Playing and studying tennis at a US college is a big dream for many young tennis players. To make your big dream come true, many US universities offer tennis scholarships. With this significant financial support, many tennis players from all over the world can fulfill their dream of playing college tennis every year. But who can actually apply for a tennis scholarship at a US college ? How does it all work? And there are countless other question marks that my husband and I had on our faces at the beginning of the year when, completely unexpectedly, our daughter Mia expressed her desire to study in the USA and play college tennis.
Over the next few months we will take you on Mia's journey to US college .
So that you get an idea of everything that needs to be done, thought about and prepared. Both as a future “student-athlete” but also as a parent. In the first part of our series we will tell you how Mia's wish came about, how we took the first steps towards it and what decisions have already been made. So much in advance: it was an extremely exciting start!
"Mom and Dad, I would like to go to a US college to play tennis after graduating. Is that still possible?" With these words our daughter Mia came to us in mid-January. To be honest, we were really blown away. Not that the topic of college tennis was new to us. Many kids of tennis friends were and are currently in the USA on a tennis scholarship. We repeatedly raised the topic with Mia a year or two ago, but studying abroad was never an option for her. Get your high school diploma and then study business administration or economics here. This is what Mia's plan looked like after graduation. At least until last Christmas...
However, a lot of things changed in the original plan over and after Christmas. After a few conversations with tennis buddies who are currently in the USA, Mia became more and more interested in the topic of college tennis. For us in secret. Until the decision was made and she told us in mid-January that she wanted to go to the USA.
Of course, we asked about the reasons for the "change of heart": "After graduating from high school, I want to have a completely new experience for myself. Away from home, out of the usual environment with family and friends. Finally play a lot of tennis regularly, without long journeys and high financial costs." And very important for Mia: she really wants the much-vaunted team experience. Serving with the team instead of playing as an individual at tournaments is simply a brilliant idea for her. Being together as a team, even outside the tennis court.
The long-held concerns about being far from home and alone had vanished.
Even though we were perplexed at first, one thing was very clear to us: we wanted to support her wish, because we think the opportunity to study in the USA with a tennis scholarship is simply brilliant. So what to do? First we asked Aunt Google about college tennis : what requirements are there? For example, it wasn't clear to us whether it was simply too late to apply for summer 2023 (=August). We read that it is best to look for a scholarship 1-2 years in advance. This point therefore had to be clarified as quickly as possible.
What the internet research showed us: Mia actually meets all the requirements to get at least a partial scholarship to a US college:
In principle, there are no firmly defined requirements for a tennis scholarship. Rather, it is the overall package that counts, which ultimately determines the amount of a scholarship.
The next step was to use the cell phone. In many long telephone conversations with tennis friends and coaches who had experience with tennis scholarships at US colleges, it was clear: firstly, things have to happen quickly and secondly, we need professional support because we cannot apply on our own.
In the conversations and of course also via the Internet, we learned that there different professional placement agencies that can help you find a tennis scholarship. From the small, rather unknown agency to the German industry leader Keystone Sports, which also includes the well-known provider uniexperts.
It is advisable to take a look at the websites in , because there are some differences here, such as the professionalism of the appearance, the detailed description of the placement process and yes, also the costs (some of which are not even published...). The financial conditions differ greatly between the agencies. Basically, you have to budget a nice sum for agency support (between 3,000 and 10,000 euros). The agency fee is paid regardless of the outcome of the placement.
Our friends' experiences were very different in terms of the professional support and the smooth process during the application process . Of course, we listened very carefully here, because this is something that cannot be estimated in advance with a provider. And even though every placement is different, these reports were very, very helpful and relevant to our decision-making.
If you google agencies for tennis scholarships at US colleges, you will get numerous provider recommendations that we explicitly do not want to mention here because we cannot evaluate them. Since we were under great time pressure, we looked at many different agencies online. However, we only spoke to one agency in detail, namely uniexperts. Why? 80% of our tennis friends were at uniexperts and were completely satisfied. So that can't be completely wrong, we thought.
So we arranged an initial meeting with uniexperts, the so-called opportunity assessment. Our daughter Mia was also present on this video call. This was explicitly requested by Sandy Franz, our contact person. We thought that was great, because after all, it's primarily about them. Sandy is a native of Germany, went to a US college as a student-athlete and now lives with her family in Charleston. A cool and open guy who wanted to know a lot about Mia in the video call. Why she wants to go to the USA, where she wants to go (region, small medium or large university), what she wants to study, what she hopes to achieve in terms of tennis and much more. Before the conversation, we gave Sandy some tennis facts about Mia: ranking position, class, league, etc. But school grades were also important for him. A scholarship can come from both sources, i.e. there are academic and tennis-related “scholarships”.
Based on this information, Sandy was able to give us an idea of what a year of study with (or despite) the scholarship would cost us. A not insignificant piece of information. After all, in addition to the one-off agency commission, there are also ongoing monthly costs (university fees for a partial scholarship, pocket money, etc.) as well as one-off costs for flights, visas, test fees, etc.
After the video call, it was clear to Mia that she wanted to tackle the application process with Sandy. And since I also thought that the chemistry was just right and that the total costs were manageable for us, we gave Sandy and thus uniexperts the green light the next day. A decision for a project with an open outcome. What the scholarship would actually look like, which university Mia would study and play at and many other questions are still completely unclear at the time the contract with the agency is concluded. Everyone should be aware of this. Rather, the journey together and the search for a university that is suitable for Mia begins now.
In the next part of our series we will tell you how Mia created her application profile and everything that needs to be taken into account and done. It is and remains extremely exciting!
In the meantime, if you have any questions about college scholarships or would like to know specifically how we approached things, please feel free to contact me at any time
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