<p>Sadly, I know a few parents who really thought that their “investment” in their kids’ private swim camps or elite soccer camps would pay off handsomely in the form of athletic scholarships…</p>
<p>The ROI is in the form of ego-boosting points. Being able to run down the sidelines of soccer games and share the news of a “scholarship” is priceless. The fineprint that the 10% or 1/8 tuition at otherwise cheap school does not amount to a whole lot is not that important. </p>
<p>Of course, the romance quickly evaporates as soon as the first **real **bill arrives and the sacrifices that are expected from athletes become all too real. </p>
<p>I think this is one of the most important points in the article, as stated by the president of the NCAA-
“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.” The math of athletic scholarships is complicated and widely misunderstood."</p>
<p>What about all those parents who send their kids to expensive private high schools because they think it’s going to pay off big with athletic scholarships? I know families who were shocked when their very talented athletes didn’t get into their top choice schools, never mind getting paid to go there.</p>
<p>Athletics is like any other ec activity. It should be done for the happiness it brings to the participant. If some ancillary benefit like scholarship money or admission advantage occurs, fine. But if that is the reason for devoting thousands of hours and dollars to the endeavor, most will be bitterly disappointed.</p>
<p>Sadly, it is the hs coaches who have the first hand experience to level with the student regarding the realities of athletic scholarships. But they do not have any incentive to do so. In fact quite the opposite.</p>
This is a very telling statistic. The odds realy stink.</p>
<p>I think that most high school athletes participate simply because they love their sport. Every school probably has a few nutty parents counting on that Div1 $$, but most know how unlikely that will be.</p>
<p>I can only speak from our family experience. D1 was an above average, not great, HS student (3.8 GPA, AP scholar, ACT just under 30)but an excellent athlete. She wanted to attend a small, private LAC. She was able to receive multiple academic scholarships from every school she applied to where the coach had expressed interest in her. The scholarships are not tied to the sport and she can walk away from the sport and still have the academic dollars. The award amounts were all well over what are reported as D1 averages. As I said earlier…go for the academic money!</p>
<p>But NorthMin, your D’s story won’t be dramatic enough to make headlines, LOL! And it’s one that is probably much more common – the bright kid who uses her athletic ability as a hook, much like a French Horn player or any other kid with a talent. Sounds as if she was smart enough to find schools where her fine stats were enough for some cash. Good for her.</p>
<p>In addition, when it comes to soccer, linking HS and scholarships does not tell the entire story. Unlike other sports such as football, scouting and recruiting at the highest levels is rarely based on a high school career, but on performance at the state, regional, and national championship. </p>
<p>In many areas, the real action is at the club level (aka traveling, select.) That is where people invest tens of thousands of dollars to see their children get through the 8-10 year career. In some cases, getting on the right team is as hard as getting into an Ivy. </p>
<p>Amazingly enough the conversations about landing scholarships often starts when the “chosen” ones are 10-12 year old. Coaches do not seem to have a problem convincing parents that their children are truly exceptional because that is what most people … do think AND want to hear.</p>
<p>Hockey is like that, too. We knew my son wouldn’t have the natural talent to get any $$ down the road. But the number of families devoting six days a week to ice time with private coaches & club teams makes me hope he can even earn a spot on the high school team!</p>
<p>There is money there, but it doesn’t make sense to use that as the path. Play the sports you love, and possibly you can get it to work out. There are exceptions of course(especially those who couldn’t get a college education without sports, as they already blew the shot at academic $$$, like Leavitt’s friend in Freakonomics).</p>
<p>But there are 15,000 National Merit Finalists every year, all who are offered full rides to many many schools. There were 2629 D1 football scholarships awarded. National Merit alone offers a much greater amount of money than college athletics. And I don’t get why more people don’t take those NMF offers - Very very few people turn down athletic scholarships to walk on at a percieved better school. Especially within the same division(D1 vs. D2 you see some). One of these groups is acting irrationally. Or both are, and the truth lies in the middle.</p>
I think many NMF turn down the full free rider offer to certain schools is because in most cases they have other choices with ‘better’ schools? The money offered by NMSC fund is not better than football scholarships. And only half of 15,000 NMF are able to get money from NMSC fund, and I don’t think NMF would turn down the money from NMSC fund. lol.</p>
<p>Most people I know don’t expected that being a recruited athlete will get their kid a big scholarship: they hope that being a recruited athlete will get their kid IN to a school where their chances of admission would otherwise be as iffy as everyone else’s.</p>
<p>I’m with you, Consolation, but the families around here are pouring $$ into their kids sports training, hoping for athletic scholarships. Irony is, the schools they’re thinking of cost about $5,000.00 annually (or a little more) and they spend $10,000.00 on the tournaments, travel, training, etc. per year. Makes no sense whatsoever.</p>
<p>This discussion is really fascinating as I have lived it for a number of years. I work in a sport that is not available on a professional level in the US, where what FEW NCAA scholarships there are go to mostly foreign students, and where most of the athletes physically do not develop enough to show their potential until they are 20-25 years old(especially the boys - errrr, men)…and yet, you would not believe the amount of money that parents are spending on their 10-12 year olds in this sport in hopes of getting an athletic scholarship (or secretly making the US Olympic team which is even MORE of a crap-shoot).</p>
<p>I’m not sure who is to blame, but I wish that parents could step back and trust their own instincts about what is appropriate and when. I have seen one family do it right. Their S has been showing “promise” (according to parents, coaches & results) in the sport since he was about 7-8. The pressure from other parents, some coaches and eventually the kids’ friends was powerful. Like what a kid does at 7 years old is ANY indication of what he will do at 20!!! Some of these people were sending their kids to camps, competitions, getting custom fitted for equipment, seeking “sponsorships” (the bigger American lie); some were spending as much as 40K a year(ummm if you can do that, why do you need a scholarship? maybe to feed your ego?) and their kids were missing 30-60 days of school a year. But these particular parents held on to their belief that it was too early to jump into all the craziness and kept him at a local rec-level of competition where he continued to be the champ.</p>
<p>You might be happy to know that they ended up vindicated. Now that their son is starting to get his adolecent body they have him in just a few competitions at a higher level and he is excelling (usually beats the kids who have been at this for years). As a result, their son, as HIS goal, wants to compete at an NCAA level and no one has any illusions about scholarship. He wants this because he loves the sport.</p>
<p>The parents told me the most fun they have is when they are at a competition and he does well, invariably someone asks them “Where was [their son] last year?” Because he appears to have come out of nowhere having not been on the “circuit” all these years they assume he was in another part of the country.</p>
<p>Gotta agree with post above #15. Being recruited is a huge boost in just getting admitted.</p>
<p>Also, the stats above are only relevant to Division 1 schools. Division 2 schools have little money to spread around and Division 3 schools cannot offer any athletic money at all.</p>
<p>So this obsession with the “ride” to college is very, very ill conceived and distorted and I will agree that parent’s view of the scholarship route and the life and benefits for the student-athlete are grossly, if not grotesquely out of whack.</p>
<p>The most misguided stories I’ve heard lately are kids who drop their AP classes because they don’t have enough time to study for them due to their sports commitment. All with the idea of “getting an athletic scholarship.” Completely backwards thinking. I’ve been forwarding the OP’s article to other parents of young athletes. Hope it doesn’t fall on deaf ears.</p>
<p>One disturbing trend I’ve seen in this soccer-crazed area: the kid repeats 8th grade. He’s then that much older and stronger for high school. For boys, who mature a little later than girls, there’s a lot of weight and strength gain between age 14 and 15. One boy well known in the district was quite a good student and already big for the grade, yet he repeated 8th grade. I thought it was a ridiculous move by his parents. He ended up at a top soccer (Big Ten) school. Perhaps he would have had the same outcome if he hadn’t stayed back, I don’t know, but I thought this was rather extreme.</p>