Standard for soft support for D3 track recruiting for 800m at top LACs?

[Mwfan1921]

I still am worried about relying on the “soft” support of a coach as being any kind of support that should be relied on. My sense is (likely to push-back, I know) that soft support is only a step up from having high school varsity athletic ECs on your college application. It is different from being recruit no. 5 on a list of 5 (more like recruit no. 6 on a list of 5).

Agree completely. There are entire threads on soft support, including a good one started by oldbatsiedoc, http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/bowdoin-college/2093947-prospective-bowdoin-athletes-beware-the-soft-support-p1.html

I would not place any sort of reliance on soft support (i.e., don’t waste an ED chip on it) unless the coach agrees to a pre-read with admissions and you get positive feedback from the pre-read.

Yes, yes, 1000x yes. Without a pre-read one should not have a high expectation of acceptance with ‘soft support’ in an ED round. Just make sure to ask questions of the coaches, ask for a pre-read, ask for a financial pre-read, etc. it is really important to understand the terminology they are using, and the historical acceptance rate of student-athletes accepted under those terms.