Those academic stats give her a good chance of merit money at the colleges I listed in #36. If her tennis ranking is top 150 in the state, you definitely need to look at a list of lower ranked tennis colleges. Does she have a TRN or UTR ranking?
State flagship public Honors Colleges at the University of South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Arizona State are some of the âassuredâ merit scholarship award schools.
(At least two CC posters have students who gave up admission to Stanford University in order to attend Ole Miss (the University of Mississippi Honors College because of all the benefits financially & otherwise.) As a sidenote: Womenâs tennis is big at Ole Miss.
Graduates of the Univ. of Alabama Honors College do not have to take the LSAT in order to be admitted to UAâs law schoolâwhich is highly ranked by US NewsâŠ
The University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a competitive scholarshipânot automaticâand Washington & Lee University in Virginia (tennis is a significant sport at W&L) has a very significant scholarshipâbut not automatic as with state flagship honors colleges. Both of these scholarshipsâI cannot recall the names at the momentâare very pretigious.
Vanderbilt University awards merit based scholarships. Emory as well.
If I recall correctly, USC & Virginia are others to investigate.
Wake Forest University & Indiana University (Kelley School of Business) offer merit scholarships.
OP: I envisioned a separate thread which would include âAcademic Merit Scholarshipâ in the title.
Non-URM, 33 ACT, 3.8 or whatever the unweighted GPA is, etc.
Thanks for all of the input.
Hippo thanks for the specific input about your D, and I sent you a private message too.
Hippo, also me Dâs Utr is a 7 in singles and dubs. Again my D is not at the top end of recruited tennis athletes at a D3 school but is more a middle of road recruit who appears to have the academic gpa and test scores to be at least considered for admissions at most of the D3 schools my D is considering
University of Pittsburgh & Duke also offer merit scholarships.
D 3 St. Lawrence University (2,400 students) would offer a substantial merit scholarship & your daughter could play tennis. Beautiful campus, but in extreme upstate New York near Lake Ontario & the Adirondeck Mountains. Cold in Winter. Remote. Closest cities are Ottawa, Ontario, & Montreal, Quebec, & Syracuse, New York.
https://www.stlawu.edu/admissions/merit-scholarships
D 3 school. COA is about $70,000 per year. Your daughter should receive either $35,000 per year ($140,000) merit or $30,000 per year ($120,000) merit.
Tennis in September, then March, April & May. Spring training in Orlando, Florida. Plays in the Liberty League (Skidmore, Union, RIT, Bard, Vassar, Ithaca, Hamilton, & SUNY-Geneseo)
Gives out a lot of merit scholarships.
Appears that all competition would be in New York state (indoor & outdoor courts) & Spring Training contests in Florida.
I have no recommendation. Just for your info.
OP: Your daughter should receive full non-resident tuition scholarships to the Southern public Honors Colleges. Would receive more at Ole Miss. But Alabama & South Carolina are definitely worth an application.
Lots of additional benefits & awards. Can include travel & study abroad. Special honors housing, priority course registration, special advising & honors students recruiting events. Warm weather tennis & ocean access within a very reasonable drive.
https://finaid.olemiss.edu/scholarships/#8
For example: Your daughter would receive a full non-resident tuition scholarship to the University of Mississippi. (About $26,000 per year.)
Then your daughter would receive an additional $8,000 per year for being selected to the Honors College. ($26,000 non-resident tuition plus $8,000 honors college = $34,000 per year. Annual COA = $36,000 per year.)
Then there are several additional scholarships that your daughter should receive from Ole Miss. These are Departmental, Talent & Service scholarships. All include an annual stipend plus waiver of non-resident tuition fee.
If she was determined to learn Chinese (Mandarin dialect, I suppose) or Arabic, then other very significant scholarships with, I believe, foreign travel are awarded.)
The scholarship list is so extensive that I cannot get a handle on it.
I understand that some may not like the idea of attending a large Southern public university honors college. But the benefits are incredible and the cost is free or miniscule.
Also check out the University of Georgia Honors Program & Foundation Fellows. (2 separate distinctions)
University of Alabama Honors College & University Fellows (2 separate distinctions)
Univ. of South Carolina Honors College.
Thanks for all of the info. We will definitely check things out
A final note which may be of significant interest to you.
Washington & Lee University in Virginia awards full tuition, room & board scholarships to 10% (about 44 students each year) of each incoming class. = The Johnson Scholarship Value is at least $70,000 per year ($280,000 plus).
https://www.wlu.edu/admissions/scholarships-and-aid/types-of-aid/scholarships/
Additionally, W&L offers regional scholarships for Chicago, Houston, Maryland & West Virginia residents.
W&L has a very robust tennis community.
USC offers merit scholarships as well.
UNC & Duke scholarships are Robertson scholarships as I recall.
Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill awards 70 Morehead-Cain Scholarships per year. Student must be nominated by his or her school.
Award covers all expenses for four years of undergraduate study at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Based on leadership, moral force of character, academic achievement, and physical vigor.
Also, check out:
Duke UniversityâDuke Scholars Program
University of Virginia Jefferson Scholars
Emory University Woodruff Scholars
I recall being in your position a few years ago, and it is very confusing. In the end, we realized the whole athletic recruiting thing was a distraction and refocused our efforts on finding a school that was a good fit for our son, both academically and athletically. He picked a strong Midwest LAC that offered him very substantial merit money and had a non-recruited place for him on the varsity team for his sport, and he is very happy there. In your daughterâs case, it might be worth stepping back and thinking about what kind of school she would like, apart from recruiting issues, and also consider her longer-term financial needs. As has been pointed out on many other threads, going to a very expensive, albeit prestigious, school for undergraduate often does not make sense where the student plans to go to med school or another self-pay graduate program. If she does want an LAC, maybe you need to rethink the pool of schools you are looking at, as so many of the tippy-top schools do not offer any merit scholarships. If she is willing to consider larger schools, honors colleges, etc., would she consider playing tennis at the club rather than varsity level? Club tennis at these schools can be very competitive, so if she just wants to play her sport, maybe that would be enough, and she could save a great deal of money for med school by going that route.
2 Likes
I wanted to see if any could give me feedback on some recent happenings in my D21âs recruiting process.
My D21 is going currently through 3 pre-reads. My D21 has a strong GPA and transcript from a highly competitive and ranked private high school. My D21 took the ACT at the beginning of her junior year and scores a 32. My D21 took the ACT on whim (ie no studying or preparation) as she planned to focus on the SAT. However, at the advice of our college counselor, my D decided to focus on the ACT and then covid hit. My D had planned to retake the ACT but and her last 3 ACT tests were canceled
My D submitted her 32 ACT score and grades to her top choice of school for a pre-read. This school is a T25 and the college within the school that my D is interested in attending has a 8-9% acceptance rate.
The feedback from the coach from this top choice was that grades and transcript are solid but that there were concerns on the 32 in light of my D was applying to a highly competitive college and major. The coach told my D that the school accepts super scores and that my D will have a chance to raise her ACT score. Then the coach asked for my Dâs senior class list for next year.
Again we are new to all of this and wanted to ask a couple of questions. Why is the coach interested in my Dâs senior class info without any grades?
Also my Dâs 32 ACT falls within the 50% of the overall acceptances. Is the coach is asking my D to improve the her ACT score for acceptance into the specific college or possibly indirectly asking my D to switch colleges (or majors)?
Any input would me most appreciated
@dadof3and1dog For the top academic schools, I think particularly for the recruited athletes that a coach is supporting, the admissions departments like to see what level of courses the student is planning to take their Sr. Yr., such as how many APs are they taking, Honors Courses, etc. This is to make sure that they are a strong academic candidate that will succeed and fit in academically and assumes that they will maintain similar grades/GPA, and that they are not going to âcoastâ a bit Sr. Yr. after getting the coaches support for admissions.
I donât really understand the 2nd question about switching colleges or majors.
Super scores are common.
I am not sure if this school has an official set # of slots, like a NESCAC, or actual LLs similar to the Ivys but it sounds like the coach would like to see your D either become a stronger academic candidate before they use a slot for them, or perhaps get her ACT up a bit to have a better chance to be admitted without support.
Thanks recruitparent.
Based only on the schoolâs acceptance stats, my D should be a strong applicant for admission to this school without sports. My D has worked hard on establishing a strong academic record in high school (with several substantive ECs) with a view of finding a school with an ideal inspection of fit in terms of academics and athletics.
My D is not strong enough of an athlete to be a D1 or Ivy recruit c it could possibly walk on at those types of schools.
With regard to the last question, one of my Dâs college counselor thinks that reading between the lines on the coachâs feedback suggests that the coach may be asking my D to change colleges/majors in order be admitted with the coachâs support. My D did not share that same impression on the coachâs feedback.
Do coachâs want an athlete to not be given support for admission if the athlete can get admitted without the coachâs support?
If so, does that mean that the athlete is not ârecruitedâ and will need to walk on?
Have your D directly ask the coach this question.
Based on the pre-read results, I donât see it as a given that the student would be accepted without the coachâs support. It seems you know now the AO has an issue with the ACT score, so you should proceed accordingly.
If your D does get accepted without the coachâs support, the walk on concept is something she has to talk with the coach about as well.
@dadof3and1dog I would also suggest your daughter ask the coach (and she could check the team roster for majors) if teammates are in that specific school/major. Has he ever brought in a recruit that gained direct admittance to that specific major? What is the ACT range for that major - sounds like higher vs her 32.
I only have experience with D1 and my child was told there were specific majors âoff limitsâ or very hard to do when also being an athlete. Another thing to consider and get clarity on from
the coach.
This is a great point, thatâs why I asked on the other thread what school we are talking about.
For example, there are some coaches at NYU who say there will be no science majors on my team. Period. But then they would not have submitted those students for a pre-read, either.
2 Likes