What Are The Odds Of Getting An Athletic Scholarship?

What Are The Odds Of Getting An Athletic Scholarship?

More and more parents have the dream of seeing their child earn an athletic scholarship to the college or university of their choice. Why shouldn't they? The cost of college tuition is very expensive and continues to rise every year. According to most studies, prices for undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board are estimated to be $18,383 at public institutions, $47,419 at private institutions and $27,040 at private for-profit institutions.

If you are one of those parents with this dream becoming a reality, let me share some even more discouraging facts. Current statistics show that only about 2 percent of high school students will receive an athletic scholarship on a yearly basis from NCAA colleges and universities. To make things even more discouraging, as the population grows so does the competition for those scholarship dollars. In fact, the average"scholarship" is usually less than $11,00.

Only six sports are currently offering full-ride scholarships (football, volleyball and tennis, men's and women's basketball and women's gymnastics) at colleges and universities. Even if your child is gifted or talented enough to earn some type of athletic scholarship, most parents and athletes don't understand the time commitment and the amount of work it takes not only to be on a college or university team but also the time required to be a full-time student.

Typical Week For An Athlete

This chart breakdowns the time spent by college athletes during a normal week. Athletes who don't get a full-ride scholarship may have to get a part-time job to pay for tuition, but because of the time commitment to athletics and academics, don't get enough sleep or have any free-time at all.

Because parents hold on to the dream of their child landing a full-ride, they overlook or fail to do the proper research on not only how difficult it is to get a scholarship, but also, how difficult it is to maintain and keep a scholarship.

Some parents will even go to crazy extremes to help their child get a full-ride scholarship. Some parents call it an "investment" in hopes that the money they spend on camps, travel teams. and personal trainers will give their child an advantage. Check out this article on what parents spend on average for their child to receive an athletic scholarship here.

I was one of those parents! My son was a really good athlete and could pick up any sport at any time and be one of the best on the field or court. He excelled at travel basketball, could switch hit in baseball and dominate in soccer and lacrosse. At times, it was almost embarrassing because he was scoring almost all of the goals and points. One day, when my son was around 8 years old, while playing with a football in the back yard, I told him to try punting and kicking the football. I couldn't believe what a natural he was!

I coached him myself until his freshman year of high school and decided he needed some professional help to get even better. He had a one-on-one lesson with former professional kicker, Mike Nugent as well as attending camps in Las Vegas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and all over the east coast. I even had him do some private lessons (one on one) with a former college punter in Chicago. I don't know the exact number but I'm sure I spent well over $10,000 through a 4 year span. My son ended up earning Division 1 All-Ohio, All League and All Central District honors as a senior in high school. He was even ranked as high as 11th nationally by two of the top ranking services for kickers and punters and also earned an Honorable-Mention All-American.

Several colleges and universities at the division 1 level showed interest including Ohio University, SMU, Memphis, Kentucky, Bowling Green, Kent State, Coastal Carolina and others, but only one school UAlbany, a Division 1 AA university, offered a full-ride scholarship, as long as he earned the starting job his freshman season. I left my sons college choice up to him and after an official visit he decided to follow the money and go to UAlbany. He was given an academic scholarship as well as a partial athletic scholarship by UAlbany for his freshman season.

Tuition at UAlbany was just over $50,000 for my sons freshman year. Yes, my son saved me over$33,000 in tuition costs, but it still cost me $1,800 per month for tuition. Because he was considered an out-of-state student, the cost is higher (almost double) than that of an in-state student. On top of the money I had to pay for tuition every month was the money spent (which never crossed mind) on travel costs to all of my sons games. I figured out that it cost me about $500 every weekend for gasoline, food and lodging.

My son ended up starting every game his freshman season and earned a full-ride scholarship for his sophomore season. He achieved something that I thought he would never achieve. Everything was working just like we planned and hoped for, or so I thought. Covid 19 spread across the United States towards the end of his freshman season so the school, like all of the colleges and universities across the country, decided to send the students home. To this day, I'm not really sure what happened or what made him have a change of heart, maybe it was because juggling athletics and academics was a full-time job?, I don't know, but he decided that college wasn't for him and that he would give up his scholarship. Needless to say, I was shocked, confused and angry, but as time passed I realized, in the end, its not my life, its not up to me and I can't make him do something he didn't want to do. I can't say I regret everything because I got to spend more time with my son traveling to all of the camps and events than most parents spend with their children in a lifetime and I wouldn't trade that experience or part of my life for anything.

Colleges and universities have raised their tuition costs to a level that most parents or students can't afford without taking a loan, so I can and I'm sure most people can understand why parents push their children to pursue an athletic scholarship. But now, some corporations are making the dream of getting a college paid for and in some cases completely paid for a reality. Companies like Wal-Mart, Amazon, Target, UPS, Home Depot and Kroger are offering to pay up to 100% of college tuition costs to their employees. Check out this article about the companies that are paying for tuition here.

Because I've "been there, done that", I have a suggestion, instead of spending thousands of dollars to have your child maybe earn an athletic scholarship, spend that money more wisely on academic tutors and direct your child to get job with one of the companies listed above where they can earn money and learn people skills and valuable life lessons. The bonus will be having their college tuition paid for 100%, if they even decide they want to go to college. Your children can still participate in sports, but now playing sports will be fun for your child. Playing sports is so important, but for different reasons than just money. Check out my blog post "25 Reasons Why You Should Play Sports". Do yourself and your child a favor, don't put so much pressure on yourself and your child by believing the only way for your child to go to college is through athletics!

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