<p>Hey, just wondering if anyone has come across private scholarships offered to division 3 athletes. The NCAA doesn't allow D3 schools to give money, but I would like to get some recognition and award for being a D3 athlete. I have decent grades and all of that, but I really wanted scholarships targeted at athletes.</p>
<p>D3 schools are not permitted to give scholarships targeted at athletes as that would be direct violation of NCAA regulations. On top of that, financial aid packages are not supposed to preferential for athletes at D3 schools. That is more difficult to regulate and assess. There are merit awards that take into account the extracurricular activities, personality, well roundedness, etc, that would include athletes. That is about as close as you are going to get.</p>
<p>Yes, I understand the NCAA rules. Thank you. Again, does anyone know of any merit scholarships that are targeted for athletes?</p>
<p>Sometimes private family foundation scholarships are not well publicized to everybody to apply to, but are given to people who share interests of the foundation members. So if Groucho, Harpo and Chico Marx are trustees of the Marx Family Foundation and love to play tennis at the local courts, they will be giving the annual Marx Family Foundation scholarship which has to be awarded "to a promising senior at Local High School" to a tennis player. So find some wealthy person who is a fan of your sport; maybe they have connections?</p>
<p>I think it is because of NCAA rules that you aren't finding scholarships such as you describe: "recognition and award for being a D3 athlete." If such 'private' scholarships were allowable you would see lots of them, especially from wealthy backers at Big Sport U. The same would be true on a smaller scale at D3 schools. There are lots of general scholarships available where participation in a D3 team might help you, as cptofthehouse suggests.</p>
<p>My advice to you is to look at those D3 schools that do very well in your sport. You can get that info from the sports rankings. That is a good indication that the sport is considered important to the school, the coach is active in getting good athletes, and athletes of that sport are attracted to that school. You can then talk to the coaches about any private scholarships that might be available for athletes, or merit awards that take athletic prowess into consideration when looking at the "whole person". The coaches are the ones that can tell what you can expect. Because it is NOT allowed to give athletic financial awards to D3 athletes, you are not going to find a list of such scholarships. It would be a direct violation of NCAA rules and get shut down very quickly with serious consequences.</p>
<p>Even though D3 school may not award "Athletic scholarships" it is not uncommon for them to award "Academic scholarships" to athletes. Some schools even have scholarships that are to be designated in that way - i.e. a scholarship "to be awarded to a soccer player".<br>
Often a coach working with admissions at a D3 school can find money for an athlete.</p>
<p>Alright I think I'll talk to my coach about it and ask him. I'm already in college, and just trying to get some more money.</p>
<p>My DIII athlete gets a fairly large "academic" scholarship. She was heavily recruited to attend DIII schools because of her athletic abilities but also because of her academics also. She was a good HS student but not a top 10%. They like the whole package!</p>