<p>Are there many colleges that give swimming scholarships? Or what about outside funding that recognizes strong swimmers? Would those candidates need to be the top on their high school swim team?</p>
<p>Swimming scholarships tend to be partial scholarships. For example an NCAA DI college may be granted 9 full scholarships for swimming. If they gave a full scholarship each time one was awarded, they could only have 9 scholarshipped swimmers on the team. So they may give a 25% scholarship to 4 swimmers – adding up to just one of their allowable scholarships. If they did that with all nine scholarships (allocating them to athletes at 25%), they could use that money to recruit 36 swimmers.</p>
<p>That’s just an example. Of course a highly-desired swimmer may get a higher percentage than another recruit. It’s just that the math needs to work out according to the maximum NCAA scholarship allowance.</p>
<p>The net effect is that full scholarships for swimmers are uncommon.</p>
<p>How strong a swimmer a student would need to be depends on the particular team. S/he would have to be national caliber for USC or Texas or Stanford or Auburn, for example, because those are incredible teams with some of the best swimmers in the country. If it was a low-ranked team, obviously they would be looking to recruit farther down the pecking order. In any case, at even a lower ranked DI college, the student would have to be very, very fast. Whether they would have been at the top of their high school swim team depends on the high school. For the vast majority of high school teams, even their fastest swimmers won’t be in scholarship territory. Better to look at how you stack up against district, regional, state or national club swimming standards.</p>
<p>Another useful thing to do, is look at particular colleges you’re interested in. If they have a swim team, look at the posted meet results. Are you swimming near the times of their strongest freshman swimmers in your events? If so, email the coach. Start a dialogue. See if there might be opportunities for you there.</p>
<p>Remember NCAA DI and DII colleges can award scholarships. DIII cannot. NAIA also awards scholarships, and should not be overlooked if you’re looking for less stellar teams on which you might make a contribution.</p>
<p>As for outside scholarships for swimming, those will tend to come from local swim clubs (you’d have to be a member of the club team for those) or from your state swimming organization (also for club swimmers). Make sure to look at local scholarships awarded to athletes generally.</p>
<p>Ours is a small semi rural high school with a very strong swim team. We have never had a “recruited athlete” amongst the swimmers but many of them have gone to smaller schools where they received small scholarships for their participation on the swim teams. NONE of these was a strong Division I school…but these kids did get a little recognition for their strength as swimmers.</p>
<p>Great info, thanks.</p>
<p>I think there are many schools out there at many different levels that are looking for swimmers to give a scholarship. I think women swimmers may have an advantage with title nine. The mistake people make is believing the school will find you. Unless you are ranked as one of the top 50 swimmers in the country, likely schools will not be hunting you down. You have to research and find the schools that have times that match yours then fill out the questionnaire and email the coach. There is a website that deals with college swimming that will list all the times in each event and who from what school went that time. Look at your events and go down the list until you see the ones that match your times (in yards). Those schools and slower are a good places to start. Good luck! Our experience has been very positive and our daughter does not have “national cuts”</p>
<p>Swimming on a college varsity team is very time demanding, and scholarship money is not too much for most scholarship swimmers–it’s not for everyone. Many colleges have “club” teams that allow students to stay in pool at their own pace with maybe 2 or 3 meets per semester with other college club teams. College club teams are fun and great for former high school swimmers; there are all levels of swimmers, from not so fast to really fast!</p>