S got an Ivy verbal offer in January of Junior year, which to be honest caught us off guard. We had not been out to visit, so waited until we could get there for an unofficial visit, and then let it settle in for a few weeks after the visit just to be sure. But it really was the dream school for him both academically and athletically. So we didn’t see any reason to wait. He committed in April.
He announced on Twitter, which I think is ok for some schools but not others. FYI, if you do that you will probably get a letter from both the school and the Ivy League offices thanking you for you interest but reminding you that only the admissions committee can make an admission decision, not the coach. We did hold off doing the “signing ceremony” for the school until after he was admitted ED.
The other factor in our decision is that you really never know who else might be in the pipeline. Your S has an offer now, but what happens if some athletic freak in his events that everyone expected to go Big 12 or SEC commits to his Ivy? We were told that we had time to make a decision, but I know that even in the Ivy League the coaches are always trying to make the best team. It isn’t a bad idea to get that spot secured if it is the one he ultimately wants anyway.
Agree with the final paragraph of post #20 by @dadof4kids. If you are certain that this is your first choice school, then it might be smart to commit early so the coach doesn’t view recruiting for this particular position or talent a priority any longer this admissions cycle. Otherwise, the coach might find someone with better qualifications.
But if your acceptance is dependent on FA review, I think you have to wait before telling other schools you are committed to this school. You can commit as long as the coach knows you can only accept if the money is there
I visited 4 Ivy Schools with my kid and he was invited to several track and field open houses which happened during the summer before senior year. We were told the process was very fluid during the summer and that if the coach wanted the kid they would be informed early September, the kid would need to submit a formal application immediately after that notification and you would get a likely letter in October if I remember correctly. Before my kid was invited to the Open Houses he was asked to submit all test scores, transcript info and senior year schedule. At the Open House there are financial aid people there and you can meet with them and get their contact info so you can deal directly with them regarding aid. They all claimed to be fairly generous with aid, to those that truly showed need. But they aren’t going to be “extra generous” with aid towards an athlete, and there are no merit awards or scholarships.
Anyways, for a variety of reasons my kid did not end up at an Ivy.
Our experience from our kid’s sport was the Ivy coaches all wanted to start from the top ranked athletes for the 2 spots they had to fill. Each told us to commit verbally as soon as we can so that they can move on to the next athlete. Fortunately for us our son’s first choice school offered a verbal commitment so the decision for him to commit was an easy one. Only dilemma was whether he was going to pass the preread in July, since this particular school had the higher mandated AI that the other schools. Since it was only in March that he committed, the final GPA and SATs were not available. Fortunately, it all worked out well in the end.
For what it’s worth, chiming in again as have experience track recruiting. My kid was recruited by top Ivy’s as well as other top D1 schools and Top Academic Schools. This was a few yrs. ago so just before twitter became the means for students/parents tweeting out their verbal offers; plus we were knew to recruiting and saying we had an offer was never our goal. In fact we preferred to keep it quiet and just between family and the schools/coaches we were talking too.
That said, I don’t recall receiving any “verbal or written offer” from the Ivy’s. We received phone calls, letters, emails stating we think you’d be a great fit, please visit, we’d like you to apply in the fall… Some coaches came to the house, said was the #1 recruit but my child was still deciding on the best fit & school plus financial was a factor on our side…so we showed strong sincere interest from our end of course but not early commitment. Also no verbal or written offer that I recall from an Ivy but in the fall were still told #1 recruit and to just say the word and a likely letter would be sent.
The schools told us they would like a commitment in the fall and did pressure but not until the fall. And that is what I recall from other athletes too.
So if 100% certain, “verbally commit” now is fine and and may be a good idea but I would keep it a little quiet on social media (just my opinion) and understand fall is still fine for committing.
Separate topic but I do have a little bit of an issue and am skeptical at times of all the “verbal offers & verbal commitments” that get tweeted out there by families; especially for athletes that are only Fresh/Soph with Ivy’s as well as other top D1 schools.
With the Ivys, the Likely Letters are only given by the admissions committee after a formal evaluation starting in mid September after a completed college application is submitted by the student, which include LORs and all test scores. The coaches are only committing to offering a recruitment spot that will lead to a LL. After the coach and our son decided to mutually commit to one another in their on campus meeting in March of his junior year, our son was told to send an email to the coach that he would like to formally accept his offer of recruitment. The coach then reciprocated with a similar email. This was our formal “unofficial” “verbal” commitment.
In regards to “broadcasting” the commitment on social medial, he was told to refrain from doing so until the Likely Letter has been officially offered by the admissions committee in October of his senior year.
^ @noanswers was this in Track and Field or a different sport? The reason I ask is that track has always been a late-committing sport, especially for boys. Unless something has changed in the last six months, a spring commitment of the sort you describe is pretty rare in Ivy track. I wouldn’t want future track recruits to get the idea that they need to make decisions in May. For the most part they don’t. Most coaches are still waiting on state meet and nationals results before prioritizing recruits. Possibly the rules changes will accelerate things but personally I haven’t seen evidence of that.
@politeperson Not T&F, but a much smaller niche sport, only recruiting average of 5 athletes a year (both sexes combined). It is the top athletes for the Ivys and powerhouse Div 1 have already committed mid Spring of their junior year, but majority of the athletes in his sports will be meeting with coaches during the early summer and receiving their commitments. As in your example, depending the sports the timeline would be different.
In my son’s sport, the HYPC have usually spent their recruitment slots before the summer preread. So it is is very rare for the coach to be offering a spot to someone during the Fall of senior year.
If your kid’s attendance depends on FinAid he should not commit but request a financial pre-read from all Ivy schools that seriously recruit him and save all communications with all others. Not only they will match each other’s offers, some of them may generate financial pre-read matching expected offer from the better endowed schools. The coaches will understand and you do not need to commit to receive a FinAid pre-read.
Commitment announcements seems to depend on the coach. My kid’s coach said not to say a word to anyone until you had a physical LL in your hands. When you commit it is a good form to let other coaches know if you are sitting on multiple chairs. In our case we actually knew other athletes who were looking at the same chairs and were called the next day.
Whether it is announced on social media or not, if you verbally commit to a coach you need to let the other coaches recruiting you what your status is. The typical response S received was that if anything changed, they were still interested so let them know.
It is a small world when it comes to high academics athletic recruiting. They all know each other. If you commit to one program but aren’t honest about it with another, you could end up losing them both.
You can be honest with the coach without burning your bridges. You say “I haven’t received a firm offer yet (which you haven’t because no one has before LL go out), and I have to wait for financial aid to be determined., but I have told Yale that it is my first choice; it is all dependent on finances.”
You are honest. You tell them, if they ask, where you stand.
In the olden days (3 years ago) there were a lot of early commits to lax teams by sophomores and even a few freshmen. It was on the ‘commit’ lists so all the other coaches could see it. There were still coaches who would go after those who were committed because of course they weren’t bound to those verbal agreements.
My daughter received a lot of calls after she signed her NLI. The coaches are willing to steal players from other teams, but yes, they all know each other.
Thank you for all of these replies, it is reassuring to hear everyone’s perspective. Once we got to our visit we felt less definite about the commitment. The letter contained a date of September 1 for his application to be in. When we met with the head coach he didn’t seem to be on the same timeline as was spelled out in the letter which came from the event coach. Similar to our other conversations with coaches at different schools, he indicated strong interest in my son and plans for recruiting him but over the summer and early fall. It was enough for us to decide to keep the school as one of the top possibilities but not risk eliminating others. Interestingly my son seemed relieved since he really needs the time to go through the whole summer to get to know the teams and have his “reads”.
@throwersmom I’m guessing your son is a track thrower and like I posted earlier, Ivy track recruiting operates later vs earlier as they want to see which kids improve at the end of Junior year and thru the summer at Nationals and other events. They will host Open Houses where about 50 kids will be be invited and get the full tour, meet other kids, talk with financial aid, and sit down meeting with coach. If the coaches decide they want you they will ask you to submit your app in early September, so make sure you have everything organized like test scores and transcripts and get LORs early if you can. In October they can issue a likely letter based off the application, and that should basically wrap things up.
However, there is always movement in the process, as some kids drop off the Ivy list after Sept 1 because they find out they won’t get financial aid, or they won’t get a likely letter, or the kid decides to de-committ and go somewhere else. My son received 2 calls from Ivy schools in mid-October because that scenario happened and the coaches were looking to add a kid or 2 to their program. My son19 had already decided to commit elsewhere though and we never bothered looking further into their offer.
For what it’s worth we found the Ivy coaches to be super wishy washy the entire summer. Obviously they are trying to attract top D1 level talent but lack the scholarship $$ to entice kids. They have to find the right kind of kid that fits their program and can succeed athletically and academically.
Other D1 schools were much more direct and upfront and willing to “commit” at an earlier timeframe and lock the kids up. Even the Nescac schools seemed more direct with how their process worked. My son likened his Ivy recruit process like used car sales, and he never felt comfortable with it. He wasn’t an Olympic caliber athlete, so maybe that factored into the whole thing. I did like one of the Ivy programs better than the others, and I think as an athlete going to school there would be great. But it just didn’t work out and he probably ended up in the right place in the end all things considered.
Good luck, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
Replying again based on your latest post and as I had a D/S that was top T&F recruit and ended up at a top Ivy.
Note: good input from RightCoaster above. I also found some coaches at the Top Schools/Programs could be a bit wishy washy but I also thought that may be to see if you are really interested-I felt they hedge a bit, especially the Top Schools/programs until they know there is strong interest to commit in return.
My opinion, you have time so don’t worry, keep communicating, visiting schools, etc., enjoy the summer and have fun with the process. The Fall Sr. Yr. is when it will really kick in for commits and you will be narrowing it down a bit by then too.
We did not mislead any coaches as my D/S was narrowing down school choices with us but also did not commit.
My nature is to be cautious and little bit skeptical so even when we were told D/S was their #1 recruit by the schools I felt it was not certain until we committed and if Ivy had a LL in hand. Academically no issues with any pre-reads so that was fortunately not a factor.
Like many families, we narrowed down our list to 2-3 schools based on fit and made decision to commit in Oct.
Good luck, enjoy!
Excellent plan. It is important to remember that recruiting is a two way street, and while the schools are evaluating your son, he should be doing the same. Nothing is over until it is over.
On a related point, I agree that if and when your son gets to the point that he is willing to accept a committable offer, he should communicate that to the other schools recruiting him. As @dadof4kids says, high academic recruiting is a very small world, and for the most part the coaches know who their peers are recruiting. Coaches do this constantly, and the ones who are worth playing for don’t take losing out on this or that recruit personally. In my son’s circumstance, he let two other schools know that he would be open to talking further with them if things didn’t work out at his first choice. No promises were made on either side, but I think it is wise to not burn any bridges, and keep lines of communication open.
@throwersmom I agree with the above three posts. I think your meeting with the Head Coach is typical of Ivy track recruiting, and I agree with the way your son is viewing it. The recruiting process is a great opportunity for an athlete to explore schools and programs and also to develop skills that will help later in life. I’d encourage him to enjoy the process and remain confident it will lead to a fit that is right for him, Ivy or otherwise. I’d definitely reach out to any programs that might interest him so that he’s looking at several options over the summer. Regarding the Sept 1 date, that might apply to some athletes or programs but none of the Ivy track athletes I know submitted an app that early. All of them waited until after OVs, and given that classes often start later in Sept at most schools, the apps were submitted in late Sept or October. That includes athletes who knew over the summer that a slot was being held for them until late Oct as well as athletes who weren’t offered a slot until after the OV. So the timing can vary by program, and I would just keep notes of what the coach has told you at each school. If you have the time to visit some of the schools and coaches over the summer, that can often clarify a lot (both in terms of program fit and where you stand).
ETA: the points made by others about communicating commitments to other coaches is very important. These track coaches know each other very well. Many of them have worked together at some point. While all of them would love to hear a yes, the second best thing to hear is a no so they can move on. The worst possible thing is to be left hanging and then hear from a former colleague that a recruit they’re waiting on committed last week. Beyond common courtesy, there’s the possibility that the coach you left hanging will take over the program you’ve committed to sometime in the next few years…