Question about sports when applying

<p>I am going to be a senior in the fall and am excited to apply to college. </p>

<p>One of my biggest hobbies is tennis. I have been on the team since 9th grade. I consistently spend time on the court. During the school year, I get in at least two days of playing in. During the summer, I play 3-4 times a week for 2-3 hours.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, the only evidence I have of my commitment is one varsity letter. I have not participated in tournaments outside of school. I spend a lot of time on tennis, so I was wondering if there was anyway I could get across how passionate I really am about the sport in my application. Just to make it clear, this is not going to affect my passion for tennis. I just wanted to know if there was some way I could get across how much I love tennis. Thank you!</p>

<p>-Write about it in an essay
-If you communicate with your counselors/teachers a lot, they will know and mention it in your recs. If not, you still have the opportunity of writing them a letter in which you explain your passion for tennis (a few paragraphs will do, but it should be a letter because you should write about other pertinent information for a rec letter as well.)
-Your coach could write you a supplementary letter of rec.</p>

<p>BTW, is this 2-3 hr per time or 2-3 hr in each week?</p>

<p>Thank you for your excellent suggestions. I thought about it in my essay, but didn't even think of sharing it with my GC and teachers.</p>

<p>And by the way, that would be 2-3 hours per session.</p>

<p>ssethi, if you're applying using the Common App there is a short essay that asks you (at least it did on last year's Common App) about an extracurricular activity. It's only a 150 word length essay, so a great place to write about tennis for you. My son used it to write about his sport.</p>

<p>For the longer essay -- the "personal statement" -- students are often advised not to write about sports, just because it's a too well-worn topic. However, since the shorter essay question specifically asks about an extracurricular, that seems like a great place to talk about it.</p>

<p>Also agree with getting a supplementary rec from your tennis coach. If you want to play tennis in college, make sure to send a copy of it to the college tennis coach (assuming it's a college with a tennis team), along with a letter introducing yourself.</p>

<p>I agree with previous poster--great short essay topic, but 150 words is really short so you have to say something really catchy about it beyond "I really love tennis." Also curious about your plans for tennis in college...</p>

<p>Yeah, coming up with something pithy and out-of-the-box to say about playing tennis is the way to go with only 150 words. Sometimes brevity is your friend, because you'll have to cut out all the generic blah-blah, and just leave behind some great little individualistic nugget.</p>

<p>You're welcome. Yapping about it to your teachers/counselors might even be better than writing about it. Supplementary rec would help even more IF the coach knows you very, very well. Which I'm guessing he/she does.</p>