Grades Matter!!
You will hear most of the time that grades matter! And most people will be like “Yeah sure” and do what most students do and scrape by and pass. Many student Athletes will put most of their efforts into training and put the majority of their focus into their sport, which may get them a Sports Scholarship but not an academic scholarship.
When you look into the US system you have to look into schools that cater to your academics. The thing that you can control is how much effort you put into studying for the SAT or the ACT exam and how much preparation you put into it or whether you choose to take one or not.
Firstly, by taking one of these exams you’re opening more doors. Taking one and even just passing one, you’re opening more doors. If you decide not to take one, that’s fine they’re still a lot of options out there but you can’t complain that you didn’t get offers from schools that required SAT results if you weren’t prepared to take the exam.
“You’re in control of where your information goes”
Secondly, you control the amount of effort that you put into your studies in school, there are that many online resources and things out there, tutors, people to help you with classes and subjects but also to help you prepare for those standardized exams of the SAT and the ACT and it’s up to you in terms of how much you put in to that preparation process.
It’s also up to you, how many times that you sit an exam. If you take it once and don’t do well, then you have the decision or you have the right to take it again. You can take it as many times as you want and use the best score. You are in control of your preparation for the SATs or ACTs.
The SAT and ACT exams can result in academic scholarship. You have a clear understanding of what your SAT or ACT score will allow you to receive in terms of academic scholarships, or what schools you can get into.You’re in control of where your information goes. If you’re part of the IAM360 program then obviously we work with each other and provide you with feedback based on your preferences and where you want to go, to make sure that obviously we’re working towards the goal that you want to achieve and we’re sticking to your preferences.
“There are over 4,500 schools in the United States that are degree granting institutions”
So if you are doing this alone, then you’re in complete control of where your information goes and it’s something you really need to pay attention to. You should always be sharing your information with schools that are right for you. There’s a bunch of resources for example; BigFuture, Collegeboard (The company that administers the SAT exam) has a search engine you can go on, you can look school by school there are over 4,500 schools in the United States that are degree granting institutions that all have different requirements. BigFuture will give you over 3,700 of them, the vast majority that you can research in one place.
If you’re going into this on your own you need to be doing that research to look at, “Okay, this is my GPA, these are my SAT scores, these are the subjects I have taken in high school.”
Doing the research and figuring out the type of athlete that you are and where you fit in the world of collegiate sport, and then making sure that your information is being sent out to schools that are relevant to you.
If you’re promoting your information to schools that are too advanced for you in an academic sense, too advanced for you in an athletics sense, you’re not going to get there. So if I’m playing local league soccer, my SAT is 1,100. Let’s say I’m pushing my information to a school with requirements that are higher than that or their roster is full of only Americans or internationals that have come from professional academies – That’s not guaranteeing me a scholarship or even an opportunity.
“Making sure that your information is being sent out to schools that are relevant to you.”
Here is the tip on guaranteeing yourself a scholarship especially from the academic side that’s the one part where if you send correctly you can guarantee yourself an academic scholarship, how much that will be and will that be enough to make a school affordable, that’s a completely different sort of topic. But to guarantee yourself a scholarship, you don’t send your information to a school that you’re just scraping by …
If you’re just average with their admission requirements, and that’s where you’re sending your information, then yeah you may get admitted but what makes you deserving of a scholarship? What you need to look at is, here’s where I am and look at the schools where you’re above the average, and that’s where you push your information to, because then if you’re above the curve you’re in line for a scholarship because they want more people like you to help bring that average up of the school.
Similar to the Athletic side as well, you can certainly do some research into … look through a roster for example as I just said if there’s a kid from Australia or somewhere where you can compare where you’re playing, to where they were playing before entered the US. If it’s the exact same as you or slightly higher, similar to the academics if you’re just getting into the school academically or if you’re at the exact same position as the other kids were, than you’re the same as them, why are you going to receive a scholarship as a first year athlete?
“The reality is, if you want to be in California, you pay to be in California.”
If you look on a roster and there’s not one international student, that’s a red flag… I’ll just put it out there, California. Everybody wants to go to Sunny California, but you don’t find many international at schools in California and there’s a reason for that, because majority schools are state schools. People from California automatically pay half of what an international will pay to go to a California state school, especially a bigger university for your college.
Being that there are all state schools, the funding that their school gives them is limited. So basically with international tuition being double the price of in-state tuition, and a coach wanting to take a budget and stretch it as far as possible, you as an international student are not a high priority because you need more scholarship to make it affordable, when they’re already limited enough as is, to try and stretch that as far as possible. So that’s why a lot of rosters of state schools in California are full of California kids and not international students, because if everyone had it their way, they’d be in Southern California.
Can you guarantee yourself a scholarship in the state of California? No you cannot. The reality is, if you want to be in California, you pay to be in California. That’s the saying in the United States.
The cost of living is higher cost of education is higher, for out of state and internationals. So the key is you’re in control of where your information goes.
You’re in control of where your information goes, you want to be pushing your information out to schools that suit you academically athletically and of course something at the end of the day that’s going to be financially affordable. Somewhere where you’re potentially above the curve.
“I control where I send your information based on who offers what you want to study”
This is exactly what I do with every single one of our IAM360 athletes. I look at what you want to study and that’s the first thing that I look at, I control where I send your information based on who offers what you want to study, that’s the first, student before athlete always. I then look at the entry requirements of the school and I look at, “Okay, do you meet those entry requirements?” Yes? Great. That’s still a possibility. Will your grades get you scholarship at that school? That even makes it even higher, sort of priority. Then once I’ve knocked out the academic side, I’m then speaking with the coach to figure out, are they recruiting a player in your position? If so, then that school remains a possibility. If they’re not, then-On to the next one.
Let’s say that yep it’s still possible great, now they are recruiting someone in your position, share with them your video footage or information, do they feel that you are the player in that position that will make the best impact?
That’s one of those things that you can’t control, either that coach decides that yes they do think that, then great. There’s some potential scholarship money that comes with that, so it’s all these factors that need to tick, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes to make a scholarship opportunity realistic, and then also to make that scholarship an opportunity big enough to where that school meets the budget that you’ve set out for yourself as a family. So if you’re not an IAM360 athlete, those are all the things that you need to do from start to finish.
“What’s the old saying with life? Anything worth having is hard work?”
I’m telling you exactly what I do for a living and still it’s very difficult to do when you go at it by yourself because you want to skip steps and you want to go where you want to go, and you decide that, “Yeah, might be a stretch but I’m still going to push my information here.”
No, it doesn’t work that way. You control the effort that you put into your sport, your training. You control the effort that you put into your academics and your studying. You control the SAT and what you do, and then you control where you send your information to help find yourself opportunities.
What’s the old saying with life? Anything worth having is hard work?
Scholarship is worth having but it’s not easy to get one, you need to work hard, nothing in life is free. Be willing to work for the things that you want in life. Drew Brees said, “You can accomplish anything you want in life that you’re willing to work for.”