It doesn’t have to be. A coach could call in Nov before the ED are announce and the OP’s daughter could decide to reopen her recruiting, or if the schools she’s talking to don’t have ED but only EA, she’s not bound to anything.
My daughter was contacted by several Div 3 schools and even after she said she’d committed, even after she’d signed the NLI, they said “Oh, you can still come to our school and play immediately.” Now with the transfer portals recruiting never really stops.
As the saying goes, anything’s possible. But they already seem to have thoroughly scoured the list of sub-20% acceptance rate schools (the threshold standard they stated as acceptable to justify a U.S. college expenditure) with D3 swim programs, so it’s extremely unlikely something would pop up out of the blue.
That has nothing to do with anything - kids at all levels switch commitment and all of a sudden a coach has an opening.
While @twoinanddone is technically correct, I urge OP to view their recruiting journey as concluded. The ethics of reneging on commitment is dubious and the commitment should be made in good faith (not “until something else pops up”). More importantly, it’s time to put that behind them, focus on completing the app, school, swimming, and hopefully carving some time to enjoy Sr year.
D24 is recruited by ED schools, and intends to apply ED. However, interesting this issue was brought up, because it’s technically correct, and because that’s exactly what one coach told her about his recruiting stance. we think it’s just wishful thinking, and would agree that post-commitment musical chairs may happen in the NFL, but it’s much less likely in D3
It is more likely in D3 since the athletes aren’t bound to the school by a NLI. My daughter was still getting calls in the spring even though she’d committed in Oct and signed her NLI in November. SHE was committed, but if she’d received a call from Yale or another big D1 program, she would have switched (and probably had to sit out a year). She was happy where she was, but if some top coach had come along, if she’d had a standout senior year, she did have other options. In her case, she was very young for her grade so easily could have taken a gap year (and considered that anyway).
I was just pointing out that recruiting doesn’t have to be at an end. If OP’s daughter was feeling a lot of pressure to go to one of the remaining schools but really didn’t want to, there are still other options like taking a gap year, reopening recruiting, going to a school without swimming (which was always on her list), getting a call from another coach before ED results come out.
I hope OP’s daughter is just trying to make the hard decision between two schools that are perfect for her and wants to be done. If not, there are still other options. Many kids don’t know where they are going until May 1 of senior year and it is okay to wait if that feels right, or it is okay to change your mind even after you commit. Students, even non-athletes, do it all the time. I’m sitting here watching ESPN and all they talk about is the 86 Colorado football transfers who have changed schools, some twice! Things change, 17 and 18 year olds change their minds. The one thing I wanted for my kids was to stay at the same school for all 4 years because they went to 3 high schools. That was my wish, but I think they would have been fine transferring.
My daughter wasn’t a superstar but she had good grades and she was pretty good at lax, so a lot of the LACs wanted her. I took some of the calls (she listed my number) so I know what these coaches from Kenyon, Center, and other schools were saying. I’d say “She’s committed” and they’d say “Oh, that doesn’t matter, she can still come here and play immediately.”
D24 did get couple e-mails out of the blue from coaches she hadn’t written to/schools she had not visited, but they tended to be either women colleges, or from a much lower academic tier, neither of which are relevant in her case. Her teammate got a reach out of the blue from Pomona, with an offer within 2 weeks.
In her case, the only real statistical possibility, however unlikely, is for one of the coaches who turned her down in the past couple weeks to lose 1-2 recruits between now and ED deadline. This could happen tomorrow, or most likely never. Still think this is more a combination of wishful thinking/unlikely outcome. No point posturing at this juncture.
Did any of these coaches specifically tell her that she was only one or two places away from getting one of their supported spots? If so, then there could be a reasonable chance that something would happen. If this is just general conjecture, then probably not.
In my D23’s case, maybe I was being extra paranoid, but I encouraged her to have options in case her coach-supported ED1 application didn’t result in admission (it does happen). With coaches whose offers she turned down, she negotiated the possibility of a supported ED2 or even RD round application if something wayward happened with her ED1 app. Those were all places that she would have been happy attending and whose teams ranged from stronger to weaker than the one she had committed to.
Don’t treat a coach-supported ED app as a done deal. Maintain grades and write a strong essay. It all worked out in our case, but it was reassuring to have backup plans.
D24 is very options conscious, to the point of considering the non recruit route because she couldn’t get recruited to her Top3 schools. Teenagers have their own logic.
Has she decided not to accept one of her offers?
(For the record, I personally think that is absolutely fine as long as there is good understanding of the tradeoffs and possible outcomes. Is she still planning on applying ED somewhere?)
She will turn down her second offer this week, and decide between commitment and pursuing the non recruit route. She has the grades to get into any school, but we remind her that admit stats confirm the process is very rejective, so any logical statistician would take the 99% certainty of an athletic ED offer from a very good school over the non athletic/no hook route targeting 11 schools across US & Canada. An argument in her favor is that Canada is 99% admission, so she can fully focus on targeting 9 US reach schools
I know nothing re recruiting but i def agree with the non recruit process being rejective for the top reach schools - DD24 is also international and if she didn’t have a v strong EC hook i would tell her not to bother; even with it its such a long shot compared to our domestic stats. Very best wishes to your DD on her journey
I’m not an athletic recruiting specialist at all. But this is what I thought this swimmer was doing…pursuing the swimming route in hopes to be accepted and swim at a very good school.
Curious…what changed her mind?
I think it boils down to getting to swim at a very good school (that most kids would be excited about athletically and academically) vs. trying to attend an ultra-selective school. This was my thinking about how it would play out, especially as she has McGill as a near certainty. Go on and do some Hail Mary’s for the ultra-selective schools, and if none pan out, the student will have McGill.
I think at the end of the day she likely wasn’t excited about swim choices. As frustrating as this process has been, better to realize that now than in September of your freshman year of college.
The recruit decision is driven by how much she likes the recruiting school vs other schools. All of them are reach schools with low admit rates for international students. whilst her decision hasn’t been finalized, it is her journey and her decision. It is actually not motivated by his ultra selective a school is, but rather by vibe
Except she might love Stanford (or similar), which is understandable, many kids would. However, for most the fact that they would prefer Stanford is completely irrelevant because their odds of admission are so vanishingly small.
As an unhooked international student, this is likely to be the case with your daughter and her reach schools.
I say this not to be difficult but to frame the decision with proper parameters.
She is not unhooked at Stanford though and may not want to spend her entire life wondering what if she had taken her shot.
Re swimming: the larger schools on her reach list have fabulous club programs.
Legacy is a very weak hook though.
It’s difficult to find hard facts, but if Stanford’s admit rate is 3.9%, then I have read the international admit rate is 1%, which seems plausible. So let’s say legacy doubles your odds (i don’t even think it’s that strong). That’s 2%.
Most of this thread has been devoted to statistical odds, though vibe has (rightly) entered the discussion lately.
So, give up a sure thing at an excellent school for an almost certain rejection?
(Understanding there are more schools than Stanford on the reach list.
Or, an excellent US school vs McGill? Surely that’s a decision that’s already been considered.
It seems like McGill is the choice?
Statistically, if she decides to pursue the regular application route, her odds will be to go to Canada, which are great schools with a very different college experience. No on campus housing from sophomore year onwards, little pastoral care, fight for classes and opportunities, different holidays from her friends attending US colleges, and ultimately very different career opportunities. We’re aware of these factors, but again we committed to give her advice, it is her decision to take that advice or not.
It’s easy for kids to visit and like schools that they have extremely low odds of getting into. Setting expectations is important.
I don’t recall a statement ever being made in the affirmative on this thread that she was able to visit all three schools that made her offers. I wonder how much that has to do with with liking them or not.
I don’t understand people. Everyone is all up in arms about legacy being an unfair practice that keeps the school from accepting deserving, diverse students. But then are quick to point out it’s not really a hook.
Maybe this is not you, and I actually don’t disagree - more a philosophical comment on the state of things. I think legacy is a hook only if you are on par, and that unfortunately includes test scores.
Still, sometimes you need to take a failed shot to be able to move on. This also applies to the recruiting process. She put time and effort into it. It didn’t pan out the way she hoped for. She now can reevaluate how she feels about her options.
She has a safety she is happy with and is willing to go there and not swim or take a gap year.