First, MIT does not limit students to apply to only their school. You can apply to as many schools as you’d like. If the other schools limit him than he needs to choose one school. If a school other than MIT is his first choice and MIT is a close second, I would make sure he has visited both schools because, he may change his mind. If he still prefers the other school than he should apply to that school early because he may get accepted and why would you want him to lose that dream without ever trying. If he gets rejected or deferred, he can apply to all the other schools at the regular deadline.
Thanks… Right, it is the other schools that limit him in applying. If he applies EA to MIT and gets accepted, he can still apply to the other school(s) RD. Without coach support it seems so difficult at many of the schools ,even with perfect everythings, which is what prompted my question.
@soontobedone - My son was in a similar situation to yours. MIT was co-#1 school on his list. The other school was an SCEA school so it was impossible to apply early to both that school and MIT. He talked with the MIT coach about it and was told to go ahead and apply early to the other school. She told him there was no advantage in applying early to MIT and that his support as a recruit would not change if he applied regular decision to MIT.
In the end things worked out for the best as they often do. Initially he was deferred and ultimately denied at the other school and accepted at MIT.
Thank you, very helpful. That is my son’s situation precisely with the SCEA schools. I wish all coaches, including those at MIT, were as straight forward with their athletes as your son’s. These 17 and 18 year old kids are confronted with a big decision and often confusing statements and signals. At his first choice, although he is a very competitive applicant, without coach support he is unlikley to get accepted, so it seems like a waste of an early card. At MIT, it seems like applying early is a waste as well. But if he applies early under SCEA to his third or fourth choice, with coach support, it is not fair to the coach there. At least at MIT the commitment by both the coach and the athlete is much softer. So my inclination is to suggest to my son to apply EA to MIT and RD to the other schools and commit in April when the dust settles.
very informative posts. thanks a lot very one posted.
just curious questions: how much of those contacts with coach are done by your kids?
how much of the communication the parents should better be involved especially when the the kid are so tired up at school and could not make phone calls to the coach during work hour ? I learned sometime it is very difficult to get coaches email reply in general from almost every school.
At MIT I contacted the coach for my son through an email with some video links and stats. It turned out that the coach had met my son at a summer camp at Brown and after seeing his stats he was very willing to write a letter of support. My son had always claimed he was not a recruitable athlete but he is a brilliant mathematician. After such success with MIT I also emailed the Caltech coach. He requested a phone call with my son which was more of a sell Caltech call but since my son was already sold on the academics it was fine. I don’t know if these letters of support will help but at least I felt we did everything possible to get him where he needs to be.
it is great to get support letter from both of schools ! when did the coach turned in the letters for him ? for EA/ED? I don’t know if now is too later for contacting coaches for letters for RD.
I contacted them just three or four weeks before the EA deadline. It’s definitely not too late for RD. MIT and Caltech coaches have a tough time finding athletes considering the admissions departments do not lower their standard and offer no scholarships. It can’t hurt to try and you don’t want any regrets in this process.
KathleenA,
thanks for your advise.
In this post, investedparent pointed out the ranking list is more important than a supporting letter. Grudemonk suggested to ask few questions to the coach one he decided to submit a supporting letter for the applicant.
is submitting a letter automatically put the applicant on the coach’s list ? regardless ranking
Have you asked or have difficulty to get an answer from your son;s coach ?
will coach compose this ranking list ONLY according to applicants’ athletic strengths and team’s needs? or also take into consideration of other factors such as
(1) academic profile ( predicting odds of admission)
(2) probability of commit to MIT,
(3) personality ( if coaches met the kids before and had some interaction)
Does CIT coach have similar system ( supporting / supplement letter / ranking ) ?
best wishes to your son !!!
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@ GrudeMonk : 03-18-2015 at 1:40 pm
Questions like the following would make sense and shouldn’t be too uncomfortable to ask:
Approximately how many athletes are on the “list” you send to Admissions?
Approximately how many are eventually admitted that are on the list?
Is the list ranked?
Do you know where I would rank on the list?
@ InvestedParent : 03-18-2015 at 9:34 am
After my child was deferred from EA, the coach told my child that the coach actually submits a ranking list to the admissions committee, and that my child was well down the list - so far down that had we known the ranking, we would have pushed our child to apply elsewhere.
For this particular sport, 100% of the coach’s top X (I’ll withhold this for privacy) recruits got in. 0% of the rest of the list got in.
Yes I agree if you kid is a recruitable athlete at other school then you should be asking the tough questions to weigh your options. In my son’s case he was academically a very good match (36 act, US Physics Olympiad and so on) and just a decent athlete who is not recruitable at other elite schools. We were just happy with any boost a coach could add since MIT admissions requires possibly a miracle for an unhooked student!
US Physics Olympiad. That is very impressive ! Does this a big hook ?
S1 was Siemens Regional Finalist and was still waitlisted. Nothing is the ‘golden ticket’ with MIT and Caltech. It’s a game of musical chairs minus several chairs - you have to be both skilled and lucky to win a seat!
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Wow, Siemens Regional Finalist and US Physics Olympiad are equally impressive :), Great academic performance combining with the fact of being a dedicated athlete could give your son a good portrait of how motivated, diligent, and disciplined he is.
Time commitment for sport is huge. I don’t know what sports your sons are playing, but for my son’s fencing, he commits 12-15 hours weekly on practice &driving between 2 clubs/3 locations( the furthest one is 130 mile round trip) , tournaments on almost every other weekends ( local, regional, and national), and at least 8-10 days of excused school absence each year for fencing tournament trips. It is very difficult to balance study, sport, and sleep for student athletes. A lot of time, one has to be sacrificed, which mostly is sleep, to accommodate the other(s), especially after my son started to take math courses from state college (twice weekly and 1.5 hour drive ONE round trip 
)
Our parents’ worry is that without being a college team & has facilitated logistics , it is almost impossible for students to continue the sports that they love and has been served greatly for character building & as the best stress reliever for their heavy academic workloads .
The motto of my son all-boy HS is " mind, body, and spirit". we chose it 95% based on this education philosophy. Somehow I felt the most selective colleges in USA also choose their students based on development within this multi-dimensional framework. I do hope even our sons are slightly below the standard of IVYs or D1 recruited athlete, they can still have chances being recognized during the admission process, find the best matched colleges, and eventually join the team either as supported athletes or walk-ons
Resurrecting this for a bit. After going through the process recently, I would say be very, very wary of any recruitment at MIT. My son was a solid candidate with near perfect GPA, test scores, etc. He was told by an MIT coach that he would be one of their ‘top players on their list’. I have zero question that my son could handle the work at MIT and thrive there academically and athletically. Bottom line: rejected yesterday.
I have no issue with him not getting accepted, or with the coach. I offer this post as a cautionary tale, certainly heard before, that any capable student athlete should not expect admission at MIT, no matter their stats, based on any conversation they have had with a coach. Expect not to get in, and have other great options and plans. Do not make your plans around MIT and do not do anything to exclude a shot at another school (including applying early action). Most that apply to MIT are ‘self selected’ and have awesome applications anyway. If MIT is your absolute goal, go for it…but have plan B, C, etc.
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Completely agree with you @CDK . My D was a top recruit as well, and would have thrived at MIT, but she was rejected as well after being deferred Early Action. The coach was completely upfront about the risks, but we still had high hopes. Daughter’s stats were in line with MIT (except her Math subject test score, which was good but may have been her dealbreaker).
If you are serious about playing your sport in college, keep other options open. My D had decided that MIT was the only school she wanted to play at the Varsity level. She will probably play at the club level for a Division I school.