<p>Misswan: how nice this might be all wrapped up for you soon! How great for your student-athlete :)</p>
<p>fogfog: Yes, MIT did request a pre-read (early SAT scores and transcript so far). We shall see where it all ends up - D just in second semester junior year right now, so months and months of this left…!</p>
<p>Feliz: GOOD LUCK with your D! If she is really the coach’s #1 recruit, she must have a great chance in RD - she made it through the deferral round so she is obviously very much still in the running Also, you know if she loved her visit with the team, they must have really liked her too which only helps her situation.</p>
<p>D2 was recruited by MIT. Coach said that he had limited influence (I paraphrase). He said he writes a recommendation and flags the admission folder. He said that he sees who gets in during the April Welcome to MIT Admittees weekend. D2 got deferred in EA. However, she got accepted at her #1 ED, verbally committed school. Even after that, MIT Coach was disappointed and said that he still feels she’ll get in RD. He hoped she would reconsider her ED admit and still go after MIT. This, of course, was unacceptable to us and D2 is wonderfully happy at her ED school.</p>
<p>If MIT really wants recruits they need to give the coach more pull.</p>
<p>I am bound for Amherst (ED), but I am not an athlete. </p>
<p>I believe most of the competitive schools choose their athletes in the EA/ED period (except Princeton and Harvard which don’t have ED). I have a friend who was recruited for Yale in crew, one recruited for basketball at Middlebury and another in fencing at Harvard. However, had they not been great athletes, they probably would have been accepted anyway (legacies at Harvard and Yale). I think you have to be academically very strong in addition to being a good athlete in order to get into a highly competitive school. </p>
<p>When I went to Amherst for a tour, the admissions person said that they usually bring in the athlete during the Early Decision process. It made sense to me. If you need a goalkeeper, then you recruit a goalkeeper through ED. Otherwise, you could end up with three goalkeepers or none.</p>
<p>As a past recruit to MIT’s fencing team, I can say that the coach did not have much pull. I was one of the few recipients of his recommendation letter to the adcom and applied ED, was deferred, and then rejected RD. </p>
<p>He told me that the year before I applied, he wrote two letters, and both of the students were admitted. I feel I was never deceived in the process, although I did feel that my chances were far better than they apparently were. He told me that he had no way of getting advance admissions decisions, and that he found out when I did, which was the same time as everybody else. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I am very well aware that other ivies have true “slots” that they give to other top recruits in fencing as long as they fall in a reasonable academic range. </p>
<p>Unfortunately since I put all of my recruiting efforts into MIT (and application efforts for that matter), I was rejected from the other schools that I applied to, and ended up at the flagship state university. Some advice to anybody in a similar recruiting position as I was: if a school like MIT that does not value their athletes is your first choice, have a a very solid second choice that you will be happy with that will nearly guarantee you admission. And if you find yourself at a big state school that was way down on your list, realize that your school’s size can be a huge, unexpected advantage. There are a lot of opportunities available at big research universities, and for some reason, a disproportionately small amount of people take them.</p>
<p>Biohazard: A good “word from the wise” - thank you for sharing your experience. I wonder if it is different in admissions for crew at MIT as it is Div. 1 - maybe not much since I imagine that there is not the athletic culture at MIT that schools filled with D1 athletes have - colleges where the admissions office is used to doing the admissions dance with the coaches.</p>
<p>Fencing at MIT is Div III, however they would always point out that they compete at a Div I level (because NCAA fencing is small they mix all of the divisions together for a lot of events). I assume that rowers would get far more admissions consideration at MIT being that it is Div I, MIT has to sink more money into the sport, and thus they would want the higher level athletes to make the money well-spent.</p>
<p>My understanding is that MIT admissions does not do pre-reads for athletes, that all applicants go through the same admission process (albeit with athletic hook). If you know different, that would be quite interesting and new information to CC, I think. The coach, on the other hand, did want to see the academic info first and was clear that son’s numbers had to meet the standard before he would offer his support.</p>
<p>Princeton soccer coach has lots of pull. Friend applied in May (yes May,at coaches request) senior year and was accepted. Good student but not the best. Val of his school was rejected.</p>
<p>I was not told there was any sort of pre-read by the adcom for MIT. Unlike the ivies, MIT does not have “likely letters” or any sort of advanced admission hints from the adcom. Unless I was sorely misled, the coaches (at least the fencing coach) finds out about admissions at the same time as every other student.</p>
<p>As a side note, it must be really difficult trying to be a competitive coach at a place like MIT. Even if you get a high level recruit that is interested enough to make that school their first choice, AND meets the average GPA/SAT scores, you still have very little influence to get them in, and you will mostly have a team of new/rather inexperienced individuals that you have to coach up. In the case of fencing, it must be frustrating to only write a few letters a year, and still have those recruits rejected.</p>
<p>My daughter has been told she has the support of the crew coach and that a letter was waiting at the admissions office for her app. They had all her info and the coach talked to her counselor and coach. She wasn’t sure she was going to apply due to the lengthy application and the fact that she has never been to MIT. She was never invited on a visit. Also, she was rejected by Stanford REA even though she had many conversations with that coach but was told she was not strong enough to come in as a recruit. Her numbers are on the low side for MIT but she has many great EC’s, class president, math & science Gov school. This is very stressful!</p>
<p>We’ve known a number of athletes who were recruited by MIT - 4 of whom were admitted as well as several who were not. All of them were excellent applicants based on their academic credentials alone - e.g. would have been in the pool to be seriously considered without their athletic credentials. All of them described the coach’s support as being no more than a tip - e.g. a way to distinguish them from other, also well qualified applicants. As previous posters have said, they reported that the coach noted his or her support for the applicant, but did not know what the outcome would be any earlier than anyone else. As an outside observer, it was difficult to discern what differentiated those who were admitted from those who were not - e.g. they seemed to have equally strong credentials, both athletically and academically. As others have noted, it would seem pretty risky to count on admission to MIT based on being an athletic recruit.</p>
<p>I wished every school handling athletic recruit like MIT. After all there is no athletic scholarship in D3 any way. Why make admission so complicated for athletic credentials? Admission should be based the whole not one way or the other. </p>
<p>ihs76: It was the coach who requested the early transcript/initial SAT results.</p>
<p>ldddl27: Wishing your daughter GOOD LUCK!!! Yes, very stressful not knowing - no guarantees - no use of likely letters. This does set MIT at a real disadvantage for attracting Div. 1 quality rowers.</p>
<p>I wonder if a coach would encourage early admissions as a way for the coach to start to build his/her team - otherwise, as pointed out by Biohazard, the coach will be dealing with, and depending on, inexperienced walk-ons. Must be VERY frustrating for a coach to have so little pull in admissions, even with bright, potentially qualified candidates.</p>
<p>That’s helpful, Mayhew, to note that the coach requested scores. I think that is standard practice at all academically rigorous schools so that the coach doesn’t waste time recruiting an athlete who doesn’t really have a shot at admission. However, that’s different than the formal “preread” done by admissions departments at some schools - which would have much stronger implications for admissions.</p>
<p>Runners2: Thank you for pointing out the difference in the wording, and that is my mistake. MIT coach requested them for the coach’s benefit. Other schools have also asked for this information for coach’s benefit, while others have specifically mentioned taking the information to the admissions office (a pre-read), and going so far as to ask admissions to suggest what courses should be added to student’s curriculum if necessary. All still very early for this spring sport.</p>
<p>You are absolutely correct that this sort of information, as early as it is, saves the coach from wasting time on a recruit that will ultimately be unattainable due to academics. Also, it saves the student athlete from day dreaming about playing his/her sport at their absolute dream school if there is no chance of them getting past admissions in the first place. Fair and realistic for both coach and student, I think.</p>
<p>Quick note regarding MIT crew for poster whose D is waiting to hear from admissions: The women’s crew team has been heavily developed in the last couple of years - this has clearly been a focus for the athletic department with a relatively large amount of freshman and sophomore recruits under the current recruiting coach. This hopefully bodes well for your D - again, Good Luck!!</p>
<p>Thank you Mayhew, we’ll wait to see what happens. My daughter’s not really counting on it after what happened with Stanford. She’s applying to a bunch of other great schools. Whatever happens is for the best. I wouldn’t want to see her struggle at a school like MIT and try to keep up with the the rigorous schedule of crew. If they think that she can handle the academics there, than I guess she’ll get in. Everything happens for a reason.</p>
<p>one of our HS college counselors is a former NESCAC basketball coach. His advice: believe nothing a D3 or D1-AA (thst includes the Ivy and Patriot Leagues) says about admission possibilities. Coaches can get help at the admissions office for 1-4 recruits a year, depending on the sport. Their jobs depend on assembling successful teams, and they will save their admissions capital until the last possible moment and spend on their highest few priorities. Their mental recruit rankings change daily.</p>
<p>ldddl27: I love your attitude - definitely the healthiest, and right, way to look at things. Everything really does work out for the best ultimately, even if we can’t quite understand why things end up the way they do!</p>
<p>smog: Good advice - harsh but realistic. How sad it is not to be able to fully believe all of the lovely, enthusiastic, encouraging, exciting, flattering, entertaining and promising recruiting letters my D is receiving - it all sounds SO good!!! Sigh…!</p>
Also, you know if she loved her visit with the team, they must have really liked her too which only helps her situation.</p>