After we showed you in part one of our blog series "The path to a tennis scholarship in the USA" the path from the first idea to the selection of an agency that supported us in the search and selection of a suitable US college s continue in part two with the creation of the “application documents” . What information and materials need to be gathered to create a profile that can then be used to later apply to colleges? And in what way does uniexperts support you? Write a CV, look for photos, put together certificates and give them to the translator, make application videos and much more. We'll talk about this in the second part of Mia's journey to US college .
To be honest, once we had decided on an agency, specifically uniexperts, part of Keystone Sports, the first small "burden" fell off our shoulders. For us as parents, but above all for Mia, having a professional and reliable partner at our side in this “project” was a reassuring momentum and a basis on which we could tackle all the next steps in coordination with the agency.
In the next call with Sandy from uniexperts, the three of us went through all the necessary next steps together. Since Mia's decision to apply for a tennis scholarship at a US college was only made in mid-January, there was now some time pressure.
In order to keep track of all the necessary activities, uniexperts, part of Keystone Sports, provides future student-athletes with a web -based dashboard The personal profile is gradually created there, with which uniexperts then goes into the application phase at the colleges. In the dashboard itself there are different sections that need to be filled out:
Lots of information and things we were able to do within 2-3 weeks. In the dashboard there is a so-called task management , in which the currently pending tasks are listed and briefly described. Helpful links are also offered per task. This makes processing extremely easy. And if any questions arose - and there were quite a few - Sandy or Steffen from the Admissions Team at uniexperts, part of Keystone Sports, was always immediately there with an answer. That went really smoothly.
Supported by the dashboard, Mia was able to easily and quickly enter all the necessary personal data about herself, us and her current trainer. A small set of photos was quickly uploaded. Creating the “application letter” took a little longer . In it, the future student athlete should introduce themselves and write about motivation, goals, wishes and also their own strengths (and weaknesses). Everything always takes into account that this letter is authentic and interesting for a coach. Mia quickly checked off this part. Section personal information - checked!
Grade point average is very important at most colleges and can provide an applicant with additional financial support in addition to the tennis scholarship. In order to transfer the German grade point average into the American grading system and thus into the Grade Point Average (GPA) , there are conversion tables or the GPA is calculated by uniexperts and stored in the dashboard.
Many colleges require foreign students to take the so-called TOEFL test (Test of English as a Foreign Language) . The colleges differ in the required TOEFL points. In general, with a score of 79 you have created a good foundation and this opens many doors at colleges. You can't fail the four-hour TOEFL test, which costs US$260. You can repeat it as often as you like (but it costs a new one every time!). It can be completed either on site at a licensed institution (e.g. a language school) or online. The test is divided into four areas: reading, listening, speaking and writing. Mia decided to take the online test. To prepare, there are various uniexperts courses, online seminars from various providers or classic books with 1-2 exemplary tests for practice. Mia had bought the book TOEFL iBT Prep 2023 , an eternally thick book, but which she looked at and worked on in a very rudimentary way. But the book helped her to understand the test structure and to familiarize herself with it. Without much preparation, she managed a result of 80 points, although her university only required 60 points. Mia certainly benefited from her Abitur preparation in English, so she was well versed in the topic linguistically.
SAT test (Scholastic Assessment Test) is still pending. This test is not required by all universities. At some universities, this test can be made optional in order to receive further financial support. The test is intended to assess the ability to study. Mathematics, reading and creative writing are tested, and there are also various subject-specific tests. All of them are completed primarily with multiple choice questions. Uniexperts offers separate preparation courses to prepare for the SAT. And/or you can also get a big preparation book for this. It's already at our house waiting to be "processed".
This area was a bit "worrying" for us as Mia had played very few tournaments other than association games last year due to injuries. Accordingly, the LK was not very high (5.9). a UTR ranking because she hasn't played any TE tournaments recently. So we looked through her game results from the past two years for matches where she played against UTR-ranked players. And here we quickly found what we were looking for and were able to fill the results list with a few entries. Close defeats against significantly better placed players can also be reported here.
TIP : Since we have almost no tournaments here in Germany that count for the UTR rankings, you should play more TE or ITF tournaments in preparation for applying for a tennis scholarship at a US college. Or you can take part in the Keystone Sports Tennis College Showcase , which always takes place in Leverkusen in July. There you are guaranteed to have three UTR games that can be important to you.
In addition to all the tasks above, the most important thing was filming an application video . Because this highlight video is one of the most important selection criteria for the coaches. We quickly reserved the well-lit tennis hall for two hours and found an ideal hitting partner in Moritz (thank you very much!!). We received “shooting instructions” from uniexperts on what should be shot and how. Short introduction by Mia, introduction, forehand and backhand cross rally, rally with a final longline shot, volleys, smashes and of course serves. I recorded the videos with my cell phone.
The crowning finale was the point play, which we recorded with the installed Wingfield system. This was really ideal for that!
I edited all the videos together at home and sent them to uniexperts in short videos. The agency then finalized the application video and voilà, here is the result:
If you don't want to or can't do the video shooting and editing yourself, you can book the professional package for the video shooting with uniexperts, part of Keystone Sports. It really has everything from A-Z.
All important application documents have now been created - so the application phase can begin! In the third part of the blog series we will tell you how the application phase went with the tennis coaches at the US colleges in question. University pre-selection, lots of inquiries and lots of conversations with the tennis coaches. And at the end of the third part of our series "Mia's path to a US college" the decision to go to college was made! Those were exciting and intensive weeks!
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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