Congratulations!!
I just finished breakfast with two Ivy athletes (different schools, different gender, lax and volleyball) and asked if they experienced or had heard of Early and RD recruiting slots. Both described having been admitted early and were under the impression that RD teammates were only offered “support” not commitments.
They did suspect that some extremely strong academic candidates were pushed to “RD w/ support” in anticipation that they would get in and help hit team academic standards.
Would your kids stats serve to potentially raise the teams Academic Index? You will likely not be able to precisely answer that question per the below worksheet, but it may be a question to delicately pose to the coach.
Good luck!!
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That makes sense. The coach is still confident they’ll get their kid because of their strong academic record … said more plainly, they need “less help”.
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Yes, the dilemma for OP is that any likely NESCAC recruit offer would be conditional on a ED application, which would preclude the OP’s daughter from an RD Ivy acceptance if she got into the NESCAC ED.
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I want to be reiterate that some full slot recruits have always gone RD, at all levels of schools, even pre-pandemic.
Last year was extremely messed up in terms of recruiting and timing, and this year is shaping up to be equally slow. D1 Coaches have only been able to see kids play for the last 8 weeks, and some are telling recruits that they are going to take their time making decisions. There are quite a few ID camps in a number of sports in the Nov/dec timeframe with coaches telling 2022s that’s when they plan to see them. That could be a benefit for D3 coaches who do move early, and offer full support slots in the ED round.
It seems we are seeing the evolution of recruiting before our very eyes. Some of these changes may even stick.
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It would be unethical to accept a D3 ED spot AND the Ivy RD slot.
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Congrats to your daughter! Good advice here so far, so I’ll just add a few things:
I agree with @Mwfan1921 that support in the RD round at an Ivy, with a likely letter, isn’t all that unusual. It’s more typical for recruited athletes to apply ED (or in RD which is then flipped to an ED app) but that’s not true for 100% of athletes or sports. RD support with a LL is not “less”than ED support with a LL as far as I know, based on discussions with coaches and athletes. The timing is just different. So I wouldn’t worry about that aspect of it, as long as this is support that will lead to a likely letter.
As far as worrying for an extra few months…yes that’s not ideal. But remember that under Ivy League rules, a likely letter has the same force as a letter of admission. It does not say you’ll likely be admitted. It says something like: when we send out acceptance letters, you WILL receive one. So even though things might not be as zipped up early on for an RD admit vs an ED admit, a significant part of the uncertainty disappears with the likely letter. Functionally, I think the only difference might be not going to the early preview days for ED admits (although most athletes don’t do that anyway, as they’ve already had an official visit…at least in normal times).
Anyway, I think this is great news and as long as you feel like you have solid answers from the coach on these key issues (which it sounds like you might), I wouldn’t worry too much. All the better if you can get the LL as early as possible.
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Yes, this is stressful, but we are seeing positive feedback (from NESCAC mens soccer in our case) so out of seven pre-reads I hope he gets an offer!
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Don’t worry, he will! (My son also plays men’s soccer). Right now is the most stressful time, but it will probably be over in the next 2 weeks, if not sooner. Hang in there!
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Thank you! Last one was submitted yesterday, so now we wait. If you are allowed to say, where did your son choose?
FWIW, during my son’s recruitment process last summer a coach at one Ivy school said that he/she had X number of ED and Y number of RD slots available. It was the only Ivy that my son spoke to that differentiated between the two. The coach implied that if my son took too long to decide, he may have to settle for an RD slot.
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Sure! My son ended up at Washington and Lee. They only saw him for the 1st time around this time last year, and 10 days from the time they each got on each other’s radar screen my son accepted their offer. So there are unexpected twists and turns in the recruiting journey! I will PM you.
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I have heard of this scenario in a few different sports at Dartmouth. Those athletes did all receive their admissions offers and went on to play their sports there. Not asking you to reveal the school, but if it is Dartmouth, you can feel pretty sure that this is a real offer.
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Thank you for all who have advised on my RD/ED concerns…I think you are right that this is specific to certain schools only…and perhaps one Ivy in particular…
I’ve worried for years to get to this point (very niche sport, very few teams) so it’s hard to break the habit but I think I’m going to stop now and just enjoy the moment!
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OK, so it is customary then to have kids “commit” to a D3 NESCAC now without an (official) visit in the Fall when school is in session?
Yes, many athletes commit to D3 NESCAC schools without an official visit. Many D3 coaches/programs don’t even offer official visits, of course students can (and should) visit on their own.
Note also that in D3, official and unofficial visits can happen prior to senior year (look at the ncaa website for specific engagement timelines for each sport).
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Thanks, rising senior being given deadline to decide in next week. There are no students on campus yet, so it’s tough to get a true sense of the “vibe”. DD doesn’t want to pass on offer, but also isn’t 100% sure it’s the right place. Has other offers that are willing to wait a little more and have said she could visit (assuming school permits it with covid protocols). Tough decision.
It is a tough decision. It can be difficult to get the timing to work out when juggling opportunities, has she asked the coach for an extension? How much longer until there are students on campus? Has she zoomed with teammates?
A typical NESCAC LAC has a few hundred students on campus each summer, so although not the same as when during the school year, it’s not dead either.
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Congratulations. Perhaps the coach can put her in touch with an upper class teammate just to get a sense of team dynamic and culture.
Yes, she has been able to do that. It’s all been positive, likes the coaches, etc. but just wants a better sense of the overall school, especially since did not get a chance to visit as many as would have over the past year due to covid. Everything got really compressed to a few weeks this summer.