By Briana Adamovsky
From the desk of: Adrienne Treado
The thought of college comes to the minds of high school athletes much earlier than the average student. Choosing a college is overwhelming enough, let alone adding athletics to the mix. Plus, as a tennis student-athlete you want to find a college program that is the right fit. Many college coaches will ask you to first apply to their college so you can be officially accepted by admissions before they move the process forward into athletic and academic scholarship talk. Here’s your game plan on applying to colleges so once your time arrives, you will be ready to compete:
Applying Early. It is going to help you secure scholarships and grants. In addition, it's going to show the tennis coach that you are really interested. If you want to get a head start, you may begin to write your essay portions this summer. Financial aid packages are not finalized until early spring in senior year, so you have up until that point to get more financial aid. Private scholarships, essays, and others types of aid are taken pretty fast so you need to do your research and be aware of each college/university and what they offer early senior year. Talk to your guidance counselor, your admissions officer, and the coach about this. He/She should have more information for you. It's going to depend on each institution, so you need to educate yourself on each one.
Ask The Coaches. When sending an application in you should mail it directly to the coach unless they specify otherwise. They may be able to waive the application fee if you are a recruited athlete. They may also support your application with admissions to help you get accepted if it's a more selective college/university. Talk to the coaches and ask questions such as:
When should I apply?
Do you want me to fill out an application?
Do I meet the academic admissions requirements at your school?
Should I submit it to you to turn in or should I send it directly to admissions? (This is asking the coach to waive your application fee and also if they "support" your application through admissions)
If I send it to admissions, is there an application fee waiver?
When should I hear back from admissions?
Communication. The key is to talk to the coach about the application process. You should work together to decide the best route for you to take. By establishing a relationship with the coach and narrowing down your list of choices, the application process will be less overwhelming. Rather than applying to 20 different colleges on your own, you can work alongside the coaches already recruiting you and have preferable options in the end.
Acting early, having a plan and communicating with the collegiate tennis coaches will ensure your recruiting process to run smoother. Take advantage of the web and educate yourself as much as possible. Be an ambassador of your recruiting process and put in the time now so you will have the college of your choice in the end.
