My son attended one at Bates. It was very helpful as a way of getting things started for him. They offered mock interviews, did mock application reads, and had a Q&A with admissions staff. I’d recommend going if your child has identified any schools that offer them as possible targets.
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@sue22 I’m sorry-- I meant junior days put on by the coach for so-called top recruits, not general admissions open house-type events.
Sorry, should have paid attention to the subject of the thread! Whoops.
We went through the Nescac process 3 years ago- women’s basketball. 3.9 UW GPA Grades and tippy top SAT scores are imperative. Lots of grade inflation out there, so NESCAC coaches really pushed the expectation of 700 minimum SAT for both reading and math. One coach even called the morning of the test to wish her good luck–she needed 30 points on her math. Pre-read July 1st–3 weeks later green light. Official visit set up with 4 Nescacs. Absolutely crazy time from late September thru end of October, 3 offers by end of the official visits; ED1 with coach’s full support–make sure the coach says 100% of recruits with his/her support have been admitted in last 3 years----look him or her in the eye!
Mid-December High 5’s all around–couldn’t be happier and getting lots of playing time. You will need nerves of steel. Lastly, we heard many times that NESCACS truly prefer full pay kids—there are no scholarships. If you qualify for financial aid, you will get money but almost every athlete we know is writing a check for over $70,000 to play for these schools. Great education, but a very polarized campus–low income to very wealthy. Upper middle-income families are no longer willing to pay so much money for a NESCAC that will likely lead to graduate school as they are primarily liberal arts schools. Do your homework; most did not offer business degrees–lots of pre-med types–everyone is chasing the science 3.9 GPA—life is such a competition!
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My daughter, a 2021 athletic recruit, sent an intro note to a coach at an NESCAC school with link to her recruiting site which contains stats and video. The school is strong in her sport and ranked 2nd in the NESCAC conference in they compete, which landed them an NCAA appearance this past season. I don’t want to say what sport it is other than it is a popular women’s sport at any D level. So, the coach responded in early January 2020 and requested an unofficial transcript to submit to admissions. This was before he would even schedule an interview. It took about 2.5 weeks for him to get back to her. So, we’d actually assumed he wasn’t interested and had moved on. He came back and said her curriculum and grades were solid and he wanted to schedule an interview to talking about their recruiting process. So, it seems to me, from reading these various threads, they have completed an early “pre-read” well before the July timeframe referenced in posts. The school has 3 slots in daughter’s sport for 2021 so it’s not a big recruiting year for them but coach is expressing early interest in my daughter. She is in the process of scheduling the interview with the coach now. I am seeking guidance from people who have been through the process with their student athletes. Our experience so far seems out of sequence to what has been talked about. Is this a good sign? Daughter is a strong player. Thanks in advance for your advice!
Some coaches are very experienced and can look at a transcript and know if it is competitive. I wouldn’t assume she’s gone through an official pre-read, but that the experienced coach knows that she has the minimal academics need to make it through admissions with a slot.
I read an article on the Yale coaches doing this. They wouldn’t even talk to the (at that time) sophomores unless they had the minimum stats.
@DCA28 How exciting! My daughter went through this process with NESCAC and IL schools last year when she was a junior. She was also proactive in sending out her academic and athletic profiles via email to head and assistant coaches. Coaches can “eyeball” academic stats and know if, based on his/her experience, the student has a shot at passing an academic pre-read. Only the admission office conducts pre-reads which typically begin on July 1. Prior to that, a coach can decide if an athlete is someone he/her is interested in pursuing and if they are, the likelihood that that student will get a “green light” by admission office in the summer. If academic stats are poor, coach knows that athlete (no matter how talented they are) will not make it through pre-read and will not pursue any further. Good luck to you!
The coaches often will ask for transcripts and test scores well before the summer to review for themselves. They have a good idea of what thresholds need to be achieved and are sorting recruits by likely bands, so I don’t think what is happening with your daughter is all that unusual. The good news is that she is in the mix. She should ask the coach where the coach is in the process and where she stands during the interview. That is a fair question to ask, and the coach should not be put off by it.
This is very helpful. Thank you. The coach sent the unofficial transcript to admissions already. That’s what struck me as odd. I thought “Why so early?”. After he got back to my daughter saying it was fine, then he invited her to interview. We are still at the beginning and don’t know how it will turn out. My daughter isn’t stuck on any particular school. She just wants to play her sport but I told her it had to be a school with a good academic reputation first, sports are secondary.
I guess it must vary by school, but we were told by a NESCAC school that they *couldn’t * send prereads to admissions until july 1. I think it is unusual for a coach to send anything to Admissions now – Admissions is swamped dealing with the 2020 admissions cycle, I cannot imagine they have bandwidth to review 2021 recruits. However that is only an educated guess on my part.
Edited to add: on rereading your post – are you sure the transcript was sent to admissions for a preread? If you remove that step, what you are describing is my son’s recruiting process too. The coaches are all asking for unofficial transcripts now, so they can decide on their own to keep recruiting the player. Then, they are speaking with him on the phone. Some have them pushed him to visit this Spring. And that’s where we are; if they are still interested in June, hopefully some will ask for an official preread.
I think some coaches ask someone in admissions for an opinion, but it’s not a sure thing like after the summer pre-read.
Ok, this makes a lot of sense.
I may have misstated. I looked at the coach’s follow-up note and he said something like “we will review your unofficial transcript and get back to you”. He never mentioned admissions but I assume when he said “we”, he meant himself and someone from admissions. So, perhaps, I was reading too much into how he phrased his sentence.
@Booksmart27 You bring up a point I am very interested in. Do those of you with NESCAC athletes sense socioeconomic polarization on campus/teams? I’m 99% certain we would be full pay, and we might be able to swing it, but my kids have grown up in a more diverse environment and I’m not sure how my D21 would feel about this underlying socioeconomic disparity. I understand they should all be intellectual equals at an elite school, but it can have real impacts on the social life of the students.
The coaches I know ask for a transcript and test scores so they can evaluate themselves whether it’s even worth their time to have a conversation. They already know what the admission thresholds are, but also know that meeting those doesn’t mean guaranteed admissions. They’re simply trying to weed out those who are unlikely to gain admittance without their significant support.
At every school there is always a socio-ecomonic divide and some of those students are on sports teams. Some kids have cars and new clothes all the time and don’t have to work while others are watching every penny. There is no way to avoid this.
My daughter was one of the penny pinchers, but it didn’t bother her (much). She did not have a car, she didn’t like sharing clothes so just wore her own (mostly wore sports clothing anyway), borrowed books. I think the biggest difference was she almost always ate on campus and rarely went away for the weekend while many of her friends did travel quite a bit.
For the team, I saw the biggest difference in what the parents did/provided for the team. Some parents went to every game, even the away games. Some parents provided food or treats for the bus trips or games, everything from water to very expensive cakes. We all contributed money to a post-game meal fund but this was beyond that. There were Fat Head posters, framed pictures, photography, extra dinners. IMO there was favoritism to the parents (and thus the players) of these extras but that’s the way it is in anything in life.
It’s much more noticeable at a NESCAC because the size of the student body is about 2000 kids; smaller than many high schools. Cliques happen 
These schools are certainly diverse (and economically polarized) but everyone has different opportunities and kids who can go to Stowe, Vermont and ski black diamonds and stay in a great condo several weekends a year are not going to hang out regularly with the kids that have not been skiing in Vail or Aspen since childhood–just sociology.
Your child will really need to weigh playing a sport at a NESCAC or attending a D1 big-name university and not play a sport at a diverse university like Michigan, etc.
Lots to think about but remember, college is just 4 years–lots of time later to find diverse and equitable environments if that is an important goal.
Hi all. Thanks in advance for the advice and guidance. My D is hoping to be a lacrosse recruit but we honestly can’t tell if she is or not. She’s a high school junior and is in pretty regular, every month or so communication with several coaches in the NESCAC (and elsewhere). She’s also doing their prospect clinics and has received positive if entirely non-committal feedback. What she hasn’t gotten is any affirmation of status as an actual recruit, though she’s been shy about asking directly. Usually it’s just some positive commentary on her play, some things to work on, an encouragement to stay in touch and to send updated report cards/test scores, then an invitation to the next thing.
My questions to the group are: do you think she’s an actual recruit or is she just a camp customer? Would they already have told her if she were? Would she have received an overnight invitation already? Should she come out and ask or would that be considered too pushy? I don’t want the girl to get all excited about these schools if it isn’t a realistic prospect. She’s a better student than player: top ten rank and all A’s in an AP-heavy, maximum difficulty schedule. SAT is a solid if not spectacular 700-720 on her first attempt and currently studying for the next test like a maniac. We’re hoping that A-band thing helps her but with so many great students that may not be much of an advantage.
Not to say she can’t play. She generally performs well at these clinics, though she likes to tell me she sucked. I’ve learned that “I embarrassed myself” means “I didn’t do much to stand out”, and “I wasn’t completely terrible” means “I kicked butt”. Meanwhile her brother strikes out twice and gets a cheap infield hit and tells me he played great.
Any advice/assistance/reality check is welcome.
I also have a junior, though a boy soccer player. If your daughter is emailing back and forth with coaches, that’s a good sign. With this forum’s encouragement, I had my son ask the coaches “where they were in their recruiting process” (a gentler question) and they all answered that he was in their recruiting pool, though they didn’t say where in the pool. So I would say it’s a good idea to ask some variation of this question.
I believe (at least for soccer) its early to be asked to have an overnight visit – from my reading, those invitations are extended after passing a preread the summer before senior year.
My son has been invited to a “Junior Day” at one school; I have no idea if any other NESCAC offers them.
Wouldn’t your daughter’s club coach also be able to offer guidance as to her lacrosse ability/targeting?
@OCDaddy I can’t help you with the recruiting question but this cracked me up.