Article on early recruiting...

[Daddylawman]

True.

Take the ACT or SAT (at least PSAT) well before that so they know you are worth watching and in case you need to get serious about test prep to get your scores up. Get seen by the Ivies the summer before your junior year with decisions happening the next year give or take. If by Ivy types you are including the Williams, Hamilton, Amherst etc, then yeah, they get to the buffet line after the Ivy League schools are finished on average. Not that a Williams isn't as hard or harder to get into than an Ivy. I know a former Ivy coach. I'll ask her about the details of their recruiting calendar and confirm.

Mark - although nothing can be official until the admissions department sends out an acceptance in the Ivy League (The Ivies do not use/recognize NLIs), most Ivy schools are still finishing their '17's and just starting to look at '18's.

 

[Daddylawman]

What makes the decision more nerve racking is that most offers are less than 100%, with 50% or less very common. A lot of college coaches entice players to verbal early with promises of progressive scholarships where the scholarship value increases every year.

Unfortunately. this is no more enforceable than a verbal at the overwhelming majority of D1 schools. Most only have 1 year scholarships which are renewable at the school's discretion. There's nothing to stop a coach from cutting the money if a "better" recruit comes along. It's certainly not unheard of for coaches to find ways to remove girls from scholarship. It still comes down to finding the school where your DD would be happy WITHOUT softball.
D1 schools only have 12 (maybe 12.9) scholarship equivalents to give out. All other schools have less (or none in D3). Financially softball is a really bad investment. For a lot of other reasons softball is a fantastic investment.

 

[Crashsdaddy]

Financially softball is a really bad investment. For a lot of other reasons softball is a fantastic investment.

Thats some serious truth right there.

 

[Mark H]

True.

Take the ACT or SAT (at least PSAT) well before that so they know you are worth watching and in case you need to get serious about test prep to get your scores up. Get seen by the Ivies the summer before your junior year with decisions happening the next year give or take. If by Ivy types you are including the Williams, Hamilton, Amherst etc, then yeah, they get to the buffet line after the Ivy League schools are finished on average. Not that a Williams isn't as hard or harder to get into than an Ivy. I know a former Ivy coach. I'll ask her about the details of their recruiting calendar and confirm.

OK, asked her. Some of the Ivies are on a schedule indicating you should be getting on their radar the summer before your junior year. Some, like Penn, are pushing their evaluation/commit schedule farther back than that. Having said that, they will never be committing eighth graders.

 

[Mark H]

Unfortunately. this is no more enforceable than a verbal at the overwhelming majority of D1 schools. Most only have 1 year scholarships which are renewable at the school's discretion. There's nothing to stop a coach from cutting the money if a "better" recruit comes along. It's certainly not unheard of for coaches to find ways to remove girls from scholarship. It still comes down to finding the school where your DD would be happy WITHOUT softball.
D1 schools only have 12 (maybe 12.9) scholarship equivalents to give out. All other schools have less (or none in D3). Financially softball is a really bad investment. For a lot of other reasons softball is a fantastic investment.

Yep. .