TomScott
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Re:Too professional, too soon - 2008/03/10 22:59
Great article that all scholarship-chasers should read to get perspective.
Something I wrote a couple years ago:
Parents of young athletes are willing to put in hours upon hours and spend piles of money in hopes of getting an athletic scholarship. They may claim it's worth it for the eventual financial payoff of a full-ride, but I'm telling you it's not about the money (see other blog entry). I won't even try to put a dollar amount on the time or calculate how much of a college fund could be built by putting the money spent into an investment and putting that time into earning money. I'll tell you the advantages of an academic scholarship over an athletic scholarship:
1. Availability of money. The amount of money given out in academic scholarships nation-wide is 22 times as much as that given out in athletic scholarships (I could find the reference if I needed to). I would guess that that is even a big underestimate – many of the private scholarships don't go through the financial aid offices and aren't counted in official counts. There is simply a lot more money in academic scholarships and a lot more academic scholarships given out.
2. Accessibility. You can work hard on your sport and do all the right things from the time you're born and still not have the athletic talent to get a scholarship. Yet, I guarantee that if you put that same effort into academics, whether you have talent or not, you will get a scholarship. Maybe the top academic scholarships will go to those with more talent, but hard work trumps talent in academics much more than it does in athletics. The scholarships are accessible to everyone. And if you have a financial need, there are a gazillion scholarships out there.
3. Flexibility in choosing a school. You grow up an Oklahoma State fan and dream of playing basketball for the Cowboys. But there are zero to three kids in your class in Oklahoma who are good enough to get a scholarship. And if there's just one kid better at your position, you're probably out of luck. You go to all the exposure camps and are good enough that your school holds a ceremony with your parents and the local media present to see you sign a scholarship offer. You've done it, you've attained the ultimate prize of a college scholarship…to Northwest Oklahoma Baptist. That's great if you want to go there and maybe it's a great fit, but your choice of a school is greatly limited to those who offer you a basketball scholarship. And does the school that offers you a scholarship even have an academic program in the career area you want to pursue? On the other hand, many great schools (Ivy League, Johns Hopkins, MIT,…) do not give athletic scholarships.
If you're a good enough student to get an academic scholarship, you can choose from virtually any school you want. Or at least have a much broader range to choose from. And it doesn't matter if you want to go into Biological Engineering and so do another 12 top students, they'll take them all.
4. Flexibility in your college career. You go to NWO Baptist and really get into theatre. You've come to hate going to basketball practice everyday and you can't stand the coach. You'd love to quit basketball and get more involved in the theatre club, but basketball is paying the bills. Sure it's easier than the some of the jobs other students have, but it's keeping you from doing what you really want to do. On the other hand, if you're on an academic scholarship and find out you can't really handle Engineering, you can switch to business and if you keep your grades up, you can keep your scholarship (depending on the scholarship).
Many non-athletes burn out, bomb out, or drop out too, but you often have more alternatives and more room to explore different careers with an academic scholarship. An advantage of an athletic scholarship is that you can't lose it based on grades (above minimum limits) and you can choose any major (although the athletic staff will try to push you into something easy), but I've known a number of athletes who came to see the athletic scholarship as a ball and chain.
There are advantages to an athletic scholarship – status, perks, etc., but if you're looking at athletics as a key to a college scholarship, an academic scholarship is more realistic and is better in a number of ways.
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