How to Get Accepted at the College of Your Choice...
and
Get a Place on the Team

by Bob Collins, Editor Student Athlete magazine

You're a High School student, more and more, you find yourself visualizing yourself at college. Each year another wave of graduates from your school departs for colleges in distant places. On holidays, when they return, as college students, they're different ... sure their caps and sweats proudly advertise their schools ... but they also wear the self confidence of maturing young adults who have moved on to the next level in life. You are a little jealous and anxious to get there, too ... here's how.

As a student athlete, you have to satisfy the same admission requirements as other students, but you have a very important friend, the college coach. And depending upon how well you target "best fit" colleges, his/her influence on the acceptance decision can be very significant.

 Time for a Reality Check. Brutally assess your strengths, weaknesses and preferences. How do you learn? How easily do you learn? Do you prefer a structured or a free form setting? How important is playing time? How important is playing on a winning team? Would you stay on at the college if you could no longer play your sport? Which will be most important after college graduation ... where you studied ... what you studied ... or who your classmates were? Remember, you must be brutally honest with yourself.

Now that you have eliminated schools whose names would have impressed your friends, your High School teachers and you teammates ... yet left you dreading every minute ... you are ready to identify your "best fit" schools.   

 Fact. Colleges sell education and you are the customer. They need student athletes who want to attend the college and play on the team ... and are both academically and athletically qualified to do so. By selecting "best fit" schools you are doing a large part of the school's work for them, so they will be very happy to hear from you. And the college's actual "out of pocket" cost for a full scholarship is only about $1000 per year ... primarily the food you eat in the cafeteria. All other costs are "fixed costs" that go on whether or not you attend the college.

 Your High School Transcript - The best indications colleges have of how well you will do, is how well you have done in high school. Colleges pay attention to grades earned and courses taken starting in the 9th grade. They look for achievement in English, math, science, foreign language and history. The more credits and higher grades in these courses, the better. 

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