Emailing College Coaches?

[The1AndOnly]

I'm a 4-star recruit from the class of 2020 (so currently a junior) with a UTR of 11.35. Having started out the summer at 290 in the TRN rankings and 10.45 on UTR, I think I've definitely been impressive over the past few months and I believe that there is still more improvement to come.

In terms of academics, I currently have a 4.0 unweighted and 4.64 weighted GPA. I took the SAT as a freshman and got a 1500, although I know I'm capable of at least a 1550 on the SAT and a 35 on the ACT. Colleges I'm currently looking at (as actual possibilities for tennis recruitment, although some of them are definitely stretches) include Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Rice for DI and Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, UChicago, MIT, and WashU for DIII.

I'm going to take the SAT in October and 2 SAT Subject Tests (Math 2 and Chemistry) in November. I'm planning to start emailing college coaches during winter break when I have all of my test scores.

I'm looking for advice in terms of emailing college coaches. Caltech's coach started conversation with me but that's really the only college I'm interested in that I've started communicating with. Should I start emailing these coaches now, even though I don't really have test scores to show? Is winter break too late to start emailing these coaches? When I do start to email these coaches, what should I include in addition to my academic and athletic statistics? What questions should I be asking these coaches in order to show that I'm truly interested in their teams? Is there anything else in particular that I need to know about emailing college coaches?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Xmantennis]

My advice, be realistic with your potential college choices. You can have one reach for sure. Use UTR to figure out where you are in their current line-ups. For example you would play #9 at Rice and #13 at Harvard, coaches typically are not going to recruit someone who they cannot see playing in their top six as they are always trying to improve your team. . Be realistic in your choices - your strong academics will certainly help you big time in the recruiting process. Also important is your need for a scholarship/financial aid. At top academic institutions (Ivy's, Patriot League, your D3 options) they might give you a different look if you have a larger budget as well. Also, when considering the top academic D3 route, look at their roster sizes - Wash U for example currently has 14 players listed on their roster. If your UTR puts you outside the top 10, you might not play very much.

When you do email coaches - put in the subject your UTR, the fact that you are a four-star and your GPA and SAT result to catch their eye. Remember, college coaches receive 10-15 emails per week so you want to differentiate yourself.

 

[ClarkC]

If there is a good chance that you will be higher at TRN and UTR in a couple of months than you are today, then it could be OK to wait a couple of months to email them. But there is a lot of contact in junior year, so you don't want to wait until spring.

 

[Herb]

Ivy league school limps do not offer scholarships. Not sure if you know or not. Probably do. I know a girl that is at Brown this year on the team. She was offered scholarships at a few schools, but no where she wanted to go.

 

[The1AndOnly]

My advice, be realistic with your potential college choices. You can have one reach for sure. Use UTR to figure out where you are in their current line-ups. For example, you would play #9 at Rice and #13 at Harvard, coaches typically are not going to recruit someone who they cannot see playing in their top six as they are always trying to improve your team. Be realistic in your choices - your strong academics will certainly help you big time in the recruiting process. Also important is your need for a scholarship/financial aid. At top academic institutions (Ivy's, Patriot League, your D3 options) they might give you a different look if you have a larger budget as well. Also, when considering the top academic D3 route, look at their roster sizes - Wash U for example currently has 14 players listed on their roster. If your UTR puts you outside the top 10, you might not play very much.

When you do email coaches - put in the subject your UTR, the fact that you are a four-star and your GPA and SAT result to catch their eye. Remember, college coaches receive 10-15 emails per week so you want to differentiate yourself.

I know that my D1 choices are definitely stretches but I still have 2 years until I actually get to college to get my UTR up and a couple of those schools are going to be losing a lot of seniors the year that I'm graduating from high school so I'm hoping that at least one of them will give me a chance. I'm OK with not playing very much; honestly, my main concern is to get into these schools for their academics more than anything. What should I put into the actual bodies of those emails that I'm not already putting into the subject title?

If there is a good chance that you will be higher at TRN and UTR in a couple of months than you are today, then it could be OK to wait a couple of months to email them. But there is a lot of contact in junior year, so you don't want to wait until spring.

So winter break would be OK then?

Ivy league school limps do not offer scholarships. Not sure if you know or not. Probably do. I know a girl that is at Brown this year on the team. She was offered scholarships at a few schools, but nowhere she wanted to go.

I definitely know that Ivy's don't offer scholarships. All the elite academic schools are either 1) D3 or Ivy's or 2) not going to give me an athletic scholarship because I'm not good enough. I may decide to go to a school that's a level lower academically in order to potentially receive more money but I know I can get into those kinds of schools with my academics alone. Right now I'm really just focusing on what schools I get into with my academics and tennis combined because getting into an Ivy or elite non-Ivy school is extremely difficult/unpredictable with just academics.

 

[W4TA]

While competition at DI certainly surpasses DIII level tennis, top DIII schools play highly competitive tennis, often with a couple DI caliber players. Top DIII schools such as Emory, Middlebury, CMS... or Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, etc. often attract 4-Star recruits in the 100-150 range with 11.50 -12.00 UTRs (and most of these rosters develop a few 12.25 to 13.00 UTR players).

DIII is not for everyone, but here is some info with a DIII slant...

While DIII offers no scholarship money, most of the top schools offer very generous financial aid (depending on your personal circumstance; to estimate, you can visit any of their websites and run your numbers through the Net Price Calculator). For example, a family earning less than $65k per year might get 100% support, while a family in the $125k range might pay the equivalent of a state school. Many of these schools have outstanding academic reputations with acceptance rates around 10%; many of them are feeders to top graduate schools for business, law, and medicine. Gaining admittance through a coach's support is a huge opportunity.

Going into DIII at your level provides the chance to play immediately against good competition, while continuing to develop. I've known many mid-range 4-Stars who only wanted to play DI, ending up at inferior academic schools... or schools where they rode the bench. At the same time, they incurred the same heavy training demands as starters.

Regarding contacting coaches, you can visit the team sites of schools of interest and gain the coach's email info. As you are starting your junior year, I recommend contacting them now with a personal email (listing your attributes: TRN Ranking, UTR, Height, Weight, GPA, SAT/ACT), expressing interest in the school and asking the coach to monitor your process. Then, update them with key results. Even if you don't hear back after your first emails, continue to update them. Based on your stats, I would imagine they will monitor your activity and reach out to you.

Last thing, don't wait for the coaches to contact you. Go ahead and introduce yourself and express your interest. This make their job a little easier and shows that you really care about their program. Good Luck!

 

[jcgatennismom]

I'm a 4-star recruit from the class of 2020 (so currently a junior) with a UTR of 11.35. Having started out the summer at 290 in the TRN rankings and 10.45 on UTR, I think I've definitely been impressive over the past few months and I believe that there is still more improvement to come. Colleges I'm currently looking at (as actual possibilities for tennis recruitment, although some of them are definitely stretches) include Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Rice for DI and Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, UChicago, MIT, and WashU for DIII.
I'm looking for advice in terms of emailing college coaches. Caltech's coach started conversation with me but that's really the only college I'm interested in that I've started communicating with. Should I start emailing these coaches now, even though I don't really have test scores to show? Is winter break too late to start emailing these coaches? When I do start to email these coaches, what should I include in addition to my academic and athletic statistics? What questions should I be asking these coaches in order to show that I'm truly interested in their teams? Is there anything else in particular that I need to know about emailing college coaches?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

First congrats on your academic accomplishments. However, the Ivy's are recruiting very high level players-guys who can win low level pro matches. Penn is getting Kevin Zhu who beat Patrick Kypson (ATP 690ish, one of top ITA freshmen for 17/18, USTA PD kid) at Kzoo. Harvard freshman recruit Brian Shi beat Sam Riffice (ATP 700ish, Florida recruit, another uSTA PD kid) at a Future Quali as well as Skander Mansouri of Wake. He won 2 MD Future matches in Mexico. New freshmen Poling of Princeton as well as Speicher of Dartmouth also earned ATP points this summer. Ayeni of Cornell was a top iTF jr who has played in Challengers (WC to Qualis). Ivy coaches were looking for guys who had UTRs of 13 by spring of their junior year. Brown is probably the weakest of Ivy schools, but I dont think you will get much attention from an Ivy coach unless you are at least a 12.5 by March. Now if you can get into any of these schools on your academics alone, coaches may accept you as a walk on, but I think they will hold out their slots for blue chips or top 50 5 stars. There are a few 4 stars from 2018 committed to Ivys this fall. However one of those 4 stars was ranked #17 in the nation as a jr. Another 4 star was #55 TRN as a junior. TRN is not necessarily accurate for seniors as it does not include Futures, ITA summer circuits, men's prize opens, etc-events seniors might play instead of USTA. There was one 2018 recruit for Penn and one for Brown who were barely 4 stars-maybe those guys had very strong academics,ECs, etc. We knew some 5 stars who wanted to play Ivys, had 12.5+ UTRs, but ended up playing D3 or Patriot league. You may see guys on Ivy teams with 12 or 12.5 UTRs but they probably arent playing. One guy on an Ivy team had a 13.5+ UTR when recruited, but his UTR now as a rising soph is <12.5. I heard for the class of 2017, most of the guys visited colleges in fall or spring of their junior year, most of the coaches had decided by spring of junior year with the last recruits chosen by Aug before their sr yr, but players did not list commitments on TRN until Oct of their sr year. Now with official visits allowed for juniors as of today, recruiting could escalate earlier. A 2020 recruit (not Ivy) verbally committed to a top school last week-2 years before he will step foot on campus. The top D3s were making offers by fall of senior year or before but again commits are not usually posted on TRN until recruits get their likely letters.

It will be a lot harder to go from 11.35 to 12.5 than from 10.45 to 11.35. It also depends on how many matches are in your ranking. If your current ranking is based on 30 rankings, it is harder to move. However, if you have a small number of matches, e.g. 8-12, competing well vs higher ranked players will have more of an impact. Rankings aren't linear, e.g. the difference between a 12 and 13, 13 and 14, 15 and 16 are not equal- To move up, you have to be competitive against players in the range and dominating your own level. However, the higher you go, the harder it is to find higher players to play. That said, there are late bloomers and if you are one of those you will have to play a lot over (or perform well at fewer selective high level tourneys0 while still doing well take rigorous courses and any additional testing you need on non tourney weekends.

In your Email, put in the header your class year, name, GPA, SAT/ACT. Link to your TRN account and attach a link to a video showing point play not just strokes and not against a weak player-show some hard fought rallies. You can have someone take video on a phone, upload it to youtube and include the link in the Email. Normally I would say put your UTR in header, but since yours is lower, put it in the body of your Email with a statement that you improved your UTR almost 1.0 in 3 months. If you are tall, lefty-anything unique-mention that. Since you dont have the UTR you need yet, you need to convince the coach of your potential. but keep the letter to 3 paragraphs or less. Maybe say how you plan to continue to increase your UTR over the next 6 months. Tell why you are interested in the particular university so it does not sound like a form letter. Maybe mention a fact about the team, e.g. I was impressed that your team beat XXX. You may want to wait until Jan to send the Email if you will have the opportunity to play high level tourneys this fall or over the holidays. I would suggest you look for UTR events in late Nov-early Jan timeframe-google universal tennis events. Some colleges host open UTR events, e.g. Michigan and Mich state hosted weekend events last winter. That does not mean players from the host team play those events. For example the lower ranked Mich State players played the Mich event, but still playing some events vs college players can help your UTR and show a coach how you mind do vs other D1 players. You should have played some ITA summer circuit events (good events for players up to UTR 12.5) this past summer-maybe you did. There are also some tennis showcases in Florida in Dec; I know the Penn coach was at one in 2016.

D3 might be a great option for you to have balance between academics and tennis. However, your UTR is low for the top D3 schools too. For class of 2017, 8 5 stars committed to d3 schools, and those guys will still be there when you arrive on campus. The UAA and NESCAC have great tennis and great schools. You would be able to play at UAA teams like Carnegie Mellon and Case Western.

Coaches are not recruiting for line 6. They are looking to replace their top graduating players. They aim for guys who can play high in the lineup as freshmen. The slots will go to those guys first. The more selective the school, the more they can expect for tennis level. More and more smart kids are now leveraging their tennis to get in the best school possible. Obviously later in the game, the coaches will fill remaining spots with players who they think can play lower in the lineup and will be open to walk ons who can get in on their own. Some D3/Ivy school have large rosters; if you want to play, you need to choose a school where your UTR is already close to top 6. If you havent already, get paid UTR membership to see 2 digit UTR.

There have been similar discussions on this board in the past. For more ideas, search "Ivy' or "D3". If a post raises questions, you could privately message the poster. Most people on this board are very helpful. If you want links to some events, I mentioned private message me and I will look up.

 

[The1AndOnly]

While competition at DI certainly surpasses DIII level tennis, top DIII schools play highly competitive tennis, often with a couple DI caliber players. Top DIII schools such as Emory, Middlebury, CMS... or Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, etc. often attract 4-Star recruits in the 100-150 range with 11.50 -12.00 UTRs (and most of these rosters develop a few 12.25 to 13.00 UTR players).

DIII is not for everyone, but here is some info with a DIII slant...

While DIII offers no scholarship money, most of the top schools offer very generous financial aid (depending on your personal circumstance; to estimate, you can visit any of their websites and run your numbers through the Net Price Calculator). For example, a family earning less than $65k per year might get 100% support, while a family in the $125k range might pay the equivalent of a state school. Many of these schools have outstanding academic reputations with acceptance rates around 10%; many of them are feeders to top graduate schools for business, law, and medicine. Gaining admittance through a coach's support is a huge opportunity.

Going into DIII at your level provides the chance to play immediately against good competition, while continuing to develop. I've known many mid-range 4-Stars who only wanted to play DI, ending up at inferior academic schools... or schools where they rode the bench. At the same time, they incurred the same heavy training demands as starters.

Regarding contacting coaches, you can visit the team sites of schools of interest and gain the coach's email info. As you are starting your junior year, I recommend contacting them now with a personal email (listing your attributes: TRN Ranking, UTR, Height, Weight, GPA, SAT/ACT), expressing interest in the school and asking the coach to monitor your process. Then, update them with key results. Even if you don't hear back after your first emails, continue to update them. Based on your stats, I would imagine they will monitor your activity and reach out to you.

Last thing, don't wait for the coaches to contact you. Go ahead and introduce yourself and express your interest. This make their job a little easier and shows that you really care about their program. Good Luck!

I understand what you are saying completely - the amount of time that DI tennis requires is definitely something that is actually making me consider DIII tennis more than DI tennis. I appreciate the advice nonetheless - I know I should be emailing coaches soon if not now but I'm concerned about not having a higher SAT/ACT score to show the coaches because of how academically strong they are - do you think it's worth it to email them now and just talk to them about taking standardized tests later this fall/winter and also planning to improve my rankings over the course of the next 6 months or so?

First congrats on your academic accomplishments. However, the Ivy's are recruiting very high level players-guys who can win low level pro matches. Penn is getting Kevin Zhu who beat Patrick Kypson (ATP 690ish, one of top ITA freshmen for 17/18, USTA PD kid) at Kzoo. Harvard freshman recruit Brian Shi beat Sam Riffice (ATP 700ish, Florida recruit, another uSTA PD kid) at a Future Quali as well as Skander Mansouri of Wake. He won 2 MD Future matches in Mexico. New freshmen Poling of Princeton as well as Speicher of Dartmouth also earned ATP points this summer. Ayeni of Cornell was a top iTF jr who has played in Challengers (WC to Qualis). Ivy coaches were looking for guys who had UTRs of 13 by spring of their junior year. Brown is probably the weakest of Ivy schools, but I dont think you will get much attention from an Ivy coach unless you are at least a 12.5 by March. Now if you can get into any of these schools on your academics alone, coaches may accept you as a walk on, but I think they will hold out their slots for blue chips or top 50 5 stars. There are a few 4 stars from 2018 committed to Ivys this fall. However one of those 4 stars was ranked #17 in the nation as a jr. Another 4 star was #55 TRN as a junior. TRN is not necessarily accurate for seniors as it does not include Futures, ITA summer circuits, men's prize opens, etc-events seniors might play instead of USTA. There was one 2018 recruit for Penn and one for Brown who were barely 4 stars-maybe those guys had very strong academics,ECs, etc. We knew some 5 stars who wanted to play Ivys, had 12.5+ UTRs, but ended up playing D3 or Patriot league. You may see guys on Ivy teams with 12 or 12.5 UTRs but they probably arent playing. One guy on an Ivy team had a 13.5+ UTR when recruited, but his UTR now as a rising soph is <12.5. I heard for the class of 2017, most of the guys visited colleges in fall or spring of their junior year, most of the coaches had decided by spring of junior year with the last recruits chosen by Aug before their sr yr, but players did not list commitments on TRN until Oct of their sr year. Now with official visits allowed for juniors as of today, recruiting could escalate earlier. A 2020 recruit (not Ivy) verbally committed to a top school last week-2 years before he will step foot on campus. The top D3s were making offers by fall of senior year or before but again commits are not usually posted on TRN until recruits get their likely letters.

It will be a lot harder to go from 11.35 to 12.5 than from 10.45 to 11.35. It also depends on how many matches are in your ranking. If your current ranking is based on 30 rankings, it is harder to move. However, if you have a small number of matches, e.g. 8-12, competing well vs higher ranked players will have more of an impact. Rankings aren't linear, e.g. the difference between a 12 and 13, 13 and 14, 15 and 16 are not equal- To move up, you have to be competitive against players in the range and dominating your own level. However, the higher you go, the harder it is to find higher players to play. That said, there are late bloomers and if you are one of those you will have to play a lot over (or perform well at fewer selective high level tourneys0 while still doing well take rigorous courses and any additional testing you need on non tourney weekends.

In your Email, put in the header your class year, name, GPA, SAT/ACT. Link to your TRN account and attach a link to a video showing point play not just strokes and not against a weak player-show some hard fought rallies. You can have someone take video on a phone, upload it to youtube and include the link in the Email. Normally I would say put your UTR in header, but since yours is lower, put it in the body of your Email with a statement that you improved your UTR almost 1.0 in 3 months. If you are tall, lefty-anything unique-mention that. Since you dont have the UTR you need yet, you need to convince the coach of your potential. but keep the letter to 3 paragraphs or less. Maybe say how you plan to continue to increase your UTR over the next 6 months. Tell why you are interested in the particular university so it does not sound like a form letter. Maybe mention a fact about the team, e.g. I was impressed that your team beat XXX. You may want to wait until Jan to send the Email if you will have the opportunity to play high level tourneys this fall or over the holidays. I would suggest you look for UTR events in late Nov-early Jan timeframe-google universal tennis events. Some colleges host open UTR events, e.g. Michigan and Mich state hosted weekend events last winter. That does not mean players from the host team play those events. For example the lower ranked Mich State players played the Mich event, but still playing some events vs college players can help your UTR and show a coach how you mind do vs other D1 players. You should have played some ITA summer circuit events (good events for players up to UTR 12.5) this past summer-maybe you did. There are also some tennis showcases in Florida in Dec; I know the Penn coach was at one in 2016.

D3 might be a great option for you to have balance between academics and tennis. However, your UTR is low for the top D3 schools too. For class of 2018, 8 5 stars committed to d3 schools, and those guys will still be there when you arrive on campus. The UAA and NESCAC have great tennis and great schools. You would be able to play at UAA teams like Carnegie Mellon and Case Western.

Coaches are not recruiting for line 6. They are looking to replace their top graduating players. They aim for guys who can play high in the lineup as freshmen. The slots will go to those guys first. The more selective the school, the more they can expect for tennis level. More and more smart kids are now leveraging their tennis to get in the best school possible. Obviously later in the game, the coaches will fill remaining spots with players who they think can play lower in the lineup and will be open to walk ons who can get in on their own. Some D3/Ivy school have large rosters; if you want to play, you need to choose a school where your UTR is already close to top 6. If you havent already, get paid UTR membership to see 2 digit UTR.

There have been similar discussions on this board in the past. For more ideas, search "Ivy' or "D3". If a post raises questions, you could privately message the poster. Most people on this board are very helpful. If you want links to some events, I mentioned private message me and I will look up.

Thank you so much for the in-depth response! I am definitely going to try to play higher level tournaments in order to increase my UTR and become more suitable to those schools. I will pay for the higher UTR membership soon as well. In your opinion, would it be more wise for me to wait until December/January in order to get test results and tennis results up or is it better to email now and put myself on those coaches' radars?

 

[Xmantennis]

It is also important to note that the top academic Universities do not typically have rolling admissions. The Ivy's and Patriot League use the admissions "slot" process and because they do not have athletic aid, the do not follow the NLI calendar. Most of these schools start the admissions process (ED, ED2) in January and finish by March 1. This shortens the recruiting calendar a bit. Next summer, look at making unofficial visits (btw coaches love unofficial visits - less time on campus, does not cost money) and narrow down your choices to the top 3-5 for Fall official visits. With the new NCAA rule opening up recruiting earlier in our sport, do not be afraid to be persistent and send 1-2-3 emails over a 60 day period. Also, personalize each email with specific information about the school, showing that you have done your research (mention specific things about the school and program you like) as generic emails sent to hundreds of coaches quite often get quickly deleted. You could play D1 tennis as your level is trending in the right direction but you have to decide at some point if this is the route you want to go.

 

[jcgatennismom]

@The1AndOnly You asked this question "In your opinion, would it be more wise for me to wait until December/January in order to get test results and tennis results up or is it better to email now and put myself on those coaches' radars?" That's a tough one. Recruiting for 2020 started in earnest 9/1 so coaches are already sending and receiving a lot of Emails. However, if you send an Email to a coach, and your academic and/or tennis rankings/scores are not in his range, your Email will probably be deleted anyway. Depends on the the coach, e.g a coach responded to one player who wrote that he recently improved from 11 to a 12 that when he got to a 12.5 they could talk. Other coaches just wont reply. My son, on the urging of his coach, wrote a school that he thought was a stretch both for tennis and academics in Jan of his jr year. Never heard back, but then the assistant at the university called and texted that summer to invite him for a visit because son had played well at a tourney attended by a few players on that team. He went from totally off the radar to getting a lot of attention 5 months later. It was obvious the coaches did not realize or remember he had sent an Email before. He probably would have gotten an offer from that school, but he had outstanding offers from other schools and wasnt going to wait around.

Even before your UTR or TRN moves up, if you can get wins against a couple guys who are in that range, you can Email coach about those wins. Coaches attend a lot of summer tourneys plus some in the fall and over the holidays. The coaches of more selective and/or higher level teams may attend tourneys to watch particular players, but if they are impressed with a player not currently on their list, they will try to contact that player or their coach. You just have to put yourself out there. Ask around to find out which fall or holiday tourneys Ivy or D3 coaches attend and play those tourneys. Of just go to high level tourneys-if you compete well against any higher level D1 recruit, that can put you on the radar. If you live close to Atlanta, Lexington SC, Tulsa, there are grade 4 junior ITFs that some of the best sophs and juniors attend. They will be in MD, but players without jr ITF experience can often get in Qualis, and if they win those 3 matches, they could end up playing 5 stars and blue chips in MD. One academy coach told me that a player got recruited just based off his performance at the Tulsa jr ITF. Now Ivy/D3 coaches wont be at those events, but beating or taking a high level player to 3 sets shows a coach that you are on that upward trend and should be on his radar. There are some players who will play 20 tourneys to get in Kzoo to be seen by coaches and others who are very smart in their tournament selection. Know of one 4 star player who played for his HS team at a private school but only a handful of USTA and summer circuit tourneys-never played any 16/18 nationals. However, he played great at the few tourneys he chose. He played one where he knew he would be seen by a coach of a top academic and top tennis D1. He took one of the players on the team to 3 sets in the final before losing. He got an offer and played in the lineup. His UTR was only 11.8 at the start of his senior year and by the end of his freshman dual season he was 13.5.

Once you are on the coach's radar due to UTR, TRN, or a few great individual results, the coach will ask for the academic info and a tournament schedule to watch you play. If the coach likes what he sees, he will invite for a visit. This process can go over a lot of months or be condensed. Coaches tend to watch matches May through Dec with a lot of recruiting travel late May to early Sept while school is out. They can invite players on visits any time of year, but a summer visit just with the coach may not give a recruit a true feel for team and school unless some team players are taking summer courses. Your issue is fitting in all these steps before ED or EA in Oct of senior year. The long answer to your question is to as quickly as possible achieve some results that you think will get you on the radar and then send the Email. Go ahead and send an Email to Carnegie Mellon and some of the other D3s. Each year is different. In 2017 D3 recruiting was exceptionally strong, but in 2018 no 5 stars chose D3. Try to earn some higher wins/results before writing Ivys.

 

[Mrs.Weasley]

Regarding the academic piece...Your SAT score of 1500 is already in the top 1%. MIT and Caltech are going to want to see a high math score and will not care as much about the reading score. Provided your SAT math score is at least a 780, I would not bother retaking the SAT if you don't happen to raise your current score when you retake it this October. I would focus your efforts on getting high subject test scores (of at least 760), maintaining your GPA, and getting scores of 5 on your AP exams this upcoming May, especially on your calculus BC and science courses.

If you decide to go the D3 route, you still have time before you need to contact the college coaches. If you will have the opportunity to raise your UTR over the next couple of months, in my opinion, you will not be at a recruiting disadvantage if you wait until late this fall or even early winter to reach out to the coaches.

The spring and summer, in my experience, is when things begin to heat up in D3. Many schools conduct pre-reads with admissions beginning July 1st (between junior and senior year) and coaches typically extend offers of support once the positive pre-reads come back. (There are cases where slots are offered before an official pre-read, but those situations are rare.)

If you decide to go D3, you also need to make sure you ask the coaches very specific questions about their schools' recruiting processes. The definition of "coach's support" at one school may vary drastically from the definition of "coach's support" at another school. The coaches at Williams or UChicago, for example, will give you very different answers to your recruiting questions than the coaches at MIT or Caltech.

 

[W4TA]

I understand what you are saying completely - the amount of time that DI tennis requires is definitely something that is actually making me consider DIII tennis more than DI tennis. I appreciate the advice nonetheless - I know I should be emailing coaches soon if not now but I'm concerned about not having a higher SAT/ACT score to show the coaches because of how academically strong they are - do you think it's worth it to email them now and just talk to them about taking standardized tests later this fall/winter and also planning to improve my rankings over the course of the next 6 months or so?



Thank you so much for the in-depth response! I am definitely going to try to play higher level tournaments in order to increase my UTR and become more suitable to those schools. I will pay for the higher UTR membership soon as well. In your opinion, would it be more wise for me to wait until December/January in order to get test results and tennis results up or is it better to email now and put myself on those coaches' radars?

At this point, I would not be overly concerned about your ACT/SAT. If you fall within the desired UTR and TRN ranking, most DIII coaches will take an interest in you, advising you of the ACT/SAT score they would like you to achieve.

In my son's case, his initial ACT did not meet the school's threshold. The coach indicated plenty of time existed to boost the score, and he requested my son keep him informed of both tennis results and ACT retesting. Among junior players in our area, this was not uncommon. So, yes, I'd recommend reaching out soon.

Alternatively, you can always send a preliminary note now, expressing your interest and sharing your info... while simply stating you will be taking the ACT/SAT on Date "x" and will forward the score. If your tennis results meet their requirements, the coach will wait for your scores. Ultimately, you have to achieve the acceptable scores by late June of your senior year, so that they can be submitted with your academic pre-read... which is what DIII schools use to judge your admissibility. Good luck!

 

[Mrs.Weasley]

One more comment regarding the academic piece...If you decide that MIT is your top choice, the latest you would be able to sit for the SAT Subject Test, SAT, etc. would be November of your senior year if you wanted to apply Early Action. MIT is one of the few D3 schools (Caltech may be another, but not sure ) that doesn't conduct prereads in the summer between your junior and senior year.

 

[W4TA]

One more comment regarding the academic piece...If you decide that MIT is your top choice, the latest you would be able to sit for the SAT Subject Test, SAT, etc. would be November of your senior year if you wanted to apply Early Action. MIT is one of the few D3 schools (Caltech may be another, but not sure ) that doesn't conduct prereads in the summer between your junior and senior year.

Good point, due diligence is necessary in finding out the testing submission deadlines for each school. The several NESCAC and UAA conference schools we engaged with wanted the final scores by mid-to-late June. However, other schools (apparently MIT, etc) may demand earlier submission.

In either case, my initial recommendation remains the same. Showing your interest and contacting the coach soon is not detrimental if your tennis profile fits what they are looking for. If so, the coach will tell you what you need to do with your scores (i.e., what score is required and by what date). Good luck.

 

[Mrs.Weasley]

Good point, due diligence is necessary in finding out the testing submission deadlines for each school. The several NESCAC and UAA conference schools we engaged with wanted the final scores by mid-to-late June. However, other schools (apparently MIT, etc) may demand earlier submission.

In either case, my initial recommendation remains the same. Showing your interest and contacting the coach soon is not detrimental if your tennis profile fits what they are looking for. If so, the coach will tell you what you need to do with your scores (i.e., what score is required and by what date). Good luck.

I don't mean to nitpick, but want to clarify for those going through the process: MIT does not demand an earlier submission. MIT does not conduct prereads. Athletes' applications submitted to MIT are read at the same time as every other student applying to MIT. Athletes applying to MIT are notified of their admission results at the same time as all of the other applicants.

The NESCAC and many other schools conduct prereads. On July 1st (after junior year and before the start of senior year), these coaches will ask their recruits to submit their transcript and test scores. Admissions will then review the athlete's academic profile and let the coach know whether or not the athlete meets the school's admissions criteria. If the pre-read comes back positive, the coach may offer to support the athlete's application. Support may or may not be contingent upon the athlete applying Early Decision to the school. Athletes who want to play for schools that conduct prereads should aim to have reached their necessary testing score numbers by the end of their junior year so they have their scores in time for the pre-read July 1st.

Since MIT does not conduct prereads, athletes applying to MIT (and other schools that don't do prereads) can have a couple more shots at reaching their testing goals by sitting for the SAT/ACT or Subject Tests in August, September, October, or November of senior year.

 

[W4TA]

I don't mean to nitpick, but want to clarify for those going through the process: MIT does not demand an earlier submission. MIT does not conduct prereads. Athletes' applications submitted to MIT are read at the same time as every other student applying to MIT. Athletes applying to MIT are notified of their admission results at the same time as all of the other applicants.

The NESCAC and many other schools conduct prereads. On July 1st (after junior year and before the start of senior year), these coaches will ask their recruits to submit their transcript and test scores. Admissions will then review the athlete's academic profile and let the coach know whether or not the athlete meets the school's admissions criteria. If the pre-read comes back positive, the coach may offer to support the athlete's application. Support may or may not be contingent upon the athlete applying Early Decision to the school. Athletes who want to play for schools that conduct prereads should aim to have reached their necessary testing score numbers by the end of their junior year so they have their scores in time for the pre-read July 1st.

Since MIT does not conduct prereads, athletes applying to MIT (and other schools that don't do prereads) can have a couple more shots at reaching their testing goals by sitting for the SAT/ACT or Subject Tests in August, September, October, or November of senior year.

My intention was to agree with you regarding any scoring-requirement or results-submission. In my opinion, any junior aspirant should contact the desired school/coach soon... and the coach will absolutely provide guidance on the specific school's timeline.