Hi all. I’ve never been through this so your help is really appreciated.
My child has been told by the coaches that they would love to have my child on their team. A “pre-read” has been submitted and it came back positive. The coaches also know that my child is interested in other schools (but not for sports). Those colleges are highly selective top colleges (an Ivy or two, a top state university and a couple in the top 15).
The next step is a (first) conversation between the head coach and me. Up until now, my child has been doing all of the communicating.
My child is not certain on what to do and is not willing to commit ED to the NESCAC school. My child likes the school, coaches, etc. and would be happy going there but not without weighing all of the options. While a strong athlete, my child is not one of those kids that can’t live without the sport.
Is there a certain way to appeal to the coach to get support for RD? We don’t want to lose the ability to get into the school, but also don’t want to commit ED. I don’t want to alienate the coaches nor give the impression that my child is not a committed athlete. If my child went to the NESCAC school my child would undoubtedly give 100% to the school and the sports program. My child is just a regular, indecisive teenager.
Any and all thoughts are welcome.
This is all new and a little stressful. Thanks in advance for your help!
You can talk to the coach and ask if it is even possible to get support if you don’t go ED. At some schools, it is not. The school uses those ED spots to fill teams but also to get good yield statistics for their school, to control numbers overall. They want your commitment and how they do that is through ED.
It really depends on how good of an athlete he is and how good his stats are. Top students and top students have more power. Those who need the coach’s help for admission have to do what the coach wants. The coaches only have so many spots too, and they want to make sure they have the best team they can get. They do not want to hold a spot for your son, have him go Ivy, and be one recruit short.
You still have several months before the ED app needs to be submitted. Only go ED if that school is his first choice.
Generally, support for admission only applies in ED rounds. A coach wants to know he can stop recruiting for that position/need because the student commits to attend through ED, and in exchange, the coach supports the application. Broadly – and there may be exceptions depending on the sport and school – coach support does not apply in RD rounds. If an athlete is admitted in the spring, the coach may invite them to pre-season or to compete for a walk on spot, but again, varies by sport. Specific NESCAC schools may follow a “tip and slot” system as well, with a coach having a specific number of each for admission.
The only way to find out what this coach’s practice is to have the conversation with the coach. I would suggest the student also be part of this conversation. My D3 kid had all the conversations with his prospective coaches, including ED discussion. I was in the room (or on the phone) to get clarification, ask for follow up. But our experience was that coaches still want to be talking to the player as part of that conversation, not only the parent.
This. My son would have been a top of the class athletic recruit throughout the NESCAC, who happened to have an academic record that would have put him well within the “A” band at each NESCAC. Consequently he was never told he needed to apply ED in order to obtain a particular coach’s support. Other kids who may be not as athletically valued or who may have needed more academic “juice” from the coach might face different circumstances. The best answer is always to have an honest and frank discussion with the recruiting coach.
Speaking of frankness, I think it is important to remember that while the challenges of the recruiting process are unique to us as parents, they are not to the coach. He or she does this multiple times a year over multiple years. I am sure the coach has faced a situation where a recruit was unsure about where he or she wanted to land, and will likely not be put off by questions about potential support in the RD or maybe ED2 round.
This too. After being a high school coach, a college player and parent of a college player I am convinced that coaches are not thrilled to be talking to parents of recruits rather than the recruit him or herself. Be around certainly. Support, clarify, etc. But at the end of the day, the recruit is going to be the one on campus doing the work necessary to compete. I think it is important for the recruit to be able to show the coach that they are a stand alone athlete, not someone who is reliant on a soon to be absent parent.
As usual, @Midwestmomofboys is right. There are exceptions here and there, but in all likelihood, your D will have to choose between playing at the D3 and applying regular decision. Look at it from the coach’s perspective. Say a coach has 5 recruiting positions that he can support: let’s say 2 slots (for recruits that wouldn’t get in but for coach support) and 3 tips (for recruits that are in the mix of admitted applicants, but might get overlooked without coach support). The coach needs to choose these cases of support carefully, because that is all he has to compose his team. It is possible that he could get a quality walk-on, but it is at least equally likely (or more likely) that he will have to cut all the walk-ons. That being the case, the coach needs to make sure that the athletes that he recruits and supports through admissions will be there for the team.
I think some confusion has resulted from the argument that kids should wait to apply RD to compare financial awards. I don’t dispute that this could be a good strategy for the non-athlete, but not for the recruited athlete. The message it sends to the coach is that “I am not sure that I want to play for you or attend your school.” Certainly, your daughter may feel that way, and she should follow her instincts, but I do not think a coach is going give up his valuable support with admissions for a kid that may attend a different school.
There are some stories of kids who get in RD and play for the team for which they earlier were recruited. But, typically in such instances, admissions considers the applicant’s sports experience in the same way as it would any other EC.
One argument you might have is money. If you need financial aid and need to compare financial aid offers, you can tell the coach that you can’t commit because you don’t know what the money situation is. Coach might be able to get you a pre-read
Yes, you can ask coach to run financial aid pre-read through financial aid office, and coaches understand that is part of the decision making process. As @Ohiodad51 said, it is often the first and only time families are going through this, but coaches do this year in and year out, in crafting a recruiting class. They are used to these kinds of questions and concerns.
In terms of timing, we approached my D3 sport kid’s process with the understanding that it was accelerated by at least 6 months over his non-recruit peers. By spring of 11th grade, he needed to have a final list of schools so that he could attend camp/be seen by coaches over that summer before 12th grade (he was a late bloomer). By September senior year, he had 3-5 schools where he was both recruited and would happy to attend and play for. By ED deadline, he knew where he would apply and attend. That worked because my kid knew he wanted to attend a small school and play his sport. If he wanted to remain flexible among different types of college environments, he would have had to have given up the recruiting commitment to preserve those possible options. One size does not fit all.
Agree with @Ohiodad51 as it all depends on academic and athletic profile of the student athlete. Our DD just went through the process with highly selective D3 schools across several conferences and had support from D3 ranked schools without a ED commitment - it all depends on what the student athlete is bringing to the table and on the relationship they are able to establish with the coaches going into admissions. In her case, she chose a NESCAC school and couldn’t be happier.
There is always the possibility that your child will be admitted RD and still be offered a roster spot.
(My kid is proof that this happens.) Coaches are often delighted to not use a chit but still get a player. However, this can be challenging in a position sport. It’s hard for a coach to cut (or give no playing time to) a recruit who chose the school over others believing he/she had a roster spot. You need only put yourself and your kid in the shoes/cleats of the displaced recruit to see the issue.
Given that the ED school isn’t #1 and your kid isn’t hell bent on playing, I would say you shouldn’t do it. It’s a bird in hand but not the bird you want… Perhaps if it’s #2, you could try the ED2 round with support if the first choice doesn’t work out.
We had similar experience as above for both D and S. Both opted out of applying ED because they wanted to keep their options open and they were not ready to commit to 1 school, even after multiple visits. Both kids were very upfront and notified the coaches by early Oct that they were not applying anywhere ED or EA as a recruit so the coaches could move down their lists. A number of coaches did check in with them late December to see if they were still applying RD or would consider applying EDII. That indicated to me that they still had some juice left with Admissions, and since both kids had academic stats that were highly competitive, they probably would have needed relatively little push from the coach. I let my kids handle all the interactions. We would talk about what they should say before each call/visit, but I think the coaches want to see some independence from their recruits.
My kid is at an OV RIGHT NOW at a small D3 school (flying home tonight) and the coach just texted me to say my kid had a great visit, etc. and the coach was hoping to finalize all his recruiting via ED I already told him we were RD . My kid is applying to other schools via QuestBridge (my kid would not play the sport if admitted to an Ivy). If QB that doesn’t pan out, we are applying RD so we can compare financial aid/merit aid packages.
I already told him we were RD . My kid is applying to other schools via QuestBridge (my kid would not play the sport if admitted to an Ivy). If QB that doesn’t pan out, we are applying RD so we can compare financial aid/merit aid packages.