subject: What You Need For Sports Scholarships [print this page] So you think you have what it takes to earn a sports scholarship? Well it takes a lot more than jumping high and running fast. There are a few things that will be absolutely essential to you having the success that you want and acquiring that scholarship that you desire. Those things being:
1. A highlight tape.
This is how the recruiters you WANT to see you will see you. Is it always good to have a natural following or buzz? Yes, but definitely not always the better choice. What you have to understand is a buzz and following take time. If you are a role player in your sport, you may not receive the attention that is sufficient to bring the school that you would like to go to calling. Furthermore, if you are a late bloomer (you didn't start until your junior or senior year) you don't really have the time to build that following. You have to pull that attention now!
With these tapes you also want to be very careful in how you format and deliver them. Remember that you are a high school athlete. Often times, recruiters are looking for that raw talent that they can polish up. As a general rule, treat your highlight tape like you would Facebook. You know how if you go to an individual's page and all of their pictures are professionally done, you start to doubt if the person is actually good looking? Well if your highlight reel is extremely overdone, it gives you that same "Glamour Shots" effect and they'll start to doubt your talent. If a person looks good in a regular picture around the house, they probably do in person. That rule applies with highlight tapes as well. If you look good on a general scouting tape, you probably play well in person too. Basically you want to go for a well-edited tapeinstead of a lower budget Nike commercial.
2. A FAFSA account.
This applies mainly to seniors. Filling out your FAFSA will always be like pulling teeth. It's doubtful anyone really likes completing them. FAFSA stands for free application for federal student aid. Every student that doesn't pay for their tuition and housing outright has to fill this out. That means to receive any grants, loans, work study, or scholarships, academic or athletic, you HAVE to fill this out. The best advice for the FAFSA is to fill it out early and as accurate as possible. Early and accurate may not sound like they go together, but the FAFSA will allow you to estimate. If you plan to start college in the fall semester, fill it out in January of the year that you plan to enter college. If you going to start in the winter, it has to be filled out the year prior. For example, if you plan to start school winter 2011, then you should've started (and hopefully completed) your FAFSA in January 2010. Now you can pay someone to fill out your FAFSA for you. They may have experience with them, but there's no reason why you can't complete it either. Just make sure that if you hire someone to fill out your FAFSA that you have all your documents in order. Tax forms, birthdates (if not birth certificate copies), and social security numbers will be needed.
**There are two caveats to the FAFSA. If you are a male and you have turned 18, but have not registered for selective service, you will not be eligible for federal student aid. Also, if you have been convicted of a felony, you are not eligible for student aid.
3. You and your parents' tax records
This one actually connects with the FAFSA. Nearly everyone that wants to go to college fills out the FAFSA. The FAFSA is basically a request for money from the government to go to school. There will be need-based aid and merit-based aid. The government then determines how much money is available and who needs it most. You need to fill the FAFSA out as early as possible to that you can have first dibs on the money available and the government needs your tax records to figure out who needs the money more. After a certain level of income, you are disqualified from need-based aid. The only things available to you are student loans and merit-based aid. Types of merit-based aid are academic and athletic scholarships. These are the ones you want anyway.
Sports scholarships are in high demand. Make sure you have these items in order. You don't want to have them come back and bite you. Taking care of these gives you one less thing to worry about and puts you one step in front of the competition.
