My daughter got this email from a nescac this summer…then got the 2nd email yesterday…what would your interpretation be?? I know nescacs dont make true ‘offers’ but we are trying to figure out what to think…my daughter is scheduling a call with the coach so any advice on what to ask would be great too…
Email from summer:
I wanted to give you an update as to where we stand with our 2020 recruiting class. At this time we have offered out our allotted support spots.
I know you are a strong student and I loved how much your game improved in your junior year!
If XYZ is a college you feel great about and end up applying ED without our support please let me know.
Email from yesterday:
I am confident with what I saw from your play at the end of the summer that you would be a great addition to our team
Sounds like the player is not a recruit, and coach is not supporting them in admissions, though there may be some opportunity to try out as a walk on once on campus.
My own view is that, if the possibility of a roster spot in exchange for ED application were back on the table, the coach would have likely been more explicit, saying something like, “our situation has evolved and we may have an opportunity to discuss a roster spot with you. If you are interested in talking further, please let me know so we can schedule a call.” The fact that the coach is talking about being a “great addition” without anything more about roster spot or admissions support, sounds like walk on.
^ I agree. This reads to me like a coach trying to keep options alive without committing anything. I’d ask directly: Any chance that support slots will open? If yes, is there any chance that I’d be in position to get one of those slots? If no, what about position on the team…roster spot, walk on, etc? She can ask those more organically, in her own words, while being enthusiastic about the school. Basically, she needs to know whether there’s a place for her on the team and whether the coach will have any influence on admissions. Obviously, she’ll want to have some questions about the school and program to guide the discussion also. But I sure wouldn’t be prioritizing this school over other options at this point based on those emails.
Thanks…appreciate the advice…good questions to ask too.
They want her as a walk on. No support with admissions.
So the question is,if she really wants this school and does end up applying ED, does the coach ‘flag’ her application? And is she guaranteed a spot on the team? Pretty sure academically she doesn’t need ‘support’ to get in…pretty sure her pre read came back strong. also, is it true that only a small percentage of recruits get ‘support’? While the rest walk on? Trying to figure this whole process out ?
In my experience, the NESCAC coaches do make “true offers”. In exchange for coach support, the player applies Early Decision.
From the email you posted, it looks like the coach has already made offers to the athletes that she can support though admissions. This may be sport specific, but every athlete on my kids’ teams had coach support during the application process.
There are no guarantees of making a team or of having playing time if you do make the team. Even full scholarship D1 players are sometimes benched or dropped.
You can ask the coach these questions. “If she is accepted, would she have a place on the team? Will she see playing time?”
Some teams need more athletes than they have admissions slots for, so this coach may be hoping to get a few players who get in on their own. Looks like this coach thinks your D stands a chance of getting in without support and wants to encourage an application.
Some coaches do offer “support” short of a slot. Your daughter can clarify this in her call. In terms of spots for walk-ons, it depends by sport (as well as the number of recruit slots for that sport). Another question to ask. For my daughter’s sport, softball, most of the team during her time there were recruits with a couple of walk-ons who had to try-out. Having a positive pre read does not guarantee acceptance without athletic support, especially for the very selective NESCAC’s . A positive pre read only means that the recruit met the minimum threshold for the designated band for the recruit. There are a lot of threads on CC of high .band kids who applied early even with soft support who got rejected. Here is a recent one. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/bowdoin-college/2093947-prospective-bowdoin-athletes-beware-the-soft-support.html
My interpretation is that your daughter is number 6 or 7 on a list of 5 allowed recruits. Recruits higher up on the list have accepted offers of support. The coach is nevertheless encouraging your daughter to apply to the school.
The only curious aspect of the email is that the coach has requested that your daughter tell him/her if your daughter is considering applying ED. I don’t know why a coach would follow the admissions status of an applicant if the applicant is not a recruit.
If your daughter loves the school, I would be tempted to ask for a pre-read. If the coach declines (and that might happen because he/she only asks for pre-reads for recruits), I would want to know if there is any other way to assess her chances for admission without a pre-read.
I also would consider asking what the coach thinks your daughter could do to strengthen her application. For example, I would be tempted to ask the coach whether your daughter could include in her application that she is planning to play for X team and that the X coach has suggested that she would be a good addition to the team. That way, her contribution could be noted by admissions, even though she does not receive coach support.
What is the sport?
Also @gointhruaphase the OP mentioned s/he was " pretty sure the preread came back strong". So it looks like a preread has been done? If so isn’t there a definitive “yes you are likely to be admitted” or a “no, you are not likely to be admitted” decision?
@cinnamon1212 pre reads don’t say much about an applicant’s chances of admission in the absence of coach support. They exist mostly to convey to a coach that she won’t be wasting a slot on a given recruit, and then for the coach to be able to tell a recruit that the chances are good with support through admissions. For an applicant without coach support, all a positive pre read conveys is that like the majority of the applicant pool the applicant meets the threshold to be admitted. It would be a big mistake at most schools to assume a positive pre read means a slam dunk admission without coach support.
@politeperson got it! Thanks – we are a year later and I’m trying to fully understand the process so this is helpful.
Nescac coaches only get so many “ slots” or recruits they can support during the admissions process. The note the coach wrote stated that they have used all of their slots already, so your kid will not be an official “slotted” recruit. Most slotted recruits are immediate impact kind of athletes. That’s the bad news. Now the good news, is if your kid passed a pre-read the coach has stated they like your kids skills and would welcome them as a walk on. There are lot’s of walk ons in all Nescac sports. The coach has to round out their squad with walk-ons.
We have just gone thru through this process. My kid was a slotted recruit with full coach support. There were only 2 or 3 other kids with his full support, but at least 8 new team members. My kid had been in contact with the coach all last winter and Spring and there were a coupe of other recruits the coach would communicate with via email. Then this summer we learned of the other new teammates.
So, do those other non slotted non full support athletes get a little help somehow? That is the question. I do think they do get their apps flagged, and if they meet all of the academic criteria maybe it gets them a little leg up during the app process.
The coach wants to know if your kid will apply ED because some how some way they need to get enough kids to field a decent team. The coach would love to get a kid like your kid, smart and athletic, without having to use a slot. The coach wants to know how many possible new athletes are applying.
You just need to decide if the school is a good fit for you and your kid. Your kid can talk to the coach again, it can’t hurt. If ED is a possibility, I’d consider it. I think almost 1/2 of the class gets admitted ED1 and 2 now. If your kid is a good student as the coach suggested I think it’s worth a shot. If ED is not going to work for you, you can still stay in touch with the coach and let them know if an application is submitted.
Good luck.
Our S19 got a lot of emails like that. He’s at Bowdoin now and running on the XC team. The coach sent him an email in July before senior year saying that his “stats were stellar and he’d be a big contributor to the team if he was accepted”. S19 continued to send the coach updates on his running throughout senior year and applied RD and got in. Did the coach have anything to do with it? We will never know. He obviously was not recruited and didn’t even go ED. His stats were above the 75th percentile and he had other things on his app that made him an interesting candidate so he had more to offer than just athletics. He’s finding that he’s not the slowest runner on the team by any stretch. Sort of in the middle of the pack of freshmen but keeping up with the training very well. We never asked for a pre-read because S19 didn’t have a clear favorite and was applying to 13 schools.
I think your D is in the same position. She’s not being recruited. But these small schools want to know how kids with contribute on campus and being a walk on athlete is still a plus. This coach just might put a little “tip” on her app that won’t give her the nod but might show admissions that he can use her on the team if they deem her worthy of admission.
Thanks for this info. So did your son show up to ‘walk on’? Or did he let the coach know he was applying and it was understood if he got in that there would be a spot for him on the team? We are waiting to have a conversation with the coach to try to get some clarity. My daughter loves the school -Bowdoin- but if she applies ED she wants to know she’d have a spot…she’s considering other offers but I think she’d really be happy here
I agree with everything that’s being said here. I think the coach is hoping you will apply ED without support, given your daughter’s very strong academics and a possibility that she can be an asset.
Our sport might be different than yours, but one nescac coach told us this summer that he has 3-4 slots and he is hoping for 6-8 strong recruits. We did not ask but we assumed academicaly strong walk-on athletes are what he was counting on to fill the gap between the two numbers.
@cinnamon1212, my experience has been that if a pre-read comes back with a green light, the recruit knows it, because that information is conveyed directly. If there was a pre-read performed, what is to stop the OP from asking “what were the results of the pre-read?” and “is the pre-read positive only when combined with coach support?”
If the NESCAC involved is one of the more selective schools in the 'CAC, I would for sure what to get an estimate of admission before applying ED.
This all is such a difficult dance, and policies, behaviors, and even terminology vary not only by school, but by coach within a given school. Most women’s sports in NESCAC have 2 full support slots per year, but things can vary from year to year.
Best case it sounds like at Bowdoin your D is looking at soft support with no guarantee of a spot on the team or playing time. And this will likely be true rather she applies ED or RD. Even with a positive pre-read, you can’t count on an acceptance at a school with an acceptance rate in the single digits…even with GPA/test scores in the top 25%. The Bowdoin soft support thread linked above would be good for you to read closely, but similar situations have occurred at other schools.
Definitely keep the other offers warm, but at some point those coaches will want an answer. If your D has offers of full support in exchange for an ED app, she might have a couple of weeks to decide, but the coaches have to move on to fill their slots. If your D doesn’t take the slot, someone else will.
And that is the difficulty of the process, figuring out the best combination of coach support, athletic opportunity, and school fit…do you let an offer of full support go at a good/maybe great school and burn an EDI/II app with only soft or possibly no support at a school that may be a better fit academically, athletically, etc.
It sounds like you have your list of questions to ask the Bowdoin coach, but they apply to the other coaches as well. Another factor is whether your D will be applying for financial aid. In our experience, all coaches asked this. Generally they stated it was a positive that we were not applying for fin aid, but again, YMMV.
Good luck.