NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Each day student athletes face the decision to commit to a serious college sport or to pass it by for the typical college social life. Although, your scholarship offers are telling you one thing the life of a non-athlete is so appealing when a majority of friends are not headed in the direction of football games, house parties, fraternities/ sororities, etc. As a high school senior, that may seem like the ideal situation for your high expectations of what to expect freshman year of college. But, the typical college lifestyle does not always fit the priorities you have set for yourself and your future as an athlete. When given the opportunity to play a sport in college, I would tell anyone to go for it and that would be the easy part. Finding the right “fit” at a school is the toughest part. Before you turn down the chance to fulfill a dream of athletics, there are ways to select a college that would fit your requirements socially, academically and athletically. For starters try creating a priority list you can think about before signing with a school or ruling out the idea. Sometimes it takes seeing it in writing to understand what you really want out of your college experience and how important it is to your needs.

Example of Questions for the Student Athlete to Answer

1. Location
a. Is it too far from home?
b. Do I stay in state or out of state?
c. Is it the school located in an urban or rural location
2. Size of school
a. How big are the classes?
b. What is the enrollment number?
c. Big school vs. small school?
3. Education
a. Do they have a desired degree or program for you?
b. What is the quality of the classes?
c. Are there post graduation possibilities?
d. Could you get a scholarship for academics?
4. Sport Program
a. Is the team friendly?
b. Do you feel comfortable with the coaches and athletic department?
c. What would be your role on the team?
d. How are the athletic facilities?
5. Social Life
a. What are your expectations?
b. Are you willing to give up parties for early morning practices?
c. Is traveling and giving up weekends something you can handle along with school work?
d. What kind of dorm life do you want?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 11:26 am and is filed under Athletic Scholarships, Choosing the Right Fit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.