The athletic scholarship is considered by many parents and swimmers to be the holy grail of our sport. But have you ever wondered how many swimming scholarships actually exist? Have you ever wondered what the odds of receiving one are?
We have been working on a project regarding these very questions and thought it might be interesting to know:
- There are approximately 1,685 men's and 3,117 women's swimming scholarships available. Of those, approximately one-third are awarded each season (roughly 561 for boys and 1,037 for girls).
- There are approximately 26,000 male high school seniors and 32,200 female high school seniors who swim or dive compared to 2,800 male college freshmen and 3,600 female college freshmen. That means:
- One of every 9.7 senior boys and one out of every 8.8 senior girls will begin swimming in college.
- Out of all high school swimmers, one out of every 14.5 will swim in college and one out of every 13.2 girls will.
- The odds of a boy receiving a swimming scholarship are 1 in 48 while the odds of a girl receiving one are 1 in 31.
- Because scholarships can be divided among multiple swimmers it is difficult to determine the percentage of college swimmers receiving a scholarship, however we know that:
- 44% of all college swimmers swim Division III and therefore receive no scholarship whatsoever.
- If each existing scholarship was divided in half - 73% of men's college swimmers and 66% of women's college swimmers do not receive a scholarship.
- Want to maximize YOUR ability to get noticed by college coaches? Create an account at CollegeSwimming.com.
