Potential Ivy Recruit waiting on ED HELP

Hi, I’m currently a senior waiting on Cornell’s release on ED applicant information pertaining to admissions. I’ve been talking back and forth with the XCTF coach who has said I have nothing to worry about and that I am a strong candidate. Many people have gotten likely letters from him though and he is very vague with what he is telling me. He keeps telling me he will know in advance what the decision is and to not worry, but through his emails, he sounds as though he had no pull in admissions. I was definitely not a top recruit as some health problems held me back the last year. He did not offer an official visit and said he would call, but never did. We do, however, have 30+ emails back and forth and he has said things that could be interpreted as “things look good”. Do you think he is bluffing and just wants me to stop contacting other schools? Or is he serious? I will find out soon, but in the meantime, I’m losing scholarship offers and coaches from my safeties are starting to reach out less and less.

I would not wait if you are losing scholarship offers. A likely letter is almost a guaranteed acceptance but without a likely letter, it’s a lot less, well, likely. If you were not one of the top recruits and he did not offer an official visit and did not call when he said he would, I would NOT get your hopes up.

That is what I thought. His words and actions were contradictory and for that reason, I was hesitant to even apply ED. Because I applied ED, I can not accept offers from other schools right now (or at least other schools don’t want me to). I have been in contact with them recently and have admissions into all of my safeties. It’s more the scholarships that are the issue. At this point, do I assume the worst and tell the coach I am most interested in being under next year that their school is my next choice? Or should I continue to just tell all the coaches I am waiting and that I can’t have a decision for them yet?

I would tell the coach that you are most interested in that you’ve applied to Cornell ED but if it doesn’t work out, you’d like to accept his or her offer (make sure you mean it). When my daughter applied to Brown ED, she contacted the coach of another program and let them know that if it didn’t work out with Brown, she would for sure accept their offer. The second school seemed happy she let them know and told her to keep in contact. She ended up at Brown, but I was glad she kept in contact with the other coach so she would have options.