Many young athletes, males and females dream to study and compete in the U.S. It is a well known fact that the U.S offers great opportunities in terms of sports and education. With high level of facilities, staff and equipment any athlete can grow and meet his or her potential. The combination of the highest sport level and high academic achievements make those four years period an excellent starting point. The athlete graduate with a bachelor degree in his or her chosen field, and with tools to compete in the adults' world.
Unfortunately these studies can be very expensive, especially for an international student. Therefore each prospective student's aim is to be qualified in order to get an athletic scholarship.
There are three main national collegiate athletic organizations which forces eligibility rules and laws for students who want to compete and get scholarship:
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA)
National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA)
The NCAA is the largest collegiate athletic association in the U.S. Over 1,000 colleges are members of this association. The colleges are separated into three Divisions: I, II, and III. Only athletes that play for Div I and II schools can get scholarships. Div III schools do not offer athletic scholarships and their athletic programs are much smaller.
The combination of school size with the types of athletic programs is the factor that divides between the divisions.
The NAIA represents a smaller organization and colleges that are generally smaller than those in the NCAA. The NAIA is home to 25 conferences based on 290 member institutions throughout the U.S and Canada. NAIA's student-athletes compete in 23 championships (men and women) in 13 sports.
The NJCAA represents two-year colleges. The NJCAA is home to 24 conferences based on 436 member institutions throughout the U.S There are divisional breakdowns and scholarships called grant-in-aid by the NJCAA and they are only available in 15 sports for men and women in the Div I and II only.
Each organization allows its members to offer certain amount of formal athletic scholarships. No school can exceed this quota. This is one of the reasons why there is high competition on every scholarship. In the NCAA, over 120,000 students -athletes are on full or partial athletic scholarships. Full scholarships may include tuition, books, room and board, and transportation.
Every student athlete who wishes to study and compete in college and get athletic scholarship is subject to strict rules concerning 2 issues:
The educational achievements which includes high school transcript and SAT score;
The sports level: Each prospective student needs to prove the Amateurism Status. Thus, the athlete needs to prove that he or she had only practice and compete as an amateur;