Girls or boys?

Girls D2 starts in the junior year and is substantially done by the following summer. D3 starts before everyone else and finishes after most of them (except Ivies) because they are looking for the players that slip through and have to cast a bigger net.

Why do Ivies finish last? Just curious...

Girls

Because like the D3's they follow the normal "student" admissions time line not the athletic recruiting time line everyone else in the athletic world follows. The big difference between these two levels is the Ivies don't usually use the early action options to lock in their "recruits"shall we say as liberally as the D3's typically do so they end up working later in the school year locking up their incoming prospects. The key thing to know with the Ivies is that if you want to go that route you have to be willing to literally pass on all other D1/D2 opportunities just for the opportunity to get an answer from them. Lot's of hearts get broken by the Ivies and you will hear many many stories of how Ivy League coaches led families on until obscenely late in the game only to then pull the rug out from under them by not getting them in. The really sucky thing is they almost always blame the prospects inability to satisfy admissions when the truth is the coaching staff ended up changing their minds and not throwing the promised support behind the player. The Ivies can truly be a buyer beware type of situation.

My daughter looked at Ivies, D1 and D3 from the start. With a good amount of her interest being focused on strong academics, she wound up narrowing the search to Ivies and top academic D3s. Yes, Stanford and very top academic/strong soccer D1s were out of her reach for soccer but she had options in D1 where the academics were not what she was looking for. We visited Ivies in late spring sophomore year and into fall of junior year. We did clinics at D3s in fall of junior year. Coaches had been communicating with her, after her initial emails, from both school types from sophomore year winter through junior year winter. All watched tournaments in Dec of junior year for a final look.

In Mar of junior year, it was down to two Ivies and a few strong academic D3s. That is the tough part because the players feel the pressure that if they say no to the Ivy because they prefer a D3 then what if ..... We had that conversation with her top D3 coaches at that time said they would be willing to make a commitment to support her application (they do prefer to wait until July 1 and some into fall of senior year).

D3s have a varied number of athletes they can support. One school can have 5 while another has just 2 or 3. It really depends. Obviously having transcripts and scores to share at this point are reviewied and feedback can give everyone a better sense. My daughter's transcripts were requested by every school she spoke to and visited between end of sophomore year and after the first semester junior year. She tested right after sophomore year and again in Dec of junior year.

Long winded, I apologize. Every one has a different experience but hopefully some of this helps.

Thank you. This is the type of response I rarely see on TS. Not nearly as entertaining as some of the BS here, but truly helpful.

Thank you. That is extremely helpful as I think this is the route we will go. My daughter is very strong academically and probably a D2 player, would want academic D3 or Ivy if possible. What year is she now?

Too funny, what did you tell yourself? That things happen late with the Ivies and D3's? Is that really earth shattering news to everyone here or is that just another of your pathetic attempts to validate that people are interested in what you have to write?

Here's a little tidbit you dropped that shows how little you know about the process. If you had really targeted the Ivies and D3's as you claim why in the frigging world would you have your kid take her SAT's at the end of her sophomore year? Anyone with half a brain knows the SAT's are based upon what a junior should know, so her taking the test early serves no purpose but to put a low score on her record. My bet is it was really so you could hedge your bets for a possible D1 offer and once you found that there really weren't any suitable or otherwise offers coming your daughter's way it's now all about the name brand of the school you want to send your checks to.

For those who don't know, here's how the fiction plays out. This is the sort of kid the Ivies chew up and spit out. Unfortunately what many find out very late in the game is they are not good enough to warrant the coach using one of their allotted admission spots on and at best they might be allowed to walk on IF they can somehow get themselves in on their own merits. That mean's blowing up the SAT's to the tune of around a 2200. Pretty tall order for most mortals and unless this particular fictional character cracked 2000 on her first try, probably out of the question. The sad thing is most of these brand name shoppers don't have their come to Jesus moment until sometime during their senior season (usually just before early action) and then low and behold the NESCACs are suddenly the next coming because all the other games have finished and there is nowhere else to go.

I don't think many coaches intentionally do what you're saying. Soccer coaches don't hold that much sway with many admissions departments - not just Ivies - so if they're going to really push for a bottom-of-the-standards player they will do it judiciously. It also doesn't help that recruiting, especially for girls, is happening earlier and earlier. Keeping a near perfect GPA isn't nearly as easy by fall of Senior year as it was as a freshman. Didn't get into AP course and have near perfect test scores? Good luck getting put into the accepted pile at the uber elite schools.

I am the long winded poster and will reply to this, mostly because it reinforces that everyone's experience is different. My daughter took the SATs in sophomore June because during the Ivy visit she had in sophomore spring the coach recommended it. The message they gave us was try it and see where you are because we are looking for at least an 1800. This surprised us but she did it and did clear the 1800 bench mark. This was just one of those points that kept her in the mix of the recruiting class. In the case of this school, she backed away because in the end there were many red flags in terms of the coach and the program.

I get a laugh out of how much you think you know about our experience. It must be satisfying to know so much -- clearly you topped out on the SATs.

This post shows a true ignorance of how things work in the Ivies. There are many good resources on Ivy recruiting. If you are a real candidate for a top tier D1 program (say, Stanford, Notre Dame, etc.) but also interested in Ivy, then you may be able to get a "likely letter" from the Ivy.

Mr. KNOW-IT-ALL, BTDT, gifting everyone with his knowledge again.

And again. Sure is a lot of posting on a ton of threads, and making sure he corrects and advises every possible person, for someone who never posts.