<p>Ok, we have a dilemma. My daughter has a clear number one school and is going on her official there in two weeks. She would absolutely commit to this school if offered and the financial end was feasible. There are four other schools in play and two of them want her to retest to get her ACT up by 1 point and her SAT IIs up by 60 points. She is not opposed to testing, but she would have to miss two competitions on test days and reschedule an OV. Registration deadline is tomorrow. One coach is also pushing her to apply ED, plenty of contact but no official visit yet, possibly waiting for her to agree to apply ED. </p>
<p>The thing is, she is golden for her top choice school, scores high enough to earn 6 credits for Eng Comp and place out of College Algebra. She believes she is a top recruit for this school, based on her conversations with the head coach, which began on July 1st and have continued on a regular basis. But she has not come right out and asked where she is on their list, nor has she told them it is her top choice school. We would like to know where she is on their list to help her make the decision about furthur testing. </p>
<p>I want my daughter to call the coach tomorrow, thank her for the plane tickets which she got today and telling her that it is her first choice. Hopefully, the coach would provide some feedback on where she is on the list at that time. If not, should my daughter ask? Or should she wait until she is on the official and ask in person?</p>
<p>fishy, is this a coach she has met in person on a prior visit? If the coach and your daughter feel they know each other well, it might be time to profess the love and ask where she stands.</p>
<p>I say no ED without LL or verbal in the case of the one pushing for the ED application.</p>
<p>About the additional testing: are there any non-weekend makeup dates for the ACT or SAT? I can’t blame her for not wanting to undo her fall schedule to accomodate the tests. </p>
<p>If she gets a “commitment” from the coach at school #1 is it strong like a LL or a verbal from someone with a reputation for honoring these things? Or just a “we’ll support your application.” It sounds like your daughter would like to commit to #1 and cancel her testing but that’s a bit risky if there’s any doubt about the deal closing.</p>
<p>Great advice from riverrunner. I would echo the sentiment that going single choice early action without a LL is a bad idea for an athlete. If finances are going to be an issue, I would go a step further and say SCEA is only an option with a LL and a FA pre-read.</p>
<p>I’m assuming your daughter’s top-choice school is one she has visited already? The reason I ask is that the kid’s perception of schools can change a lot during their OV’s.</p>
<p>In your situation I would go ahead and register for the next round of testing just in case. I think your daughter calling the coach at at her top choice tomorrow is a good idea and that it would be a time to be very candid; she doesn’t want to cancel any competitions to retake tests if she has some solid assurance that her top school will put her up for a LL (if an Ivy) or some other very solid assurance that she’s in. As riverrunner said, you have to determine the level of confidence you have in the coach’s commitment. A vague ‘letter of recommendation’ type of support isn’t good enough, IMO.</p>
<p>Fishymom, I have a story of a Princeton softball recruit from a few years ago. Her SAT score was 1850. Not bad but not great for Princeton. She was asked by the softball coach to get her SATs up above 2000. Princeton was her number 1 choice. She decided not to take her SATs again - she never raised her score. </p>
<p>She graduated from Princeton last year.</p>
<p>If your athletics are what they want, then you don’t need to make the scores higher.</p>
<p>All these things to think about!! I’d register for the SATs or ACTs too - you can always get out of it, although you obviously forego the money. There is always that chance she will NOT raise the scores … how is she going to raise them? Has she been in a review class? Or just hoping for better questions this time?</p>
<p>Personally, we won’t redo any testing but ACT scores are good enough for most ivies (with a coach’s support if she got it), and SATs are pretty close. But I understand the sense of wanting to get there and open up all doors, if possible. </p>
<p>Good luck, hope you can get a feel for where she stands with #1. Although it’s true, the OV will also be an eye opener one way or another.</p>
<p>And now, I am off to get ready to drop my daughter at her first OV! I’m starting to get jitters myself … will she remember her schoolwork when she has to make up those three tests?! Your daughter sounds like she is pretty level-headed. She will figure it out and it will all work out :-)</p>
<p>Thank you all for your advice. This is a school that we visited in the spring and a quite memorable visit it was! Below is the commentary I posted after that visit:</p>
<p>“The recruiting coach we met yesterday was very nice, but quiet. Couple that with my daughter, who is a bit quiet herself and you have lots of awkward silences. Very different from the day before, where she and the coach chatted easily the whole two hour practice. And thank the good Lord that wasn’t her first visit! My daughter really liked the head coach though. They were getting ready for a travel trip and the head coach was really busy, but took the time to talk to my daughter before they went out on the water, explaining what they would be doing and then talked to her again while they were loading the trailers. She was very encouraging and that really helped. But the recruiting coach didn’t really have a whole lot to say, didn’t give her any specific information about times, scores, numbers. The one thing she did say was they like to recruit from warm weather states because the kids are used to training year round, I thought that was interesting. And they all love to recruit swimmers!” </p>
<p>My daughter has talked with the head coach quite a bit, but she has been very busy since school started. She did email my daughter to apologize for being unavailable though. If she did commit to this school, a non-Ivy, it would be verbal until the NLOI was signed in November. </p>
<p>Three of the other four schools that are still in the mix are Ivy League. She was given the green light by one, although they would also like to see her AI up a bit. Her grades this semester will help and her class rank is expected to go up also, so she doesn’t have to retest for that. She has not gotten solid answers on the preread from the other two, although she was offered an official visit by one. The other is the one pushing her to say she will apply ED. She will tell this coach that she can only commit to applying ED if she has a Likely Letter and financial pre-read.</p>
<p>My daughter has a three hour block of free time this morning, so she is going to call the head coach of her first choice school when she gets home. We made a list of possible questions and responses to help her be prepared, such as if the coach asks her why the school is her top choice, she has several reasons why she thinks the school and team are a good fit for her. If the coach asks her to verbally commit, she has decided that she will, as long as the financial end will work. My daughter knows the number and also percent of cost of attendance that we can afford, so she has the info she needs to make the decision. So, we will see how it goes.</p>
<p>While your daughter has the information she needs regarding financial needs, I hate that coaches talk directly to the recruits about that piece. I wish it was common practice to invite a parent into the conversation once it turns to money.</p>
<p>I’d say, the raise your score by x amount of points, you’ve got a polite delay with the needless cost to time and $ on your athlete’s part.</p>
<p>The only thing about playing your hand right now… I fear:
“She would absolutely commit to this school if offered and the financial end was feasible.” </p>
<p>What happens if it is the financial aid part that is not there.</p>
<p>Her top choice school offers athletic scholarships for her sport. If she were offered a scholarship, she knows how much she needs, both in real dollars and in percentage of cost of attendance, to make this school financially feasible for us. I also wish that a parent would be there for the financial discussions, but we are not accompanying our daughter on this trip, so she will likely have to deal with at least some of it on her own.</p>
<p>Author, I believe that you are correct about the polite delay and we are ok with that. My daughter is new to the sport and is being recruited on her potential, although she has shown significant improvement. She has a strong athletic background and was given great recommendations from the coaches at the development camp she attended this summer. She would be a great asset to any team, but is not as polished as the top recruits, coming from a small, new club program.</p>