Our Son is looking at the option of a US College Scholarship. Its quite a minefield for us as UK based parents so we are reaching out here to seek some help and guidance from fellow parents. I have some questions that it would be great to get some expertise on:.
We are thinking about using a recruiting agent. Does anyone have advice or guidance on these folks?
What are the fees that we should plan for ourselves. Realistically, if he gets a full scholarship at a D1 school what other costs should we plan to cover as his parents?
Why are International Students recruited in the US Colleges?
What are the things that a coach or a recruiter will not tell you about Scholarship offers?
D1 for basketball will be ‘all or nothing’ so he’ll either get full tuition, books, room and board or he’ll get no scholarship at all. The 8 schools in the Ivy League do not give athletic scholarships. What you need to cover on your own are transportation costs and personal expenses. If he goes to a Power Five school (the biggest), he’ll also get a stipend to cover some of those costs. You don’t say what year he’s in, but the older he is, the less likely he’ll be going to a top top program as they usually identify their recruits very early. Still, there are hundreds of programs and he should be able to find one.
Usually, using a recruiting service is not necessary but since you are overseas you may need to. Basketball has recruiting from high schools but many are involved in club teams from a young age, playing summer tournaments and going to summer camps. If your son has done this, he may have been evaluated already. I think this should be your first step, to see where he fits in. Is he D1 material? Would he fit in better at a D2 school (less scholarship money usually), or a D3 with no scholarship? The recruiting services can be very expensive.
I think as a british family you should be cognizant of the mythology of sports scholarships being easily available in
the USA, and have a handle on what kids on scholarships in higher profile sports go to college to do. Obviously I have no idea about your kid but I do know that many families (british, american, any expats) often are borderline delusional about the college process until they get it done LOL.
Can your son actually play at this level? What do his coaches say? Perhaps his local coaches have some US connections. I presume your son is an elite high school player in your country and has access to well known coaches.
Having Googled a bit I think I know who OP’s son is, and he’s genuinely good. So would be looking at going to college this autumn, which means he’s missed most deadlines. Is he planning a gap year?
As others have mentioned, it is a complicated and, most people think, odd process in terms of many of the rules and regulations. There really are probably too many variables to give you a strong answer on here. One thing that comes to mind, though, is that there have been some Australian players that came to US colleges (D1 and D2) even after playing some league ball in Australia after graduating secondary school. But there are strict rules about amateurism, so if they got around that I don’t know how.
For example, here is a player, Cameron Bairstow, that took a path that might be available to your son. Here is an edited version of the relevant part of his Wikipedia page.
He then attended the University of New Mexico (D1) for 4 years (2010-2014) and is now in the NBA. I am not saying your son will make the NBA of course, but however he kept his eligibility and got recruited to UNM is the kind of path your son wants. You might want to try and get in touch with Bairstow directly, via email, through the Chicago Bulls, his NBA team. Or maybe there are more direct ways via social media.
In any case, I think that would be the kind of path he is probably looking at. So he will be a year or two older when he starts college in the USA, which is no big deal. That’s assuming he has the talent to play at that level.
Thanks Folks…I really appreciate the wisdom ( that we are lacking). One of the big questions here is does he have the talent to play at that level. His coaches ( who are placing people in the US college system every year) say that he has. One of the things which we are cautious of is the reality versus the Skype hype. So, worthwhile understanding other players paths…thank you for these references. Levels here are not as high as in USA. Timing was also one of our considerations…so, flexible on year of entry. If 2016 works then great…if not 2017 sounds ok too. The service we are using sounds very reasonable $800. Again, all comments welcome.
It might be possible to do a postgrad year here in the US and be recruited through that school – just throwing it out there as something to think about. The parents might be on the hook for a year’s tuition at a US boarding school in that scenario.
@cnp55: That’s not a bad idea. The lad in question (if I have him identified correctly) currently attends a basketball academy and has been on the England U16 and U18 national teams but moving to an American academy for a year might get him more (at least broader) exposure.
Yep, sounds like you have got him Our Son is just 17 and turns 18 in April. He will graduate high school in June. So, I am thinking that either he stays a year here till 2017 or gets recruited in 2016. Sounds like chances are less at this time of cycle for 2016. As you can imagine we are keen to consider all options.
@BrianUK2209 I think your best bet is to get the boy in a summer program/camp in the US to see where he stands.
Most of the best basketball programs have coach-operated summer camps.
You could also test the water in the academic co nferences like Ivy, NESCAC and Patriot League. These schools all have online recruiting questionnaires.
NESCAC is ideal because it is D3 and coaches can talk to recruits without restriction. There is no athletic money in D3 but it could help him get in a school he otherwise couldn’t. You could also learn a lot about the landscape.
Look through the AP Top 25 and see which schools have summer camps.
How tall is he? Weight? What position does he play?
My gut tells me that since you are asking, he isn’t on the recruiting radar. US schools have people all over the world looking for talent. D3 might be where he is best suited.
For Division I schools (and Division II and Division III schools, too), 2016 recruiting is pretty much over, although there may be a slot here or there. 2017 recruiting is well underway, effectively, for Division I. You probably have to take action fairly soon to have a chance for recruitment to start college in the fall of 2017. And your best option, from a basketball standpoint, is not likely to be staying in England another year. As others have said, your son could take a post-graduate year at a U.S. high school, most likely one known for grooming basketball prospects. Or he could conceivably enroll in a U.S. “junior college” (a two-year program not awarding a bachelor’s degree) with a good basketball team, and plan on transferring to a Division I university after a year or two.-
You need to be clear, with yourselves and with whomever you ask to advise you, what your goals are. The initial post in this thread is not clear.
– Do you want the best basketball coaching and competition available, regardless of cost/inconvenience to you or academic quality?
– Is getting the least expensive U.S. degree most important, with considerations of basketball or academic quality secondary?
– Are you hoping to parlay your son’s basketball skills into an elite-level education at reasonable cost, but not necessarily at the highest level of basketball competition?
– Do you have some sort of sliding scale of trade-offs among coaching, competition, cost, and academic quality?
I would recommend a US PG year (post graduate year). If your son is very good, he gets to play in the US and get exposure, while beefing up his academic profile (such as raising his SAT score, taking APs). http://www.admissionsquest.com/~resources/showarticle.cfm/articleid/32/articletypeid/5/topic/post-graduate-year
It’s too late to play D1 and D2 basketball. The teams have been recruited for a while now. (initial signing period was in November) although there’s still a period coming up April 13-May8 I think but I don’t know how many scholarships there are. You can give it a try but I’m not sure if the results will be the best for your son.
If he’s genuinely good enough to play at the D1 level, then you want to have everything ready this Spring, contacting coaches as soon as the NCAA’s confirmed his eligibility (he’ll need a certain GPA and SAT or ACT score - the higher the GPA, the lower the score. ) Or does he already have an SAT/ACT score and is registered with the NCAA?
Depending on his academic ability, he should look into the universities’ actual situation for athletes - ie., the UNC-CH basketball scandal… you might not want bogus classes for him. beside the obvious, the Ivy League, “serious” would include the Patriot League, the UCs, and Penn State, all are pretty good at making sure basketball player take their academic commitments as seriously as possible (ie., a decent amount of work each day, no one does the work for you, no obligation to major in sociology or whatever the easiest major on campus is… but of course athletes know how to pick the easiest classes to balance their schedule.)
Division3 and the Ivy League do not give scholarships based on athletic ability, but based on aprents’ income. The Ivy League would offer a full ride+ if you make less than 75K a year, full ride if you make up to 100K or so, 10% of income up to 180K - check those numbers, they’re approximate. You will ALWAYS have a “student contribution” (something the student will have to contribute via work, savings, or loans, or a combination thereof).
In order to be considered for the Ivy League your son should have AAB at A-Level, about 1300 new SAT (untested yet since the New SAT debuts this Spring, so take this number with a grain of salt until May and the official announcements; for a sure number: 1900 old SAT, last session is this January).
Again, many thanks for the questions and lots of food for thought. Our Son has been an NBC camper for the last 3 years and even went to Seattle last year. We love NBC and he has received lots of interest from the US coaches who have come over. The nub of this is exposure, you will be surprised to know that English players are the 3rd in rankings ( number of players) in NCAA Basketball. The game over here is poorly funded and the exposure to D1 coaches limited ( unless you play in the National Team at FIBA tournaments). We have a good Highlights tape that is here and we will see where we get to with 2016 recruiting( accepting that it could be 2017 though). We are open to a good JUCO for a year or so as this may make sense for him too. Basketball is more important to him, to be honest he has a great University offer here that would be better for him academically but he is motivated to play in the states. Thanks all. http://youtu.be/uLHrCdaQpuE
You might touch base with St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California, just east of San Francisco, The head coach has had a lot of success recruiting in Australia, so he’s not averse to non-US players. Just a thought.
Very few of those English players are playing for Division I teams.
Based on the first of @AboutTheSame 's links, I would prioritize determining NCAA eligibility (and duration of eligibility) right away. It’s possible that he could have only a year or two of eligibility left by 2017, something that could be a real barrier to recruitment.
Our Son is just 17 and turns 18 in April. He will graduate high school in June. So, I am thinking that either he stays a year here till 2017 or gets recruited in 2016. Sounds like chances are less at this time of cycle for 2016. As you can imagine we are keen to consider all options.