Division III Student-Athlete FAQ

Athletic Recruits
1

<p>Our daughter is a 9th grader who has been playing for the varsity high school tennis team since 6th grade (charter school). Conservative estimates, from her coaches, put her at about a 4 star athlete by her junior year in HS ... certainly strong enough for some D-I and virtually all D-III schools.</p>

<p>Academically, she's doing well too with plans of taking the most stringent course load available at her HS along with the standard recipe of extracurricular activities. She's currently top in her graduating class. Her dream has always been to attend a top institution for undergraduate studies. And, although she would like to play college tennis, we are proud that she has prioritized education before athletics.</p>

<p>The more that I learn about the demands of a student-athlete at a Div-I school, the more I gravitate towards D-III for her (she's currently looking for top non-LAC schools with warmer climates ... if that's at all possible).</p>

<p>Regarding our financial position, we bought into our state's prepaid college plan, when our daughter was young, but don't have much in savings. She's expressed an interest in the medical field requiring a post-secondary education and tuition that we currently can't afford.</p>

<p>So my questions are as follows:</p>

<p>(1) Based on her profile and projected current path, assuming I can defer the escrow prepaid college funds to grad/medical school (not sure have to check on this), how do I go about finding Div-III schools that would extend the best merit-aid package available? Should we primarily focus our attention on universities that meet full financial need (e.i. Emory, Cal Tech, Wash Univ STL) or might a strong academic/athletic profile suggest significant merit-based institutional aid offsetting this concern and broadening her search?</p>

<p>(2) How and when should she reach out to perspective Div-III schools? Is the first point of contact the team's head coach or an admissions officer? And as she is still young and not a 4-star player yet, is there a negative impact to putting her on a coach's radar this early?</p>

<p>(3) If it is advantageous to initiate contact at this early stage, what typically is protocol for maintaining these lines of communication over the next four years? When does the "big sales pitch" come and how much non-tennis related info (ex: institutional aid) can a coach accurately confirm? Conversely, would it be evident if a coach's interest has waned during these next four years?</p>

<p>(4) I read somewhere that Div-III coaches have an average recruiting budget of only $500. So there would appear to be an advantage to initiating first contact. Is anyone here a proponent of HS student-athletes "playing the field" by expressing interest and contacting an inordinate amount of Div-III schools ... or simply focusing on a list of likely candidates?</p>

<p>Thank you for your help.</p>

2

<p>You might receive more answers posting this in the athletic recruits forum- [Athletic</a> Recruits - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/]Athletic”>Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>There may be someone there with specific tennis knowledge.</p>

3

<p>Have you looked at this ?</p>

<p>[Varsity</a> Tennis | USTA](<a href=“USTA College Tennis Programs & Information | USTA”>USTA College Tennis Programs & Information | USTA)</p>

<p>What is her ranking ?</p>

4

<p>LineJudge,</p>

<p>Truthfully, I think you are getting way ahead of yourself for a 9th grader. The bottom line is she needs to challenge & perform in the classroom, get great SAT/ACT scores (junior year), and play the top regional or national tennis tournaments to be seen by the level of coach that would recruit her. </p>

<p>If she is playing these regional and national level tournaments today, she should reach out to introduce herself to the schools she has interest in. If the coach is interested they will start casually following her now as a high school freshmen. In my day, tennis had a lot of walk-ons. I was a walk-on. Today is very different and rankings are very important. I know many juniors (I hit with them) and they know how important it is to produce at these large events. Depending on how you do, it can be the difference between being recruited by many D1s or D3s. If your daughter has D1 talent over the years, she will know it very quickly. Your daughter has plenty to do over the next couple years. As a parent, I would strive to understand what are the demands of a D1 tennis player, travel & academics and contrast that with D3 tennis, tennis and academics. As your daughter meets more and more college tennis coaches this will become clearer, and then she can decide what she wants to pursue academically and athletically. Good luck.</p>

5

<p>Agree with FWS - this is too early although Emory sends recruiting emails to Freshmen. Your recruiting will begin late Spring of her sophomore year when she should start contacting coaches to let them know that she is interested. She should find out what their Summer schedule is and what tournaments they will be present at and ask them to come watch her play. If you are interested in the North East D3 schools or CA schools most of them are usually present at Donovan tournaments - google Donovan Tennis. Some D3s are present at the local Sectional and National events too and you need to get on their list of players to watch. Obviously you need a decent tennisrecruiting.net ranking to generate this initial interest. The real recruiting will start in the Spring and Summer before Senor year after the test scores and GPA are out. Provided that she was seen playing in person she may get offers Spring of her Junior year. Note that many top D3 schools will wait for Ivies rejects until the Fall of Senior year.
For now you should just provide her with tennis training of 4-6 days/week and a reasonable USTA tournament schedule with 50-100 matches/year and 2:1 win/loss ratio aiming to peak her tennis results Summer before Senior year. Familiarize yourself with Sectional and National tournament schedules and selection processes (they are changing next year) to plan a year ahead. Try to be a chill tennis parent and let everything happen naturally. Many girls quit serious tennis at 14-15 so be careful.
A few additional notes - you may want to look at Patriot League - they are D1 but not very athletically demanding and may even have some athletic and other money. HS tennis means nothing in tennis recruiting and may not even be worth her time. Limit her other ECs to a very few meaningful activities that she can do on a fixed schedule. If she is an athletic recruit her ECs are not really as important as an additional “star” for example. Do not let her compete with “regular” students in who will collect more ECs game. There are limited number of hours in a day. Good luck.</p>

6

<p>My athlete is similar to your daughter but a couple years closer to graduation. We’ve visited some top D-3 schools and found the coaches to be quite interested. NESCAC coaches and the D-3’s I know of on the West Coast are interested first in academic achievement. My perception is that athletics can give an admissions boost but no money. I’ve heard that numerous times at recruiting seminars hosted on our school campus (not directed to my child in particular.) And the family’s financial contribution is based in a large part on income and less so on savings as far as I understand. For the academically focused kids, D-3 may be a better choice, but don’t look for any aid beyond need-based. As far as merit aid goes, the top schools don’t give much if any merit aid as they don’t need to lure top students.</p>

7

<p>OP, are you still around? I started writing a post and realized you may not be checking this.</p>

8

<p>I’ll post this anyway, maybe for someone else’s benefit, or criticism!</p>

<p>–This link is 4 years old, but it gives you an idea of which schools were/are merit aid providers, how likely it is to receive merit aid, and average dollar amounts awarded. Merit aid is very hard to come by. Don’t count on it, but treat it as a bonus.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/696637-merit-aid-percentage-common-data-set-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/696637-merit-aid-percentage-common-data-set-4.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>–In your case, with Medicine as an area of interest, it’s very important to save as much money in undergrad as you will need it for Med School, as your comments allude to.</p>

<p>–Along with cost, GPA-potential is another big priority. Med School acceptances are largely based on GPA and MCAT, and less on the ranking/prestige of the school. So your choice of school should take this into account. In other words, encourage D to go where she feels she can get a solid GPA (3.5++). If she’s in the bottom half of the incoming class (SAT/GPA), that’s going to be rough. Aim for the top quartile or higher so she’s not overly worried by the competition for grades.</p>

<p>–Consider attending a university for undergrad that has a Med School. Med Schools generally select their own undergrads in larger numbers, so this may be an advantage. Not a must by any means.</p>

<p>–Check out the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) website for the Academic Awards that have been awarded to all of the teams. Many years of data there. The ITA website lists awards for Team (collective GPA of 3.2+) and Individual (GPA 3.5+). This is very important in your case because of the GPA needed for Med School. I can’t stress this highly enough. You don’t want to choose a team/program that has a history of mediocre academic achievement. And don’t assume that Great School = Great Chance of High GPA. It depends on the program and especially the coach. Some tennis programs/coaches simply attract higher academic achievers. Ask coaches about this and grill them on where they stand. Check the data. Avoid teams and coaches that cultivate a culture not conducive to high GPAs, as this is like death for a med school aspirant. </p>

<p>–If your D wants to major in a STEM field (not mandatory for pre-med), pay closer attention to your choice of school. STEM requires more lab work and homework hours doing problem sets, as you likely know. So GPA, again, is bound to suffer. D3 is generally a much better environment for STEM student-athletes. Find out how many players on a team are STEM majors and especially get a solid sense of whether the coach “dissuades” students from STEM. D1 coaches do this more often, I’ve heard, in part because of the time commitment required, but also so the team can perform better athletically.</p>

<p>–All things considered, if your D is still a top student and a 4-star tennis recruit in a couple of years, I’d look at Emory and WUSTL (as you mentioned). These are top academic schools, with med school, solid tennis, and the tennis teams do well academically. I’d also look at Pomona College: great school, tennis, weather, and the tennis team performs exceptionally well academically year over year. Obviously, the higher ranked the tennis team (ITA website), the more of a priority it is to be a 4-star or higher. </p>

<p>–I would also seriously consider Rice University. It’s D1 and it’s a top 30-40 team, yes, but the team is very academically minded, as is the school. Rice is a small school, so you have the benefit of a research uni with a LAC feel. Good merit aid. Baylor College of Med is across the street. If your D is a top half 4-star, she would probably be of interest. The advantage here is the scholarship aid, if your D can swing it. It may end up being the less expensive option. The tennis commitment is larger, yes, but the team is outstanding academically, with significantly more 3.5+ GPA players than even the top Ivy, and rivaling an excellent academic D3 team. I’d be very very selective with other D1 schools. </p>

<p>–You have a couple of years to wait before approaching coaches; typically Junior year. I see no advantage in making contact before then (only potential problems). I’d focus on maybe 4 to 6 schools for now. If she slips in academics or tennis, she won’t be in as high demand, so more schools may have to be added to the mixer. Hopefully she can maintain a good balance between academics and tennis over the next few years!</p>

9

<p>Dunboyne,
A lot of great advice and it seems Rice does have walk-ons on their roaster. Do you know if they were recruited walk-ons or they got into school on their own?</p>

10

<p>CCDD14, Rice does have walk-ons. They only have 8 girls on the roster and I’m not sure how many scholarships they offer out of the 8 legislated. Less than 8! The walk-ons are probably told that they have a place on the team if they can get through admissions. Like anywhere else, the coach likely puts in a call to admissions to see what their chances are, but as far as having any pull with admissions, I doubt it. </p>

<p>As for whether a walk-on is recruited or not, I suppose it depends how you define “recruited”. Technically, the NCAA says that an athlete is “recruited” even if the coach places a phone call more than once. I’m sure that happens to every walk-on who isn’t literally a “walk-on”, as in the old days when a student just showed up to try-outs hoping for the best.</p>

<p>The thing with Rice is that they’ve climbed the rankings in the past two years and finished last year at 22. The OPs daughter is projected to be a 4-star. If Rice keeps up the good play, I’m sure a 4-star would have a hard time making the roster. They have a hard enough time right now, let alone with a few more years in the top 30. So, even though Rice is a great choice for a girl who wants D1 and has some serious academic interest, it’s looking more and more that she needs to be 5-star material. If you have a 4-star kid interested in Rice, I guess you have to secretly hope they fall back in the rankings to 50 plus! A 4-star right now probably doesn’t see much scholarship money, if any. But that can change.</p>

11

<p>So if the coach has no pull and no money and a 4-star would not start what is the point of even applying? Rice is a pretty competitive school to get into. I would look at top D3s where coaches have pull. For example Emory recruits have already announced their commitments - you would assume that the coaches can guarantee their admission.</p>

12

<p>What’s the point of even applying? I see what you mean, but there’s many reasons why a particular 4-star might be interested in Rice.</p>

13

<p>So is it ok to ask a coach straight out if your child is a TOP recruit? Since D3 can’t offer athletic scholarships, how do you know for sure that the coach wants your child?</p>

14

<p>You absolutely have to ask where you stand as a recruit. There are many different levels of support (especially at D3s) and the only way to know is to ask detailed questions.</p>

15

<p>Should I as a parent ask, or should it come from the student/recruit?</p>

16

<p>Our son was in a different sport, but we always made sure that contact with the coaches was thru our son. The exception was when they started discussing the financial end. At that point we would keep our son involved but would add support. As for everything else, we figured that part of the recruiting process for the coach is to determine that not only is the student suitable athletically for the team, but that the student is mature enough to be able to handle the rigors of academics and sports. It was hard at first for our son to initiate conversations with coaches- it took some nudging- but he eventually got really good at it. At least one coach mentioned that he really appreciated that our son -rather than the parents- was the one who approached him!</p>