My daughter is finishing her official visits (OV) as a crew recruit this weekend. She was told at her third OV last week (her first choice school) that the recruiting team would like to support her application but that only the admissions office can send offers. They said she needs to complete her application and that they attach something called a “likely letter” to this. Can anyone shed light on exactly what this is? Also, does it mean that there’s say, a 99 percent chance she’ll be admitted unless she does something illegal or patently unethical or flunks out of high school?
Congrats to your daughter! Generally, once an athlete has committed to an Ivy coach and the coach has promised to support the application, the athlete submits the full application. The admissions office will review the full application and send a “likely letter” to the athlete (the process and timing of this can vary by school and program, but typically within a few weeks of applying). The likely letter will say, essentially, when we send out acceptances in December, you’ll receive one.
The likely letter is essentially the same as a letter of admission. It’s just that the Ivy agreement does not allow any member school to send an official letter of admission prior to mid-December. But they are allowed to send a likely letter saying they’ll send another letter.
Yes, the same things that would derail a regular admission could derail admission after a likely letter. But the likely letter is rock solid. I’d say it’s as close to 100% as an actual letter of admission. The Ivy rules state that likely letters have the same effect as letters of admission.
Agree with the above, adding if she does ‘commit to the process’ she should inform the other two coaches where she had OVs (and any other coaches still recruiting her) that she has committed to a school.
Congratulations and good luck.
The only thing I find odd about this is that the likely letter is not “attached” to an application by the team, but I would chalk that up to a miscommunication or misunderstanding – or, now that I think more about it [edit] the team might well ask that one be sent. In any event, the “real” likely letter comes from the school to the applicant. And, yes, it is essentially an acceptance letter. Congrats. Row on!
Some do want to apply to several schools and receive likely letters from several so they don’t commit before applying and therefore don’t inform the coach.
Yep, but risky business for sure. Also risky if said applicant applied to a disallowed combination of ED and/or restricted early action admission rounds.
Edited to add: if I were an IVY coach and I saw a recruited athlete’s app come in with RD checked (unless of course we are talking such timing where early round deadlines have passed), I would immediately be suspicious.
^ Yeah, I would caution against taking the risk. Practically speaking, I’m not sure why anyone would want to do this at an an Ivy. Athletes have the opportunity to get academic and FA pre-reads, followed by OVs, at schools of interest. There’s really no need to delay deciding on a first choice (and most coaches will want the commitment prior to supporting an app).
ETA: regarding “attaching the likely letter” to the app, I agree with Abouthesame that it’s probably a misunderstanding of what the coach said. At some schools or programs the coach or AD does submit a letter indicating support to the admissions office, but that’s different from the likely letter the admissions office sends out to the applicant. Easy for a recruit to jumble those together in the memory.
I hope my daughter did the right thing yesterday. After committing to one Ivy as an official recruit, she called the second Ivy that wanted her and withdrew. This seems risky but the second coach said he needed to know her decision ASAP because he had others waiting further down on the list. Being married to a neurotic lawyer from New York for more than a quarter century rubs off on you so I can’t help but wonder now if the first school might not accept her (the coach said the official offer has to come from admissions and that they don’t review her application until Oct 15). If that happens she has lost her spot at the second ivy. Thoughts?
Thanks! I hope my daughter did the right thing by withdrawing from the other 3 schools where she had offers to row for the team. Her second choice school is also an ivy. That coach said he had other girls on the list so he needed to know and my daughter felt like she owed him the truth. However, what if her first choice school now denies her admission? Then she’s lost the spot at the second school. Maybe this rarely to never happens because her first choice school had already gotten a preapproval from admissions.
She had no choice but to be honest with the second coach when he said he needed a decision.
If she doesn’t get accepted by her #1 choice, the #2 choice is likely dead because the coach moved on and offered slots to other recruits…but across all the recruits and applicants things happen, and there is continued movement even into the winter and spring.
Has she submitted her app to her #1 school yet?
Assuming your daughter passed the preread with the first Ivy (would be shocked that the coach would offer her a spot without first getting one), there is very little risk that your D will not be accepted. To not get accepted, she would need to submit a really terrible app, do something terrible academically or socially or have submitted false or misleading documents as part of the preread. Congrats to your D!
Yes, she was right to tell the other coaches of her commitment. It’ll be a nervous few weeks waiting for the likely letter no matter what we tell you. But with coach support she’s in good shape.
Thank you. My daughter will hopefully be able to submit her application to her top choice school on Oct 15. I say hopefully because it is an inner city school with a lot of disorganization. The outstanding thing is a high school counselor recommendation. This might be straightforward at a private school but at her over-enrolled public school the overworked counselor said she needed 3 weeks and my daughter was only able to give 2. Fortunately, she is resourceful so I’m sure she’ll find a way but she will have many more doors to knock on and people to talk to to make it happen.
This is a common challenge for recruited athletes applying early. I’d suggest that your daughter let the GC know that this is not a typical EA/ED application (where an extra few weeks wouldn’t be a big deal). It will still go through the typical admissions review, but that will start Oct 15 (according to the coach) if the application is complete and a decision will be made and communicated to her within a week or two. The reason that last part is important is that if something goes wrong with this school, your daughter might learn this before other ED deadlines and NLI early signing, so would have time to quickly explore other opportunities.
To be clear, nothing is going to go wrong at this school. But it’d be good for the GC to know that there are good reasons to expedite things if she is able. Your daughter might also let her know that this early timeframe came as a surprise to her; otherwise she’d have given more notice. Ultimately these GCs are overworked and can only do so much, but it’s good for them to understand the process so they can prioritize appropriately.
I can’t imagine a GC being unwilling to go above and beyond to help a student get into an elite school. Also, the benefit to the GC is that this student is ‘one and done’ and thus the GC is also done with this student.
Of course, ask nicely.
Not the original poster but new to this process and intrigued by your comment “across all the recruits and applicants things happen, and there is continued movement even into the winter and spring.” My athlete has committed to a D3 school and the coach is not requiring ED, just EA. If one of the Ivys that showed interest but did not give a firm offer happens to come knocking later, what is the general consensus of the ethics of withdrawing the verbal comittment, perhaps even after receiving EA admission?
Different people/families will feel differently re: the ethics of breaking a commitment.
But, yes, a not-insignificant number of students de-commit (voluntarily or involuntarily), change their minds, take better offers, or don’t ultimately get accepted.
Contrary to what is often espoused, even here on CC, many DIII slots are not fully distributed by ED or EA (nor scholarships at DI/DII levels)…of course coaches want things to be settled sooner rather than later, but it often just doesn’t work out that way.
As for the OP though, a likely letter is basically an early write and something would have to go off the rails (and it sometimes does!) for an acceptance to not happen after receiving an LL.
My daughter is resourceful so she was able to find someone else (the woman in charge of Title IX and community relations for athletics) to nudge her guidance counselor. My daughter is white in a predominantly African American school. She wasn’t rude in her first request but there is plenty of evidence of entitlement on the part of white students so I can understand the first counselor’s reluctance to make her a higher priority. Regardless, it’s worked out I think.
A verbal commitment is just that - not a contract on either side. The coach hasn’t agreed to give you a spot on the team or playing time, just agreed to help you get into the school.
Kids do change all the time, some even after they attend the school for a year. There is an entire system set up for transferring.
The ivy league admissions offices can do what is known as an academic ‘pre-read’. This means that the admissions officer does a quick review of the application (scores, transcript, reccs, essays) and gives an indication to the coach on admissability. They can’t make a firm determination on likely letter status until the full application is reviewed.
But take some time with the finer points of the application: especially essays. Make sure someone proofreads it. They just want to make sure she can write at the college level.
Assuming everything else is fine (guidance counselor letter, transcript, etc), she should get a likely letter. As others point out, this is as good as gold. Just warn your daughter on the things that can cause her offer to be withdrawn: disciplinary problems, drop in grades, etc. Also google the recent incident about Harvard and the rescinding of kids who posted racist memes.
But once you get the letter, sit back with a glass of champagne and enjoy. Well done!