<p>I'm safely and happily in college but a high school friend of mine is asking for some advice that I can't exactly answer.</p>
<p>She's currently a freshman in high school and is an internationally ranked tennis player in her division (I'm not exactly sure what or how it works). She plans to spend the next year or two half-studying, half-touring the US to increase her ranking before she turns 18 and can't compete in this division anymore. We're not a US-based school so she'll have to be away a lot, and miss most of the classes so her attendance is going to be horrible - the school might allow her to skip so many days of class because of this special case, but still we don't know certainly if self-studying such a large portion of the curriculum is going to work.</p>
<p>That being said, she's currently thinking that she would apply to college right after that - with a high tennis ranking and potentially getting picked up by a coach, but not finishing high school, stopping only either after sophomore or junior year. Her dilemma is that if she continues school after she turns 18, her tennis ranking would drop and make her less likely to gain acceptance at schools of her choice. My reasoning is that without full senior year graduation, she might not get accepted anywhere at all.</p>
<p>My guidance counselor and I have been trying to convince her that this plan is a huge risk, and there is no guarantee that a coach would be interested in her and give her a good word to admissions. Still, I keep cautioning her that in the end it's up to the admissions office, and they're going to question her ability to perform academically at the college level.</p>
<p>Can the people familiar with athletic recruiting enlighten us on this issue? I assume this is not a common thing to do. How much boost does her great international ranking give to her application? Will it be enough to overcome the fact that she didn't graduate the full years of high school?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance. I'll definitely pass on any advice you all are able to give to her.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that she’s stellar at academics, but has very little ECAs except for tennis.</p>
<p>I’m going to have a chat with her on Wednesday with some school staff members, would really appreciate anyone’s input into this.</p>
<p>Personally I think it just doesn’t sound sensible that someone would get admitted based on athletics alone and with very little academic preparation, I’d just like confirmation from someone who knows the process on this.</p>
<p>Wow, I don’t know much about leaving school after sophomore year. I do know in volleyball it is becoming more and more common among the major D1 programs for recruits to graduate in December and start college in the Spring - playing Spring ball with the team so they are ready to compete for a spot in the Fall (NCAA volleyball is a Fall sport). But these girls have been accepted and have completed all requirements for graduation, college testing etc.</p>
<p>There are NCAA academic requirements that have to be met before you can be eligible in college, so without completing her course work, she would not be eligible anyway.</p>
<p>There are a few tennis-specific high schools in the US that I’m assuming accommodate the need to balance academics and high level tennis. Why doesn’t she transfer to one of those? </p>
<p>Lastly, if she is trying to get recruited as big time tennis player, they are not going to care about her EC’s past tennis.</p>
<p>I should think with NCAA requirements for the # of courses completed etc…that it is not possible to get admitted to college as a sophmore etc…
Your friend might want to consider a virtual school/online courses that she can complete online/via net access etc.</p>
<p>You can homeschool…but caution, we are homeschoolers and ended up choosing to enroll our kids in the state charter school because homeschooling requires a lot of extra paperwork, both for NCAA and colleges. But with homeschooling you have more flexibility with academics. There are also virtual (online) high schools that are accredited but they can be very demanding and may require some real-time classwork. There are lots of different options out there for high school but you do need to have some semblance of a high school education in order to play sports in college…the NCAA is strict about that because you are supposed to be a student-athlete, not a full-time athlete.</p>
<p>I think a predominance of the top-ranked tennis players (top 20) in all the age divisions are home-schooled. She should look into Laurel Springs. That seems to be the most popular for tennis. We chose the traditional school experience, but MANY choose to homeschool.</p>