What's it take to get a swimming scholarship?
The following is a repost from the October 2023 SwimCloud Newsletter. SwimCloud is a useful tool for our Senior Prep/ Senior age group swimmers. If you have completed your USA Swimming registration your swimmer's times at major meets are automatically uploaded for you. You can track your swimmer's progress in all their events. You must create an account to use the tools, but it is free to use. Sign up at https://www.swimcloud.com
How Many Scholarships Are There?
No topic generates more interest (or angst) as that of athletic scholarships. Families will spend countless weekends at meets and thousands of dollars on “consultants” with the hope that it will help their child pay for school via an athletic scholarship, so before going any further, let’s start by resetting some expectations.
- There are roughly 300 men’s and 600 women’s swimming scholarships available in a given year.
- The majority of college swimmers do not receive a scholarship offer and of those who do, most do not accept the highest offer.
- Full scholarships, even for the most talented swimmers, are extremely rare.
- When families don’t plan for the cost of college or understand the importance of academics, they, in the words of one Power 5 coach, “put their children in a tough spot.”
Families, according to one Division II head coach, “should go into the recruiting process assuming you will receive nothing” and focus on finding the school that is the best fit for you. The aforementioned Power 5 head coach adds that families “should always plan to have to pay full price” and that an athletic scholarship is a bonus that can assist in that process.
First, some definitions
The past two years have seen wholesale changes in the way student athletes are provided funding. Previously, an athletic scholarship covered tuition and room and board, but now the athletic scholarship is just one of many opportunities available to student athletes so it’s worth going over some terms.
- Scholarship – These still cover a portion of the costs for tuition and fees, course-related books, room, and board.
- Head Count and Equivalency Sports – Equivalency sports (like swimming) can divide their scholarships up amongst several athletes. Head Count sports (like football, basketball, and a few others cannot divide scholarships meaning every one is a “full ride.”
- Alston Awards – In 2021 the Supreme Court determined that universities can provide athletes up to $5,980 per year for education-related expenses. It's OK to ask if a school offers Alston money, but two thirds of Division I don't award it to the swim team and those who do have wide-ranging stipulations. Here are some examples.
- Cost-of-Attendance (COA) – Schools are allowed to offer a few thousand dollars to cover the cost things like transportation. Again, you can ask if a school offers COA, but our research shows that less than half of Division I colleges offer it to their swimming and diving teams.
It's a Business
With scholarships, you need to first disconnect yourself from the value of the scholarship. Why? Because in the words of one Power 5 women’s head coach “while recruits come from this spot with emotion, coaches approach it with math.” Think of a scholarship as an employment contract that commits you to perform a service (swimming) in return for a portion of your education. If that makes this sound like a business, well, that’s because it is. Similarly, employees with better credentials and the ability to help a company’s bottom line can command higher salaries.
In the working world this might mean a college degree or experience in a particular field. In swimming, your times and grades are your credentials and the bottom line is where the team finishes at their conference or national championships. You could be the fastest swimmer on the team but if you can’t score points at a championship, you can’t help the team. “If you want scholarship money,” explains one Mid-Major women’s coach, “you need to look up the conference of the school and see how many points you’d score.” If the answer is zero, you can expect your scholarship offer to be the same. “Most families want more aid (for good reason),” explains another Power 5 men’s coach, but oftentimes forget that “a higher scholarship brings higher expectations from the staff for performance.”
If an athletic scholarship is important to you, you need to do your homework. It’s something swimmers and parents don’t do enough. “We get too many emails from swimmers who are not even close to what our team needs,” explained one Division II head coach. “Numerous times we have to tell 22.5 50 freestyle guys and 25.5 50 freestyle women that they likely need to be 20.5 and 23.5 to have those [scholarship] discussions.”
In the working world this might mean a college degree or experience in a particular field. In swimming, your times and grades are your credentials and the bottom line is where the team finishes at their conference or national championships. You could be the fastest swimmer on the team but if you can’t score points at a championship, you can’t help the team. “If you want scholarship money,” explains one Mid-Major women’s coach, “you need to look up the conference of the school and see how many points you’d score.” If the answer is zero, you can expect your scholarship offer to be the same. “Most families want more aid (for good reason),” explains another Power 5 men’s coach, but oftentimes forget that “a higher scholarship brings higher expectations from the staff for performance.”
If an athletic scholarship is important to you, you need to do your homework. It’s something swimmers and parents don’t do enough. “We get too many emails from swimmers who are not even close to what our team needs,” explained one Division II head coach. “Numerous times we have to tell 22.5 50 freestyle guys and 25.5 50 freestyle women that they likely need to be 20.5 and 23.5 to have those [scholarship] discussions.”
Money's Tight
While talent is a consideration it isn’t the only one. A scholarship offer is also reflective of what a team has available and what they need to compete. When it comes to availability, most recruits know that Division I schools are limited to 14 women’s and 9.9 men’s scholarships. The reality, however, is far different. In fact, more than half (51.9%) of all women’s teams and nearly two thirds (60.9%) of men’s teams have no swimming scholarships at all.
That reality isn’t just limited to smaller schools either. In our latest scholarship survey (August 2023), we found that the average Division I women’s program has just 8.8 scholarships while men’s average fewer than five. When you break it down by class, that means there are just 160-190 men’s and 420-460 women’s Division I scholarships to go around in a given year.
What that means is that managing scholarships is a tremendous balancing act for coaches. “We have to take everything into account,” said one Mid-Major men’s coach, “who is graduating, upgrades for a season, who we need to fill our lineup, potential budget cuts and who might be staying for a fifth year.” Their job is to figure out the best way to construct a winning team.
Here’s an example of how this balancing act can play out. Swimmer A might leave scholarship dollars on the table to be a part of a more competitive team while Swimmer B, with identical times, might need a scholarship to avoid student loans. What should the coach do? If they give a scholarship to Swimmer A it still might not be enough to get them to commit.. At the same time, if they offer too much to Swimmer A, they might lose Swimmer B.
What this means for you is that you could find yourself with wide-ranging offers from similar schools. It’s not because one likes you more than another. It might be because one already committed their money while another may be loaded in your event. Still another might not even offer scholarships at all! As our coach said, its “math.”
That reality isn’t just limited to smaller schools either. In our latest scholarship survey (August 2023), we found that the average Division I women’s program has just 8.8 scholarships while men’s average fewer than five. When you break it down by class, that means there are just 160-190 men’s and 420-460 women’s Division I scholarships to go around in a given year.
What that means is that managing scholarships is a tremendous balancing act for coaches. “We have to take everything into account,” said one Mid-Major men’s coach, “who is graduating, upgrades for a season, who we need to fill our lineup, potential budget cuts and who might be staying for a fifth year.” Their job is to figure out the best way to construct a winning team.
Here’s an example of how this balancing act can play out. Swimmer A might leave scholarship dollars on the table to be a part of a more competitive team while Swimmer B, with identical times, might need a scholarship to avoid student loans. What should the coach do? If they give a scholarship to Swimmer A it still might not be enough to get them to commit.. At the same time, if they offer too much to Swimmer A, they might lose Swimmer B.
What this means for you is that you could find yourself with wide-ranging offers from similar schools. It’s not because one likes you more than another. It might be because one already committed their money while another may be loaded in your event. Still another might not even offer scholarships at all! As our coach said, its “math.”
Meeting in the Middle
To thread the needle between unlimited interest and finite resources, coaches must find creative ways to make college affordable. "Our job is to make college affordable and build a successful team and providing financial aid packages are sometimes the best route to do this,”advises one women’s head coach, “so be willing to explore this.” To do this, coaches will rely on different buckets of aid including need-based grants and merit (also known as academic) aid.
Merit awards and academic scholarships can and oftentimes do end up being more valuable than swimming scholarships. They have to do this because there just aren’t enough swimming scholarships (or wealthy recruits) to fill the 8,200 freshman spots each season. Coaches will, in fact, purposely seek out better students because doing so will give them greater scholarship flexibility. If Swimmer A above is willing to commit with a 50% scholarship and Swimmer B receives 50% in need-based grants, it means a coach can split the scholarship and land both!
Wrapping Up
In the world of college swimming, athletic scholarships are limited and highly competitive, with fewer than 300 men's and 600 women's scholarships available annually. As a result, we advise families to set realistic expectations, conduct thorough research and search for alternative sources of financial aid. It’s not just families. Coaches have to rely on need-based grants and merit awards in order to assemble a successful team. Considering more than half of all college swimmers receive no athletic aid, most families understand the realities. They also know that the best offer isn’t always the right offer and that in the end its an education, not a scholarship you’re pursuing.
SwimCloud has a very comprehensive recruiting section that contains the roster and times of every college swimmer in the NCAA, NAIA and the NJCAA and when researching a school you can see where your swimmer might fit in that school. You can see my son Paul's name highlighted on a sample college roster. He is currently a high school junior.
Be blessed
Dave Knecht
SSPO President
