Can You Get an Athletic College Scholarship?
Most parents of students involved in a sport dare to think, at least once while they're watching their child play, that their little superstar may one day get a full scholarship to the college of their dreams.
It's a nice dream, and unfortunately for the vast majority of college bound students, it remains a dream. It's not just because your child isn't the superior athlete you thought they were, it's that the vast majority of college athletes play without one penny of scholarship money.
Ivy League schools, for example, don't offer athletic scholarships at all (though a superior athlete with good grades does have an increased chance of being admitted to such a school). Sixty percent of college athletes don't have a scholarship, and most of the remaining 40 percent have only partial ones. It's actually pretty rare for a child to obtain a full scholarship because coaches are faced with divvying up a set amount of scholarship money over than entire team.
For example, say Smart University has four full scholarships for its basketball team. That doesn't mean that four students get a free ride. It usually means those four scholarships are divided up between 20 students.
Still, any money your child receives for an athletic scholarship is nice, and there are ways you and your college bound student can increase their chances of obtaining a scholarship. Here are some do's and don't's for applying for an athletic scholarship:
-Don't contact any coach before your child's junior year.
-Create a resume with all your pertinent information, including name, address, phone, high school, as well as your athletic experience. Include your prospective major, as well as the position you've played and any statistics you have. The resume should also have contact information for your coach. Let your high school coach know where you'll be applying and that you've included their name in the correspondence.
-Include your grades and SAT scores. Colleges are far more likely to award scholarships to good athletes with good grades, so don't ignore that part of your high school experience.
-Have a video of you ready to send and offer to send it to them upon request.
-Proof read everything. Make certain your grammar and spelling is correct. If you are e-mailing the coach and do not get a response within a month, e-mail again. Remember, coaches receive hundreds of e-mails and letters requesting the exact thing you are.
-Apply for a scholarship even if you don't think you're good enough. Most students don't get scholarships because they don't think they are good enough to warrant one. You don't have to be a superstar to receive a scholarship.
Remember, if you don't apply for a scholarship, no one is going to hand it to you. You never know unless you try.
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