True or False? Getting a scholarship at the D1 level means getting a full scholarship.
False. Only a handful of sports offer full scholarships to their entire team. They are generally just the high profile or revenue producing sports.
I’m just learning that I don’t know what I don’t know
This from a father who has visited more than a half dozen prep schools with his child and is realizing that, as smart as he thought he was, he might need help in the search for the right school.
True or False? Division 2 schools offer the same number of scholarships as D1.
False. D2 schools have different rules and limits in almost all the sports, especially the high profile sports.
Prep school is a big decision. Few other family choices include so many components of such importance.
If you tried to save money by painting your own dining room and it didn’t turn out like you hoped, you could pay someone $500 to fix it a month later. The damage is minimal. A bad prep school choice is a much bigger problem. We’re not talking about painting the dining room. You need to get it right the first time.
Many parents, especially those who are new to the world of college sports at the scholarship level, are under the misconception that receiving a scholarship for any sport at the NCAA D1 level means receiving a full scholarship. That is not accurate and it tends to be a real eye-opener, particularly to parents of baseball, hockey and lacrosse players.
Scholarship money is driven by revenue, and football and basketball are the only sports with TV contracts and attendance significant enough that they are considered to be revenue producing. Consequently, in men’s sports football and basketball are, by NCAA rule, the only ones that can offer full scholarships to each member of the team. For women, it’s a little different because they don’t play football. Like the men, they offer full scholarships for basketball (in fact, they get two more than men, 15 vs 13). Title IX requires schools to compensate for football scholarships by offering women more scholarships in a variety of other sports, including some not offered to men. This can result in certain entire women’s teams having full scholarships.