How Hard Is It To Get An Athletic Scholarship?
Getting an athletic scholarship is very difficult, especially at the D1 level. Many athletes work all of their lives and still can’t attain them.
The chances of being granted a collegiate athletic scholarship at the Division I level as a high school student are around 2%. Alongside this, for those individuals who are granted a scholarship the average value of it will be less than $11,000. While this statistic may seem shockingly small, don’t get your hopes down. If your lifelong dream is to play collegiate athletics, there are plenty of opportunities at smaller D2 or D3 institutions. Make sure you research and reach out to those coaches as well, and you may just get an opportunity to carry out your dream!
Included below are a couple of helpful tips on how to get an athletic scholarship, how scholarship money is awarded at the D1, D2, and D3 level, as well as some points about the difficulties associated with being a student-athlete. Getting an athletic scholarship isn’t easy but when it’s all said and done it’s an extremely rewarding experience.
Steps To Land An Athletic Scholarship
There is no specific concrete path to obtaining an athletic scholarship. Below are some of the things you can do to get on a coach’s radar and increase the likelihood of being offered a scholarship.
Create A List Of Target Schools: There are thousands of universities across the globe that are seeking athletic talent for numerous different sports. To make the recruitment process easier on yourself as well as to increase your likelihood of being awarded an athletic scholarship, you should narrow down the list of schools that you have interest in. By doing this you will be able to devote more time and attention to those programs and give off a better first impression. There are also numerous other reasons as to why this is an important thing to do. These include location, major offerings, rigorous academic requirements, or excessive cost.
Start Early: The sooner you start reaching out to coaches the better. The likelihood of obtaining an athletic scholarship drastically decreases when you wait to reach out. If you wait until your senior year to begin strongly pursuing athletic scholarships, you may just be out of luck. Most team’s wills have filled their rosters by then, and will more than likely have no remaining scholarship offers.
Be Proactive: Refer back to the 2% statistic provided above. Only 2% of all high school athletes will play D1 athletics. Not a great chance. With this being said, it’s important to not be dependent on coaches to handpick you for their program. Do whatever you can to stand out and sell yourself as a good fit for their program. This may include doing things like creating a recruiting packet that includes a cover letter, resume, test scores, transcript, and highlight film. It could also come in the form of attending camps or consistently communicating with coaches via email. The point is, there are so many outlets in which to communicate with coaches so be sure to utilize them. The more a coach see’s your name trying to get into contact with him/her, the greater interest they will have in you. Most coaches seek players who want to play for them. Make it known that you do.
Again, there is no step by step guide to landing an athletic scholarship, but these are a couple of great starting points. Be sure to put on display your desire to play for the coach you are reaching out to.
Division I, II, And III Scholarships
As a prospective student athlete or the parent of one, it’s important to understand what exactly is meant by an ‘athletic scholarship’ at each division. If financial assistance is a necessity, be sure to make note that hardly any scholarships will be full, and that some schools won’t provide any financial assistance whatsoever.
Division I: One important piece of information is that only four Division I sports even offer full athletic scholarships. These sports are football, men’s and women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball. All other Division I sports operate under a partial scholarship model. The average athletic scholarship at the Division I level is only $10,400, and this number is slightly inflated by the high value full scholarships awarded. That being said, the dollar amount of scholarships may be shockingly less than you might have anticipated.
Division II: Division II schools use a partial scholarship method, as they don’t offer full scholarships in the pure sense of the term. This partial scholarship model gives Division II schools a specific number of full athletic scholarships per sport or “full scholarship equivalences”. The monetary value of these full scholarships is divided into smaller partial scholarships that are spread across many athletes. At the Division II level, men’s and women’s basketball both give the equivalent of ten full scholarships, football gives the equivalent of 36 full scholarships, and baseball gives the equivalent of nine full scholarships just to name a few. These numbers all fall below the amount of scholarship money that can be awarded at the Division I level.
Division III: Division III is much different from D1 and D2 in the sense that it does not award athletic scholarships. This being said, attending a Division III school does not necessarily mean you will be burdened with paying the full cost of attendance. Seventy-five percent of student-athletes at the Division III level receive some sort of merit or need-based financial aid.
While it may be extremely rare to be awarded a full scholarship, any sort of financial assistance may be a great step in launching you towards a successful career. While it may be easy to get wrapped entirely into the realm of sports, it’s important to remember that your next four years at a university may shape what career you have for the rest of your life. Be sure not to discount schools if they don’t give you as much financial aid as you were hoping for.
Getting A Scholarship Is Only Half Of The Work
In such a long, drawn out process that is termed ‘recruitment,’ it’s important to remember that this is only half the work. It’s the logistical side of things. When coaches are recruiting you, they have a vision for you to impact and better their program as a whole. Don’t take your foot off the gas pedal after you sign with a school, a difficult yet rewarding journey lies ahead.
Being A Student Athlete Is A Full-Time Job: As a student-athlete, the NCAA requires coaches to limit ‘countable athletic activities’ to under twenty hours. Twenty hours isn’t too bad right? False. Coaches have developed plenty of ways to sneak around this “20-hour rule” by having ‘optional practices,’ that aren’t all that optional, as well as other team-related activities. In my experience, football players spend 4-5 days a week practicing, have countless lifts, as well as team meetings and more. And after all this physical exertion, I’m sure one could infer the complete exhaustion many of these players face when it’s time for class or any other responsibilities. This is just football alone. Basketball and other sports may practice even more given the above average toll on one’s body that football entails.
How Do I Balance Both Sports And Class: This is a struggle all student-athletes face at some point in their college careers. The amount of practices and sports-related activities leave you wondering how you will have any time left to do school work or socialize. Luckily, athletic programs realized this and have taken measures to help. Academic advisers will work with you closely to put you into classes that can be better balanced with your athletic workload as well as that fit your time availability. Universities have an excess or resources that will make this process easier, but without a doubt even though they offer all these great resources, finding this balance will by no means be easy.
When laid out like this, being a student-athlete may sound extremely daunting. Yes, it’s a huge time commitment, but you’ll be playing the sport you love and many of your teammates are likely to become lifelong friends. Additionally, being a student-athlete will help you develop some crucial lifelong skills. These may include leadership, time-management, accountability and more. Playing sports at this level does a lot more than just make you a better athlete.
Things To Keep In Mind
Don’t Wait For Coaches To Come To You: There is such a large quantity of high school athletes to choose from for college coaches. Plenty of athletes fulfill the athletic and skill ability needed by coaches. Be sure to differentiate yourself by how you communicate to coaches your desire to play for their program and by having solid academics. Coaches have tons of options so give them a reason to pursue you.
Being A Student-Athlete Is Rewarding: After reading all of the excessive time commitments and stresses involved with being a student-athlete, don’t be deterred. Not only will you get to keep playing the sport you love at a high level, but you will also meet lifelong friends and develop important professional skills.
Don’t Be Discouraged: Don’t let the 2% statistic ruin your dreams. Even if you don’t achieve your dreams of playing a D1 sport, there are plenty of other routes to get there. Junior College, D2, and D3 programs provide great alternative options that can help you reach your athletic goals. There are plenty of athlete success stories in our modern world, and they don’t all start the same way. Don’t give up!