Hunt for Tennis Scholarship
Hunt for Tennis Scholarship
From the following post we are going to write more about college tennis scholarship. We want to help junior tennis players to choose a right college and finance their education through tennis scholarship and/or generous financial aid from rich private universities. I invite college tennis coaches and players to share their experience with the readers of the blog. Now, read the article and discuss it.
“Where do I start to find a good US college tennis program to satisfy my academic and tennis needs?” I have been asked this question numerous times by potential recruits, coaches and parents.
Well, the reality is that your search does not really require you to pay 3 -5 grands to recruiting agency if you start at least a year ahead prior enrollment and know exactly what to do! I was asked to provide some information and answer possible questions about college tennis recruiting and enrollment process in this blog.
I’d prefer to remain anonymous due to paid recruiters and agencies’ that could be losing business if this blog ever becomes too public in nature. My sole intent is to help many uninformed student-athletes and their parents to make conscious choices for themselves!
For today’s blog, I will first tell you about men vs. women difference in scholarship funds at Division I Universities. Secondly, we will briefly touch on NCAA eligibility requirements for a scholarship. The reader should note that numerous questions must arise after this introduction and are definitely welcomed!
All right! Let’s quickly discuss the difference between male tennis program and female tennis program at Division 1 University in terms of scholarships offered. Every girls’ tennis team offers eight full rides. Girls rock (!) and offer eight (8) 100% scholarships with only 6 players playing. While, men’s tennis offers only 4.5 scholarships with 6 players playing.
How come you’d ask? Well.. It’s all due to the Title IX legislation. The equal rights for participation in athletics by women as compared to men. Since most of the division 1 Universities carry football and basketball programs with 100% scholarships offered to male athletes, women’s tennis becomes an “equalizer” to the total number of male to female athletes at each school.
It is always a full scholarship that should be offered to a female student athlete who makes a team, and it is NOT always a full scholarship coach can offer to a comparable male student-athlete.
Ivy League schools are generally exceptions to this rule, due to “financial aids” instead of scholarships offered. I will explain more about Ivy’s in our future posts.
This in mind, we can proceed with academic requirements for a Division 1 University. First of all, every native or foreign student-athlete applying to Division 1 University should be registered with the NCAA clearinghouse, where he or she will provide personal information, scholastic (high school) information, grades for the past 4 years, as well as scores for all SATs taken.
Here is the link to NCAA registration site:
http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/future/how-register
NCAA will then use your core GPA and highest SAT or ACT score in determining your eligibility status. Please note that for your SAT test, only Math and Verbal parts count towards the eligibility requirements. Core high school GPA is calculated based on 16 core courses that NCAA deems important!
Please also note that NCAA is familiar with most of the worlds’ secondary education systems and, therefore, evaluates foreign high school transcripts fairly quick. As a general rule of thumb I use – the NCAA eligible foreign student has a solid “B “ core GPA and at least 800 SAT score.
Although, NCAA does not require TOEFL score, the University does. I have heard that you must get at least 81 on iBT based TOEFL to be admitted. In addition, please keep in mind that if you passed NCAA eligibility barrier with 800 SAT you MIGHT not pass general University admission!
It means that you can be NCAA eligible and cleared, but still cannot be admitted to the University of your choice. Therefore, it is important to get familiar ahead of time with admission criteria for the University of your interest.
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Thanks!
So far
1. difference girls/boys
2. eligibility NCAA and requirements clearinghouse
3. admission requirements of university of choice
Just to clarify, not all Division I schools are fully-funded, and, therefore, not all offer 4.5 scholarships for men and 8 for women. It’s best to check with the individual university.
The NCAA sets the limits on the numbers of scholarships available at each Division. The individual schools set their budgets – not all may be fully funded. Ivy League and DIII do not allow “athletically related scholarships”
Are boys losing scholarship opportunities to men in college tennis? I don’t know the answer to that question but we had 25, 26 and 27 year old men competing in NCAA tennis in 2014. A 27 year old student-athlete? Stevie Johnson is what — 24 now? And he’s beginning his second year on the tour after 4 years of college tennis? Something ain’t right here.
I fully support the inclusion of international players within NCAA college tennis, however; IMHO 26 and 27 year old men don’t belong. I’m sure it’s within the boundaries of the rules but in my opinion, there is a need for some level of reform. A D2 champion was crowned this year with international players at position 1 and position 2, both 27 years of age at season’s end. What are the age restrictions? Do the same rules apply to both Americans and International players as far as age is concerned?
Assuming a player meets all the academic pre-requisites, what are the requirements in terms of tennis skills? Is there any information on what are the tennis specific criteria for admission consideration? Are tournament results the only playing criterion?
If a player places themselves how do they know where the most developmental coaches are? How do they know whose just a good salesmen and whose good at their job? out of 800 schools how do they find the right one which fits all of their needs? Right academics for them, right coaching style, schedule which will help them develop? if they have academic issues how do they figure this out beforehand? Most admissions don’t notice a problem until the NCAA flag it as a problem, by which time its too late. SO how do you stop this from happening if you place your self? Saying that players can place themselves is pretty dangerous. Yes you can but finding the right set up for you and also being eligible wont always be guaranteed if you do go it alone. Thats why tennis has the highest transfer rate out of all sports. Im thinking you have never gone through the 18 month not 12 months as you state task of placing a player and actually caring about where they go.