HockeyEast33
New member
Re: 2015-2016 Division I Commitments
Hux is right about the process - you are never formally committed to a school until the NLI is signed and/or admission letter arrives. And even then you have to graduate from high school and maintain acceptable academics. That being said, the admissions offices at most schools are involved long before this formal commitment, reviewing grades and (if available) test scores to at least give SOME indication of admissibility to player. Two points:
- Ivy league schools are the exception - admissions officers don't typically take a hard look at "committed" players academics until after the junior year is complete. So any "committed" player has only the coaches (and their own college advisor's) input on admissibility until then, which is why kids with below top 10% academics are taking on a significant risk committing early to an Ivy (much more so than most other D1 schools). It's why I am very concerned for a player when I read that a sophomore has committed to an Ivy - the risk level here is extraordinary in most cases and this manifests itself every year in early commitment kids not getting their likely letter in the Fall and being cast aside (note the two Canadian early commit recruits this year that won't be playing for Harvard as an example). The Ivy League admission departments need to align with the school's stated position that they are participating in Division 1 sports and the timeline of that process and start participating in the recruiting process earlier to avoid leaving these kids out to dry too late to recover. Alternatively, the Ivies should drop to Division 3 (never happen) where the process is more in line with their timeline.
- It appears to me that Junior level commitments (sophomore/freshman are tricky everywhere) at non-Ivy schools are tenuous based more on player development and/or better players than admissions. This is because the admissions departments are more participative earlier in the process and the academics better screened. And generally, the percentage of applicants admitted at these schools is usually higher so the bar may be lower than at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.
Hux is right about the process - you are never formally committed to a school until the NLI is signed and/or admission letter arrives. And even then you have to graduate from high school and maintain acceptable academics. That being said, the admissions offices at most schools are involved long before this formal commitment, reviewing grades and (if available) test scores to at least give SOME indication of admissibility to player. Two points:
- Ivy league schools are the exception - admissions officers don't typically take a hard look at "committed" players academics until after the junior year is complete. So any "committed" player has only the coaches (and their own college advisor's) input on admissibility until then, which is why kids with below top 10% academics are taking on a significant risk committing early to an Ivy (much more so than most other D1 schools). It's why I am very concerned for a player when I read that a sophomore has committed to an Ivy - the risk level here is extraordinary in most cases and this manifests itself every year in early commitment kids not getting their likely letter in the Fall and being cast aside (note the two Canadian early commit recruits this year that won't be playing for Harvard as an example). The Ivy League admission departments need to align with the school's stated position that they are participating in Division 1 sports and the timeline of that process and start participating in the recruiting process earlier to avoid leaving these kids out to dry too late to recover. Alternatively, the Ivies should drop to Division 3 (never happen) where the process is more in line with their timeline.
- It appears to me that Junior level commitments (sophomore/freshman are tricky everywhere) at non-Ivy schools are tenuous based more on player development and/or better players than admissions. This is because the admissions departments are more participative earlier in the process and the academics better screened. And generally, the percentage of applicants admitted at these schools is usually higher so the bar may be lower than at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.
