Page 26 - THE ORACLE MAGAZINE October'23 EDITION

“I’m Considering University
Sports”: What Should I know?
You might get injured in your senior
year and either not be able to fulfill the
requirements for that season, or you may
not be able to return to your sport at all.
More importantly, the athletic
requirements to even participate in
university sports, let alone get a good
scholarship, tend to be very high
(especially if we
’
re talking about Division
I. schools in the U.S.).
Your academics may be that extra factor
that puts you ahead of the countless
athletes who are on the border of making
the cut or not. With me this was the case
with Ivy League schools which
reconsidered my athletic ability after
evaluating my academic performance.
1. No matter what, school always has to come
first: This is important on two fronts: You
never know what can happen.
a.
b.
2. Start early: This is the advice that you
’ll hear
all the time throughout IB. Time-management
is honestly the one thing that will determine
your IB experience. I was aware of this already
in DP1, so I made sure to get all my university
research, emailing and calling coaches etc. done
before the DP1 summer term when the
deadlines start piling up.
3. Do research into your sport specifically and the
requirements you are likely to encounter: look up
rankings, look at how athletes at your desired
schools perform and how this compares to you. You
might be surprised to find that the requirements for
your given sport aren
’t too high… or the opposite.
4. Don’t knock it till you try it: Of course you have
to be realistic. If you
’
re not the best of the best, your
acceptance into a sports programme is never
guaranteed and you have to consider schools that
play to your strengths. Nevertheless, luck does play
a huge factor. The department for your sport and
your dream university may have received a budget
increase for the upcoming year and they may be
prepared to give out more scholarships, you might
really impress the coach with your personality
through video call etc. Basically, sending the email
never hurt anybody. The worst case scenario is, you
won
’t hear back.
5. Don’t select a school without seeing it in person
or through an online tour: I was lucky enough to be
able to visit the universities I was considering this
summer. Needless to say, the university I wanted to
go to the most ended up being promptly removed
from my list because the sports facilities were old
and moldy and something about the coaches struck
me as off.
26
THE ORACLE MAGAZINE
by Anna Němcová