As long as you target the right place, at the right time, with the right information and to the right person

Getting a college offer that is completely suitable for you, that suits your academic needs, challenges you academically, somewhere where you’re going to fit in athletically, be challenged athletically, and somewhere that is affordable is no easy feat.

Finding that opportunity is hard, but it’s even harder to turn that offer, if you do receive one, into going!

Parents who have had their child leave and, or depart for college, they’ll know that a lot of the hard work starts once you’ve received the offer, because the college coach, he’s done his job or her job. They’ve provided the offer. They’ve said, yep, “little Johnny, I want you”. That’s it.

“Finding that opportunity is hard, but it’s even harder to actually turn that offer, if you do receive one, into leaving for College”

Then coaches move onto the next athlete or they go on holidays. Then you’re required to deal with admissions on your own. Admissions at that point, doesn’t really care too much about who you are or that the coach wants you. Admissions will treat you like a normal student. They can have specific deadlines that you need to follow. They’re not going to call you specifically and say, “Hey, little Johnny, your application or form …is missing” or “we’re missing some photo ID”.

They will just grab it, and put it to the side, and say you know, “when little Johnny decides to contact me, I’ll tell him what’s wrong”. Because they probably got another thousand or 10,000 applications, just waiting there. Timing will determine the amount of opportunities, amount of scholarships, amount of opportunities that are going to be available to you.

“The U.S. pathway, for a lot of families, is an option”

Whether or not they are even suitable is something is another story. So, going back to ‘how do you know if you’re ready to apply?’ Well, if you’re waiting to the end of year 12 to receive your ATAR score, to come back from schoolies, to come back from a Contiki tour, to have all your money ready in a bank account ready to go, then you’re not going to go.
Roster spots will be filled up, scholarships will already be given out, less likelihood of you receiving an affordable opportunity obviously, application deadlines have passed. There are a few things that you need to be wary of.

It’s not about deciding to jump on the plane, it’s about deciding that you want to give yourself the option as early as possible.

I think another thing that comes up as well, and I speak to a lot of the parents, is that the U.S. pathway, for a lot of families, is an option, and a lot of times it’s not their first or second option. And I understand that because, you know, everyone’s got their preferences. Now, if you treat this as your second and third option and you put the effort that warrants a second and third option, then you probably not going to get the result anyway, because you’re not treating it like it’s supposed to be treated.

“It’s not something that you just purchase, and it just happens. It’s not a tour, or a flight that you just pay for and off you go. There’s a process involved.”

Now having it as your third option, right, so your first option could be your Contiki tour, your second option could be traveling to Spain with family. Your third option could potentially be going to the U.S. but you still need to put the same effort in, in order to even make it an option, because if you don’t put the effort into it and the time into it, then there won’t even be an option.

It’s not something that you just purchase and just happens. It’s not a tour, or a flight that you just pay for and off you go. There’s a whole process.

There’s a lot to it, the longer that you wait, the less chance that you’ll have of going over at all, but receiving opportunities that suit you academically, suit you athletically, and obviously somewhere that’s going to be affordable as well, is a big difference in deciding to go to the U.S. and actually applying to schools and searching for opportunities.

One of the things that I wanted to touch on was I guess when teenagers are asked: What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to study at university? What subjects do you want to pick in year 11, year 12? What do you want to be when you grow up? Right? It’s the million dollar question. And the reason I’m so passionate about this question is because …A lot of the time it’s asked to kids when they’re in year 10 or 11 as well.

“there’s a bigger uptake of students who don’t know what they want to be”

And you’ve got no idea. When I was 14, 15, I actually knew I wanted to do…. play video games and play soccer. I didn’t know anything else. I didn’t look at life that way. There’s some kids and some students out there who do know they want to be lawyers and do know they want to be engineers.

Which is fantastic. Right? But that’s a small percentage, and I think as the world’s evolving, and with the amount of options and choices and information out there, I think slowly, slowly what we’re seeing is, there’s a bigger uptake of students who don’t know what they want to be.

There’s a bigger uptake in entrepreneurship and things like that, which is great. And I think we need to evolve with the times as well as parents. And I speak as a parent because I’ve got two little boys at home.

Now, the reason I’m getting into this topic is because when people sort of talk about going to the U.S. That is a completely different question to: Are you ready to go? And if you’re asking, your 14, 15, 16 year old boy or girl: Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure you want to go? Are you sure …this really what you want to do?

“You want to open up as many doors as possible for your kids”

There’s going to be a small percentage that say yes, because it’s the same small percentage that know what they want to be …There’s going to be a large percentage of students who don’t know what they want to do, but they want to have the option to do it. And I think as parents, it’s important for us to sort of separate that, and understand that our kids are still young.

They’re still teenagers. They change their mind a million times, and the only question you need to ask as a parent is, do you want to invest the time to provide the option for your child that he or she may not want to take up?

It’s pretty simple because if you don’t want to invest the time, and all the money in providing an option that they may not take up, then I would recommend not starting the process, that you’re not ready to apply for a sports scholarship because, you need to understand, that child may not go, and that’s a tough one.

You want to open up as many doors as possible for your kids, you would do anything for them, and again, at the end of the day, it’s about opening up different …Options.
I think we’d all love to know that if our child’s starts something that it’s going to finish.

“A child wants the option of university, wants the option of studying abroad, and wants the option of getting a degree.”

I’m a big believer in telling your children if you’re going to do something, do it 100 percent or don’t do it at all. I get that. Right? These are the same sort of clichés that a lot of our parents have been saying for years, but there’s certain things you can’t necessarily hold them to for the rest of their life. You can’t tell your child when you’re in year 10, pick your subjects that you want to study at university because you’re going to go and do something at uni for the rest of your life.

A child wants the option of university, wants the option of studying abroad, and wants the option of getting a degree. What degree that is, where they want to study abroad, is the option that they’re looking for not necessarily the specific outcome.

If you are asking your kids that same question when thinking about this opportunity or if you’re about to, you know, join NSR, or start the whole process, on your own, are you ready to do this? Are you sure you want to do this? Is this what you really want?
It’s the wrong question, majority of the time you’re going to get probably a vague answer. Or if you ask them enough times, they’ll say no or they’ll say yes.

“You’re ready to start exploring opportunities and start researching.”

You can ask them enough to get the answer that you’re looking for, and if you’re looking for the answer that they say yes, they are ready to apply, then if you ask them enough, they’ll give it to you eventually.

There’s no wrong answer with the decision making process, it’s always up to the individual and the family, obviously but there is the wrong question.

Wrong question that you can be asking your kids. So how do you know if you’re ready to apply is completely different to how do you know if you’re ready to go?

There’s a massive difference in both of those sort of statements just there. But the key is if the second you think about the opportunity, then that’s the point in time where you’re ready. You’re ready to start exploring opportunities and start researching.

First thing for everybody, all the first timers out there, read the 12 step guide that we’ve put together. It’s a free 12 step guide, tells you the steps that you need to take in this process. Whether you’re a performing artist, visual artists, athlete or student.

They’re all on the website, go to iam-360.com. On the top banners you’ll be able to see any one of those guides. Start there and then that’ll give you an idea of the time that you need.

Don’t forget to grab your FREE 12 Step Guide on how to find Sports Scholarships in the USA – Click the image below to get yours