<p>For the first round of OVs
--do coaches generally invite the highest on the list to the first date, then the less desirable of the recruits to the second date, and then third date etc...??
Can an scholar-athlete surmise anything by date of OV? </p>
<p>or are all OVs in Sept generally high priority recruits?</p>
<p>fogfog, I think this is somewhat sport-dependant. Athletes in fall sports often have weekends they just can’t travel, even if the coach would like them to come ASAP. Fall sport coaches only have a few weekends they can host athletes because they are traveling or hosting events at home. Sports without a weekend competition schedule in the fall may be able to orchestrate visits in the way you describe, but for the most part, everyone travels when they can make it work. Some coaches were really pushing for specific weekends, but it seemed to be more about logistics than trying to gather a certain group of top recruits.</p>
<p>I always seem to come back to the musical chairs analogy, though: the music is playing and each time it stops, a chair gets taken away- after a while there aren’t any chairs left, so show up early and sit down, if you know what you want.</p>
<p>I agree with Riverrunner - I think there are many variables that might influence the date of an OV and not much can be surmised about the coach’s interest based on that date. Keep in mind, that the list of recruits the coach is working with continues to evolve. Kids drop off the list and others come on (sometimes because they’ve stopped pursuing more competitive schools in their sport, although they may be very competitive at another school). So, it’s not like the coach has a fixed list of recruits in order of desirability that remains stable throughout the recruiting season. The whole process is a pretty fluid one and riverrunner’s analogy of musical chairs is the best description I know of - Good luck!</p>
<p>A couple of schools gave my daughter a list of dates, ALL their dates I believe, and let her choose. One school only gave her one date and it’s late in October. I don’t know if they have more than one weekend, but when we had our unofficial visit, they seemed pretty interested in her. And the last visit she was offered is a school with a coaching transition. She was given a choice of two dates, but they recommended that she come the later, when the coach would be there.</p>
<p>So it seems to vary, or else she is just nobody’s top pick!! ;-)</p>
<p>Thansk. Just wondered if they had an A group an B group within the first rounds and that they may or may not be assigned OVs in a certain way…“priority recruits” vs recruits for example…</p>
<p>Thankfully kiddo’s first OV is also kiddo’s first choice so we are keeping fingers crossed they make the match.</p>
<p>if you are getting paid to visit a school in September… consider yourself a high priority recruit… some coaches like to be the first top of the list school to beat
however
if you say I’m ready to visit/commit/love the school, then your coach pulls a ooo wait you should visit all your opportunities or some equally polite delay tactic like pushing a visit until later in the fall, someone even higher has claimed your chair and you are usually being held in limbo until the chair actually has legs to hold you… or they know you will commit and want you to come when they have another top recruit they will pair you with to help them see the light.</p>
<p>my guy played fall soccer…and so it was a bit tough to find weekends for a full 48 hour campus visit… he knew by mid-summer which five he wanted to visit… and all coaches understood that there were conflicts between HS sports and other visits…at two of his, it was the “big” weekend for recruits… lots of kids, group of parents too… entire gang taken to Saturday football game, team, kids and parents… one of the two schools had a big ice cream social for team, kids and parents… at another school, the coach was involved with Olympic coaching for a foreign country, so the dialog and planning for official visits was much later in starting…and ultimately an OV never happened … </p>
<p>if the school is a top choice for you or your kid, it might pay to ask if there is a “big” OV weekend … they usually have more “events” and resources teed up for kids and parents, ie financial aid, special tours, airport pickups etc…but, at the end of the day, you want the visit to see if the school is a match for you or your kid… and not just to compare notes with the other recruits… </p>
<p>if you do not have a fall sports conflict, then you are in the cat bird seat and should just ask for all dates when you might make your OV…if only offered one, then lock and load!! if you can take off Monday morning from school, then you can travel Sat am and have Sat nite…Sun nite… and then Monday to sit in on a class or two…that is a good thing… we had a few Fri nite soccer games and so those were the weekends for us to visit the schools that involved air travel leaving early Sat…</p>
<p>This thread seems more relevant to me today … my daughter finally talked to the one school who had seemed really interested but had been quiet, and they’re sending her plane tickets. </p>
<p>Later, while we were driving home from dinner, she suddenly had a message on her phone (must have been in a dead zone when it rang) and it was the ivy coach who has been stringing her along. So they actually offered her a visit! But we know the visits have been lined up for weeks and all the early ones are filled. He offered her the same weekend as the one she had just been offered plane tix for! </p>
<p>Of course she isn’t going to back out of that for what could be a longshot anyway, and after being strung along she is leery…but he also said she could come the following weekend, which is very late, but then she’d have no turnaround time for a decision.</p>
<p>Also, that’s five Fridays out of school. None have offered her a Monday morning class yet … anyone know how many days you’re allowed by your schools? I imagine it varies but I want to say only three are excused.</p>
<p>^^ I think the school days miss really varies from school to school, private vs public.</p>
<p>I would see if you can find the answers in whatever new school year paper they send home …or online.</p>
<p>In our case–the se types of school visits are excused and the student must meet with all teachers beforehand and negotitate when and how all work will be made up…Often teachers expect the kids to take tests EARLY - not later…there is a from that the student, all teachers and the parents sign.</p>
<p>your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>Our high school excuses all college visits as long as the student has a signature from someone in authority at the college: someone in admissions, the visitor’s office, etc. The high school has a form the student takes on the visit and returns to our school. </p>
<p>wilberry, what a dilemma! My advice is to develop thick skin, and not read too much into a late invitation. You’d be amazed at how last-minute much of this process happens. College athletic offices are scrambling to figure out which athletes are true prospects, which are already commited other places, and trying to make sure they haven’t overlooked talent. </p>
<p>A highly selective school’s coach called my D at the very last minute, apologizing up and down, and said each of the recruiting coaches had thought she was on the other’s list, so weeks had gone by with no contact. She was one of their top recruits. I guess you could argue you wouldn’t want your kid to play for someone who operates this way, but that wouldn’t be true- it was just a mistake. Take lots of deep breaths.</p>
<p>Thanks riverrunner, but, nah - she’s been talking to this coach since early July. We’re not deluding ourselves, in fact her friend is already going there on a visit in a couple of weeks. But that friend actively requested the visit. It isn’t a huge deal, she may even turn it down (!) although it’s her only ivy. Maybe she isn’t quite competitive enough either academically or athletically. Maybe she wants to be a bigger fish in a slightly smaller pond? I have to offer my best advice and then leave it up to her. </p>
<p>As for missing class, she tends to put things off, so she only told one teacher (the one she likes best) that she has this visit and will miss tomorrow. She’s missing something like three tests! I’ll have to tell her to find out the policy before next week. I’m sure they won’t mind the first time but wait till they see her out again NEXT Friday. It can get old. ;-)</p>
<p>Deep breaths? I was thinking deep glasses of wine!</p>
<p>:) yes to the wine. The whole thing is a moving target. Don’t expect it to make perfect sense until the very end when all this churning around results in a happy outcome.</p>
<p>Please pass me that wine bottle, I need a drink or two myself! Although I have great faith in the process, it is quite stressful.</p>
<p>Screw the wine. I’m going straight for the hard stuff…this whole process is going to age me thirty years.</p>
<p>I wish you could have seen the hair color change that took place on my head between Sept and Nov of 2007 :)</p>
<p>keep the faith folks… it will work out in the end… and if they are not “offering” Monday class visits, and that would work best for your kid, then have them ask the coach for a Sat to Mon visit … just be honest and have your kid say that would work best for them… </p>
<p>our HS did not require anything in writing, I only had to call the front office and tell them my kid would be in late… we always tried to get back in time for some school so he could go to practice…and be eligible for the Tuesday nite soccer game…</p>
<p>I can only encourage you to view it all as fun options… start reading the online-newspapers from the schools so you have a sense of what might be going on for the OV weekends… </p>
<p>and try to go too, if you can… especially because there are wonderful moments where you can chat about the experience with your kid as it is happening or just ending and you will get a real sense of whether they liked the school/program/kids/city/town etc… it will give you a memory to treasure… the kids really do grow up quickly on these trips, mine was walking prouder and straighter… I used to tease him that this was his first time getting paid to fly… </p>
<p>and I will echo riverrunner, while the coaches are on top of their game, at the end of the day, athletic departments are as understaffed/funded etc as every other American organization… I was surprised at how well things went overall on my kids OVs, because there are not a lot of wizards behind curtains getting this all done…</p>
<p>wilberry - I totally empathize with you about all the missed Fridays…we are in the same spot, and it is definitely not ideal. However, a total of 5 Fridays - all trips that will affect the next 4 years in every way - is not the biggest sacrifice, at the end of the day. Neither my daughter nor her school are psyched about the 5 missed physics labs, etc. but the school is being as supportive as they can be. Fortunately my daughter’s school does allow seniors to miss a total of 5 days for college visits during the school year. I also think that if one of these OVs turns into a college acceptance, it is not only great for my daughter, but it is going to reflect well upon the school - could be one more ivy school or top tier non-ivy to add to their college matriculation list for this year’s senior class. Works for everyone…we just have to get there…phew! </p>
<p>My daughter is on her way right now to her second OV…an exciting whirlwind for her, and I am having fun reading the CC threads about each of these schools before she heads off/while she is visiting. Fun, interesting, exciting, and stressful!!!</p>
<p>I too will skip the wine - a “real drink”/cocktail takes the edge off for me…!</p>
<p>Well, I checked the handbook and they only excuse three college visits. I wouldn’t worry so much but she has to miss a minimum of seven days for competitions this year - two Fridays and an entire week in April. <ouch> This is why … they get 16 unexcused absences before the school starts giving them credit. Sounds like a lot until you have to miss 7 for sporting events and then two unexcused for OVs!!</ouch></p>
<p>I’m sure they would work it out, but the week in April is the real killer. Only one of the four years did it happen to fall on her spring break.</p>
<p>And by the way … let’s not talk about hair color :/</p>