualize” and trivialize the process. (In essense who runs a marathon and then sits down 100 yards before the finish line?) S submitted a fully thought out application – essay included. We (including him) did not want to gamble his chance to attend his dream school on the bragging of already admitted athletes.</p>
<p>Since we had never gone through the LL process before, we (the parents) were worried all the way through the RD letter; S was never concerned. The RD came through; the financial aid was the same as first indicated during the LL process.</p>
<p>stemit: Did your son send in his application in September, and was then able to receive his LL before the end of October? How lovely to have had the process complete by then - an awesome situation to be in!
Also, I am just curious as to whether he verbally committed before or after he submitted his application, if at all. I have heard that your application won’t be processed through admissions with the goal of a LL (with full coach support and after having had a positive pre-read/“approval to recruit” from admissions) without the athlete having verbally stated his commitment to that particular school. As a result, then, would an ivy-recruited athlete have only filled out one complete application for one school? I am curious to your thoughts on that as you have experienced the whole process.<br>
Congratulations to your son!</p>
<p>mayhew, we’ve gone this route as well, but with a different Ivy. Early read of complete application in October, LL received before October 31st, admission (EA/ED in this case) on the same day as all other applicants in the early round. And just like stemit, I was worried sick, and D was convinced it was a done deal on receipt of the LL. She was right.</p>
<p>LL’s were offered by other school at the same time as the final choice was being offered. The coaches were very clear that accepting an LL was a verbal commitment by the athlete to attend once admitted. We interpreted this to mean one could not accept more than one. That would be like having two dates to prom. There are rare exceptions to this verbal commitment rule for the very, very best athletes.</p>
<p>With us, he did 3 Ivy official visits one weekend after the other beginning the weekend after Labor day (Princeton was at a disadvantage because the semester started after the other schools and was, therefore, last in line; it was also at a disadvantage because it had no ED/EA). Each visit culminated in very intense pressure for an immediate answer. (This is the way it must be because in baseball the IVYs recruits tend to overlap and its like a game of musical chairs. Coaches must get quick answers or be left out when the music stops.) He was able to stave off the pressure by blaming us for dragging our feet on the financial aid pre-read. </p>
<p>He quickly narrowed the choices to 2 (and told the coach at the other immediately so he could move on). We submitted financials, got the pre-read (after learning much during that intense week). This brought us to mid-October. He then made the decision, told all coaches, and submitted the application to P. His part of the application took a little over a week (our school had already finished the letter of recs and transcripts by the end of September) during which the coach and the academic advisor were always available this was towards the end of October. The next four weeks were really worrisome to us but not to him. For us, it got to the point that back-up plans were imagined but not for him. The LL came right before Thanksgiving not quick enough for us; but right along the timetable that the coach told us.</p>
<p>As for the verbal that is probably a matter of semantics. We all recognized that admissions had the final (really the only) say so we felt that he was more of a restricted free agent the final terms of whose contract was being negotiated. During the entire time, he continued to take calls from other schools, but told them where he stood. Most coaches said thanks and goodbye; a few gave him back up offers if any problem arose.</p>
<p>The long and short he submitted a single application to college. The RD wait was, as I said before, worrisome to the old folks - but not to him. (If there had been a disaster, in his case there were multiple athletic scholarship options with schools not in the IVYs which would have been just fine also.)</p>
<p>Without the offer of the LL, however, I would NEVER have been comfortable. During our search, MIT baseball (for example) told us that they had no control and told us horror stories of players who did not get in and were left twisting in the wind (that eliminated MIT). If he did not get an offer of a LL, and the LL itself, we would have submitted as many apps as non-athlete students.</p>
<p>^^^Thank you so much for this history - it is very appreciated! From threads and posts on this site, I do believe that a LL must be viewed the same as an ED letter - although I can only imagine the stress/fear of the unknown for the parents - ! </p>
<p>The pressure of the requested immediate answer from coaches during official visits must be quite something - especially for a teenager without his/her parents around. Hopefully coaches would respect the fact that the athlete may have another couple of official visits to make before giving a definite decision. Hard for the athlete as they want to make an educated final choice without missing an opportunity, and hard for the coach as they want to secure their roster ASAP…</p>
<p>^From what I’ve heard, for the most part the coaches have appeared to respect the fact that recruits have to fit in a number of officials and only have so many weekends. However, this pressure to commit is a good argument for scheduling all visits as early in September as possible and going on unofficials junior year if one has the time/means…</p>
<p>D staved off the pressure to commit by telling the coaches in advance that she would not make a final decision until after she had completed all her official visits. Every one of the schools in the final 5 had already passed inspection through research and unofficial visits, so what she learned during the OV was going to be the deciding factor. Each coach did call for input after the official, and she was honest about what she liked and what concerned her about each school. </p>
<p>Utlimately, she applied to only one Ivy (H) which does not have ED, and one non-Ivy. She got the impression from the H coach that she could submit the application any time beginning in August after junior year (they started asking her over the summer to work on the app.). However, she did not submit it until the very end of Oct. when all but one of her official visits had been completed. After about a week and a half, she received a phone call to say she’d been admitted, and then the LL arrived shortly after.</p>