<p>if an ivy league coach, that wants you, sees all of your academic stats invites you to an official visit, does that mean admission is virtually guarenteed?</p>
<p>No, it means that you are a potential recruit. Coaches will inite many athletes for “officials”, s/he wants to meet them, judge their interest, ability to fit in with the team, their maturity, personality, and attitude. </p>
<p>Talking to Ivy coaches, they will tell stories of recruits whom they thought were shoo-ins, (great scores, at the top of the coach’s list) who did not get accepted.</p>
<p>It’s a good boost if you are invited for an official visit, but you do not want to become over-confident. The recruiting process is ever-changing and can go from sunny to bleak in an instant.</p>
<p>Absolutely NOT… the only office that can guarantee admission is the admissions office, not the athletic department… </p>
<p>an official visit just means you are on their short list of candidates… which can have A, B and C levels… numbers of kids invited for official visits may vary based on what it costs to host, ie airfare involved vs arriving on campus via parent’s vehicle!! Some schools have “big” weekends, with top recruits, others do one off visits…to accommodate the kids conflicts… they really help you explore a school to know if it really is a good fit… if I remember correctly, you are allowed 5 Ivy visits… and I encourage you to take at least 3 if possible… so you have experiences to compare. </p>
<p>You must complete an application to each and every school with all of its components, recommendations, essays etc… doing a thorough job respects yourself, your family, your coaches and the schools…</p>
<p>Many athletes go on multiple official visits, so coaches know they won’t land all the athletes they invite for officials. So coaches invite more athletes than they can use on their rosters and will not end up making offers to all of them, nor will admissions admit all of them, as other posters have noted. Until you have a likely letter or have received an admissions offer from the admissions office, nothing is certain.</p>
<p>My daughter was told by two Ivy coaches that they weren’t completely sold on some of the girls they brought in for visits, and so they just stopped pursuing them. Therefore, they did not “present” those girls’ applications to admissions. So no, it’s not just about the athlete choosing the school–the school is still trying to assess fit via the visit.</p>
<p>just to be perfectly clear, a likely letter comes from the admissions office/department, it does not come from the athletic department…</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>blahblah, why are you bumping this? Everyone has given you a very clear and complete answer to this question. You’re not going to get a different answer by bumping.</p>
<p>blahblahblah: If the Ivy coach has run your transcripts and scores through admissions first, and then invites you for an official, what that does mean is that the coach respects your athletic talent enough and you have strong enough academic credentials for him/her to take the recruiting process to the next level. But all the other factors we mentioned above will now come into play–whether admissions approves your COMPLETE application, whether the coach still likes you after the more in-depth view he/she got during your official visit, and in some cases what the admissions officer thought of you (at one Ivy, D was personally interviewed by an adcom during her official visit). In addition, it matters which of the recruits decide they want to come. If someone better than you who would fill the exact same slot commits first, then that will have an impact on your chances.</p>
<p>^^^Correct. My S very likely lost his “slot” when a stronger candidate committed at the last minute to a highly selective LAC…He then had to decide whether to take a chance at getting in without full support, or switching to his second choice school.The coach still wanted him to apply, but couldn’t guarantee he would be accepted, and his “walk-thru” at admissions was iffy.Coach encouraged him to go ED anyway, but thought he would be deferred to RD, where all sorts of things can happen, but my S decided to go with a surer bet, and avoid months of uncertainty.</p>