<p>Hi,
I am a senior who runs track and I currently being recruited at couple Ivy schools.</p>
<p>I went to an official visit last weekend to my first choice school
and I asked the coach that if he could support me with an likely letter
and he said he will be able to tell me if he could or not next week, which is this week.
The coach who was recruiting me kind of gave me a hint that he will be able to support me with an likely letter.
So, I was wondering, if he says yes, he will give me a likely letter, do I get a actual physical letter?
Or is it just a verbal thing.
Should I ask him for a physical letter?</p>
<p>The coach will say something like this: I want you, submit your completed app to admissions and I’ll ask admissions to issue the LL. If the special committee set up to review athletes apps says “ok” to the completed app (a process which may take a couple of weeks), admissions will issue the LL. It then takes a week (it will seem like a year) to actually get the letter to you. The coach, however, will know when the committee has ruled and will call you (so you stop recruiting while you await the letter).</p>
<p>After that, you’re done. Don’t get arrested, have your grades radically drop, etc., and you’re home free.</p>
<p>^Exactly. The only (small) variation in our case was that admissions called D directly to let her know the positive outcome of the LL meeting - D then called coach to tell him the good news.</p>
<p>(Really agree that the time spent waiting for the admissions decision is agonizing)</p>
<p>Thank you all you guys!!
So if my coach tells me that he will be supporting me with a likely letter,
should I ask him if I could get something that states he will be supporting me a likely letter?
And if the coach tells me he will support me with a likely letter, does it mean I am guarantee that I will be admitted to that school?</p>
<p>“And if the coach tells me he will support me with a likely letter, does it mean I am guarantee that I will be admitted to that school?”</p>
<p>No, it’s not a guarantee. Only admissions can admit you to the school. That said, if a coach is willing to support you, it’s a positive sign. I would ask the coach the date the admissions committee is reviewing your application. That will give you an idea of how long you will have to wait. And yes, as Varska said, the wait is agonizing.</p>
<p>Before committing I would ask the coach if admissions has already seen your academic stats/ECs and preliminary cleared you for admission. Most probably this was done before inviting you for OV but it never hurts to double-check. You can also ask how coach sees you academic index and where it stands relative to the average for his team and other recent recruits. Basically you are trying to gauge if you are a marginal academic recruit and the amount of risk involved. When you commit to EA/ED slot and wait for your LL you will probably have to inform other schools that recruit you and they may give your spot away. But do not play games - coaches talk, current recruits talk and current team members talk too - it is a very small world.</p>
<p>I’d just add to 3 on Sherpa’s good list: and coach notifies athlete that he/she has done so. And for 4: he coach may be the first one after the days have slowly passed by, to let the athlete know that the likely (from admissions) is on the way. </p>
<p>And agree with CCDD that once you submit the application, it’s good form to let the other coaches know, even though the likely letter has not been formally issued. This is where that good communication with the coach is so essential; you want to know that the coach intends to immediately pair that application with a request for a likely letter (or whatever they would call it)</p>
<p>Agree with CM that there can be a little variation on #4. In S’s case, admissions phoned him to tell him LL was on the way; S then notified coach, who hadn’t heard yet.</p>
<p>I may be too skeptical, but I wouldn’t tell any coaches from competing schools about committing orally until I actually had a Likely Letter in hand. There have been stories, both word-of-mouth and in print, of Likely Letters not coming after an oral commitment from a coach. These are all unsubstantiated, of course, because the coaches and other university staff members are prohibited from commenting publicly about rejected applicants.</p>
<p>There are too many things that could go wrong in the process to close off your other options before you must. Some athletes may misinterpret what a coach says – they’re nervous high school kids, unaccustomed to dealing in what is a pretty complex transaction. It’s possible that the coach may imply that admissions has a good chance of saying yes, and the student thinks, “I’m in – Likely Letter is coming!” It’s also possible, although I hope that coaches don’t pull this one, that the coach could pull back support after an injury or if a better athlete comes along. I did read about a case like this in a newspaper article last year, although the Ivy coach was unable to comment on it because of confidentiality requirements.</p>
<p>I say that you wait until you have it in writing, because an oral agreement isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.</p>
<p>Boondocks: I see your point, but I think it would be an unethical choice. Once that application is in, the athlete has made a choice, and it’s only fair to let the other coaches know. This is one of those situations where we have to assume that coaches talk, and I can’t imagine the coach of school choice number 2 being happy to hear that the athlete has verbally committed to school number 1 without letting him or her know. There’s not much difference between this and the situation on the thread this summer when an athlete committed to two schools “just in case,” only to have school number 1 drop him after the coaches talked.</p>
<p>On a practical note, my thought was that if the admissions office at my kid’s first choice school rejected him, it was likely that the others would too since the schools are so comparable in terms of selectivity. And I’m not sure it would even be possible to hold the other coaches off for that long. Once the OV’s are over, the wheels move quickly.</p>
<p>As far as vague promises go, direct questions lead to direct answers. The athlete needs to ask specifically if the coach will support his or her application with a request for a likely letter–which is what it sounds like the OP did.</p>
<p>I can personally attest to the agony of waiting. My child is waiting to hear from Brown admissions…coach has offered full support and requested likely letter and even reiterated this to my child’s guidance counselor. Although my child submitted the ED application two weeks ago, apparently it was missing a “signature” from the guidance counselor which we corrected on Tuesday (lots of Common app glitches this week). So now my child is on pins and needles. Coach told counselor she’d call as soon as she heard from admissions. I know of another Brown recruit (different sport) who received Likely letter last Friday, in mail. Gulp…</p>