A broad question, to be sure. No way for any of us to know what the coach is thinking. Best thing to do is to ask the coach all of these questions. You will get a way better sense than from us. Make sure to let the coach know that NESCAC school x is her first choice.
That said, generally pre-reads happen sometime in the rising senior summer (allowing adcoms to consider full junior year grades). It well could be that the request for grades is not for a preread, but rather for the coach to assess whether the recruit is recruitable (from an academic perspective).
Here is how it went for my dd21 who was just accepted at a NESCAC school and was a recruited athlete. The summer after DD’s sophomore year she attended a big recruiting event for her sport. She had emailed the schools that interested her which she knew would be in attendance. This school came to watch her play and passed along a message through our team recruiting coordinator to have dd call the coach. Dd talked with the coach and the coach let dd know she was very interested in her. The coach followed her to different showcases the remainder of that summer and fall. Dd also went to a camp at the school between her summer and fall seasons.
Dd then made it a point to email the coach updates every few weeks during her junior year (academic and athletic) and had a few more calls with the coach. She also attended a winter camp at the school. The coach did ask for an unofficial transcript and ACT score over the winter just to get an idea of what kind of student dd was, and to help guide her during the recruiting process.
Once summer came, the coach again asked for her transcript and her senior year class schedule in June for an official preread. First week of July the coach called dd and made an offer which was a slot if dd applied ED.
Dd accepted and again would send the coach updates from the summer and fall seasons. Dd applied ED and got in to her top choice school. This was the only NESCAC school she was interested in. The 3 other schools recruiting her were in different conferences and all but one asked for transcripts and test scores. She received offers from the other 3 schools and two of those schools issued likely letters.
It’s probably a pre-preread. The coach wants to see for themselves what it looks like. Most coaches who have been around a while have a pretty good idea what the admissions committee is going to say unless a recruit is in the gray area, which for some programs is only 5% of the recruits. This way they can make an earlier determination to see if your daughter stays on the list or if for both of your sakes she needs to move on. It’s definitely a positive sign that she is being seriously considered. The coach wouldn’t be interested in wasting their time looking at the resume and transcript if they know she’s not going to be on the final list anyway.
In addition to the great info here, I would encourage your daughter to ask the coaches directly about their timelines. This can vary a lot by sport and school, and coaches often approach this differently. But a simple question about the recruiting timeline and what steps to expect along the way can reveal a lot (be sure to take school-specific notes!).
My son is a soccer player so my thoughts are based on that sport.
So, if coaches are asking for your daughter’s grades and saying she’s a top recruit, I think what that means is that she’s in the pool of something like 200? kids the coach is considering. (Since he said she’s a top recruit, maybe she’s at the top of that pool). The funnel narrows over the Spring/Summer. You cannot tell if the coach will give a preread at this point, from my son’s experience. The program that seemed the most interested – and they seemed REALLY interested – ended up not giving him a preread, let alone an offer. Other schools that hadn’t even seen him play in person (due to COVID shutting things down) did give him prereads.
Prereads for Nescacs are given starting July 1.
As others have said, it is a good idea to ask the coaches to explain the timeline to you (even if you are pretty sure you know it – it is still a good question to ask).
I don’t know soccer, but 200 seems like a huge number. I can see maybe that many in the funnel, even though that seems high to me but again different sports are different and I think soccer has big teams so IDK. But surely a coach isn’t telling 200 kids they are a top recruit? I guess they could be, but a coach that does that would fall in my eyes.
I might have a skewed view, S19 was a wrestler, so 1-probably less kids recruited to a team in general, typical roster size is probably 30, some smaller, and 2-he did end up being a high recruit, so I guess when coaches told him he was near the top of their list we figured they meant what they said. In his case they did. I remember sitting in one coaches office with maybe 10 names on a whiteboard. S was one of them. That was a program though that can usually get most of the kids they want as long as the academics are there and the finances work for the parents.
Lacross is probably more similar to soccer than wrestling.
If there are that many in the funnel, there are probably a decent number that are “stretch” picks. Meaning a kid probably headed to D1, but the coach is hoping he can either snag up one that falls through the cracks or maybe convince them to go with a smaller school where they are a scholar first, athlete second.
It’s tough to know, I’m not saying @cinnamon1212 is wrong just that we had a different experience. My guess would be that your D’s chances at a preread are pretty good.
I don’t know the numbers either but I know, having talked to teammates of DS, that most were keeping about 10 schools warm during the process as the pieces fell into place. And of course, each kid ultimately applied ED to only 1 (where the coach wanted them). So after you add in some of the other factors-- forwards vs GK, maybe a need for a left-footed back, etc., I could see how the initial pool could be quite large. The coaches need to have enough depth to withstand players leaving for other programs or not meetingadmissions standards… The inverse is that a recruit who is further down the list may never get called up.
While its easy as an unhooked applicant to envy the recruit who’s admitted to your top choice school, it’s actually a really tough route up to that point.
Thanks for your thoughts. As we head into spring and (maybe?) a high school season, DD can ask each school what their timeline is. These are schools she would be looking at even without lacrosse, so it might work out either way.
I have read Nescac coach interviews suggesting that the “200” estimate of @dadof4kids is low, naturally depending on the sport and where things are in the recruiting process. At the inception of recruiting, I think the coach is corresponding with (or at least receiving correspondence from) more than 200. In football, for example, one Nescac coach suggested that number is in excess of 1000. From that early number, however, there are plenty of students who give up early on the required hard work, and the correspondence just ceases. So there probably is a jump in the funnel toward a narrower number in relative short order.
The point here, in my view, is not whether she actually is a “top” recruit, but whether the coach is encouraging her. Assuming there is coach encouragement, a recruit should reciprocate by voicing interest to the coach. If possible, she should communicate by phone with the coaches with a scheduled call. If you go this route, make sure that she is organized with a list of questions for the coach. This type of communication is sure to encourage the coach by her interest.
Found you as you lived my current experience with my 17yrold soccer player son. I know you were writing prepandemic, how did it work out with your son? We are in the thick of pre-reads now. Thank you!
Does anyone know if NESCAC offers for soccer are pretty much done? My daughter has one but is still waiting to hear from a few more schools–does that mean at this point the 2022s are done and she should assume the worst? Or is the silence a sign they are waiting on a few outstanding offers and may have more to give? Would they have sent the “no” emails by now if not in the mix? Hard to understand timing this year, so any advice from your experience this year welcome. Also, are most NESCACs giving a timeline for response to an offer this year? Thanks
I doubt anyone here knows the women’s soccer recruiting status at all of the NESCAC schools. Your D should communicate with the coaches and ask them their timelines, at least at the schools she ranks more highly than the one where she has an offer. It’s also ok to communicate she has an offer, but would prefer X school. Many coaches never send ‘no’ emails…the onus is on the student to keep following up.
It’s also going to depend on the position she plays. Schools have different needs to begin with and then also where they are in the recruiting pipeline. I would say generally that NESCAC schools have extended several offers and have some commits already, but it is musical chairs.
You have nothing to lose by being direct at this point and asking specifically if there is any possibility of an offer being extended. Also, stating that you need to make a decision on an existing offer to another NESCAC school provides some basis for them to react and provide feedback if there is any interest on their part.
I would also add that if an offer is being given with full admissions support, then it seems they will want to know sooner than later. What sort of deadline did your existing offer give you?
In July/August last year, my son sent coaches an email that basically said “Here is where I am with my recruiting process” and concluded with “I would appreciate you letting me know where you are in your recruiting process”. That generated some good responses, but I should note that one coach who did not reply to that email, or a follow up email, or approaches by the high school coach later resurfaced with an offer. So, while radio silence usually means “no dice” it doesn’t always. Hence the stress and anxiety around D3 recruiting this time of year!
ETA although our experience was with recruiting last year, my son had 3 NESCAC offers and only one had a time deadline, of a week.
Also, if your daughter has a first choice school it can only help if she let’s the coach know that, and tells the coach if she were fortunate enough to get an offer she’d accept on the spot.
I would agree that contacting coaches to see where they are is a good idea. My daughter had an offer from a very selective LAC, but not NESCAC and was told she had only a short time to decide. It was not her first choice. She contacted the coach at a NESCAC where they were still doing a pre-read. She told the coach that she had another offer but the NESCAC was much higher on her list. That coach asked what her deadline was and worked with the admissions office on getting the pre-read done. She got an offer from that NESCAC and that offer stayed open until she had a chance to visit that school and another school. She is now at the NESCAC.
Her situation was a bit unusual because she didn’t get an offer til the end of August. She ended up visiting mid september and visited another NESCAC mid October and then made her decision. Part of the problem with the non-NESCAC was that the offer would expire before students were on campus. Most NESCACS are starting in two weeks. Would the coach give your D enough time to visit in the first week or so that students were on campus. Meeting the players on the team made a huge difference.