Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is his UTR/WTN/star rating at Tennis Recruiting? The TR website has excellent info on recent recruits at all types of colleges (D1-3).

Apart from the Ivies/Stanford/Duke, most of the other D1 schools are not very strong academically. At the same time, there are D3 schools that are top notch academically (e.g.MIT/Caltech/Chicago/Amherst/Williams/Swarthmore). You can check the stats of their 2023 recruits and judge for yourself where your son stands. Obviously, schools like MIT care a lot about the academic part and even the athletes have to meet their admission criteria (including very high scores)

Good luck!

I know a 4-star (TR) tennis player who got into MIT with an SAT in the mid 1400s, and a 5-star who got into an Ivy with an SAT below 1400. These were relatively recent admits. Once you're earmarked by a coach, your stats matter a little less. You don't have to be a starter to attract a coach's attention. A team size of about 12 players is often considered ideal, so don't be intimidated if the top six players on the team are rated above you. As pointed out elsewhere in this thread, there are D3s like Caltech that are outstanding academically, but may not have the strongest tennis teams. Haverford, Grinnell, Macalester, and Carleton and maybe Wesleyan and Vassar are strong academically, but it's a little easier to get recruited onto their tennis teams. There are also some weaker D1s like Colgate, Holy Cross, and Davidson that might be worth considering.

This young man might not get into a top D1 school on his tennis alone (his academics are another story), but he's going to be spoiled for choice.

You do not get into MIT with a SAT score in the 1400. Parent of a “recruited” MIT athlete

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asian male
Tennis player rated in the top 600 in nation
3.9/4.0 GPA, 7 AP's by sophomore year + 5 AP's next year
SAT not taken yet, but expecting around 1500 per practice tests
Volunteered at hospital and some research at a university but nothing published.

Not sure about major, but definitely not engineering or medicine. Maybe interested in law or business.

What are his chances among the top 30 universities? Great? Reasonable? Not likely?

Great chances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asian male
Tennis player rated in the top 600 in nation
3.9/4.0 GPA, 7 AP's by sophomore year + 5 AP's next year
SAT not taken yet, but expecting around 1500 per practice tests
Volunteered at hospital and some research at a university but nothing published.

Not sure about major, but definitely not engineering or medicine. Maybe interested in law or business.

What are his chances among the top 30 universities? Great? Reasonable? Not likely?

Being among among the top 600 in anything is great.

But it's not going lead to an athletic scholarship to Stanford.

Check out the bios of the tennis players at the schools your son is interested in. Most of the really good tennis programs do tend to be among the higher tier schools. But it's not football, with it's 100+ spots every year. It's tennis. Maybe one spot opens every year.

My youngest kid deals with this. Now a freshman at a D1 T20 school. Track. Recruited by tons of D3 schools. Definitely top 200 in his fields. But he got in to his school because of his academic credentials. It's a D1 school though. Not a lot of 18 year olds are competitive with sixth year 23 year olds. Would suspect the same with tennis.

No athletic scholarship. No boost.

But he had contacted the coach. Invited to practice with the team to get his times up. Will do his things competitively next year.

Point is, there are very few spots for the more obscure sports - tennis, track. Do it if you love it. Reach out to the coaches But when it comes to admissions, it's the academics that matter most

But do reach out to the coaches.

NP. The coach likely added a letter to his file which, even though he was not recruited, may have given him a tip.

OP, it can't hurt for him to contact coaches. There is probably a typical way to reach out, and his current coach can help with that. Even if he isn't recruited, if he is an excellent student and viable candidate on academic and other merits, a positive note from the coach could be the thing that helps him stand out. Apply early for the best chance.

Anonymous wrote:Asian male
Tennis player rated in the top 600 in nation
3.9/4.0 GPA, 7 AP's by sophomore year + 5 AP's next year
SAT not taken yet, but expecting around 1500 per practice tests
Volunteered at hospital and some research at a university but nothing published.

Not sure about major, but definitely not engineering or medicine. Maybe interested in law or business.

What are his chances among the top 30 universities? Great? Reasonable? Not likely?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asian male
Tennis player rated in the top 600 in nation
3.9/4.0 GPA, 7 AP's by sophomore year + 5 AP's next year
SAT not taken yet, but expecting around 1500 per practice tests
Volunteered at hospital and some research at a university but nothing published.

Not sure about major, but definitely not engineering or medicine. Maybe interested in law or business.

What are his chances among the top 30 universities? Great? Reasonable? Not likely?

Being among among the top 600 in anything is great.

But it's not going lead to an athletic scholarship to Stanford.

Check out the bios of the tennis players at the schools your son is interested in. Most of the really good tennis programs do tend to be among the higher tier schools. But it's not football, with it's 100+ spots every year. It's tennis. Maybe one spot opens every year.

My youngest kid deals with this. Now a freshman at a D1 T20 school. Track. Recruited by tons of D3 schools. Definitely top 200 in his fields. But he got in to his school because of his academic credentials. It's a D1 school though. Not a lot of 18 year olds are competitive with sixth year 23 year olds. Would suspect the same with tennis.

No athletic scholarship. No boost.

But he had contacted the coach. Invited to practice with the team to get his times up. Will do his things competitively next year.

Point is, there are very few spots for the more obscure sports - tennis, track. Do it if you love it. Reach out to the coaches But when it comes to admissions, it's the academics that matter most

But do reach out to the coaches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what is worth, I know of a tennis player with SAT score above 1500, top academics with highest rigor, ranked around 100 in the nation with coach's support but was still rejected by MIT. This is recent.

Did the person apply early decision? For D3, it's best to apply ED1/2 if you are being recruited. We were told by D3 tennis coaches that our daughter needed to apply early decision or the coach would not be able to influence the admissions process. They said that if she went regular decision, she would enter the general pool of applicants and her recruitment status would no longer be a pull. They did a "pre-read" (meaning they looked at her stats) and told her she was guaranteed admission if she applied ED. I'm not sure they were supposed to say that out loud. There are NCAA rules around D3 recruiting that are not always followed very precisely. For example, D3 schools aren't allowed to give full athletic scholarships, but then they sometimes offer recruited athletes tons of financial aid.

Basically, my kid was told: ED1 or ED2 and you're in automatically; go regular decision and your tennis status will not factor into the admission process, other than being considered a nice extra-curricular.

She got into her dream school ED1, and it made her senior year so pleasant to get the college application stuff out of the way early and without stress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asian male
Tennis player rated in the top 600 in nation
3.9/4.0 GPA, 7 AP's by sophomore year + 5 AP's next year
SAT not taken yet, but expecting around 1500 per practice tests
Volunteered at hospital and some research at a university but nothing published.

Not sure about major, but definitely not engineering or medicine. Maybe interested in law or business.

What are his chances among the top 30 universities? Great? Reasonable? Not likely?

I would think his chances are great. If he's already getting 1500 on his SAT as a sophomore, he'll probably do even better as a junior. If he wants to play tennis in college, I would suggest he perhaps look at Div. 3 schools.

My daughter was a nationally ranked tennis player and was also in the top 600. She wasn't Div. 1 level. She probably could have played Div. 2, but most of the Div. 2 schools are not particularly academic (although Emory-Riddle Aeronautical University is an exception). Most liberal arts colleges are Div. 3, and being recruited for the tennis team would very likely ensure your DC entry with his academic stats. My daughter wanted the liberal arts experience and went to a top 15 LAC, where she was extremely happy.

The following universities are Div. 3: MIT, U of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, Emory, and WashU .
If he's looking at schools of that caliber and is interested in liberal arts colleges, he might also want to look at, for example, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Swarthmore, Grinnell, Carleton, Bowdoin, etc.

Perhaps he could reach out to the tennis coaches at those schools? If he wants to get onto their radar, I would suggest you get premium access to https://www.tennisrecruiting.net/ (I can't remember what it costs, but it's not exorbitant) and list schools that he is interested in. You can enter more personal information like ACT, SAT, GPA, your phone number, and email address in a way that is only visible to tennis coaches. Every time he makes a change to his Tennis Recruiting profile, the coaches at the schools he's listed will be alerted. Prepare to get TONS of phone calls and letters. We did this with our daughter, and she immediately started getting contacted by coaches. It made the college application process so easy and stress-free. She narrowed down to three T15 LACs, and we visited just those three. She was assured entry to all of them even before submitting an application, and she applied to her first-choice ED1, which was really a formality at that point. She also got quite a lot of financial assistance.

I don't know if your son would want to play Div. 1. From what I've heard, it is very demanding in terms of time (almost like working a full-time job), which can get in the way of academics. Div. 3 usually only requires 2-3 hours a day, plus traveling to tournaments over the weekends during season. Of course, you can always drop tennis after you've been accepted. My daughter played all four years in college and loved it. She arrived on campus and almost immediately had a good friend group in the team. We parents found our own friend group in the parents of the team members.

Even if your son doesn't play tennis in school, being a nationally ranked player should give his application a major boost. With his academics, he should be well-poised to get into a really good school. My family really enjoyed the journey of playing tennis and looking at colleges. I miss those days. Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For what is worth, I know of a tennis player with SAT score above 1500, top academics with highest rigor, ranked around 100 in the nation with coach's support but was still rejected by MIT. This is recent.

Did the person apply early decision? For D3, it's best to apply ED1/2 if you are being recruited. We were told by D3 tennis coaches that our daughter needed to apply early decision or the coach would not be able to influence the admissions process. They said that if she went regular decision, she would enter the general pool of applicants and her recruitment status would no longer be a pull. They did a "pre-read" (meaning they looked at her stats) and told her she was guaranteed admission if she applied ED. I'm not sure they were supposed to say that out loud. There are NCAA rules around D3 recruiting that are not always followed very precisely. For example, D3 schools aren't allowed to give full athletic scholarships, but then they sometimes offer recruited athletes tons of financial aid.

Basically, my kid was told: ED1 or ED2 and you're in automatically; go regular decision and your tennis status will not factor into the admission process, other than being considered a nice extra-curricular.

She got into her dream school ED1, and it made her senior year so pleasant to get the college application stuff out of the way early and without stress.

Anonymous wrote:For what is worth, I know of a tennis player with SAT score above 1500, top academics with highest rigor, ranked around 100 in the nation with coach's support but was still rejected by MIT. This is recent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is his UTR/WTN/star rating at Tennis Recruiting? The TR website has excellent info on recent recruits at all types of colleges (D1-3).

Apart from the Ivies/Stanford/Duke, most of the other D1 schools are not very strong academically. At the same time, there are D3 schools that are top notch academically (e.g.MIT/Caltech/Chicago/Amherst/Williams/Swarthmore). You can check the stats of their 2023 recruits and judge for yourself where your son stands. Obviously, schools like MIT care a lot about the academic part and even the athletes have to meet their admission criteria (including very high scores)

Good luck!

I know a 4-star (TR) tennis player who got into MIT with an SAT in the mid 1400s, and a 5-star who got into an Ivy with an SAT below 1400. These were relatively recent admits. Once you're earmarked by a coach, your stats matter a little less. You don't have to be a starter to attract a coach's attention. A team size of about 12 players is often considered ideal, so don't be intimidated if the top six players on the team are rated above you. As pointed out elsewhere in this thread, there are D3s like Caltech that are outstanding academically, but may not have the strongest tennis teams. Haverford, Grinnell, Macalester, and Carleton and maybe Wesleyan and Vassar are strong academically, but it's a little easier to get recruited onto their tennis teams. There are also some weaker D1s like Colgate, Holy Cross, and Davidson that might be worth considering.

This young man might not get into a top D1 school on his tennis alone (his academics are another story), but he's going to be spoiled for choice.

You do not get into MIT with a SAT score in the 1400. Parent of a “recruited” MIT athlete

Anonymous wrote:For what is worth, I know of a tennis player with SAT score above 1500, top academics with highest rigor, ranked around 100 in the nation with coach's support but was still rejected by MIT. This is recent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is his UTR/WTN/star rating at Tennis Recruiting? The TR website has excellent info on recent recruits at all types of colleges (D1-3).

Apart from the Ivies/Stanford/Duke, most of the other D1 schools are not very strong academically. At the same time, there are D3 schools that are top notch academically (e.g.MIT/Caltech/Chicago/Amherst/Williams/Swarthmore). You can check the stats of their 2023 recruits and judge for yourself where your son stands. Obviously, schools like MIT care a lot about the academic part and even the athletes have to meet their admission criteria (including very high scores)

Good luck!

I know a 4-star (TR) tennis player who got into MIT with an SAT in the mid 1400s, and a 5-star who got into an Ivy with an SAT below 1400. These were relatively recent admits. Once you're earmarked by a coach, your stats matter a little less. You don't have to be a starter to attract a coach's attention. A team size of about 12 players is often considered ideal, so don't be intimidated if the top six players on the team are rated above you. As pointed out elsewhere in this thread, there are D3s like Caltech that are outstanding academically, but may not have the strongest tennis teams. Haverford, Grinnell, Macalester, and Carleton and maybe Wesleyan and Vassar are strong academically, but it's a little easier to get recruited onto their tennis teams. There are also some weaker D1s like Colgate, Holy Cross, and Davidson that might be worth considering.

This young man might not get into a top D1 school on his tennis alone (his academics are another story), but he's going to be spoiled for choice.