Is there an issue with CGA if they find out you backed out of a verbal with another school? I would like to think they know what’s at stake for these athletes and understand the decisions that need to be made, but I can also see where it might not look so good. That’s the part my daughter is struggling with...the idea of accepting an offer, knowing she’d back out if accepted to CGA. She’s concerned that it would be perceived as a lack of integrity. (Please don’t misconstrue that to mean that we think people who do that lack integrity. We don’t. We think it shows a practical approach to a difficult situation. She’s just worried about how it will be perceived by the academy.)
Honestly, I never mentioned it to anyone. I was thinking that too, but ultimately t
Is there an issue with CGA if they find out you backed out of a verbal with another school? I would like to think they know what’s at stake for these athletes and understand the decisions that need to be made, but I can also see where it might not look so good. That’s the part my daughter is struggling with...the idea of accepting an offer, knowing she’d back out if accepted to CGA. She’s concerned that it would be perceived as a lack of integrity. (Please don’t misconstrue that to mean that we think people who do that lack integrity. We don’t. We think it shows a practical approach to a difficult situation. She’s just worried about how it will be perceived by the academy.)
I never mentioned it to anyone at SAs or during the nomination process (I’m applying to other academies). When talking about my back up plan if I‘m not accepted (they ask that during interviews), I talked about going to the specific college, doing ROTC, and how I am offered a spot on the track team.
If someone asks specifically, obviously be honest. But I wouldn’t advertise that you’re off the market completely to a SA coach. When I committed, I emailed the coaches at civilian schools that I was off the market, but SA recruiting is different. For the SAs, the process of admission is so different that I didn’t mention it. For example, accepting a commitment to a D1 civilian school meant that the team used an academic spot on me. (D3 schools are different, and I don’t know about D2 school.) Essentially, I was accepted to the school automatically; admissions pulled my application from the pile, and I was in. You have to pass a pre-read and all that first, but my application essay and activities resume were not read by the school. (I passed a transcript pre-read first, of course.) For SAs you still need to be 3Q and win a nom (for the other academies, not USCGA). So accepting a commitment to a SA doesn’t ensure that you’re in the school, you still have to be accepted first. That’s why a friend of mine declined West Point’s commitment offer because she wanted to ensure that she could compete at a D1 school and did not want WP to fall through.
Anyway, I hope that helps. Basically just don’t advertise it. And until you sign something, it’s just word of mouth. I wouldn’t have committed had I not had my hand pushed, but really, every student needs a back up plan. Your DD will be asked what her back up plan is at least a dozen times during various interviews, so committing (verbally) to a college will give her a school and activity to talk about.