My GPA unweighted is 3.89. My SAT score is 1510. For tennis, I am a two star on tennisrecruiting.net, and a UTR 10. I feel that academically I could be a good fit at these schools, but I am not sure about tennis. I really love tennis and I hope to continue it at this level. If this is not possible, could I use my tennis as way to increase my chances of admission?
Unfortunately, Ivies recruit 5 stars and very high ranked 4 stars. Tennis will not help you at an Ivy. You would be an excellent candidate for many strong academic D3 colleges.
If you would like to continue playing tennis at academically suitable colleges, you might want to research NESCAC schools in particular.
I have pretty much the same stats as you and got likely letters from Penn and Brown so you totally have a chance! The only thing I don’t know about though is how tennisrecruiting ratings work… I only made an account because the coach told me to and didn’t bother to check my own profile other than my # that he needed for a form. I do have a 10 UTR which I’ve been told is the most accurate rating coaches can use, so I assume we’re pretty similar?
Currently I am a junior in high school and yes my UTR is a 10. Are you a sophomore in high school? If you are junior, then did you email those coaches? I am starting to email coaches soon about my interest, so I am curious to know where you are in the process.
One thing you need to keep in mind is that Ivy League coaches are bound by the AI. The team AI has to generally be within one standard deviation of the school’s AI. So this generally means that in order to get the top tennis talent with a low AI, they will often have to take another student with a high AI to balance out.
Each school, and each team does this differently. So the only way you’re going to know if the coach will have a place for you is to ask. Even if your tennis skills are not up to par, the coach may have interest in recruiting you so that the average AI is maintained. If you look at the rosters of Ivy League teams, you will always see a few kids who don’t have a high ranking. These kids were either 1) recruited for AI 2) walk-ons or 3) legacy/development kids.
So start reaching out to the coaches and see what they say
I always had the sense that this balancing out of AI applied more to sports like football, and not so much sports like tennis and swimming.
Actually football has a more complicated system. My understanding is the equivalency Sports is where you see the balancing. For example, if a Coach needs an average AI of 210, and he picks up a superstar with a 195 that he can still get by admissions, he needs to come up with 15 points from his other recruits to get his average back to 2:10. I’ve been told by more than one coach that the number s needs to hit is dependent on how high he is on their list.
@vhsdad yes I agree. A sport like tennis generally has fewer spots, so its more difficult, but it is possible.
Let’s take an imaginary scenario. Assume that Ivy coach X can take 4 new recruits next year, and the average AI he needs to reach is 200. There is one stellar recruit the coach wants to recruit, but has a crappy AI of 176 AI (the minimum). In order to for this to work, the coach needs to recruit some athletes with fairly high AIs. The 3 remaining spots could be:
- 190 190 240
- 210 210 210
- 180 215 230
The possibilities are endless. But the point is that to bring up the average, the coach almost always needs 1-2 students on the higher end of the AI scale. This is where having a really high AI can help.
I hate to put it this way, but some sports just tend to need more average out than others.
The issue @vhsdad raises is partly true. Some sports (think country club sports like tennis, crew, etc.) have plenty of smart kids, more so than the more blue collar sports. But a lot of that is baked in. From what I read here and from what coaches tell my S, the different sports all have a different AI they need to hit, sometimes very different. The Ivy League cares about all athletes at a school combined, not any particular team. So the wrestling team may need a 210, where tennis team l needs a 220. (I’m pulling that specific example out of the air, but it’s probably not that far off).
It also depends on the schools priority. I would guess Harvard had the lowest AI in the league on their basketball team. The other Harvard teams just need to be a bit higher so the University athletes as a whole hit their target.
So even though the tennis kids as a whole probably have better #'s, their average probably has to be higher. So there may still be a need for a coach to take the slightly worse but higher AI player.
Put slightly differently, S has been told the numbers he needs to hit depend on how high he is on the coach’s list. #1 recruit may get in with a 26 ACT, but the last guy on the squad will need a 35. As long as a kid can pass admissions, the coach really only cares about the average.
I thought the AI thing was by sport–in other words, you can’t use a high AI tennis player to make up for a low AI football player.
Someone else can confirm, but I’m pretty sure it is not by sport.
I think that document is generally correct but not completely. For example, it says that it conforms by sport, but also says they can use one sport to offset another. So back to my example, tennis may offset wrestling. I don’t know if football is included in the overall index or if they are computed separately.
I think the deviations down for football are set across the league, with the banding system. In fact, I think the whole reason for the banding is to prevent schools from recruiting a bunch of low AI football players and then making all the other teams have a super high AI to compensate.
Also, I’m pretty sure the banding is only for football and maybe one other sport, I don’t remember. Most don’t use banding. Also I highly doubt Columbia has a lower AI than Brown and Dartmouth.
I read somewhere that only football and hockey really have athletes that need to be balanced by the rest of the team, and those teams by the rest of the school. The first question my daughter was asked by any coach was for gpa and scores. The coaches aren’t going to waste their time if the player can’t get into the school.
We had a recruit switch to another school in our conference. She’s very good, and I know our coach wanted her, but I think her grades weren’t high enough to get the merit aid to make our school affordable. She could have been accepted, but just didn’t get enough merit money. Another person told me her daughter (different sport) couldn’t make the money work at our school. Most really need the merit money more than the (limited) athletic money. Or you can just be rich and pay OOP.
Anyone reading this thread please check some others before you draw any conclusions about how AI works.
I’ve been told pointblank by a coach that he has an average he has to hit, and his number is lower than the overall university athletic #. There are numerous threads (especially about crew) that talk about numbers that are far higher than the athlete AI average needs to be.
I’ve also been told by a different coach if S is #1 recruit he needs a 27 ACT, if he is the last guy he needs a 34 to balance out the 27.
Football has a separate system with the bands. I’m talking about the other sports.