<p>Here is my question. In reading my local paper it shows college announcements for students who have already been accepted to prestigeous colleges for class of 2013. Schools like Princeton, Amherst, Northwestern. All are very strong female athletes but I wasnt aware anything like this happened so early in the year and "outside" of normal admissions process.</p>
<p>Yep...as much as some say it doesn't happen, it does! Verbal commitments come earlier and earlier. You can Google a class year with verbal commitments and you will find lots of kids who have been tied up already. There are listings that display what players have committed and where they are going. I just checked one listing and Elon, Harvard, Yale, Quinnipiac, Princeton have many of their soccer recruits in the system.</p>
<p>finnsdad, do you have a link to the paper? Big 10 Northwestern gives athletic scholarships so I don't have any surprise there. Princeton is D1 but in an Ivy way so I'd like to check that out a little and Amherst is almost unbelievable.</p>
<p>If this thread is really just a "I didn't know prestigious schools gave recruited athletes a boost in admissions , how awful" well.....they do.</p>
<p>Verbally committing is one thing. Actual admission is another. Just ask Gary Williams, basketball coach at UMD.</p>
<p>All verbal commitments must still get approved by the admission office, though high level athletes do not need the stats other applicants do.</p>
<p>A verbal committment is worth the paper it is written on.</p>
<p>My niece is a recruited athlete at Princeton. During the recruitment process, the coach stressed that niece can only be officially accepted by the admissions office within the guidelines set by the admissions office - not any earlier.</p>
<p>chicagosports.com</p>
<p>go to preps plus and look for recruited athletes. All of these girls are soccer players - shows committment for 2009.</p>
<p>I flat out do not believe this. The article might say that the student is being recruited by Princeton, Amherst, etc, may be planning to go to those schools, but I have never, never heard of any accepted until after the admissions season has started. In fact, I don't know of anyone who is officially accepted until after the admissions season begins at any school. There may be commitments in terms of choice, et cetera, but no official acceptance and a lot can happen between now and then.</p>
<p>Here is another link to girls who have commited to soccer.</p>
<p>spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=poknaL<em>RaORDOMcyz</em>riBDA&gid=0</p>
<p>As you can see quite a few of the players are US National team (NT) or Canadian team players, regional, ODP or top 100 players. You can click on the college tab to view by specific school. Coaches/or Clubs must submit names so there are more who have commited that aren't listed. The coaches do not want to lose these players so they are pretty sure they will be accepted.</p>
<p>The paper just says they have commited. I know when we went through the process we also met with admissions along with the coaches. We were assured by admissions that there would not be a problem although D1 and D2 had very good stats. Believe me the players and their families need to be pretty sure that the player will be admitted if they verbal because ALL recruiting quickly grinds to a stop after that.</p>
<p>That is correct. Although athletes are free to give verbals, and coaches do their best to make sure the athletes they accept verbals from are qualified for admission, only the admissions office can offer acceptance and the athletes get the offer of admission in the mail/email at the same time as other students. Of course, at some schools, athletes have already been in contact with an admissions officer who personally takes a look at their test scores and transcript and gives them a heads up on what to do to ensure their acceptance. This was the case for my son, who verbally committed his junior year and signed a letter of intent in the fall of his senior year. By the end of junior year, we had spoken with an athletic admissions counselor who looked at his senior schedule to make sure he was meeting the requirements his school wanted and he was warned to keep his grades at a certain level or he would be denied admission. And, lest you think it is always the minimum, you would be mistaken. An athlete who has good stats will be required to do as much as possible to match the profile of the average admitted student. Coaches "save" their athletic admission exceptions for the athletes they really want who would not get in otherwise. Therefore, in order to raise the team gpa profile and reputation, the "good" students are encouraged to be as good as possible. (Disclaimer: this is at an academically rigorous, top 25-ish school and based solely on my own experience with the system)
* Verbal commitments are iffy. In some sports there are "hard verbals" and "soft verbals" so that gives one an idea of how solid they are. Also, in some sports, at some levels, per NCAA rules, coaches are unable to officially comment on verbal commitments by athletes of a certain age so no one even knows for sure if the athlete has indeed gotten an offer. And sometimes miscommunications between the coaches and athletes result in an athlete announcing a verbal commitment to the press when an athlete doesn't truly have a solid offer. Take it all with a grain of salt. I just spoke with one father recently who THOUGHT his daughter had a full ride to a top school (he had been talking about this since her junior season so I guess she "verballed") and found out in May that, although accepted, he would have to come up with the 52,000 it costs to send his daughter to the school (as a walk on).</p>
<p>Ivy Leagues absolutely haven't accepted any 2009 grads for sports yet; they might be talking to coaches now but only the admissions office can accept them. They could get likely letters in the fall IF the admissions people like them and the coach wants them badly.</p>
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<p>This was specifically what I came to believe in my d's dealings with Hamilton, a NESCAC school. She chose not to attend (and not to play anywhere. We call that part "Black Wednesday" at my house. <sniff>)</sniff></p>
<p>If coaches aren't very good at assessing admission chances after an offer has been extended word gets out rather quickly and his recruiting ability will greatly diminish.</p>
<p>I think I see where this is coming from. I did look at Chicago sports and found two girls who have been reported as going to Yale for soccer. I googled them and found they play on the same select team here. <a href="http://www.eclipseselect.org/documents/Classof2009CollegeCommitments_4.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.eclipseselect.org/documents/Classof2009CollegeCommitments_4.pdf</a></p>
<p>Not everything you read is complete, and if complete not everything you read is true.</p>
<p>This is just some form of "verbal commitment". Nobody needs to get too excited just yet.</p>
<p>re post 15. Yes, it looks as if that 2009 should be a 2008.</p>
<p>Nope. On the chicagosports list it shows the Yale girls as being recruited for 2009-10.</p>
<p>Also listed as 2009 on the link I posted above.</p>
<p>I am surprised that so many others are surprised at offers that are extended early.</p>
<p>A little more digging shows that while it should be 2008, it really isn't! </p>
<p>The</a> local scoop: Who's going where -- ChicagoSports.com</p>
<p>Also a quick search for a few of those names show that these are rising seniors, they are not graduates this year.</p>
<p>I have to say that I'm not all that surprised to hear that this is happening earlier and earlier. We've seen it through the years in soccer, tennis and hockey. The daughter of a friend is 14 and she has been on the radar of two different Ivys for hockey for two years already.</p>
<p>Your link is busted, NM. Try this one. The</a> local scoop: Who's going where -- ChicagoSports.com</p>