@postleg With the cycles, changing stars can take time, so don’t focus on that. Try to play some events and get a good win or two under your belt. Sometimes that is all you need to get a coach’s attention. Then email a coach at a school you are interested in, introduce yourself and tell them, "I recently played xyz tournament where I beat xyz player. Point out a strength in your game and something you need to work on. Also don’t underestimate the value of a 3-5 minute video showing your strokes, serves and movement. It can be professionally done for $500 to a few thousand (way too much) or you can do it with your iphone. If you do it yourself have someone take it that won’t make view seasick and do some editing. Look online for examples, they are out there.
Johns Hopkins, Rose-Hulman? Cornell carries a giant roster of players, many who do not play, so you have the commitment but no playing time, just fyi. Go to the college commitment list on tennis recruiting and see where players ended up the last few years that are 2-3 stars/at your playing level.
Basically, you don’t have an admission offer from CMU yet. If you are not recruited, having stat around the admission average means your admission chance is likely around the admisson rate which is below 15%. Do apply to it but you don’t need to choose until you got admitted by both.
Just a correction that doesn’t make much difference but I don’t like an error floating out here - CMU (as in Carnegie Mellon) is ranked 10, not 2 for DIII - I was thinking Claremont McKenna for CMU when I posted back then. Forgot it is Claremont McKenna College. Still same issue, mostly 3 and 4 stars, also pretty large roster. So same issues as a Claremont team would be.
I see 29% posted as admission rate for Carnegie with ED and 24% overall. Claremont is under 15% (10-12%), @billcsho maybe you are thinking Claremont stats rather than Carnegie like I did?
I would get much more clarification from the tennis coach on how much pull he has. Unlike a lot of other D3’s and Ivies, Caltech (and MIT) coaches do not have allocated spots subject to admissions approvals. My son was recruited by Caltech for baseball. At our meeting with the coach and the head athletic director, they were very upfront that they did not have allocated admissions spots like the other D3’s and Ivies. They had my son’s transcript and test scores (his stats put him as average for Caltech based on its CDS), and told us with their support letter, his chances were probably a little better than 50/50. This is in sharp contrast to the other schools where he was recruited who told him based on his stat’s, he would be 99% in (just don’t do anything stupid or screw up your senior year). I don’t know your specific situation, if the Caltech tennis coach has more pull, or if the school has changed its policy, but I would hate for you to make any decision thinking Caltech was in the bag when it might well not be.
Also, don’t overestimate the ED effect. The higher admission rate in ED often due to legacy, recruitment, and a smaller pool but much stronger candidates. An average candidate may not benefit as much as the number reveals, if at all.
UCLA, Northwestern, and Cornell have low enough acceptance rates (less than 20%) that they should be considered reaches for everybody. The RD acceptance rate for Northwestern was less than 10% last year. Additionally, acceptance to engineering programs as a freshman can be very competitive. For example CMU Engineering School admitted only 14% of applicants last year.
I’m sure you are a very accomplished student. However, I saw many academic superstars last year get denied at their top picks. Be sure to have a few true safeties in the mix where you would be happy to attend.
Once again, thank you so much for all your help. I chose CMU over Caltech, and decided to apply Early Decision to CMU to the ECE Department - I just got accepted!!!
Anyways, wanted to follow up on this. Thanks again.
