Your ability to play sports can guide you through some tremendous opportunities. Among those opportunities, we can count sports scholarships. Young high school student-athletes who can play very well a given sport can be eligible for some interesting scholarship funding to pay for their education.
Many organizations throughout the U.S. have done enormous efforts to provide yearly some interesting amounts of money in scholarships to support student-athletes. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a nonprofit organization that regulates student-athletes provides more than $3.6 billion in athletics scholarships annually to more than 180,000 student-athletes.
There are so many sports that students, males, and females, can pick from. However, the probability of sports competing beyond high school remains low in the U.S. According to data from NCAA, many boys and girls grow up dreaming of playing sports in college and beyond. But of the nearly 8 million students currently participating in high school athletics in the United States, only 495,000 of them will compete at NCAA schools. And of that group, only a fraction will realize their goal of becoming a professional or Olympic athlete.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) groups its activities into divisions. Division I, Division II, and Division III. The first one has schools with the biggest student bodies, manages the largest athletics budget and also, offers the most generous number of scholarships. The second one is a collection of more than 300 NCAA colleges and universities that provide thousands of student-athletes the opportunity to compete at a high level of scholarship athletics while excelling in the classroom and fully engaging in the broader campus experience. Lastly, the third one is the largest division in terms of number of institutions and number of participants in the NCAA. Division III is unique by the fact that students in that division their passion and love for the game.
Besides those scholarships that are specific to student-athletes, they can also apply to any nonspecific scholarship. However, it is important that the applicant follows all the requirements from A to Z to be considered. If the scholarship, the grant, or the program you apply for requires essays, recommendation letters, or some other information, do not send your application without those requirements.