If you had your child play a sport to get a college scholarship, did it pay off or not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have really young kids but I hear parents say that they will have their kid play x sport hopefully so they can get a college scholarship.
Does it really work?

If you had your child play a sport to get a college scholarship, did it pay off or not?

What sport did your child play?
At what age did you have your child start playing the sport?
How much money did you spend over the years so that your child can play the sport?

And anything else you want to mention!

OP, I think parents are mostly joking when they say this. I say this as a joke too. And I went to college on an athletic scholarship.

[Anonymous]

The recruited athletes I know all went to colleges that they could have gotten into without sports. I don't know how much money they received.

[Anonymous]

Did any of you who posted see that OP's kids are "really young?"

[Anonymous]

OP you should worry about what your kids will need to have accomplished to simply get admitted to college by the time they are that age. Scholarship would be icing on the cake. Have them do something besides getting straight As in all honors classes just to get in ....

[Anonymous]

When I think of full ride sports scholarships I think of the poor kid from "somewhere" who is a phenom and does not have time for school, really. Particularly in the big sports, like football and basketball.

[Anonymous]

Hoping for a scholarship is not a substitute for saving for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Full ride scholarships are generally available only for division 1 football (85 scholarships per school), men's basketball (13), and women's basketball (15), tennis (8), gymnastics (12), and volleyball (12). That's it. Under NCAA rules, no other sports require full ride scholarships. Instead, the other sports are "equivalency" sports, with the limits set at total scholarships equal to x full ride scholarships. So, for example, division 1 women's field hockey can have 12 equivalency scholarships. A coach is free to have 25 women on the team, and can divvy up the money among the 25 any way she wants. So a few players might get substantial scholarships, the rest won't get much. There are even fewer scholarships available at Division II schools (which generally speaking, aren't well known schools). There are NO athletic scholarships allowed at Division III schools. Any aid offered there must be financial aid or merit aid.

So the reality is, even for top athletes, there are very few full rides to college out there, unless you play football. As this article discusses, excluding football and basketball, the average athletic scholarship in 2004 was $8k.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/sports/10scholarships.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

The real advantage to sports is the admissions edge, not the scholarship. Sports help even if a student is not recruited. Especially being a captain.

Depends on the sport, the school you want to go to and your sex.

A male soccer player who is not playing academy or high level club and does not want to go to a D3 school has no edge with admissions, even being captain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also note, athletic scholarships are for one year only and must be renewed each year. Get hurt? There goes your scholarship.

Not true for me. They usually sign a contract that states otherwise. They can't drop you because you get injured.

Scholarship length has long been one of the greatest misconceptions in college athletics. The assumption is that when an athlete signs to play and study at a given institution the university makes an official commitment in return, guaranteeing at least four years of an education. In reality, the NCAA used to mandate that scholarships could last for only one year with the possibility of renewal. A coach could re-sign an athlete or cut him or her loose.

In the summer of 2011, the NCAA changed this rule. It passed legislation giving Division I universities the option to offer multiyear scholarships, guaranteeing an education as long as the athlete stays out of legal trouble, doesn't violate school or NCAA rules, keeps playing the sport and maintains academic eligibility. The athlete is also free to leave, under the same transfer rules as always.

But nearly two years after that legislation, multiyear scholarships are rare, not publicized by universities and largely unknown by the athletes. According to data of 82 universities at the Division I-A level obtained by the Post-Gazette through open records requests, only 16 have offered more than 10 multiyear scholarships. Thirty-two of the universities have offered between one and 10, and thirty-four have not offered any.


http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/Pitt/2013/05/19/Colleges-universities-slow-to-offer-multiyear-athletic-scholarships/stories/201305190222

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also note, athletic scholarships are for one year only and must be renewed each year. Get hurt? There goes your scholarship.

Not true for me. They usually sign a contract that states otherwise. They can't drop you because you get injured.

As noted above, the certainly CAN drop you because you get injured. Not during the year, but they are not required to renew your scholarship unless they have specifically offered you a 4-year scholarship. Which, until 2011, they weren't allowed to do, your experience notwithstanding.

[Anonymous]

in our family, those that got recruited didn't get any scholarships but got into schools they otherwise wouldn't have gotten into 'unhooked'.

it definitely paid off.

[Anonymous]

My DC just went through this for the admissions edge, not for money. He was sought after by several top tier D3 schools. Ultimately decided that he was not willing to apply ED to those schools, which was required to get the admissions bump. He applied to several on an RD basis though and was waitlisted. So there are several scenarios here based on our experience:

1. You love the sport and want to play in college and are good enough that you will be recruited somewhere. You are willing to go to a lesser school than you might have gone to based on academics. We know a number of kids who followed this path. This may or may not include a scholarship offer.

2. You are pretty good at a sport, also academically qualified, and can get an admissions bump at some schools (probably D3, or D1 schools where your sport is not the focus). This will probably require an ED commitment.

3. You are a legit superstar and have probably been recruited in 10th or 11th grade and are getting some decent money from a D1 school. Your academics are less of a priority as long as you meet the NCAA guidelines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC just went through this for the admissions edge, not for money. He was sought after by several top tier D3 schools. Ultimately decided that he was not willing to apply ED to those schools, which was required to get the admissions bump. He applied to several on an RD basis though and was waitlisted. So there are several scenarios here based on our experience:

1. You love the sport and want to play in college and are good enough that you will be recruited somewhere. You are willing to go to a lesser school than you might have gone to based on academics. We know a number of kids who followed this path. This may or may not include a scholarship offer.

2. You are pretty good at a sport, also academically qualified, and can get an admissions bump at some schools (probably D3, or D1 schools where your sport is not the focus). This will probably require an ED commitment.

3. You are a legit superstar and have probably been recruited in 10th or 11th grade and are getting some decent money from a D1 school. Your academics are less of a priority as long as you meet the NCAA guidelines.

PP here, superb post that needs to be read by all.

ED commitment is big. Everyone in my family that was recruited by ivy or top d3 school were required to apply EA/ED for an admissions bump.

PP does your son/daughter regret not doing ED?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC just went through this for the admissions edge, not for money. He was sought after by several top tier D3 schools. Ultimately decided that he was not willing to apply ED to those schools, which was required to get the admissions bump. He applied to several on an RD basis though and was waitlisted. So there are several scenarios here based on our experience:

1. You love the sport and want to play in college and are good enough that you will be recruited somewhere. You are willing to go to a lesser school than you might have gone to based on academics. We know a number of kids who followed this path. This may or may not include a scholarship offer.

2. You are pretty good at a sport, also academically qualified, and can get an admissions bump at some schools (probably D3, or D1 schools where your sport is not the focus). This will probably require an ED commitment.

3. You are a legit superstar and have probably been recruited in 10th or 11th grade and are getting some decent money from a D1 school. Your academics are less of a priority as long as you meet the NCAA guidelines.

PP here, superb post that needs to be read by all.

ED commitment is big. Everyone in my family that was recruited by ivy or top d3 school were required to apply EA/ED for an admissions bump.

PP does your son/daughter regret not doing ED?

Maybe to one school. But he decided to take his chances at the schools he was more interested in, which weren't ones that were recruiting options because either they didn't even offer his sport, or they happen to be top schools in the sport and weren't realistic.

[Anonymous]

What's ED?

[Anonymous]

Sports stars, you know who you are! National, state records and so on. Everyone else is just rec.