subject: The College Athletic Scholarship - One Way to Pay For College Tuition [print this page] The college athletic scholarship may be one way college athletes can pay for a solid college education given talent and a good work ethic. The average cost of college tuition today with room and board is about $25,000 annually at an in-state public university and around $40,000 annually at a private school not including the purchases of books, fees, and spending money, let alone airfare if your student athlete is out of state. College tuition is only going to continue to rise with the state of the economy and its impact on state budgets. Colleges and universities will continue to raise tuition and student fees to meet their costs. We are already seeing this in California where both the University of California, California State University system and community colleges are all increasing the cost of attending college today. If you happen to be a student athlete with enough talent, you may have an alternative.
That's what we faced five years ago with a high school senior who decided to play college basketball very late. But our daughter was not the elite athlete; in fact, her high school coach considered her a D-III athlete at best, possibly D-II if she stretched. She was going to have to do her own college athletic recruiting because she decided late in the game that she wanted to play at the next level, and, because of injuries and being a late bloomer, no college coach was knocking on her door with sports scholarships in his hand.
And, in fact, today, universities and colleges have reduced the recruiting budgets for college coaches. There was a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle about the fact that at some universities and college, the budget for athletics had become completely out of alignment with other budgets within a particular college. The article went on to say that there was a push to reduce athletic budgets and sync them with other department budgets. What does this mean for the athlete looking for a college athletic scholarship? In some situations, where this might be a state school, it could mean less money for recruiting, fewer scholarships. In other instances at private universities, probably the athletic advancement office will have to beat the bushes for more donor support. It is too early to predict the fallout from this restructuring, but it means it is even more imperative that high school student athletes given that they have talent will have to continue to search for sports scholarships and do their own college athletic recruiting if they are to try to obtain a college athletic scholarship, whether that's full or partial. Most likely this will be a partial scholarship.
In our research to figure out how we would find out how to help our daughter obtain a college athletic scholarship and reduce that tuition bill, we found out that about 5% of high school athletes go on to play college sports in all sports. We also discovered there are sports scholarships for many other sports and not just in the NCAA! And, we learned that high school student athletes can find academic scholarships at great D-III schools that have highly competitive sports programs. Given talent, a good work ethic, the ability to maintain decent grades, and a willingness to continue to learn and improve one's skills, there is a broad range of colleges and universities offering sports scholarships. The key is to do your homework and have a plan. And, from experience, I can say that it was well worth the effort.
My daughter benefited in so many ways and gained a valuable college education. While hers was a different route than some, choosing to be a walk-on at DePaul University in Chicago, and then transferring to the University of San Francisco with a D-I scholarship, the journey provided invaluable lessons, and a college degree. Athletic scholarships are not just for the D-I elite athlete, so do your homework, have a plan and be open to the possibilities.
Al Musante, Keep Playing! Athletics
The College Athletic Scholarship - One Way to Pay For College Tuition
