Ivy recruitment

Just ask. I had my daughter ask two questions a) Am I the kind of athlete you are looking for? b) Will I get in? (She had supplied all coaches with an athletic and academic resume with all scores and relevant times)

I was surprised how transparent they all were, very helpful actually. They all basically confirmed both and in several cases the coaches walked her through the process right up to getting a "likely letter" prior to an actually getting accepted early admissions.

She went on 3 recruiting trips to 3 Ivies, and applied early admissions to her favorite.

So would my grades and stuff be in their ballpark although my times aren't that impressive

If you are invited on a recruiting trip they are highly interested. On the trip they will let you know if they have an official spot reserved for you. This is not guaranteed by attending trips. I would say you have a great shot for the ivies with weaker sprint programs but may have a hard time if they have a lot of 400/800 guys already on the team

In that case, what would you define as a team with a weak sprint team. My 600m is 1:21

If you have run a legit 48 400 as a junior--not a 48.8 relay split on your coach's watch--then most of the Ivies would be happy to have you on their rosters. The only possible exception would be a team that, say, brought in three or four 47/48 guys last year (did anyone do that?) and might want to use their available admission slots to shore up other event areas.

BTW a 33 ACT for an African American "matters" hugely. The AA average is around 17; from the little info I've found in a quick Google check, a 33 makes you literally one in a thousand among black ACT-takers. As long as you don't have a felony record, you would be likely to gain admission to any Ivy *without* having to "use up" a sport's admission slot. (And your financial aid would be unaffected, either way.) This should make you extremely attractive to most coaches.

[Note to anyone inclined to carp: don't hate the player, hate the game.]

I have three athletes being recruited by Ivy Schools. I've had contact with the coaches (they with me) and now (July 1) they called my athletes.

They've made it clear they want them.

They've all been told to apply early admission and one is emailing to set up an unofficial visit to one school.

Email the coaches and ask, then visit.

Good luck, I've had a few athletes go Ivy League and all but one were happy (and I advised the "one" NOT to go).

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply. How direct can I be with whether or not they truly want me on their roster and if I am a fit.

I was incredibly disappointed in my ivy league experience as an athlete. I came into college as a top high school recruit medaling at Junior Nats and earning a couple all American accolades. I finished college running the same times while the kids I competed against in HS improved.

Although academics are obviously a priority and an ivy league education is hard to rival... I was incredibly frustrated and disappointed with my athletic experience. I have a lot of friends from various ivies and they have mirroring thoughts. The only school that maybe is an exception is Princeton.

I personally regret not more seriously considering other schools such as UNC, UVA, Michigan, Duke and even some DII and DIII schools. Being an athlete at an Ivy has little reward: huge time commitment, but very little commitment from the school to you. Ivy league team retention rates are awful.

What exactly distinguishes Princeton from the other schools? I'm particularly looking at going to Princeton actually, although Harvard looks just as good.

With a 33 and a 3.8 I would think you have a great chance of getting in.

Victoire48 wrote:

What exactly distinguishes Princeton from the other schools?

They win more in cross-country and track than most of the other Ivy schools, with the exception of Cornell.

Realistically, winning a lot is probably a big reason that Princeton and Cornell tend to keep team members for a full four years. (By the way, I have my doubts about the "Ivy League team retention rates are awful" statement. It might well be true--I simply don't know--but I'd love to see a statistical comparison between the Ivies and other non-scholarship D1 programs.)

Ivyguy wrote:

Victoire48 wrote:

What exactly distinguishes Princeton from the other schools?

They win more in cross-country and track than most of the other Ivy schools, with the exception of Cornell.

Realistically, winning a lot is probably a big reason that Princeton and Cornell tend to keep team members for a full four years. (By the way, I have my doubts about the "Ivy League team retention rates are awful" statement. It might well be true--I simply don't know--but I'd love to see a statistical comparison between the Ivies and other non-scholarship D1 programs.)

IMHO, Princeton's strengths lie more in their field and distance programs, while Cornell has had some of the strongest and deepest sprinting groups in recent conference history. Harvard and Princeton both have some young sprinters who are making an impact on the conference level (60m won by a Harvard frosh, Princeton frosh scored in 60m/100m/200m this past year) but Cornell is usually scores the most across all of the sprinting/hurdling events. Cornell been sweeping the sprinting relays in recent years, but Princeton is usually in contention for the 2nd place spot.

If you are really interested in going to Princeton for long sprints, I know someone who recently graduated from there, who mostly ran the 800 but also did 4x4 and DMRs, and is also African American who could share more of the experience on the team. Email me if you're interested.

I also ran for an Ivy and with the exception of maybe Princeton & Harvard (with Columbia working its way up there) I found that there is very little in the way of resources, school spirit, and support allocated/given to the athletes in general let alone the track athletes. My advice would be to pick a solid mid-distance program at a none-Ivy, but top-tier school like mentioned above (Duke, Notre Dame, Stanford, UCLA...some ones I considered). I don't necessarily regret my decision, but I imagine my experience would have been a lot more welcoming and supportive at a school that valued athletics more and I think I would have run faster had I been in that environment. Best of luck.

If you're offered a spot at Princeton, do it. I know several guys who ran there and they had great experiences. Ya, it's hard and you can't redshirt, but they do have resources and take care of you.

Agreed wrote:

My advice would be to pick a solid mid-distance program at a none-Ivy, but top-tier school like mentioned above (Duke, Notre Dame, Stanford, UCLA...some ones I considered).

I ran at a top-tier academic state school in a major conference and academics were an important part of my decision. But I found that the culture in the athletic department made it very difficult to apply myself academically. There were lots of smart kids in my classes who were taking advantage of the academic strength of the school, but very few athletes were making much of the educational opportunities. It's tough swimming against the current when all your teammates aren't taking the academic side seriously.

For those of you that did run for Ivys, how were your experiences and how did you manage academics and athletics?