The list of 2017 verbals is growing every day, and there are already nine 2018s (8th graders) that are verballed, including three to Tennessee!
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Scholarship offer to HS Freshman
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The list of 2017 verbals is growing every day, and there are already nine 2018s (8th graders) that are verballed, including three to Tennessee!
GoldFastpitch.com
I am not an expert on Stanford, but it is my understanding that there is a test and interview process that all students must pass in order to be admitted, so if a player verbals early they better hope they pass the test or they are out of luck!
I'm not sure if you are referring to verbals, but colleges can't do anything to a girl for not honoring a verbal, other than let others know what happened. Until an NLI is signed there is nothing binding either party.
True but dont honor a verbal and see what it does to your reputation, your clubs reputation, your town/hs rep etc.
Greenmonsters
Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
If its because the coach leaves, its not an issue at all. Which is one reason that it is highly recommended to pick a school you will love even if softball isn't involved. How an 8th or 9th grader can know that is beyond me, but this isn't about early commits.
Academics are the top reason players don't end up at the first school they verbal. We had 2 players on our team, both 2014s, that lost their deals last summer. They both managed to commit to another school this winter, however I doubt either one is getting as much as they had before.
Stanford does not indicate any sort of special test, just the typical essay. They offer optional interviews conducted by alumni for applicants in some select locales. Regardless, their admissions standards are very high and less than 8% of applicants (2.3k out of 32k) are accepted. Test scores are a very important factor and their mid-range scores (low/mid/high) for admission are all very high - 31/32/34 for ACT and 2,030/2,172/2,315 for SAT.
Northwestern accepts about 18% of applicants (5.6k/31k) and their mid-range test scores for admission are also very high - 31/32/33 for ACT and 2,030/2,157/2,285 for SAT. The mom of a 2015 commit was overheard expressing concern whether her DD was going to make it.
Cal accepts about 18% of applicants (12.0k/67.7k). The mid-range test scores for admission are 27-33 for ACT and 1,870-2,240 for SAT.
Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) accepts almost 2/3 of applicants (19.9k/31.5k). The mid-range test scores for admission are 26-31 for ACT and 1,800-2,150 for SAT.
Thanks for all of the research! Are these numbers for the incoming freshman class? Do you know if schools are able to accept student athletes who are below these standards? Some schools obviously "bend" the admission standards for athletes of money generating sports, but I was wondering how much "bend" there is in the standards for non-revenue generating sports.
I gathered the info for Stanford and Northwestern from The Common Application and had to resort to Big Future (by College Board) for Cal and Illinois. The SAT ranges for Cal and Illinois are probably a little narrower than I posted because Big Future doesn't provide combined totals. They can't be for the 2014 class because they also had the number enrolled.
Mid-range scores are the middle 50%, so the bottom 25% are below that range and the top 25% are above it. Big Future's breakdowns of Stanford's scores shows the lowest 2-4% of the SAT scores (~100 students) were in the 500-599 range and 1% of the ACT Composite scores (9 students) were in the 18-23 range.
A coach's sway varies by school, sport and/or the coach themself. Coaches have to be careful about it because they also have to worry about below-average students staying academically eligible - especially at schools that don't have an easy major for mediocre students. The flip side is a coach could withhold their sway with Admissions on a borderline student if they're having regrets with them as a player.
Mid-range scores are the middle 50%, so the bottom 25% are below that range and the top 25% are above it. Big Future's breakdowns of Stanford's scores shows the lowest 2-4% of the SAT scores (~100 students) were in the 500-599 range and 1% of the ACT Composite scores (9 students) were in the 18-23 range.
A coach's sway varies by school, sport and/or the coach themself. Coaches have to be careful about it because they also have to worry about below-average students staying academically eligible - especially at schools that don't have an easy major for mediocre students. The flip side is a coach could withhold their sway with Admissions on a borderline student if they're having regrets with them as a player.
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Greenmonsters
Wannabe Duck Boat Owner
A valid concern from the student's perspective, too. But its relative - many well above average HS students would fall into the "below average student" category at these and other top academic schools! And even those that don't sometimes will feel that way at times! You won't have time for SB if its a constant struggle to keep up academically. While the SB coach may have scholarship money or have some leeway with admissions, YOU should also be working w/ the admissions people to make sure of the academic fit. Just another reason to choose your school carefully without making SB the primary consideration! In other words, from a career perspective, you want to be able to say I graduated from Stanford and played softball rather than I played softball during the one year I was at Stanford!
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Good point and well covered.
Note: The "below average" was relative to their peers at the school and the "mediocre" was for college students in general.
