In August, senior Ruiqi Liu committed to the admissions process at the University of Chicago to continue her basketball career at the Division III level. 

Liu started playing basketball at six or seven years old, but it wasn’t until the third or fourth grade that she began taking it seriously. “I started getting some practice in frequently throughout the week,” Liu said. 

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Liu began to think about the recruitment process for college basketball. “If I’m putting in this much time and I’m not trying to make it big [by playing at the collegiate level], I feel like that time might be wasted,” Liu said. 

During her sophomore year, Liu initiated contact with DI and DIII schools with strong academics, but UChicago was not in the picture at the time. In fact, she didn’t get into contact with the school until the summer before her senior year. “At a big summer tournament, they came to watch my [teammate] play […], and they saw me and they reached out,” Liu said.

Ultimately, out of the schools Liu received offers from, the University of Chicago was the one she was drawn to the most. She cites their community and team culture as key aspects that make the university appealing.

Liu received an offer on Aug. 6 and decided to accept it the following day, which happened to be her birthday. A couple of weeks later, her friend and teammate senior Karen Xin also committed to UChicago, and the two announced their commitments on social media together. “[UChicago] will be a different environment, but I think it’s going to be a lot easier to transition because I have [Xin],” Liu said. 

At UChicago, Liu is looking forward to spending more time playing the sport she loves. “While high school basketball is great, it’s a lot shorter, and we spend a lot less time together than in college basketball,” Liu said.