<p>After a lot of talking with track coaches, They told me that they have a couple recruiting slots that essentially guarantee the kid to get in. And the other recruits who they may want, but not as much, are put on a list that is given to admissions. So when they read over applications and see you’re on the list, they give you some sort of extra consideration.</p>
<p>I was on the “list” for ED at UPenn, the coach told me that he was very confident that I would get in… untill I was rejected. But I applied RD at Dartmouth and the coach fully supported me and I recieved my “likely” the other day. Make what you will of that.</p>
<p>That sucks forkingjamie. I did RD to Penn for track and I hope I can get in. My stats are good, but apparently the admissions committee sits down with the coach and make him make a list based on talents and such. They then factor in how much a coach wants an athlete and their stats. So every recruit is on “the list”, but it just matters how high you are on it. And that was told to me by my guidance councilor (his daughter went Ivy for athletics) and my good friend that got in ED for athletics to Penn.</p>
<p>MIT & Williams. Coaches can write their recommendation but that does not mean a thing. Even if the stats seem strong and was pre-read, coaches cannot guarantee anything.</p>
And derail college plans for kids like Biohazard? You have to understand that athletic admissions is a different ballgame. In certain ways, athletes do indeed have to throw their eggs in one basket and it can be riskier than normal admissions. What annoys me is that MIT seems to reach out but never pull in. A school like Caltech will probably not do much of either. Ivies will do both. What MIT is doing seems almost deceptive and irresponsible and should come with a clearer disclaimer, or at least clearer actions.</p>
<p>Maybe the situation at MIT varies across sports and coaches. </p>
<p>The kids we know who were recruited there (both those admitted and those who ultimately were denied) felt that the coaches were very honest with them about the limits of their influence in the admission process. In each instance the coach said he has very little influence - he can only submit a list of athletes he’d like to have - and wouldn’t know about the outcome until admissions decisions were announced. </p>
<p>Afterwards the athletes and their parents told us they believe his influence amounted to a tip that differentiated them from other equally academically qualified applicants, but the coach didn’t even claim that much influence. Perhaps other coaches there aren’t as scrupulous in describing the limits of their influence?</p>
<p>This thread has made me reconsider the benefits of attending college sports camps. Our younger one is a sophomore who would like to play D3 soccer, possibly in the UAA or Centennial Conference. (We dragged her along on one of D1s college trips so she has seen several schools.) I had been checking which colleges have camps and which coaches work at others camps, but now I wonder whether it is worth the effort. If the coaches have so little pull, are there benefits to attending a particular college’s camp beyond the obvious ones of getting to know the coach and seeing the campus up close?</p>
<p>coase: I wouldn’t generalize much beyond specific schools that have been mentionned. There is such variability between schools, even within a given conference, that you need to look for school specific information.</p>
<p>For example, a coach at a highly respected Centennial conf school, with usual acceptance rate <30% and probably <20% this year, told us that for ED, recruited athletes have >80% acceptance rate, and >60% for RD. Nothing to sneeze at.</p>
<p>I think the amount of pull a coach has is highly variable across schools. In our S’s experience in being recruited at Ivy’s, I think the coach’s influence was really important in differentiating him from all the other well qualified applicants. I just don’t think that at MIT (at least in his sport) that the coach has a lot of influence. So, I don’t know that I’d rule out going to summer camps - they may be really useful. You might throw out the names of some of the schools your child might be interested in attending for camps and see if anyone has had personal experience with them.</p>
<p>Edit: Posting at the same time as ihs - looks like we’re on the same page!</p>
<p>“MIT & Williams. Coaches can write their recommendation but that does not mean a thing”</p>
<p>Teams in the nescac, (amherst and williams) can do much more than just write a recommendation, they can slot athletes who would normally have no chance at admission and make verbal offers. they have much more pull with admissions than MIT, at least for football</p>
<p>ihs76, that is encouraging. Even if the coach is very careful in selecting recruits, that is still a substantial difference in acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Runners2, the schools of interest would include Haverford, Hopkins, and Swarthmore from the Centennial; Carnegie Mellon, Chicago, and Wash U from the UAA; and Tufts. Hopkins, Swarthmore and Wash U have summer camps.</p>
<p>Coase, I do recommend you D to go the summer camp still. The reason is even there is a no pull from coach for UAA or Centennial Conference, she will have a better chance of slot for her if she got accepted. My son went to some camps last summer and got nothing from there so he will be “walk on” the team if there is a slot and got accepted. </p>
<p>Actually I hope there is no pull from the coach which makes a fair ground for students attending the school, but this is not truth and away from reality. My two cents.</p>
<p>Our S went for athletic visits to WashU and Tufts - stayed overnight with team, met with coaches, etc. - just like an official visit, but not official since we paid for airfare.</p>
<p>In both of those instances, he was pretty heavily recruited, and coaches indicated their influence was in the line of what I would call a “tip” - e.g. wouldn’t overcome a weaker academic record, but might be influential in differentiating among applicants who all had strong academic histories. </p>
<p>We also thought both coaches were really honest about their degree of influence. In both instances, they had the admissions office look at his application materials available at that time (GPA & test scores) and gave us positive feedback. No guarantee, but certainly encouraging. Although I don’t know anything specific about the coaches in your child’s sport, it seems like attending camps and establishing relationships with coaches at those schools might be useful, as long as it seems that your athlete is in the ballpark both athletically and academically. Good luck with this crazy process!</p>
<p>coase- In my recruiting experience this year, here’s what I’ve found (in my sport) from the UAA:</p>
<p>WashU- The coach was very honest and said the most they offer is a letter of recommendation and as another poster said, it is simply a “tip,” nothing more.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon- The coach does have some definite impact and can get lower academic type students in based on their atheltics. I spoke to a soccer player there who had a 1220 (CR+M)- much lower than the school avg.</p>
<p>UChicago- What I’ve seen is that it really depends on the sport here. The ones that are “up-and-coming” and that are highly ranked every year get more impact in admissions from coaches. These sports (under my impression) are W Soccer (NCAAs almost every year), M (#8) and W (#4) Track, W Tennis (#4). Recently, they may be giving more weight to Football as they attempt to revive its popularity. On many sites you’ll find comments that compare UChic to Caltech and say “this is one of few schools where athletics means nothing.” I think this is incorrect now as you’ll find posts on this site where a 27 ACT Football player was admitted and a couple 30/31 ACT Track athletes.</p>
<p>I would agree with monstor344. Although I am fully aware that I made the mistake of putting my eggs in one basket, I felt as if I needed to if I truly wanted a shot, as of course coaches are only going to support you wholeheartedly if they know that you will attend their school if accepted. I like how you say that “MIT seems to reach out but never pull in.” This is very accurate judging from my experiences. I think that this is a strong disadvantage of not having a true “pre-read” by the adcom or a likely letter. Obviously, if I had known that the adcom was going to look unfavorably upon my app in advance, I would have pursued other schools more vigorously.</p>
<p>Biohazard- I agree with you. Had I stumbled upon this site earlier, I would have done a few things differently in retrospect. #1 would have been to contact more schools. The coach I spoke to really sold me on his school and it was already my top choice. So I gave him my full intention of attending the school if admitted. I hope this helped gain me a ‘slot’ or better chance than any other Joe Athlete. Hopefully ‘putting all my eggs in one basket’ works out. For now, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of March/April.</p>
<p>Our experience with our S has only been with NESCAC schools. Football is the sport. It’s been quite a journey. S attended prospect days and camps beginning last spring and throughout the summer. He sent highlight films and corresponded with coaches all the while preparing for fall season, working on the college apps and studying with a rigorous course load. So to all the student athletes looking to play sports in college ~ my hat’s off to you.
His goal was to find a great school and still play football. For him the best fit seemed to be the Nescac schools and certainly within those schools the admissions/athletic criteria varies from school to school.<br>
We surmised from the coaches presentations that they had between 20 to 24 players they hoped to recruit each year. All of those were supports as far as admission goes but only a few were slot players; players whose academic credentials may not meet ordinary admission standards.
The others were divided into “bands” high to low which ranked them athletically and academically.
Our son was not a slot player and was a high band which meant the coach was looking for him to get in on his own. So S applied to that school EDI after being told by the coach to do so.
We thought we were all done until a call came saying that admissions was not satisfied with a first quarter grade in one of his very difficult AP classes. After lengthy discussions with admissions, were told that it was just that one thing but he was still deferred .<br>
S did an amazing job second semester and raised the grade tremendously but admissions , especially the football liason said he would have to wait RD for a decision and stated that his app would be evaluated with all the RD candidates even though he still had support of the coach… and of course the number of RD apps are up considerably this year.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, a second school had called the first week of December to see if S would consider applying if first option did not work out.<br>
As it turns out, S visited second school, stayed overnight and really liked it. Coach asked him to go EDII .<br>
Feeling a little let down by school one, S has decided to take the EDII to school two rather than wait out the RD decision at school one.<br>
I’m sure all will work out in the end but it is a stressful process for a 17 year old and for us parents as well. I certainly wish I would have had more info when we started.</p>
<p>My words of advice are to keep things in perspective. Your child may get many emails and letters that sound promising but so do a lot of other student athletes. Make sure the schools you look at are a good fit for your child, athletically and academically .
It’s hard to to put all your eggs in one basket but you do have to put a certain amount of trust in the coaches and hope for the best outcome.</p>
<p>Having gone through the process, the moral of misswan’s story is as follows: Either you’re on the coach’s list for a slot, or you’re not. If you’re not, then your sport is nothing much more than just another EC in the the admissions process. Now, if you can play, it’s still in the coach’s interest to try to convince you to apply ED. But don’t count on ANY help in getting in; indeed, if he even mentioned a non-slotted player to the admissions office, it would probably be a violation of the NESCAC rules.</p>