Agree with above. I’ve known kids who been “recruited”, applied ED, but did not get a tip because the coach knew they could get in without it and wanted to save that allotted tip for another applicant that needed the pull to get in.
You do know that if you are not happy with the financial aid from your ED school that your child can ask and get a release and apply and go somewhere else. The thing you can’t do is compare financial aid offers. If you are looking for the best deal, I understand your position, but if choice one is really choice number one, and the NPC suggests that you can afford it with the expected financial aid, I don’t see why you wouldn’t apply ED.
The coach is running his optimization, and you are running yours.
Reality is pick the college not the team.
Because with a few exceptions, I’ve seen recruited players (yes, barring nationally ranked players) who started freshman year D2 or D3 soccer, played some sophomore, and now junior year are either off the team completely or riding the bench. At least some of them are off the team more due to academic issues, though they weren’t super duper stars just reliable for the teams.
10 kids I know of personally that were my son’s teammates, who went through the agita of college recruiting and thought they found “the one”. Three more who ended up going to their dream school (teams that were top five in the country for mens soccer) and then transferring. Those three were nationally ranked players by the way.
So, IMHO, don’t get pressured into ED if you aren’t sure the college is a good fit. However, if your kid wants to go there, and does NOT have another ED school in mind, I fail to see the harm in him/her applying ED - because yes, you can say no to ED if there are financial reasons to do so. Certainly a kid who could apply via Questbridge must have more than enough reason to not go to an ED school if they can’t meet financial needs.
Going back to my first point, does your kid want to go there? Would your kid do well academically there, or would it be an unwelcome challenge?
OP says “Space on his roster is not an issue. My kid could literally be a walk-on and play in their starting lineup.” Well, my son’s college had 35 kids on the roster, do you know how many get regular playing time? Maybe 15 (11 on the field for soccer). He went to see BU play, and they subbed four times, twice to put back in a starter (they can sub at the half). At his current college, there are FOUR juniors out of 33 players. That’s not 33/4, and there are only seven seniors. Fully 2/3rds of the team are new folks. They don’t win their league either, so do the math - if the coaching isn’t getting them there, will your kid change that? And if your kid can’t, where will he/she be junior year of college?
If your kid wants to play their sport in college, but the coach seems wishy washy, I feel that is a bad sign, whether your kid could put them into the top three of their league or not.
Ego-wise, college recruiting is depressing, even for superstars. It’s like dating, and if the coach and player aren’t a good fit, the player would have to be nationally ranked going to a subpar school to get recruited.
Why not look for a D2 or D1 school that is low ranked, to try to get some scholarship money?
“And if your kid can’t, where will he/she be junior year of college?”
Just want to add to above that many upperclassmen leave of their own doing, not because they get replaced. Being a student athlete is a huge commitment and time suck. As students get older and get more engaged in their major, their friends, and activities on campus and they realize that their athletic competition would end a year or two out anyway, it’s not unusual to just pull the plug on the sport as a junior and senior.
^^this! Mix a junior year abroad into the mix, and going back to the team after being overseas just may not be that compelling.
Agee that it can be, so that’s why my DD looked at rosters where there was a decent balance of upperclass student athletes - I guess it depends on the school, but the NESCAC conference definitely provides an environment that enables participation for four years if desired.
I do know kids who quit after 2 years or transferred schools and no longer play, but usually it is players who didn’t pick the team/coach wisely because they aren’t the best players anymore (were star in high school) or kids who transferred to an entirely different type of school (small LAC to big flagship). My D is now a senior and is and always has been happy with her choice of school and team, although she’s not always crazy about the coach. Seven of the nine in her class are still on the team. The seem to lose one or two players per year to transfers, kids who just don’t want to play, one to a discipline problem and this year one to a health issue (was in a car accident when in hs and it is just too painful to continue to play). I don’t think those are terrible numbers.
The OP asked if a coach can only give help with admissions during ED. Yes, at some schools that’s the rule, or in some cases the coach will have used up the LL, tips, slots, nods by the time RD comes along. There are risks and advantages to each pool. OP needs to decide if her son wants to take the risk of applying to both #1 and #2 choices in RD, and hope the #1 school accepts him and the coach still wants him.
@Chembiodad With regard to your athlete, did she have support/positive pre read for her ED school? Were you surprised when she didn’t get in? Were other schools looking for her to apply ED?
I may have missed this, but you may want to look at the admission rates for students who apply ED vs RD. For many schools, there is a huge difference in rates and it makes sense to apply ED to that favorite school. You can decline if FA does not meet your needs.
@wisteria100, the 75 number that you are referring to are what you would call slots: Impact quality athletes that wouldn’t stand a chance of admission without athletic support. That number does not include tips, which are athletes that “could” get in on their own but realistically would get lost in the pile of applications. There are a number of outstanding academic kids (higher than the 75 percentile of admitted students) who get turned away from elite schools every year. Coach support for tips is very important.
Let’s take an example of Amherst. In 2014, Amherst commissioned a study on the impact of athletics on Amherst. The Amherst Student summarized the admissions process in that report:
“Every incoming class totals 125 to 150 athletes. Varsity athletes are classified in three different ways during the admissions process. “Athletic factor” athletes are identified as potentially providing “a significant impact on the success of the teams.” These applicants’ athletic status provides “substantial” benefit in the application process. Each year, 67 [roughly the 75 number that you were referring to] of the incoming class of approximately 450 students are “athletic factor” athletes. “Coded” athletes, academically high-achieving and skilled athletes, make up 60 to 90 students in every incoming class. The remaining varsity athletes are classified as “priorities for admissions to the college for other reasons.” This includes first-generation, legacy and low socioeconomic background students, students of color and students with extremely high academic qualifications.”
What we don’t know is how many of the 125 to 150 apply in the ED round. I bet that whatever number the school describes as athletes applying ED could have quite a bit of give, depending on how you describe the applicant (e.g., first generation athlete could be described in the stats as first generation rather than athlete).
Interestingly, that Report finds that 20 students walk on each year, but few see playing time and most stop after freshman year.
The 25-75% range of ACT scores for last year at Amherst was 31-34. If you are a girl with a 3.8 GPA with tough classes from a strong academic high school and 32 ACT you are in the mix of admissible students. But, admission is going to be tough without coach support in the ED round.
“Interestingly, that Report finds that 20 students walk on each year, but few see playing time and most stop after freshman year.”
When you think of all the teams, male and female, at a D3 school, that strikes me as surprisingly low vs what I would have guessed.
Not surprised by only 20 as most are recruited, whether they need a slot or tip to get in through ED or have been heavily engaged with coach and got in on their own in ED or RD - our DD found that coaches of top NESCAC teams stay involved all the way through RD if they want a student athlete.
@gointhruaphase Thanks/ that is very helpful.
Can tips get strong support at ED from the coach or is it more like you have to get in on your own and then you can have a spot on the team?
Tips usually get the tie-breaker, so still helps.
Do coaches only use ‘slots’ for players that are not on the high end of the academic scale? What if you have 2 kids with the same excellent race time. Coach would benefit from either. One has s 34 and the other a 30 ACT. Does the 30 get the slot and the 34 the tip? But then the kid with better stats may not get in?
@wisteria100, I don’t think a coach would take a chance if its a top-20 school as a 34 is not a guaranteed admission.
@wisteria100, based on my conversations with coaches, there are parameters that are discussed or understood between the coach and admissions. Let’s take a hypothetical soccer class with 2 slots and 3 tips. The number 1 ranked athlete also happens to have a 4.0 and a 36 Act, the second ranked has a 32 and a 3.8 while the third ranked player has a 3.2 and a 29 ACT. The coach will use the slot on the third ranked player and tips on the first two. One coach told me that admissions actually suggested to him/her in an instance not to use a slot on a player, because it wasn’t needed. I suspect that type of common sense communication goes on all the time between a coach and admissions.
@Chembiodad I’d also add UAA schools to that list.
@fbsdreams, definitely!
Well my kid just pushed the Common App button to ED to our original #2, which quickly became our #1 choice.
Our prospective coach gave my kid good feedback about the process and we feel more comfortable now going the ED route with this coach and his program at this D3 school. Praying hard it will all work out.
Will make an announcement on our recruiting forum later today.
Really looking forward to participating at “Signing Day” at our high school next week.