<p>I go to a small parochial school but what do you think the chances are if you are one of the top on your team to get a tennis scholarship to a DI school? I'm speaking primarily of Will and Mary, and I have the grades to get in no problem, I'm just wondering about general financial aid. I'm only a sophomore right now but maybe next summer would contacting the coaches be good? What would you suggest for getting that kind of scholarship? and the general athletic ability of those that recieve it?</p>
<p>Do you play in USTA tournaments or something similar? Do you have a national ranking? Do you go far in your HS state tournament? That’s generally how college coaches can notice/evaluate you.</p>
<p>Every team has someone at the top. On very good teams, that’s a great accomplishment; on mediocre teams, it’s an accomplishment, but not particularly noteworthy. Basically a DI coach isn’t going to be too interested solely because you were the top of your team.</p>
<p>DI players are the best high school players in the country, and a good amount are recruited from other countries as well. Their USTA ratings are usually ~5.5 - 6.5; if you know your rating you can see how you measure up.</p>
<p>If over the summer you go to some national/statewide tournaments, college coaches will probably be there. You can try to talk to them then, or find out if they’ll be there ahead of time and send them an email beforehand telling them who you are, that you’re interersted, and that you’ll be there.</p>
<p>By the way, I’m a junior on my school’s girls’ team. Tennis players are the best =]</p>
<p>luca11, haha I agree tennis players rock.</p>
<p>Do you by chance know how to get a ranking by the USTA? My school’s tennis team is decent, we’ve won our conference 5 years in a row and go to districts, but this year we lost first round. Thanks.</p>
<p>If no coach has ever had to rate you, you can look [here](<a href=“Tennis & Life Camps - Transforming tennis and life through the Three Crowns • Positive Attitude • Full Effort • Good Sportsmanship”>Tennis & Life Camps - Transforming tennis and life through the Three Crowns • Positive Attitude • Full Effort • Good Sportsmanship) for little descriptions of each rating. It’s kind of hard to figure out exactly where you fall on your own, but you can probably get a pretty good idea. The weird thing about it is that you have to be able to do everything at each level in order to move up. So if you’re can do everything else at the 5.0 level but don’t quite have a solid drop shot, you’re still stuck at 4.5.</p>
<p>idk it’s weird.</p>
<p>Congrats on the conference wins. Haha but what exactly is a conference? We don’t have those in my area; just districts and states.</p>
<p>All those schools that you play during the regular season are part of what we call a conference, like in a sport when you say its in your league. We were undefeated for the season, except a few schools that weren’t part of our conference because they were huge. I think that’s what it means pretty much.</p>
<p>That’s a cool site thanks (: I’d rank myself currently at a 5.0, give or take, so that gives me two whole years to move up to a six! Yeah it was a little hard to place myself exactly but it be somewhere in that 4.5 to 5.0 range. Actually that’s slightly reassuring haha, thanks.</p>
<p>I actually know a ton about this having raised three tennis players (one who is nationally ranked). You are fortunate in that you are a girl. Girls have a much better chance of getting tennis scholarships than boys do. So that’s one thing in your favor. However, if you want to play Division I you need to get moving. The single most important thing to do is to start playing junior open tournaments in your area. Your performance in these tournaments will lead to a ranking. Your goal is to keep playing local junior tournaments until you gain a high enough ranking to get accepted to national events. Go to usta.com and click on the link for junior competition. This will help you find tournaments in your area. To be honest, if you are not ranked in the top 300 nationally by the time you end your junior year, you will have a very hard time achieving your goal. You are already starting late. My son received recruiting letters at the end of his sophomore year. That being said, it is not impossible. You just need to work hard and get going!</p>
<p>bad suggestion for letting you self rate your USTA rank, which is not even used for juniors.</p>
<p>[Team</a> Overview](<a href=“Team Overview”>Team Overview)</p>
<p>you’ll learn to use this site if you’re serious. honestly, you dont have a shot if you’re not winning states. </p>
<p>i’d reccomend looking up kids you’ve beaten to see where you are.</p>
<p>large scholarships are hard to come by</p>
<p>Totally correct. That’s why I suggested she get out there and play junior open tournaments ASAP. Doesn’t look likely, but it’s not impossible…Depends on the Division I program she is going after.</p>
<p>You received some good advice about tournament play. Also, are you continuing to train this summer? (My son, a rising sophomore, trains from 10 - 2 every day.) If so, perhaps your coach can point you to some good local tournaments to enter. In additional to the official USTA website, I like the website tournamentmaps.com because it shows you at a glance where the USTA tournaments are located.</p>