<p>I noticed one of the Ivy's (an HYP) announced their 'class' for a sport - in this case swimming and they listed 9 men and 9 women. Do all 18 athletes receive likely letters or is there another means by which they consider an athlete part of the 'recruit' class?</p>
<p>At H (and I suspect P is similar) a little over 200 athletic LLs are issued and the total number of freshman varsity athletes on the roster for all sports is a little over 300. So maybe 1/3 walk-ons?</p>
<p>I suspect the ‘announced class’ of swimming recruits are almost all LL recipients.</p>
<p>Y has been trying to increase walk-ons and decrease LLs in recent years</p>
<p>If they have announced their class, I think they all received Likely Letters because admissions would not look to kindly on a coach announcing a class prior to decisions from admissions!</p>
<p>Great info - thanks!</p>
<p>Of course no team from any school is going to announce a class based on likely letters only. I believe OP is looking at an announcement for a 2016 class and not the upcoming 2017 class. That announcement is made based on enrollment and not likely letters. But still there is a pretty good chance that all 18 athletes listed in that announcement did receive likely letters one year ago.</p>
<p>Although I believe P issues more likely letters than Y, eighteen is still a good estimate of the number of likely letters issued for the men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams per year by H, P or Y. </p>
<p>Although a likely letter is an extremely strong indication that a recruit will be accepted, I would be very surprised if a coach would want to tempt fate (or admissions) by announcing a recruiting class this early.</p>
<p>I am not 100% sure on Harvard or Princeton, but Yale gives 8 LL’s to Men’s Swimming and 8 LL’s to Women’s Swimming. Of those LL’s, 7 goes to swimmers and 1 goes to a diver. Anyone beyond that would be walking on as Yale is very firm on the number of LL’s per sport. </p>
<p>I know this information because I’m committed to Yale next year to swim. </p>
<p>I believe that Harvard and Princeton are very similar in how many LL’s they can give. I think I remember the Princeton coach telling me that he gives out 7 each year to swimmers. I don’t remember the Harvard coach ever giving me a number. Don’t quote me on the number of LL’s from Harvard or Princeton. </p>
<p>What I do know is that Harvard signed 8 swimmers for this year, while Princeton signed 7. </p>
<p>Hope that helps.</p>
<p>I believe Princeton gave 10 likely letters to its women’s swimming and diving recruits this year.</p>
<p>6 have committed so far for Princeton on the girls side for swimming (according to collegeswimming.com, which is normally pretty accurate). </p>
<p>The numbers I posted yesterday were all for the men’s side, as I am a guy. I do not know much about the women’s side in terms of how many LL’s each school gives out. What I do know is that Yale gives out 7 LL’s to swimmers on the men’s and women’s teams, and 1 LL to a diver on each team.</p>
<p>The original post asked whether 9 male and 9 female members of a recruiting class received likely letters. Whether or not there are 8 or 10 men or women per school that receive a LL probably only matters to those recuits who are on the borderline. </p>
<p>Although some swimmers wait to update collegeswimming.com, in this case of the Princeton women’s team the information is current. They have six swimming and four diving recruits this year. </p>
<p>Congratulations on receiving a LL from Yale!</p>
<p>If I’m in regular contact with an ivy coach, yet admittedly not as good as the athletes on the team (not to say I’m slow however - I’m not). However, I have developed a good relationship with the coach and am in contact twice, maybe three times a week, plus I have been put in contact with the admissions officer for that particular sport. Is the probability of getting an LL low? Also, will the students that have committed to EA have taken up LLs? Sorry I’m new to all this.</p>
<p>POmani - I think a good way to look at the LL is that it’s a tool a coach uses to ‘lock-in’ a valuable recruit who is probably being recruited by other colleges.
If your times aren’t quite up to the rest of the athletes on the roster, and the EA deadline has passed without any discussion about a LL - my thought is that a LL may not be in the cards.</p>
<p>But I’ll close by giving the time-honored CC advice: pick up the phone and ask the coach.</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick response, I’m applying RD, so I was actually wondering whether those who had ‘committed’ had taken up LL slots that RD applicants would otherwise have. But yeah, many thanks for the thorough reply. And if someone has ‘committed’ to a university, what exactly does that mean, and what explicitly defines a ‘walk on’?</p>
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<p>it can mean anything from a ‘verbal’ that a HS sophomore makes to a college to a NLI signed by a senior. The degrees of ‘commitment’ vary from ‘nearly non-existent’ to solid.</p>
<p>
Technically an athlete who does not have a scholarship, gets admitted to the school without any coach support and tries out for the team. But there are also ‘recruited walk-ons’, just to muddy the waters.</p>
<p>PO, the coach has a limited number of LLs that can be used, and they can be used up in EA/ED or the coach may have some LLs left to use before or during the RD round. So I think the answer to that part of your question, is yes, the coach may have used up some or all of his LLs. Asking the coach “where am I on your list?” and trying to figure out whether the athletes ahead of you have already receive LLs and been admitted would be key. In some sports students post their commitments on national websites. That can help you figure out spots taken and spots left unfilled.</p>
<p>Thanks for both your through replies. Just a few more questions, do coaches give differing levels of support in admissions? For example they’ll hand in their list of athletes they want to give LLs to, but could they also ask admissions to smile on a few other candidates, or is support all or nothing? And when you see ‘commitments’ on places like the aforementioned collegeswimming (and website like this), have those athletes been accepted, received LLs or simply just ‘committed’?</p>
<p>Hi PO, I always assume “commitment” means a two way agreement. The athlete has been admitted or signed a LOI or has a LL in his hand. The coach is committed to the student and vice versa. It would be a bad idea for the student to say he is “committed” if he doesn’t have a guarantee of admission because other coaches will stop considering him. It’s like being engaged. You’re not available for dating after you announce the engagement 
</p>
<p>As far as your question about support in admissions at the Ivies, different than a LL, I suspect it varies at each school. A candidate who is highly qualified academically but on the bubble for recruiting purposes theorhetically could get in with that kind of support, I suppose. But at most (all?) Ivies, recruited athletes with LLs are already taking up a fair number of spots. Many other areas of talent are also needed by these schools, including musicians, actors, debators, and so on. Admittedly, lots of athletes can also do these things, but realistically, they aren’t going to be doing a lot of extra things besides their sport and excelling in class. I’m sure there is the rare athletic recruit who can point to national level excellence in another area, but it’s not usual.</p>
<p>My sense is, at the same time as the LL list is created, admissions is looking around at the other applicants to make sure the many other areas the school values are supplied with talent. Giving more tips to athletics often does not match with the vision of college leadership for creating a community of students willing to put extra time, talent and energy into a range of pursuits, athletic and not.</p>
<p>Ha, that was a great analogy. Again, thanks a lot for the clear cut response, it’s very much appreciated :)</p>