<p>My D has several ivy league official visits for a non-revenue sport coming up in the next few weeks. We want to know what to expect, what to watch out for, do they try to make decision on the spot, will she have to handle heavy drinking and did the parents go and stay in background? Could some parents share their experiences? We have read the famous football thread but are there any girl experiences out there?</p>
<p>not sure what to tell you. I am a D3 mom. There are several books on this topic; I think one is called "Playing the Game."</p>
<p>Snippets of advice:</p>
<p>-consider herself "watched" during the whole visit. Don't dis the school, don't be drunk & disorderly, etc. If you aren't thrilled by the school, don't say so. Polite, enthusiastic, proper behavior.</p>
<p>-if a coach urges "we want you, apply ED," ask him/her for a likely letter or other written committment from admission before treating this as an ironclad offer.</p>
<p>-Heavy drinking: Easily avoided; she can conveniently be 'on an antibiotic' for the whole trip. ;) (My D went to a frat party and played beer pong, sober, and no one cared.)</p>
<p>Try to convince your D to keep all options open until you see how the visits shake out.</p>
<p>Finally if she is an Ivy possible she would probably stand an even better chance at a highly academic, sporty D3 such as Williams, Amherst, Tufts. She may want to nail down a visit to this sort of top LAC before deciding which sort of school she'd prefer.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Good advice from SBmom all around.</p>
<p>We were always in town, but we stayed in the background. But we did always go on our own to meet and speak with the coach, without D. As to D's overnights with the teams, the most interesting thing was always the candid opinions about the coaches.</p>
<p>Agree, SBmom's advice is good.</p>
<p>To expand on her first point about being "watched" all the time, that includes interactions with potential team mates and other students. </p>
<p>Other points I would add:
- Use the leadup to the visit doing some research on the school and the specific sport there. Come up with a list of intelligent questions that she can ask or save for the inevitable times when no one seems to know what to talk about next. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>If you will be applying for financial aid, make sure you do a Financial Pre-Read. With that process, you will essentially fill out all of the financial forms now with estimated data and the school will give you an estimated indication of the aid you will get. This is very important if your D wants to apply ED.</p></li>
<li><p>One other point, don't be afraid to ask where she ranks against all of the other recruits. Its a bit hard for an Ivy coach to ask for a formal decision during the visit, because the Ivies don't use the same signing rules as the rest of the NCAA. With the Ivies, the athletic commitments come on the ED application time table - the athlete commits with the ED application and the school commits with the acceptance letter. If your D decides to apply ED at one of the Ivies, she should ask the coach if he/she will support the application. Without that support, she is in the same pool as the non-athletes. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Depending on the school and the sport, expect that there will be other recruits there as well for the same sport. I have heard of one instance at an Ivy where there were no less than 20 on the same weekend.</p>
<p>My D went on 2 Ivy League official visits and we accompanied her on one of them. The coach had a program set up for us as well - tour, info session, meals together, football game, some together with D and other times separate. I'm glad we went because even though everything was very positive going into it, D didn't like the school and we felt pretty much the same way. After that, I learned that I could trust her judgement 100%, and it just wasn't necessary for my wife and I to accompany her any more.</p>
<p>Finally, I will agree with SBmom's comments about looking at top D3 LACs as well. My D ended up at Williams where, after 2 whole weeks, she absolutely loves it. In her sport, she will play against some competition that is as good as or better than lower level D1s. In addition, in four years at one of those D1s she might have been able to play in one or at best, two post season games. At Williams she has a legitimate shot at an NCAA trophy! </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Might also check out some Patriot League Schools-Holy Cross,Colgate,etc, which in certain sports offer scholarships at Div.1 level.</p>
<p>As far as parents being in the background, I have some parental experience at a D3. Coach to me discussing me watching my kid play a pickup game- "If it happens that she's invited to participate and you go, don't cheer. Last week a kid came for a visit and her parents cheered for her at an impromptu pickup game and took cell phone pictures."</p>
<p>My daughter would have shot me on the spot. Dead. I believe it is considered in poor taste to have to kill your parent at a shoot-a-round while on a college visit. I could be wrong, and remember this is D3. It may be perfectly acceptable to kill your parent at an impromptu shoot-a-round at the Ivys.</p>
<p>The Di Salvo book about College Admissions for the High School Athlete covers this topic well. You can get the book on Amazon and I found it helpful when my son was going through the process.</p>
<p>I went along on a couple of visits, and not on a couple of others--these were small D1s, and D3s. I think that the coaches in general prefer to have the parents come along, as long as they do not usurp the visit, and let the athlete be the main focus. </p>
<p>If they are Ivy visits, I do not believe that the coach can "make a decision", really--they can indicate their degree of interest, but they cannot guarantee admission for your daughter. There have been some good, but rather scary, threads on CC in the past about "promises" that were made to induce a student to apply early decision, only to be rejected by admissions. You might want to search for those threads as they were very informative.</p>