Mia's path to a tennis scholarship at a US college - part three: application process & decision
As in professional life, the following applies when applying for a tennis scholarship in the USA: once the application documents are ready, it goes out on the “market”. how the application process works at the various universities and what you need to consider as a candidate in our third part of the blog series “The path to a tennis scholarship in the USA”. After all the interviews with the coaches had been completed, Mia had to decide: which university was the right one for me? Where are the conditions best when it comes to tennis? With the support of uniexperts, part of Keystone Sports, this section was also solved quickly, so that at the end of this blog post you will find out what Mia's decision was. Mia's journey to US college is now complete. Go West - it's the beginning of August!
Applications go out to the universities
As soon as Mia's application documents were ready, Sandy from uniexperts, part of Keystone Sports, got to work and wrote to the tennis coaches at the universities Mia was considering. So the ball was set rolling - Mia was now waiting for the first reactions.
In the Keystone Dashboard, Mia also found a longlist of all the universities in question, all of which have a very detailed profile. This is really, very informative and helpful, because there you can see how big the university is, how much a semester costs, how reputation is assessed, what admission requirements are set (TOEFL score, SAT yes/no, etc.). Courses of study and which sports teams there are. The very specific information about the university's women's tennis team is also interesting: which league and conference they play in, where they are in the rankings and who are the coaches. There is also a map on which you can immediately see where the university is, an image video of the university and various links.
In summary, this information was really very helpful, as Mia used this information to add one or two universities to her personal wishlist or remove them from the longlist before the interviews.
From the initial contact to the interview - this is what contact with the tennis coaches looks like
It only took a day for Mia to receive the first messages from the coaches via email or WhatsApp. The news was very different. Some coaches sent very detailed messages with university presentations etc. Others were very brief and simply wanted to arrange an interview straight away. Some requests were out of the question from the start, so Mia arranged a total of 15 interviews during our carnival week in mid-February.
The interviews also lasted different lengths: from a short 10 minutes to well over half an hour. Sometimes it was just the coach on the other end, sometimes the entire coaching team. From interview to interview, Mia got better and easier to talk to, although with 1-2 exceptions, all coach interviews were very relaxed and friendly.
Here are some questions that you should definitely ask the coaches if they are not already automatically addressed:
- How big is the roster, i.e. the team, and what does the line-up look like, i.e. at what position does the coach see you?
- How many tennis courts does the university have?
Are the places directly on campus or external? At universities in the north: are there “real” indoor courts? At many universities in the north of the USA, the tennis teams play in the winter in the "ordinary" sports halls, which are temporarily "converted" for tennis training. - How often and for how long do you train (tennis, athletics, etc.)
- Is there also a men's team? Are mixed training groups also formed?
- What does the financial support, i.e. the scholarship, look like? What exactly does this include (accommodation, food, books, etc.)
- Are there also “Academic Scholarships” in addition to the “Athletic Scholarship”?
After the interview, some coaches sent Mia very detailed emails with a specific breakdown of costs. For others it remained a bit unclear at first, but was then clarified with questions.
The pro & con list and Sandy's feedback were worth their weight in gold
What was very, very helpful for Mia was that she had made a Pro & Con list of the individual universities, which also listed the points that were most important to her (size, tennis team, location, etc.). This enabled Mia to gradually put together a really good overview. Mia asked the coaches many questions via WhatsApp and usually received feedback quickly, so that the mosaic of information quickly formed an overall picture.
close contact with Sandy was just as helpful during the very intensive application period Mia gave him feedback after every conversation and immediately received advice and tips on what else to ask or how he assessed one thing or another based on experience or personal contact.
In total, Mia's interview lasted just 10 days. Afterwards, seven universities were on their shortlist, with advantages and disadvantages. Our daughter went through this list with us parents and of course also with Sandy.
And Mia's decision has been made
And then the decision came very quickly: Mia chose Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina .
Mia got along really well with Coach Jay from the first conversation - one of the most important criteria from our point of view. The chemistry simply has to be right from the start. The tennis team also made a good impression. It was also nice to have contact with one of the players, who was always happy to answer any questions. The size and location in sunny South Carolina were further plus points. Yes, and ultimately, of course, finances also played a significant role, as Mia does not receive a full scholarship, but rather a partial scholarship.
Mia was encouraged in her decision by Sandy, who knows Francis Marion University and the coach personally and is sure that Mia will fit well into the team and that the rather small university suits her well. From his years of experience, Sandy certainly has a very good sense of which player is in good hands where. As a parent, I also thought it was good that he made no secret of his own pros and cons, but rather expressed his thoughts and concerns openly, both to Mia and to us parents.
So now the decision for a university has been made. After that, the official enrollment process, the so-called admission, began. We'll tell you about this in part four of our blog series. But what we want to reveal and show you today is the contract that sealed Mia's decision. A great feeling!
In the next part of the series we will show you what the enrollment process at the university looks like
If you think that most of it is done once you sign the contract, you are wrong! After signing the contract, the registration process begins. And this requires a lot of documents, emails and much more to be obtained, written and translated. And in the process, Steffen from uniexperts is Mia's most important and extremely valuable contact. So stay tuned to see what there is to report!
Still questions?
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
Further articles in the series
New tennis hotels
ROBINSON travel tip of the month
Events
Posts on the topic
