<p>Hello everyone! I posted on the Stanford forum, but I was redirected to here.</p>
<p>I am a rising senior and a wrestler. I have been talking with the coach for the past month, and he told me that he would be recruiting me as a wrestler. I have strong SAT scores and a high GPA, so that shouldn't be an issue. The other aspects of my application are expected to be strong as well.</p>
<p>Can anyone from Stanford tell me what exactly this means in terms of admissions? Was anyone told that they would be recruited but didn't get it?</p>
<p>D was recruited by Stanford, sort of. She was in regular contact with coach during summer of Sr, year but when it came down to crunch time, coach said he would support her with a letter to admissions (brand new coach) but could make no guarantees. Her academics were similar to yours, but even a 230+ AI kid is taking a big chance at Stanford if they don’t have real support. She went Ivy instead with a LL.</p>
<p>Hopefully your conversations with the Stanford coach are a little less ambiguous than hers were.</p>
<p>@varska Congrats to her! I don’t think there ever are guarantees, especially when it comes to schools like Stanford. </p>
<p>Everyone I have talked to said that the Stanford coach is really honest and straightforward (which is great). He asked me to visit Stanford in April (which I did). At our meeting, he said that after talking to a few more wrestlers, he would have a better picture about recruitment for me. A couple weeks ago, he told me that he would be completely supporting my application through recruitment, so a letter from him wouldn’t be necessary. He said that that a letter to admissions is a “step down” from full recruitment. That being said, all the sports are different!</p>
<p>@studytime78, you’re right - there are no guarantees. But there are different levels of confidence and I think you are being offered more solid support at Stanford than was my D. Couple that with the coach’s reputation of being a straight-shooter and it sounds like you’re in a really good place - congrats!</p>
<p>Allegedly there was a guy from my school who was promised a soccer scholarship at Stanford but was later rejected when they found out he had played professionally and according to him the NCAA only allows amateur players to participate. This might not be too pertinent to your situation, but it’s at least about someone who was promised a spot but ultimately was rejected.</p>
<p>I heard this story from a friend of mine who was vaguely acquainted to the athlete in question so the story’s veracity is questionable</p>
<p>@aalewis I’m not a professional or anything, but that is an interesting situation. Maybe his recruitment was deemed null and void due to his being a professional? Three wrestlers that I personally know were all told they would be recruited and they all got in. That helps, but you never know…</p>
<p>@stemit I’m thinking you are being sarcastic…The coach hasn’t said anything about an NLI. I have talked to my other friends who got recruited and none of them had to sign one either.</p>
<p>@studytime78 - if athletic scholarship money is offered, the NLI signing will come into play. With wrestling that could either be early (November) or regular (April, I think). But your status as a recruit will be clear before that. I knew of a Stanford track recruit that signed a 1% athletic scholarship with the knowledge she would decline the athletic money and accept the generous Stanford need-based aid.instead,</p>
<p>Wondering if you would be able to provide any advice about wrestling recruiting. I haven’t seen any threads about wrestling, other than to say that recruitment is very difficult. It’s early - my son is a rising sophomore, but he absolutely loves the sport and has done well- placed third in a state freshman tournament. He’s been practicing with the team year round and believes that he will be on the varsity squad next year. His brother was a NMF, and while his grades aren’t quite as good (GPA 3.5 u and 4.0 w), he does do well academically. Any recommendations about camps we should be aware of or any other advice would be appreciated. I’d like to help him get to his goal and he’s said that he wants to wrestle in college. Best of luck to you - being recruited by Stanford is amazing!</p>
<p>Study - wasn’t being sarcastic in the least. No NLI, no certainty. What you have is a conclusion based upon the information you have in hand. In the world I am familiar with, you would be classified as a recruited walk on. In some schools, that means the coach has pull; in others, it means you’re on you’re own in the admissions process - with many shades in between.</p>
<p>If this was my son, I’d pursue Stamford and have a viable backup plan in hand. </p>
<p>Because recruited walk ons sign no binding agreement, nor get one from the school (e.g., Likely Letter), anyone proceeding in this scenario should have viable prepared back up plans. (I note that some schools use a strategy with recruited walk ons [e.g., a letter of commitment] which gives the player a degree of comfort but which, in reality, is an illusion.)</p>
<p>In your case, come right out and ask the coach for an NLI. The amount can be negotiated - but the comittment is rock solid. The fact that the coach asked you to visit (which was not an OV) is better then not being asked, but has radically different meaning then being invited for an OV. Coaches will always throw out invites to visit - after all, since it’s your nickel there is no downside to the coach. By visiting, you have shown interest (and who wouldn’t show Stanford some love) - but the recruiting dance has just begun; there are many hurdles yet to overcome.</p>
<p>So, I would suggest two concrete steps: (1) ask for an NLI and (2) ask for an OV (some schools use OVs before a commitment (e.g., Ivies); others use the OV to begin team bonding after commitment - I don’t know Stanford’s wrestling team’s philosophy). Any answer other then a resounding yes to both means keep looking and preparing other options</p>
<p>Does income affect athletic scholarships? My income bracket places me at a level where I would get no financial aid whatsoever…does this have anything to do with scholarships?</p>
<p>I thought that he was being sarcastic because there really isn’t a “sure way” in admissions.</p>
<p>It’s been written a million times that adcoms admit, but Stanford would not have the amazing football, basketball, soccer, swimming, tennis, etc. teams that it has if those coaches weren’t able to effectively guarantee admission to those athletes. The wrestling coach needs to tell you where you stand in terms of his support and exactly what he’s going to do for you. And this needs to happen in the next several weeks so you can pursue other avenues if he’s not promising you full support as one of his top recruits. Where else are you looking? Good luck.</p>
<p>@doubtful I am applying to several other schools. The coach has told me that I have his full support and I am top recruit. I just got an email from him clarifying my position.</p>
<p>@studytime78, first of all, congrats on the update from the coach - sounds like things are moving along nicely. Regarding your question about income affecting athletic scholarships - no, your income really shouldn’t have any bearing on whether or not you qualify for an athletic scholarship. </p>
<p>As stemit pointed out - fully funded program can offer 9.9 wrestling scholarships and Stanford carries 27-28 guys on the roster, So coach may have 2-3 scholarships available to spread out among the incoming recruits (6 or 7 guys?) For some guys - just getting admissions support at Stanford is enough and the need-based aid is better than what they would get from the athletic department. </p>
<p>Has the topic of money been brought up in your conversations with the coach?</p>
<p>Have you or the coach used the words “national letter of intent” in describing the reciprocal commitment? If not, why not? So far, you have not described your recruiting in those terms. Ask the coach. He will tell you either wrestling has no NLIs to give, or the team has NLIs and, as the top recruit, you’re getting one.</p>
<p>Every athlete is different, every sport is different. </p>
<p>But, I am wondering in wrestling have some players in your year received offers with money?
I do know that some athletes ( rising seniors) have offers with $, and that is from Stanford.</p>
<p>So, it sounds good, but could your coach inquire around? Discretely?
Have other athletes in your sport received offers? Did they get an outline of possible $.</p>
<p>I see the article Stemit posted above with a date in November,
but those deals were worked out before November… </p>
<p>You wrote in an earlier post -
“The coach hasn’t said anything about an NLI. I have talked to my other friends who got recruited and none of them had to sign one either.”</p>
<p>"None of them had to sign one either " ( your language here is very confusing to me).</p>
<p>It is a very good thing to sign a NLI - it is the GOLDEN TICKET, a contract…
You want to sign one, it means you are locked in at Stanford! </p>
<p>I think that at this point, a parent, is your dad a wrestler
maybe he should call the coach and hammer out the fine details. </p>
<p>I’m not a fan of parents in the recruiting process, but this could potentially involve $ and maybe your dad could get a better sense of whether this is a done deal.</p>
