Don’t want to name the school, as the applicant was deferred and still has a shot, but my son’s teammate (not soccer) went down to this academically superb D3 school for a recruiting weekend, was given a thumbs-up on the academic pre-read, was told explicitly by the coach that he had his full support (not a NESCAC, so the terms slot, tip, etc. don’t apply), and then applied ED. As noted, he was deferred. He’s an extremely like-able kid, so I can’t imagine anything went bad on the recruiting weekend. Is a great student, and his academic interests dovetailed well with the focus of the school. He and his family are pretty savvy with the whole recruiting process, and it’s also hard to imagine that they mis-read the conversation with the coach. So this stuff does happen.
And BTW, the school is one of a group whose name rhymes with Fairmont.
Also happened to someone I know at another superb D3 school: told top recruit, positive feedback on pre-read, etc. Instead, athlete was rejected outright for ED. So it happens. Have a back up plan just in case it does.
Not at all surprised about Fairmont. I have heard that you don’t get much of a recruiting bump with admissions there at all, or for that matter Formona.
gointhru: My S attended, after attending several camps in the NE as a rising junior, drew interest from the California D3 you referenced. The recruiting coach was very upfront about the lack of pull with admissions so S did not pursue, since he lacked the academic qualifications.
Asleep mentions that recruit-in-question passed a pre-read. I find this interesting because the standard LAC sales pitch focuses on the high admission percentage of ED applicants, who passed pre-reads, with the qualification that passing pre-read is not a “guarantee.” That said, Asleep’s recruit was not denied, but “deferred,” usually the admissions department will provide a reason to the coach for a deferral, such as “need to see final, first semester transcript.” I wonder whether or not a reason was provided.
@zenator – I stand corrected. Actually I found out yesterday when my son and wife got back from the team holiday party that his teammate was rejected, not deferred. And risking repetition, this is a kid whose GPA, SAT’s, etc. would have made him competitive for admission at that school even without athletics.
For my son, who’s a better student than he is an athlete but desperately wants to continue in his sport at college, his choices came down to Amherst and the sister school of his teammate, Formona. Recruiting weekends, positive pre-reads, and coach support at both. He preferred Amherst, and before he applied ED he asked the coach (who’s been there a while) specifically, “What has been your experience with kids with my academics and the same level of coach support that you’ll be giving me?” The coach responded that he would follow my sons application through the application process, and that he “couldn’t imagine” that there would be a problem with admissions. He was accepted last week.
We know a recruited athlete who was rejected by Formona a couple of years ago after expecting to be admitted, but we really don’t know the nature of the conversation with the coach and whether she truly had coach support. But either way we feel a bit fortunate that my son went in the direction that he did, with a coach/school that could be explicit and reliable with this whole process.
I think the lesson to be drawn from this is what has been stated a number of times before in this forum: in D3 there is no such thing as a LL which pretty much assures admission. The best you are going to get is an “I can’t imagine you won’t get in,” which still is not a promise. My daughter got as close of an assurance as possible, but they were still clear that they could not promise she would be admitted (she no question had the stats to get into this school without any assistance from the coach, but you never know in today’s admissions scene).
This forum was invaluable to me as I navigated my way through the D3 recruiting process. But even with incredible assurances from the coach (pre read: “this is as positive feedback as we can give without assuring admission”), it was still nerve-wracking until we got official confirmation that she was accepted. And that anxiety was fomented by the news of the recruit we know who was rejected from a D3 after a positive pre-read and being told she was a top recruit. Did that recruit ask all the right questions? I don’t know. This is a savvy family and the athlete has good stats and is very talented. Sometimes this does happen, and it can’t be blamed on the family not asking the right questions though. So heed the warnings re D3 recruitment and have a back up plan made - if worse case scenario happens it helps to have talked through what the next steps would be. And let 2nd and 3rd choice coaches know that you would love to be considered should the 1st choice fall through.
Unfortunately I realize we have gone really far afield from the original topic - students admitted and over-recruited for the team. Wish this last discussion about D3 recruits being rejected ED were under a different heading.
And btw, one of the best pieces of advice I received in this forum was to ask the question re how prior recruits with similar coach support had fared in recent admissions seasons. Our answer was comforting. BUT, the D3 prospect I discussed was rejected due to a “unprecedented” extremely competitive admissions season at the school in question. So again, there are no assurances.