College Athletic Scholarship

[kellermomof3]

My son has been offered a D1 scholarship for football, many D2's, so whe've been dealing with this for a while.

First thing our high school coach told him was it was not his resposibility to get our son looked at, it was ours. So we spent money by going to college camps and clinics he was interested in. This is a great time for your daughter to show her stuff, talk to coaches and do not be shy! She cannot just blend in, she has to somehow get their attention. Most clinics are around $35.00. NCAA rules are very strict in how much they can contact your daughter. With these clinics, you are going to them.

Now if there are no clinics or camps for your daughters sport, I would put together highlight film and a quick "brag sheet bio" of your daughter. Not over 10 minutes. Send it to every coach you can find. You never know what a coach is looking for.

These things seemed to work for us, he is receiving a full ride to a D1 school.

 

[Disneybuckeye]

My daughter is a DIII lacrosse player at a small private school. DIII schools give no athletic money. Neither do Ivy League schools. DD does get quite a bit of academic money. We told the coach the money needed to bring the cost in line with a state school. I believe the coach was very instrumental in getting her enough money to attend there.

Both of my boys were offered money to swim at the DI and DII level in college. Neither wanted to as they just wanted to be able to be students. They were tired of practicing 20-25 hours a week year round which is what swimming takes at that level. I would think gymnastics would be the same. Winning 8 high school state titles and 2 national titles between them was worth every penny of the thousands we spent as well as the half hour drive to 5:00am practices 4 days a week 10 months out of the year.

Lastly, we were spending thousands of dollars a year for our daughter to play AAU basketball. She injured her knee and ended up quitting basketball as she kept getting reinjured. In lacrosse she is able to play defense and there is minimal body to body contact, so it is much better on her knee. An injury can end it all in a minute, so don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Good luck with whatever you decide! It is hard to know what to do.

 

[Swimalie]

The kid needs to get a lawyer to review the letter she signed. She may still be able to get a free ride, but of course to a die hard swimmer---the thought of no team would be devestating.

I think she would rather swim for another school than give up her swimming. Luckily, she has 2 other schools wanting her. She's a nationally ranked swimmer and will do well anywhere she goes, though. I personally was burned out by college and went to a school without a swimming program on purpose. Out of our 17 graduating swimmers last year, 15 went on to get scholarships and swim in college.

 

[carone0318]

My son has been offered a D1 scholarship for football, many D2's, so whe've been dealing with this for a while.

First thing our high school coach told him was it was not his resposibility to get our son looked at, it was ours. So we spent money by going to college camps and clinics he was interested in. This is a great time for your daughter to show her stuff, talk to coaches and do not be shy! She cannot just blend in, she has to somehow get their attention. Most clinics are around $35.00. NCAA rules are very strict in how much they can contact your daughter. With these clinics, you are going to them.

Now if there are no clinics or camps for your daughters sport, I would put together highlight film and a quick "brag sheet bio" of your daughter. Not over 10 minutes. Send it to every coach you can find. You never know what a coach is looking for.

These things seemed to work for us, he is receiving a full ride to a D1 school.

Almost all D1 schools have summer camps for gymnastics. Camps usually are about $250-500 as they are overnight camps and usually last about 2.5-3 days.

The bigger meets also draw many college coaches and many of those meets will put on their websites which coaches will be there. I don't know where you live to know if your dd would fall in to Easterns or Westerns, but I do know that Easterns has a Higher Performers Camp for all gymnasts that qualify to Easterns, including alternates, in September and many, many college coaches come to that camp.

 

[lastminutemom]

D3 schools don't give athletic scholarships.

http://www.usnews.com/education/art...vision-iii-schools-give-athletic-scholarships

 

[phoenixphantom]

DD had a Golf scholarship and DS is a sophomore in college now with a Wrestling and Academic scholarship. What do you want to know. What sport is she in?

So your DS has a part athletic scholarship and part Academic? How does that work? do you have to do something special or is it because the team wanted hima and could only offer a part scholarship. Were his grades good? My daughter has an 94 average at this point with several honors courses. Haven't taken SAT or gotten the results of Psat yet.

What division are they? Do they feel like the school "owns" them or do they love their sports??

 

[phoenixphantom]

Who is telling you she has scholarship potential?

As of right now, her former coach, her current coaches and a div3 coach. They are not saying she is going to get a top D1 scholarship, jus that she has the potential to get a scholarship. I would be happy with a part, but my kid has to be happy and want it and want to go to the school offering it, not just take a scholarship because it is offered. But to get this close and shut the door seems dumb.

 

[ZuZugal]

So your DS has a part athletic scholarship and part Academic? How does that work? do you have to do something special or is it because the team wanted hima and could only offer a part scholarship. Were his grades good? My daughter has an 94 average at this point with several honors courses. Haven't taken SAT or gotten the results of Psat yet.

What division are they? Do they feel like the school "owns" them or do they love their sports??

I am not the poster you were questioning but I will try to answer. Sports that are considered "equity" normally do not give full ride scholarships to anyone. The coach knows he/she has a certain amount of scholarship $ and can divide that up between however many students he needs to. It is very common to get both academic and athletic $ (D1 and D2).

My DS was just offered $ to play baseball. Academically he qualified for merit aid which equaled half of the cost of tuition. the coach is offering the other half from his scholarship $ available.

 

[bhoffman]

My daughter is a gymnast, she is a sophmore, and she is competing level 9this year. Many girls that get full rides will already be level 10 or elite by this year, however there are definitely d3 and d2 schools that she could compete for and possibly even some lower d1's. I would be thrilled with a D3 and a partial scholarship.

It costs between $7-10,000 a year and that does not count the gas and time it takes to get to the gym which is 45 minutes away! Yes she could go to a lesser gym and just finish out the 2 years and have a good time, but the gym she is at is known for getting girls scholarships. That being said they don't all get them and they don't all want them. We are full committed for this year so I guess we will see how she does this year and if by some chance she does real well, then we will reevaluate.

Thanks for all of the feed back, many good points have been addressed. Many I knew but others not, especially about getting a lawyer involved. I know that a promoter is recommended but that is several thousand more dollars. It all seems like a huge gamble!!

Another gymnast mom here . My daughter is in 6th grade and is a level 8. We have spoken to coaches at one of the top schools in the country gymnastics wise (university of Michigan) concerning her. We were told they really look for girls that are in level 10 by 9th grade and are moving toward elite skills. You may have an uphill climb to get a D1 scholarship but as we know gymnastics is a strange ever changing sport. Will probably be even more difficult by the time my daughter is in 9th grade. Naturally the commitment for the entire family may or may not seem reasonable to you but thought I would share the info we were given as someone who they have already spoken to about future opportunities for our daughter. I know you were talking more D2 or D3, just thought I would throw this info into the pot! Good luck

 

[vitfamily]

So your DS has a part athletic scholarship and part Academic? How does that work? do you have to do something special or is it because the team wanted hima and could only offer a part scholarship. Were his grades good? My daughter has an 94 average at this point with several honors courses. Haven't taken SAT or gotten the results of Psat yet.

What division are they? Do they feel like the school "owns" them or do they love their sports??

The other poster is correct. The way it was explained to us is each sport has X amount of dollars for scholarships. My DS graduated HS with high honors so he was eligible for academic money also which left the coach more money to offer to other kids. My son goes to a D2 school. The season is just starting but he still loves it. It is a lot different than high school sports.

 

[M5ward]

Division III schools don't offer athletic scholarships, and Division II schools usually have less money to give out (than D-I schools) and like to spread it around rather than giving fill rides. One of my daughters got a full ride (actually 2 full rides but left first school after first semester) to a D-I school for basketball. We knew by junior high school that she had an excellent chance of getting a free college education. One of my sons got scholarship money (not a full ride) to participate in D-I track even though that was not his primary sport (he played football which was a non-scholarship D-IAA program at that school.) Another daughter turned down a half scholarship for field hockey because she just wanted to be a regular college kid...scholarship athletes are not usually able to be "regular college kids.". College athletics is a job, encompassing not only the season but the off season as well. Even the best, nicest coaches play mind games...their job depends on winning. Don't get me wrong; athletics offered them some wonderful experiences and the free or reduced cost education was great; but scholarships are few and far between, and you need to have coaches that will promote your kid and make contacts.
In your case, I hope your other kids don't resent the time and money put into one child's "maybe" future. We tried to offer all our kids (we have five) opportunities to achieve their goals. I just hope that we succeeded.

 

[jsmith]

if you are concerned about the cost of continuing your daughter in Gymnastics here are some things to consider that others have not mentioned.

DI schools have lots of full rides for women-the reason is that Title IX says they must give the same number of scholarship dollars to female atheletes as males-and the average college football team has 72 atheletes on it-full rides (tuition, books,room and board) in other sports for men are rare. But that improves the odds for stellar women athletes.
Most atheletic scholarships are partial and cover only tution or part of tution. Some schools give partial academics in addition to partial atheletics but those have grade restrictions to keep them and college atheletics are a huge commitment. One of my sons ran for a DI school. That involved training 7 days a week-running about 100 miles even when it was not track season and having the atheletic department control his diet, and what activities he could engage in outside of running.
In order to be eligible to be considered for a DI scholarship she must have an ACT score of 20 on file with the NCAA clearing house by march of her junior year.

 

[Maryr1]

When an athlete goes D1 on a full scholarship college is a very different experience than the usual college experience. It really becomes a "job". You are expected to earn your keep if you know what I mean. Most sports have mandatory study times, mandatory tutors and mandatory travel that cuts into class time. I have no problem with any of that-but if the athlete isn't prepared for it, well it can come as a shock. Most kids go off to college to "study hard and get good grades" along with all the perks of college life-frats,clubs,parties-all part of the expereince that they/you are paying for.......D1 athletes go off to college to earn their keep and frequently academics and things like sorority are secondary. If that is the experience your child wants and is prepared for than great, but it needs to be a discussion before you invest a ton of time and money in something they might not want or understand all the implications of.

 

[disprincessatheart]

My cousin had a full ride (tuition, room, books, etc) to a d1 school for girls basketball. She had to be ther two weeks after hs graduation and was only going to get a very short holiday break. She quit school in October. I haven't heard exactly why, but it's a lot of pressure on a kid - a lot more than I think most kids/families will expect.

 

[cornflake]

The biggest thing is that she can't wait until sr. year to think about getting scholarships. Coaches have their eyes on kids way before then, are recruiting way before then and are in touch with specific kids and locking down their theoretical offers way before then.

Kids I've known who were considered for scholarships had coaches asking them for PSAT and SAT scores in Jr. year and sometimes Soph., to determine if the kid will fit with the college's requirements and what level they're at, so they know where they can potentially slot them in their recruiting/scholarship package offers.

So I'd say you definitely need to talk to some people NOW about it if that's your goal, because by sr. year, it'll probably be way late.

 

[amcnj]

I agree with the start early philosophy. Get on the radar of schools she might have an interest in by starting a dialog with the coaches via emails, sending video of performances, etc. The amount of money available can vary greatly by sport. Try and find the money available at the schools she has an interest in, and what type of awards they usually make. Many schools also have merit scholarships, which can be purely grade/class rank/test score related, but some also offer merit for other factors, like leadership. Good luck!