I was deferred from Harvard with no athletic support, but recently when to a soccer camp at Harvard and met the coach. The coach loved me and his exact words were “I really want you on the team. I’ve used all of my slots, but I am definitely going to contact admissions and do as much as I can to support your application for admission.”
I talked to him a few days ago on the phone and he told me that he did do everything he can with admissions. He said that he will call me back in a few weeks because he is going to follow up with admissions again to restate that he really wants me and that “the program would sincerely benefit if I were to be apart of it” so he can get a more “confirmed answer” on what my potential for admission.
The men’s soccer team forfeited it’s season this year, and as a result some male players may not return next year, and some women might opt not to play next year given the circumstances. That might work to your benefit, but I imagine the men’s team will be under intense scrutiny for the next several years, so who knows: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/11/4/soccer-suspended-scouting-report-harvard/
If the coach really wants you his support will help as long as your stats are in an acceptable range for admissions. @gibby is correct in that there are some players who will probably not return next year due to the forfeit this year, so that may help your case.
This is a really tough call. It might be that he is just trying to be nice to you. I hope that is not the case.
Many HR people will tell you the same thing after you interview - “We loved you so much and would love to have you work for us but all the slots are taken.”. I always walked away thinking that if I was so great, then why did you not hire me?
I wish you best of luck with the team and eventually getting into Harvard. You were deferred so it is still hopeful for you. Good luck.
At this point, what difference does it make? The coach isn’t trying to get you to do anything you haven’t already done, so he has no incentive whatsoever to lie to you. If he told you he hadn’t used up his slots, that would sound like a lie, because he probably used them on kids who were admitted EA, or he promised them to kids who might not have applied otherwise and he doesn’t want to take that back. So he’ll see if he can beg a little extra help from Admissions, which given what happened this year they may or may not be inclined to do.
Either way, having him go to bat for you, even if he doesn’t actually have a bat, can only help you. It may come to nothing, but if it does you would not have been getting in to Harvard anyway. If you do get into Harvard, maybe you would have gotten in without the coach’s help . . . but you should thank him profusely anyway, because he probably made a difference. And if you get waitlisted, don’t toss it in the trash. In the past, I’ve seen some mid-range athletic recruits taken off the waitlist before April 15. Essentially, if a few accepted recruits turn Harvard down, they will immediately replace at least some of them with people the coach picks off the waitlist. That could be you, too.
@JHS is right on point. I would add that the other variables at play are the relationship between this coach and the admissions office and where you otherwise fall on the cut line in terms of the rest of your application. Have you calculated your Academic Index to see where you stand? While the AI is not a “holistic” measurement, it is a calculation applied to athletic recruits for the Ivies (if you are not familiar with this, a Google search will give you a lot of sites that explain the AI and how it works for athletic recruits). Since Harvard historically defers a high percentage of EA applicants, you could fall under a pretty wide range of otherwise being close to the cut line in the EA process or deep in the pack. The coach’s support can only help you, especially if you were already close, and it may be the tipping factor. On the other hand, if your application is not close, it is unlikely the support would push you over. Remember the athletic recruits that got the official slots had to meet certain academic criteria to begin with, including AI standards. Best of luck.
The coach may have had a recruit fall though and did not make it thru admissions ED. That is 1 possibility.
The other possibility is he is just being nice to you and does not want to hurt your feelings or burn any bridges with you. If you get in on your own, great, he’ll have an extra kid for the bench without a lot of recruiting effort on his part.
The downside to this for you is you will be essentially playing behind the other kids he recruited before you showed up, so your chance of just riding the bench is high. Unless you really can play and show up as a walk on and take one of the older recruited kids slots. That can happen.
I wouldn’t count on a lot of coach support during admissions, but maybe you have a chance to play on the team down the road.
A couple years ago I had the opportunity to discuss this question over dinner with two NCAA coaches, one from an Ivy League school, the other from the ACC. The ACC coach told me he would be free to support an additional applicant and the Ivy coach lamented that, due to conference rules, his hands would be tied even for an applicant with a 240 AI.