Posted on 03/10/2008 7:27:37 AM PDT by Amelia
...Excluding the glamour sports of football and basketball, the average N.C.A.A. athletic scholarship is nowhere near a full ride, amounting to $8,707. In sports like baseball or track and field, the number is routinely as low as $2,000. Even when football and basketball are included, the average is $10,409. Tuition and room and board for N.C.A.A. institutions often cost between $20,000 and $50,000 a year.
“People run themselves ragged to play on three teams at once so they could always reach the next level,” said Margaret Barry of Laurel, Md., whose daughter is a scholarship swimmer at the University of Delaware. “They’re going to be disappointed when they learn that if they’re very lucky, they will get a scholarship worth 15 percent of the $40,000 college bill. What’s that? $6,000?”
[snip]
Instead, Mr. Brand said, families should focus on academics.
“The real opportunity is taking advantage of how eager institutions are to reward good students,” he said. “In America’s colleges, there is a system of discounting for academic achievement. Most people with good academic records aren’t paying full sticker price. We don’t want people to stop playing sports; it’s good for them. But the best opportunity available is to try to improve one’s academic qualifications.”...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Let me guess... this article is whining about the fact that the taxpayer isn’t covering the rest of the cost of college now?
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Here’s a good idea. Drop athletic free-rides and only offer academic scholarships. After all, are colleges supposed to be sports factories or institutions of higher learning? Too many of these athletic scholarship recipients are only in college for one purpose, to play sports anyway.
Actually, no...saying that expecting a full athletic scholarship is pretty unrealistic, so investing a lot in your kids playing sports just for that may not be a good idea — better to focus on their academics if you’re looking for scholarships.
If you want them to play sports because they enjoy it, go for it!
See if it was just the New York Times saying this, I would not believe it. :)
I work in the collegiate sports field. Most of my clients are division II and III schools, where there either is limited scholarship money, or no scholarships.
I see tons of high school parents who spend ungodly sums of money on private coaching, travel teams, and the best summer camps. Yes, most of the parents have a good sense of where their child sits in the scheme of things. However, there are many other parents who have delusions of grandeur—and visions of full rides dancing in their heads.
I tell them if their kid hasn’t been approached by an elite team or gotten a letter from a D1 school by their junior year, save their money and spend more time studying. There are limited spaces available.
In all of the years covering high school sports in a pretty good division, there are a handful of kids getting full boat scholarships. Like one a year. And this is out of thousands of athletes.
The college coaches and scouts just shake their heads.
And if you want to hear horror stories, talk to a High School Athletic Director. There are nightmare parents everywhere.
They should get a grip and losen up. Sports are great fun, if you let them be fun.
Actually, I agree with you, totally...the football fans might disagree, however. ;-)
I see tons of 9th grade students who think they are going to be professional athletes. I tell them that if they don't have the grades to play, the scouts will never see them. ;-)
I understand your point which is why I'm torn on the issue myself. I don't like the idea of using universities to crank out athletes, but OTOH the football and basketball teams are profit centres that, if managed wisely, can fund a lot of worthwhile endeavours. Given a choice, I'd prefer to have the universities here funded by sports fans instead of taxpayers.
My son is an NCAA division II baseball athlete. Baseball only gets around 11 scholarships for a minimum 25 man roster. He tells his baseball friends still in high school that his GPA and ACT got him a whole lot more money than his batting average.
Since the TIMES usually takes the “minorities hit hardest” approach I'm surprised they didn't talk about how their limits keep the economically disadvantaged out of college.
Since when did kids stop going to college for an education?
Geez, everybody wants a free ride. They’re so obsessed with their self-worth and importance that they don’t get why nobody else sees why they’re worth free college.
Most of the parents I know, who like myself have kids involved in sports...do so not for the promise of “money”...but because the sports can make the difference in acceptance to a prominent school. My son was a “lazy” student in high school who scored well on his SAT’s....and because of swimming was certainly accepted into schools where most kids had much higher GPA’s.
Hey Vermont, very well put! My son is a Freshman at a 4A school and just made the Varsity baseball team as a pitcher. He has worked very hard at his game and it has taught him great lessons about hard work and its rewards. Hopefully those will be lessons that will go with him throughout all phases of his life ahead. He loves playing the sport and the camaraderie it provides. Most (not all) parents I talk to will go to the ends of the earth sports-wise with their kids because it is a positive way to teach many life lessons and keep them off the streets.
That being said, we have ALWAYS stressed academics with both our sons and fortunately they are also extremely good students.
Their is a kid on my sons High School team that has a full ride (whatever that is these days) to a D1 school and apparently is a way below average student to the point of taking some special ed classes or tutoring. I just shake my head and wonder how in the world this kid is going to make it at a D1 school with substandard H.S. grades....Oh well!!!
I've been down this road and the idea that sports scholarships are worth the investment in time or energy is pure BS. It's worse for male athletes in the non major sports. I've seen top swimmers with Olympic qualifying times get 1/4 scholarships.
Although those athletes who receive athletic aid are viewed as the ultimate winners, they typically find the demands on their time, minds and bodies in college even more taxing than the long journey to get there.
One of my daughter's best friends is 6'3", and a super-talented volleyball middle and basketball center. The expectation from everyone around her from her parents to coaches and college coaches is that it's a given that she chooses one sport or the other to play in college.
She's been balking at making college plans - her friends knew why - she was afraid to tell her parents that she was not interested in playing sports in college. She wants to have a life.
We really didn't deal with scholarships because colleges also work with grants. They will determine how much money the student will need, then find applicable grants to cover that.
The grants are a substantial portion of the tuition.
Our child is also a good student. Athletic ability helps the admission process for a child. Rather than your application sitting in a pile with 20,000 others of equal ability, it is given a higher priority because it offers something to the college in return.
I was very impressed by the coaches who contacted us. We received a lot of information about academic strategies. Coaches are very concerned about academic ability and most contacted the high school guidance office to find out how good a student our athlete is before they decided to call.
It's not only athletics. Our child visited a school as an athletic recruit and was offered a placement by another department because of impressive language abilities.
If you have a have a child who displays a talent, regardless of whether it's athletic, musical, artistic, etc., it is really worth your effort to promote that with the goal of college placement in mind.
With good colleges, the most difficult part is getting in. If you are able to offer a talent in return your chances of going to a good school are greatly enhanced.
Agreed. I work with underprivledged children every weekend and it seems like ALL of them think they are going to be in the NBA or NFL.
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