I would prefer a small or mid sized school, the school would preferably be within an hour from a large city, but I would love to go to college anywhere in New England. I don’t want a completely urban campus, such as NYU. I would prefer the school to have a D3 tennis team also for me to play on.
You might want to look at the D3 tennis rankings. Currently the top 8 are Emory, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Chicago, Willams, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (mostly Claremont McKenna), and Amherst. All those schools recruit, although athletic scholarships are not permitted in D3. But all, if not most, provide 100% of demonstrated need-based aid.
If you are ranked regionally or nationally, you’ll likely have a collegiate rating already (i.e. 5-star, 4-star, etc). Being able to compete at a high level in D3 athletics will definlety give you a great advantage in getting in. The schools mentioned above are serious about their sports. They won’t take someone who can’t do the work, but they will take someone in the lower 50% of the typical admitted class, especially ED, who is recruited to play tennis.
For your schools at the “match” level, they take a lot of kids early decision. The acceptance rate at ED time is often twice as high as RD. In other words: If you don’t reach, your matches are matches in the ED round. However, they quickly turn into reaches in the RD round where acceptance rates are much lower, especially with another year or two of the college admissions arms race going by before you apply. Colleges really like to take kids ED as they don’t have to worry about whether or not the kid will come if accepted. As kids apply to more and more schools, the “definitely enrolling” kids become very attractive recruitment prospects.
So, go visit some schools and see what you think. Since you don’t need financial aid, you can really take advantage of ED. If you reach “just a little” and not too high, you can wrap up the college search early and be signed up for your first choice school rather than writing more essays over Christmas break.
Thanks for replying! Yes I am a 3 star recruit and I have talked with the head coach at Washington and Lee about playing tennis there. I am also planning on talking to the coach of JHU in the future. On tennis recruiting, Babson College has been following my results closely.
Thank you for your reply! I did not know that ED inflated acceptance rates so much. Do you think I would have a decent chance applying ED to a ?
school such as Wesleyan?
A lot would depend on whether you were athletic recruit desired by each program’s coach. If you are looking to be recruited, you’d be looking at ED anyway.
If you are interested in smaller schools in NE, look at some of the less competitive NESCAC schools like Connecticut College and Trinity College which might be matches for you.
Also, look at schools like Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall, Gettysburg.
Would ED at Wesleyan really be such a stretch? The acceptance rate is 39%.
Wesleyan’s acceptance rate this year was 17.5%.
Irrelevnant. The ED acceptance rate was 39%, notably higher than 17%
@ManOfGod
I’m going to post a link to a website- College naviagator- where you can get lots of information about all US colleges- admissions %'s, % acceptedED or EA, standardized test scores of enrolled students , etc,etc.
This website is the BIBLE for anyone who want to learn more about US colleges.
the info is compiled from Common Data sets from the colleges .
Be sure to bookmark it.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
this is a sample of what a search result looks like- here are the stats for U of Chicago
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=University+fo+Chicago&s=IL&id=144050#
Again, depends on whether you are recruited by the coach. Lots of things drive up the ED acceptance rate, a big one being recruited athletes who all apply during the ED round.
So, if I get a 1500 on the SAT and finish junior year with a 4.5 GPA, do you think that Wesleyan ED is a high Reach?
Also, I have looks at for tennis from Babson, Washington and Lee, Connecticut College, Hamilton College, Grinnell College, Centre College among many others
"So, if I get a 1500 on the SAT and finish junior year with a 4.5 GPA, do you think that Wesleyan ED is a high Reach? "
compare those values to the admissions data on the Navigator site for Wesleyan.
we are going to point you in the direction of various sources of information, or point out misinformation , but we’re not going to do all the work for you.
so check out the information on Wesleyan , and other colleges, on the navigator website.
have fun!
Wesleyan’s admissions is very holistic. It’s more than stats. Really, no one can really opine with any certainty for you. Look at stats on the acceptance threads for the ED and RD rounds and see how other students did this year. Personally, I don’t think many/any students can really count on Wesleyan being anything other than a reach unless a coach says he/she is going to bat for you. Coaches can give you a better read on where you would stand when they show interest in you.
Good job with your list. You have a lot of reach schools 
The match schools have a low acceptance rate that you can’t consider them a real match. I’m not seeing a safety school. USC is not a safety since the average GPA is 4.0. You’re unweighted GPA is 3.9. It’s a match school. Babson has a 26% acceptance rate, so that’s going to be a match too. One thing to remember. Cost is your #1 consideration for any school.
The list is actually fine, we just need to add some some safety schools. Check out Ole Miss, Miss State, Alabama and Auburn. Those schools offer the most generous nonresident scholarships. For a safety school, if all else fails, you have a strong school with a scholarship in-hand.
Hamilton provides data based on standardized scoring that can be used as a rough guide:
https://www.hamilton.edu/admission/apply/standardized-testing-distribution-of-scores
For example, students who applied with SAT scores in the 1400-1490 range were accepted at a 35% rate, which might imply high match or low reach. By broader considerations, or with an even higher SAT score, Hamilton could be a match for you though.
Here is a list of small to mid sized schools in New England with D3 athletics listed by the ideas economics rankings (New England Regional and LAC)
These are ranked at the regional level in New England
MIT
Williams
Brandeis (if undergrads have free access to B-School classes)
Tufts
https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.usa-new.html
These are ranked as LACs
Wellesley (Babson can cross enroll)
Middlebury
Wesleyan
Bates
Amherst
Trinity
Colby
Bowdoin
Stonehill
https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html
Here is a list by NCAA D3 tennis ranking
Bowdoin
Middlebury
Williams
Amherst
Wesleyan
Tufts
Brandeis
Bates
MIT
Colby
Trinity
Babson
Stonehill (not ranked)
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/tennis-men/d3/regional-rankings
My advice was more meant the other way around – watch out for schools that seem like a match, but are really reaches once you get to the RD round. If a school is a reach for your application strength, ED isn’t going to help.
Figuring all this out as a recruited athlete with great academic stats is a little complicated, but athletic departments are generally pretty helpful in letting you know where you stand.
I think should modify your list especially since your safeties are not really safeties. Many people with better GPAs and ECs weren’t admitted to BC from my school.