Commitment Profile
Texas Blue Chip Grant Solomon Goes Harvard Crimson
by
Ali Jones, 31 July 2013
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Grant Solomon reached the end of the road in his college deliberations with a regret that most prospective student-athletes would love to have: from a list of great schools, he could choose only one.
Some of the top tennis programs in the country had courted the blue chip recruit from Dallas, Texas, and he saw much to like at all the schools he had dreamed of attending for years. But in the end, the rising senior's answer was "a firm yes" to commit to play for
Harvard.
Last year, only 5.79 percent of applicants were admitted to the Ivy League icon, the highest admissions bar in a conference known for its stringent standards. But in the fall of 2014, having measured up to those lofty levels, Solomon will be among the chosen few arriving for the first time to start classes on the hallowed Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus.
"The coaches at every school I spoke to were amazing, and each offered strong reasons to attend their schools," Solomon said. "There were always three or four colleges that I was most interested in, and each one I had visited unofficially. I was fortunate that at the end of the day, there was not a 'bad decision' to be made."
Solomon has amassed a record of consistent high achievement in his junior tennis career, maintaining blue chip status in Tennis Recruiting rankings and topping the Texas age-group rankings until he began to limit his in-state schedule. With an eye toward college tennis and the professional circuit afterward, Solomon had tailored his training and tournament play to focus on national and ITF events over the last two years.
"I chose Harvard because Coaches [Dave] Fish, [Andrew] Rueb and [Eric] Butorac can really help take my game to the next level," Solomon said. "Honestly, it just felt 'right.' In addition, the guys on the team are amazing, and Harvard offers me an incredible opportunity to grow as a student and athlete. It seemed to be the most normal progression from what I had been doing with high school and competitive tennis up to this point."
Early in his junior career, Solomon had considered the homeschooling route of many of his peers in the upper echelons of junior tennis. But he decided to stay put at Greenhill School, where he had been a student since first grade.
