I noticed some players who committed to really strong academic D3 programs (like UChicago, Washington & Lee, Johns Hopkins) aren’t ranked at all on Tennis Recruiting Network, and only played high school tennis, no stars.
How possible is it to play for these types of schools if you’ve just started varsity tennis your junior year, but you do really well (ex: Rookie of the Year, All-Conference, All-Academic) and have strong academics (excellent test scores, lots of AP/dual enrollment classes, leadership roles, etc.)?
Curious if coaches at top academic D3 schools sometimes make exceptions for very strong students who came to the sport late. Would love to hear how realistic it really is!
When and where are you seeing these commitments? I see a lot of posts elsewhere where colleges are showing athletes who are “committed” to their schools and aren’t particularly good athletes. I suspect they aren’t recruited athletes as much as athletes who will be coming to their school. In other words, I don’t think the coach tagged them in the admissions process with their chip after pre-reads. They wouldn’t waste the chip on them.
But I could be wrong.
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I am not an expert on this, but my son was both a high school and tournament tennis player. Did you look up the UTRs on these no star players? My guess is that most of them are probably at least an 8 for the men and possibly a little lower for the women. One of my son’s female friends is a UTR 7 and plays at a lower level D3 program. I think it would be near impossible for someone who started playing as a high school junior to be recruited. Hopefully some other people will chime in.
Edited to add : I just looked up W&L’s tennis roster. All of the incoming freshmen men are UTR 9+ and were 2 to 4 star recruits.
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You’re a senior, correct? It is August 1 and very, very late to start getting recruited in any sport at a high academic school. These schools typically require an ED application and give their supported slots to kids they have been recruiting for a long time. Sorry to say it is not realistic at all for a soon to be senior.
If you’d like to play college tennis, you might find a walk on spot somewhere or can start at junior college.
There are also club tennis teams at many/most colleges. https://www.tennisoncampus.com/
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Found these tennit commitments on Player Overview - Tyler Li where I saw an unranked commit to MIT
You are correct! Just out of curiosity, when would one start tennis recruiting? And would walking on assist your application? How would one go about contacting the coach for this?
Athletic recruiting can start very early. Some start freshman year of HS or even earlier. Many athletic recruits begin in earnest the summer after sophomore year. Walk ons at not given any sort of support through admissions. If you looking to leverage your athletic ability for help with admissions at a highly rejective school, you’re far too late in the process to do so. Unless you happen to be a superstar.
From your other thread, I know you are low income and need financial aid so I’m also going to note that D3 schools and Ivy League schools do not give athletic scholarships.
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Yes, was just wondering how I would have gone about leveraging my athletic ability for admissions. From what I understand, a coaches word could help a strong application
You would have started reaching out via email to coaches. If they have interest, you would be communicating with them via email, text, and phone calls regularly to build a relationship. You may have been invited to visit campus and meet the team and see the facilities. It’s a long process.
Just saw a 5 UTR for Washington and Lee which is strange https://app.utrsports.net/colleges/1654?t=2
The player profile you posted shows that MIT player is a UTR 10 - which means he is a very high level player. I’m not sure why that player isn’t ranked, but it possibly has something to do with him attending a boarding school. Most tennis recruiting starts the summer after sophomore year but the players have most likely been on the coaches radar much earlier than that. One superstar at my son’s tennis academy had college coaches scoping him out at national level tournaments when he was in middle school.
As far as MIT is concerned, they do not really take athletes that are not otherwise academically competitive. One of my son’s best friends who was a two star recruit and a UTR 10 or 11, ranked in the top 10 in Georgia was in contact with MIT’s coach and told he needed at least a 3.9 unweighted and 1500+ SAT. My son has a friend who was recruited for another sport at MIT and currently attends. That kid was class valedictorian,3 time aime qualifier and USACO platinum among other off the charts academic achievements.
If you are truly a high level tennis player, you certainly can email a few coaches. Do you have a UTR rating? Are you playing no. 1 singles at your school and beating top tournament players? There are not many walk ons in college tennis. The rosters are very small - it’s not like larger sports such as football or swimming. Even if a school might consider you as a walk on, that will not give you a boost in admissions. If you truly want to continue playing tennis, club or intramurals are available most everywhere. My son plays club at his school (a D1) and there are some surprising high level players who just didn’t want the time commitment involved in varsity athletics.
I googled W&L’s men’s roster and looked up all the incoming freshmen players. None of them are below a UTR 9. I’m not seeing the UTR 5, but you could always email the coach and ask.
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My UTR rating is a 6 but I’ve seen one player on W and L tennis roster with the same UTR. I wonder if that same 3.9, 1500+ SAT goes for other D3 schools like UChicago as well
There are no UTR 5’s on this years W&L roster. I don’t have any other insight. I’m sure if you reach out to the W&L tennis coaches, they will let you know if they ever take walk ons.
For sure. Its sort of weird.
I imagine he left the Varsity team or something. Idk.
Note: Edited by moderator to remove individual names.
No way of knowing. It’s not uncommon for D3 athletes to quit at some point since they do not receive athletic scholarships. My husband played D3 tennis for two years and then decided the time commitment was too much since he needed to keep his GPA up if he wanted to get into medical school.
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I’m not very comfortable with posters calling out specific players on a forum like this. I think the points can be made without referencing/linking actual rosters.
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I agree with you. I was being careful not use any individual names. The team rosters are in the public domain, but maybe the mods could remove the references to specific players
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