Every day, we spend hours with teens applying to university. Students often share how their self-esteem depends on whether an institution deems them good enough. Students view college acceptance as the ultimate validation of their ability level, potential, work ethic, and societal acceptance.
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One of the most challenging milestones a young student faces is university acceptance. This is especially true for golfers wanting a collegiate team spot.
At IJGA, we work to make our students professional golfers. We take care to walk each one through an individualized college placement process. With nearly a 100% college placement rate, we’ve shared our college admissions secrets for student golfers.
How to be Noticed by Recruiters
Being recruited and offered a scholarship to play collegiate golf requires a tremendous amount of talent, hard work, and dedication.
Coaches look for specific sets of skills on the course and not always a particular handicap or scoring average. Recruiters often look at attitude, personality, and mental capacity.
But what are the best ways to get noticed? IJGA offers their students personal outreach to coaches, a network of golf-focused relationships, and a variety of golf camps where one can put their all into technique and training.
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When it comes to standing out to coaches, there are several skills university coaches value for admissions:
- A passion for golf
- Coachable – ability to continue to develop
- Must embrace a team environment
- Desire to earn a university degree
- Certain levels of scoring/ball control
- High level of self-resilience and commitment
IJGA’s Admissions Tips for Student-Athletes
The IJGA College Placement team works with the coaches to address feedback from university recruiters. They’ll work with students to develop the skills and characteristics the university teams seek.
Use these tips from our college placement team to help your application process:
- Keep an accurate list of tournaments and results to share with interested coaches.
- Make a list of wants and goals to help you to choose and apply to the right universities and golf teams.
- Target schools that meet your academic ability and golf skills.
- Showcase in your application why you would be a good fit for that particular university.
- Seek advice on writing letters, communicating with coaches, and narrowing down options. Ask questions!
- Build your tournament profile to challenge yourself against better players and continue to play according to your coach’s development plan.
- Plan to visit universities.
Despite the challenge of playing collegiate golf, 87 percent of IJGA golfers have played at the collegiate level over the past three years.
Work With a College Placement Team
Imagine a mountain of paperwork just to apply to the college of your choice. There are essays to write and tests to take and retake until you achieve the score you need. There are golf coaches to contact and teams to meet.
For students who already balance the complexities of daily training, tournaments, and academics, the pressure to manage one’s time efficiently is enormous. Our team works to meet regularly with students to ensure they’re on track to achieve the college of their dreams.
Specifically, our team works most intensively with juniors and seniors, as these last two years are critical for appearing to recruiters. Our students have a team of people working to ensure they have everything they need to attend excellent universities.
Download IJGA’s admission guide or contact our team to fast-track your university admissions process.
