There are a lot of athletes and their families that are expecting to play their sport in college. And far too many of them are actually counting on an athletic scholarship as part of their plan to pay for college. Yet, the truth is that most of these players won’t be recruited to play in college, much less get a scholarship. If you’re one of the following types of players, chances are you won’t be playing in college.
Athletics
What are My Chances of Getting a Softball Scholarship?
As softball players start deciding which gold teams to aim for, they’ll start asking themselves what their chances are of getting a softball scholarship. And if they aren’t, I’m sure as parents start to pull out their checkbooks to pay for playing on these teams, they’re considering the question. After all, it would be nice if there was some financial return on all their investments in lessons, teams, and travel. However, if you’re planning on using softball to pay for college, you might want to develop a plan B option because the odds aren’t great.
Using Baseball to Get Into College: The College Application Essay
When people think of using baseball to get into college, they’re usually thinking about a coach offering a full-ride scholarship to play on the team. For those who still hold such delusions, time for a reality check. But there are still all sorts of ways baseball can help you get into college, including providing content for your college application essay.
Now a lot of students have been told to stay away from writing about their sports accomplishments, stuff about leading the team to the championship or what it meant to be team captain. Or even about not being team captain or losing the championship. In such cases, that’s probably good advice. I can imagine it gets pretty boring for admission officers after the first 100 or so essays.
That’s not what I’m talking about.
Getting Recruited for Athletic Scholarships is All About Knowing the Numbers
This shouldn’t be a surprising statement to anyone involved in sports and trying to get recruited. After all, every sport starts off with the most basic of numbers, wins and losses, or first, second, and third place. Potential college players and their families have probably spent a significant amount of time and money the last few years trying to improve their personal numbers to increase their odds (more numbers) of getting an athletic scholarship. But you need to pay attention to more than your personal numbers if you’re serious about getting recruited to play in college.
The following are four sets of numbers you need to be aware of if you really want to get recruited for an athletic scholarship.
5 Financial Mistakes that Can Limit Your Chance of Playing Your Sport at the College Level
So far I’ve covered college recruiting mistakes concerning signs that you don’t understand the college athletic recruiting process and mistakes players and families make about their ability and what it means. Today, I’m going to cover mistakes related to finances when looking for athletic scholarships. If it’s really about using sports to help pay for college, you need to avoid the following college recruiting mistakes:
8 Things Parents Paying for College Must Know
When my son was small and I would tell him to do something, he would ask why and I would tell him because “it’s in the parent’s manual.” He got really curious about that manual. Where was it? (I wasn’t allowed to tell him.) When did we get it? (At the hospital, of course, you don’t think they would let us leave without it?) Was there a kid’s manual? (You mean you lost yours?)
4 College Recruiting Mistakes to Avoid When You’re the Best Player on Your Team
Many high school players and their families believe that being the best player on their teams is their ticket to playing at the college level. The truth is that star high school athletes are likely to make some assumptions about their ability that will undermine their chances of playing in college. Here are four college recruiting mistakes based on assumptions of talent that you must avoid.
5 Warning Signs that You Don’t Understand the College Recruiting Process
If you spend any time on the internet or reading books on college athletic recruiting, you’ll see lists of common mistakes made by families during the recruiting process. The interesting thing is that there isn’t a lot of variation in the mistakes mentioned, it appears that people are making the same college recruiting mistakes over and over. You have to wonder since there are warnings about them everywhere.
5 Things to do Before Completing Another College Recruiting Questionnaire
I know the college recruiting process can seem overwhelming. Maybe your kid made the high school team and is racking up stats that people are telling you are good enough for playing in college. So you start completing recruiting questionnaires on the various college athletic program websites. Or maybe making it to the college level was always the plan for your player and you’ve been focused on filling out as many recruiting forms as possible. But it can all be wasted effort if you haven’t completed five preliminary steps first.