Hi All,
Daughter, high school class 2022 (rising senior), is being asked by D1 tennis coaches to consider a preferred walk-on spot in 2022 because they just do not have scholarships available. The scholarships are already taken by existing team members opting for another year due to Covid. Daughter would actually slot higher in the lineup but, again, the money/spot is already taken.
Would taking a gap year help? Or do you see this problem as more than a 1-2 year issue? In other words, is this a 4-year issue until all the existing athletes move out?
Same thing happened for a friend’s daughter in class of 2021 for golf for this year. I am surprised to see it is happening next year as well - I thought it was just going to give students a replacement year of eligibility?
Let me start by saying I am not familiar with tennis and, while D20 attends a D1 school and was an athlete in HS, I am not the parent of a recruited athlete. My questions would be more about specifics of a team, such as how many students are currently staying on for the extra year? NCAA D1 rules allow for 8 tennis scholarships so if there are 2 rising juniors who are all planning on staying an extra year, that doesn’t leave very much room for the following year either. Are the programs you are referencing fully funded? If not, there may be some Covid related financial issues going on behind the scenes that may impact a few years into the future.
It is also my understanding that tennis has a relatively high percentage of international students playing on US collegiate teams. If your D took a gap year, she would then be in the admissions pool with other competitive and ranked players who are in the year behind her.
How much does your D have in the teams she has been looking at so far? How necessary is the scholarship money for the one year? Is it possible to accept a preferred walk on opportunity and be considered for scholarships the following year?
It’s hard to predict how long the effect will last, as it will vary by school. Every D1 athlete received an extra year of eligibility, plus some took GAP years. That is going to take awhile (a couple of years) to work thru the system.
Do you need a certain level of scholarship $ to attend? Do you qualify for need based aid?
Definitely important question to ask the coach …how many players do you expect to be on scholarship each year for the next 3-4 years? And how many total scholarships does the team have?
Woman’s Tennis is a headcount sport in D1. I think there are too many specific variables to give a general answer. If the coach is saying that that she would get offered a scholarship for the other years, you can’t assume that it will be their if she takes a gap year. The coach is going to give that same offer so someone else. Would the coach be willing to use a different opening scholarship on your DD? Maybe. Depends on how good she is relative to other recruits that are in the pipeline. If you take a gap year, you have to understand that you may have to start the process all over again unless you get some level of commitment from the coach.
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Thank you all for the comments. The gap year, I should mention, would include good tennis training so that her skill and rank would be even higher. The thinking being that in a year at least the seniors with an extra year would have moved on out.
Yes, we could pay a year now and hope she gets on a scholarship the next years. But I am always leery of counting unhatched chickens—in general, not just in college and tennis.
You’re right, my bad on the headcount sport issue…I edited that misinformation in my post.
My daughter was a recruited D1 athlete this year - different sport, so maybe this is not relevant to tennis. The athletic $ she was offered for her sport varied from $5k a year to $15k a year as part of their recruiting pitch. One school got there with merit and the others sounded like it came from
athletic money.
Maybe tennis gives a lot more $, as it would have cost us more for her to take a gap year to wait to get the max offered at $15k - if they had said to wait a year.
In the end, she ended up in a division that doesn’t give any sports money period across all
sports. They offered to do a financial aid preread, as they are need blind - but we knew we didn’t qualify.
Do you qualify for aid and do you need that athletic money and financial aid to make it work ? Did the coach give you a dollar amount and it was good for 4 years?
Cofeeeat3,
Thanks for replying. In women’s D1 tennis, colleges are allowed to fully fund up to 8 spots (full scholarships). Not all colleges choose to do this, or have the resources to do it. And some entire leagues, Ivy and Patriot, for example, offer no scholarships. But others do, so it’s a real value. But with only 8 maximum, and sometimes fewer, spread through freshmen to seniors, a recruit must see who is graduating to open a spot, and with Covid, they are staying on.
Anyway, to answer your query, Daughter would not qualify for much need-based. And we have not asked for future promises like “future scholarship” after a year.