My son has received an offer from an Ivy coach with the understanding that he will apply by September 1. His index is 221.
When is the right time to make a decision and let the other schools know?
Congrats. Does he have other schools he would rather attend and are still waiting to hear from? You are in the driver’s seat now and there is no reason to make a decision until Sept 1 if that was the coach’s condition for support/slot. If there are schools that are just out of the running now (assume possible aid/scholarship not a factor), it would be courteous to tell those coaches that he is out for them. I am sure they would appreciate that. The high academic athletic world is small.
He has a top three for sure. I will encourage him to tell the ones where he definitely won’t be attending. If he decides on attending the one with the Sept 1 deadline should he verbally commit when he begins the application process, around Aug 1, or sooner?
I don’t have an answer to your specific question as I’m just following the recruiting threads. I have a rising freshman (swimmer) and am wanting to be prepared if/when S23 gets the nod. However from what I can tell from reading all these threads you have to ask yourself the 3Fs… Is the school/offer in your Financial range? Is it a FIt for him - both the team and the School (if he wasn’t playing his sport would he still like that college environment)? And does it work with his Future (does it have the best program for what he wants to major in, good help with internships, job opportunities strong after college, etc) If all those factors are positive I would assume commit early and claim your spot. But I have no experience with knowing anything about index or how competitive your son’s sport is or if you should wait and weigh in other offers. Good luck!
Personally, I would not commit until after official visits to the top few choices. Most of the Ivy track coaches are fairly low pressure and host visits in mid September and early October, with most athletes committing after those visits. I’ve heard Harvard sometimes presses for earlier commitments but I don’t have personal experience with them (none of the Ivy track athletes I know had any interest in that program). One thing I’d be sure of before committing is whether the coach is offering full support. If so, and the coach is threatening to pull that support after Sept 1, then you’ll have to weigh what other options your son has. You should have a very good sense by August of how much interest other Ivy programs have, and you can decide what to do at that point.
We have experience with Ivy track including Harvard as well as other top Academic Schools & track programs. I would keep in close communication with the coaches and unless the student and family were 100%+ sure, I would not commit until after an Official Visit (which is common and understood by the coaches) And also make 100% sure that the coach is providing full support with a Likely Letter being promised upon your commitment.
We were at an official visit over an Oct weekend which included invited parents and I know of 1 athlete/family that this school was their top choice and they were told then by the coach that they would not be giving them full support/Likely Letter. They wanted them to apply on their own, get in, run track…but were not the #1 recruit in their event(s) so no Likely Letter promised, at least as this time.
We have an offer of “100% full support” from the track coach. We are pretty sure this is my son’s top choice but just unsure about the timeline since this has come earlier than expected.
Congratulations! What is his graduation year? I think every sport is little different in timeline with Ivy’s. I would ask the coach. Our older student was just admitted to play at Stanford.
Not Ivy’s but has similar recruiting requirements and timeline.
One thought on communicating commitments: I would wait until I was as certain as I could be that things will work out at the first choice school before informing other coaches. To me, as certain as can be means at the very least a positive pre read from admissions, a FA pre read that works for the family, and an absolute commitment from the coach for support that will result in a likely letter within a few weeks of applying. The first two can’t happen until July at the earliest (at Ivies). Coaches are lining up OVs through the summer and don’t expect most recruits to commit until fall anyway. If there’s a school that you absolutely don’t see as an option, just politely decline the OV and mention that you’re focused on other schools right now but will circle back if those don’t work out. There’s no point halting communication with potential options until you’re sure (coaches are doing the same thing btw, talking to far more athletes than they’ll invite to OV, and inviting more to OV than they’ll support).
Are you planning on getting a financial aid pre-read on July 1? I’d wait until that came back (and from the other schools too if FA is necessary).
Just be honest with all the coaches. Tell them he’s still considering other schools, that his acceptance is dependent on FA, that he just isn’t sure…The coaches understand that it’s a big decision.
I agree with politeperson and others that I would wait until I was as certain as I could be that things will work out with the 1st choice before telling other schools.
I would wait until after the OV and you had the likely letter in hand. I would not intentionally mislead other coaches but we wanted to be 100% sure before letting other coaches know. If you flip it around, coaches do the same thing.
Ivy OV are not until Fall of Sr. Yr. so you have a little time and could start finding out and setting up OV dates.
Our older student considered Ivy’s and was being recruited by few including Harvard and Princeton. We did not move to the next step. But it seems some schools require to be early admitted before publicly announcing the commitment. It seems it depends on sport and school.
I haven’t heard of this, but could be. Generally, the timing of communications and when they attend a signing ceremony is driven by the student athlete. Typically some D3 and IVY recruits (none of whom actually sign LOIs) will go to the first national signing day in November, but they do not have their admission decision yet. And we know that some recruits don’t get admitted (e.g, 14% of Harvard recruits who ‘committed to the process’ did not get accepted, which is from the lawsuit data). So some D3 and Ivy recruits sit out the signing ceremonies until they have their actual admission in hand, not just the knowledge that they are a tagged/slotted/recruited athlete.
D19 was in this group that waited, as she didn’t want to ‘jinx’ anything while waiting for her EDI admission results. Many of her friends (all waiting for ED/REA/SCEA results) did the same, and just went to their school’s second big signing day in April.
@throwersmom Good communication with a prospective coach is vital. If an offer is out on the table, you need to address it with the coach – if you haven’t done your due diligence with other schools, say that and then give a reasonable timeframe of when you’ll be able to accept or decline the spot the coach is offering. If you have done your diligence and want to mull over options, then say that and then give a reasonable time frame of when you will get back to the coach with your decision. If you want to leverage the current offer for another prospective offer, that’s okay too. But there is something to be said for a coach who shows his hand first, especially if you’ve had a few circling about for a while. It is a courtesy to everyone involved, including other recruits who are playing this unwitting game of musical chairs, to be upfront and transparent.
Congratulations on having these options! Good luck with the decisions.
We are visiting the school today and tomorrow and have a written offer of full support. It acknowledges that it is too early in the calendar for the likely letter but that it will follow October 1 and he will attend an ov in the fall. He LOVES this school so I think we will allow him to verbally commit tomorrow when we meet with the coach. It feels very early but I don’t think it will get any clearer than this.
@throwersmom – Congrats!! I don’t know what sport your son plays, but it really isn’t too early to commit. His application will be submitted early fall (4 months away!), and a LL will come shortly thereafter. One thing to think about might be if you son’s academic stats (GPA, board scores) are within the range of what the school accepts or if the coach (who is familiar with and confident about the stats needed) thinks your son’s stats are fine. This could be the only hang-up, because while the coach and athlete might be aligned, it is ultimately the AO who admits the student.
We will definitely be contingent on the fa read matching or being in the neighborhood as the estimate.
Congratulations! Very exciting 
I think this is a key point. When my son was struggling with whether to commit (late June/early July before senior year in his case) a conversation with a high school teammate really clarified things for him. That teammate told him that if he was sure he would pick the school he was contemplating over every other school recruiting him, then there was no point in waiting. I think that was good advice then and remains so. The key though is whether your son is really sure this is the school he wants. In my son’s case, he had visited several schools multiple times, and eventually one became his clear first choice. When that crystallized in his own mind, he committed.
The fact is that no matter how long you delay the commitment decision, there is going to be a leap of faith where you ad your son have to trust the coach and the process at the school. Your son is going to have to, at some point, tell other coaches that he likes and who want him that he intends to go somewhere else. In the Ivy this is an even scarier event because you are not only worrying about the coach moving on from your son for a more favored athlete but you have to sweat the likely letter process as well. There is really no way around that, because it is highly unlikely your son is going to receive a likely letter without a firm commitment to attend if admitted. Best of luck.