<p>GFG, I believe there’s a very significant difference between a likely letter and any financial aid offer and a formal offer of admission/financial aid. Neither the likely letter or any pre-read of financial aid would be considered binding on the school. Granted, they may not likely change their minds for reasons of reputation. Until you have a formal offer in hand, however, I’d advise applying to other schools, etc. Remember also, that all of these verbal commitments are not binding either. Until your player formally accepts a formal offer of admission, the rest is all the signaling of intentions. The player and the school can both change their minds (and indeed they sometimes do).</p>
<p>To the extent financial aid really matters, some of the Ivy schools have very specific financial aid guidelines that will probably give you a pretty good idea of how comfortably your financial situation will qualify you for aid.</p>
<p>Just as the financial aid guidelines gives you an idea of FA, the likely letter gives you an idea of what the final decision will be, which is an acceptance. Likely letters aren’t binding, but the schools not going to change their mind unless something reeeeally bad happens along the lines of expulsion for dealing drugs or something. Schools don’t just “change their mind” when they issue out likely letters. Your looping a likely letter in with the coach simply saying "I will support your application, or “your definitely going to be accepted”. That’s not the same thing as actually receiving the likely letter, as it is coming from the ADMISSIONS office, the people in control of the whole thing. Not the coach.</p>
<p>it’s a great idea (suggested in this thread) in going for a likely letter to apply RD and switch to ED once you get the letter, but at my D’s intended school, we suggested this route and were told she has to apply ED to be on track, ie considered for likely letter</p>
<p>2924SW, this is where it gets tricky and how much you can push it depends on how much they want your D. In our case, we made it very clear that a promise of a likely was not enough to have my S switch his app to ED. But we did not ask permission from the coach to apply RD - we just had him apply RD to the schools that were in contention. Then, when the RD app was a fait accompli, we asked for - and got - the letter in hand from the school he wanted before we made the switch to ED. To me, it is unfair for them to demand an ED app without giving you the LL. Why should your D give up her chances elsewhere for a promise from a Coach? </p>
<p>As always, every school/sport/coach is different and your mileage may - make that will - vary. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^Another option is to get the likely letter before the ED deadline. Also, the ED deadline may be “soft” for recruited athletes, depending on the school and the athlete. If you insist on having the letter in your hand before applying ED, sometimes the coach can get a pass from admissions to allow the application to hit the system after the ED deadline. The first crescendo on Nov 1st drives a bit of chaos, and all the players (coaches, admissions and students) feel it. Best wishes to all going through this right now!</p>
<p>key, I wonder too. In our case, admissions at several Ivies definitely indicated they would have to see the transcripts, scores, etc., to issue a likely letter. Some Ivy coaches said they felt confident about admission/likely letter in July and August, but the paperwork didn’t happen until September/October. All the recruits in that recruiting class were making fall official visits before making final decisions. Maybe some Ivies and sports work differently, or some student-athletes are in a desirability category above the track my D was on!</p>
<p>These students are from a college prep boarding school…so that might have something to do with it. And I do believe it is for “high profile” sports.</p>
<p>I think for large team sports like soccer, baseball, and football, there are alot of verbal commitments made early in the process- summer before senior year, as keylyme noted. For more individualistic sports like track, where times, stats, and championships can change significantly in a few months, coaches seem to wait longer to commit.</p>
<p>The ball sports have many large exhibition camps, earlier in the process to promote top athletes. Thus the coaches know the top recruits earlier.</p>
<p>Also, well showcased schools seem to attract more coach attention earlier. Athletes outside of big, well-known programs must sell themselves more with videos, regional wins, etc.</p>
<p>And for those reading this trying to figure out how binding their summer verbal commitment is, I would proceed with caution. I think we’ve established that likely letters seem to result in admission 100% of the time. Verbal commitments in the summer aren’t really anything you can take to the bank. If it were my kid, I’d caution him to proceed as though he didn’t have a commitment: keep communications flowing with coaches at other programs that would be his second and third choices, for example.</p>
<p>Ivies are not allowed to issue any written likely letters until Oct.1 according to NCAA regulations. The coaches can certainly send letters of interest, but nothing is binding on either side before that date.</p>
<p>Sometimes parents inflate the coaches’ interest into a story of “commitment” prematurely, either out of wishful thinking, enthusiasm, or misunderstanding.</p>
<p>I talked with an Ivy Admission officer and they said it’s 100% good if they don’t screw up by being suspended or something that serious. Had she sent in her application and all material?</p>
<p>everything in except she was going to retake an sat II, coach had her get commonapp in before end of sept, transcripts were in before end of sept, dir of admissions sent letter to her at beginning of this week
is she done? except for retaking sat Ii which school did not tell her to do</p>
<p>To be clear to Charger: Yes, My D’s application was Complete before October 1st (not easy when school was just getting underway and none of her friends were doing all the little and big things that need to be done to finalize the application.) But what a relief. She never did go for an "official " invitee visit, though she had been there several times, has friends there and had taken the tour, etc. Of course, we would have liked her to have spent more time on her essay (on picking a topic, not just writing), but I deliberately did not read it until the morning before she sent it in. Her older brother really complained when I wanted to have him revise his essay, so I just stayed out of it, besides she wrote on what I thought was a very dubious topic, but it a turned out OK, in spirit with the free spirit she is.</p>
<p>Thank you, needless to say we were relieved, now she has senior year to work on school and sport. Tho she did not tell me til last Friday, coulda killed her. Letter comes from head of Admissions.
Just to help clarify on this thread, since it is devoted to Ivies, and various people were asking questions and talking about students who reportedly got offers as JUNIORS, which my D certainly did NOT get—and this coach was as eager, chomping at the bit, as a coach could be:
LL comes from the head of Admissions Dept, no heads-up it was actually on its way from coach when it came, tho he had been very very encouraging back in Sept, and really encouraged her to get her app complete (as in completely done) before Oct 1… For people asking questions above about dates—this school (an ivy) would not formally even consider her app within the pool of ED apps (tho they had previewed some things in her admissions package like old transcripts, SATs I think back in August (but no formal review), prob to give coach a nod that she was worth considering) until after Oct 1, and it was all very clear that they COULD NOT issue her letter until Oct 1 after formal consideration by adcom for completed ED app, and it had to be ED—no RD. Also, other rules as I recall them (there may be more)—she could not be contacted by coach at all until some point mid summer, tho she had made a formal visit a couple of years ago to him. He could not watch her practice last year—lots of rules, that obviously do not seem to apply in a non-Ivies as described above, or at least to some of the kids described above who are admitted as junior (athletes).</p>
<p>Thanks 2924SW! My son didn’t tell me that an Ivy coach wanted him to get his application in so he can get a likely letter from admissions. Could have killed him as well. He’s already been to the campus once and now he’s going for a visit in less than two weeks. Application will be in by the end of next week so hopefully he’ll get one as well. Would love to have the decision made soon. Congrats to your daughter. One last question, coach said he would get aid information as well. Did you get that also?</p>