American sports scholarships

[Firebrackets]

Has anyone had a teenager apply to a US college/university for a sports scholarship? My lad is in yr11 and v interested in applying for rugby scholarships post-A levels. I know there are agencies that will take £££ off you hands to apply on your behalf and then do all the admin, but I was wondering if anyone has had experience of applying without that, what hints and tips you might have, what you end up paying out for and whether it’s means tested on parental income or whether it’s wholly based on talent/SAT score?

Any help would be appreciated - DS will do a lot of the research himself but I want to be able to sort fact from teenage enthusiasm!

Sorry multiple posts

My son plays rugby for a D1AA college in the East Coast. He connected with the rugby coaches at the schools he applied for and had some training sessions with some of them but it is rare to recruit for rugby and even rarer to get a full ride scholarship for rugby. I’d see it as a regular application using rugby as a co-curricular to brag about rather than aiming to get in on a financial scholarship. Not that many colleges play rugby, and as a pp said the Ivies don’t offer sports scholarships at all. Grades, SATs, co-curricular, part time jobs and community/volunteering will have to be high as per any application to the States so start early - your child needs to show commitment to all of these disciplines throughout high school. But if you can afford US university then definitely use rugby to show commitment to a sport as it might help his application.

This is categorically untrue. While the Ivies do not offer sports scholarships many many incredibly good US colleges (some as ‘high-end’ as an Ivy) do offer full ride sports scholarships. There are over 150 US universities and colleges that are as ‘good’ as RG unis here, and over 65 that are harder to get into than Oxford and Cambridge. Now, very few of them offer rugby as a sport and very few of the ones that do play rugby offer scholarships, but that’s a different matter…

Agee, @nixon1976

My son is going in summer 2026 to study and play rugby. We looked at using agencies and you are right they can be costly. We used a company called American rugby scholarship. They have been incredibly helpful.
your son needs to decide what level of rugby he wants to play as there is different divisions. Also what is it he wants to study ( not all colleges offer the course or play rugby)
he needs to achieve good GCSE’s the higher the grades the academic scholarship is higher and helps. Write the SAT exam, some colleges don’t need it but helps with scholarship awards.
Some colleges will have some money for rugby which goes towards the scholarship.
research the college/university and if you can visit.
Bear in mind with rugby there is no 100% scholarship we got roughly 70% but still works out cheaper than sending him to UK uni.
my son will studying an hour outside Boston. One of the top 6% business schools in the US, Beautiful small college with a growing rugby program with links to the local rugby club.
any questions please ask we are now at the point of visa applications it’s been a long 9/10 months but we are almost there

Canadian universities don’t offer sports scholarships.

@Hiptothisjive- They do. My eldest is currently applying for a number scholarships and lots of his friends are international students doing the same.

Apologies- you are right I should have been clearer about they don’t offer full rides and have a cap (from memory 5k on Ontario per year) which is like half the tuition?

Love your name by the way - so close this year!

My niece did it. She is back home now with no connections. All her friends are in the States.

Out of curiosity, did she feel she benefited by going to America? I presume she’s a talented person in her particular sport, so has it raised her profile and skills, or hindered them?

I have particular interest in this topic, as it is something I have looked into for my DS

A family friend went to Dartmouth and he pointed out to us that Dartmouth is by far the best Ivy League rugby club in the country over the long term but in recent years Brown has over taken them.

the USA college rugby structure is a confusing mess, good luck looking into it!

but what else I can say is that Uni of California, Berkeley is the other best place in the States for Rugby

so essentially Rigby is a very minor sport in the US but with Dartmouth, Brown and Berkeley you get a hugely prestigious “name” university and the best college Rugby teams in the USA

that said I do not believe any of them offer rugby scholarships! A pity!

A friend of ours daughter has just got a whopping all expenses paid scholarship to a lesser known US university for a niche sport

the scholarship is for all food, accommodation, college fees and even flights home to UK. I’m sure many hundreds of thousand pounds when added up and the daughter gets to trainers class facilities for 20+ hours per week on top of her studies

Absolute nightmare to get to though as no direct flights from UK and also the University is not known for its academics

i don’t really want to send my son to a random US college to play rugby at a low level.

So if I am right and none of Brown, Berkeley or Dartmouth have rugby scholarships, then it’s best to study in England at a Uni with good links to a premiership team rugby academy. The overall standard of rugby would be much higher and you don’t have the cost and time and logistical nightmare of him coming home or you going to see your son. Standard of education would be better too and it’s also a much cheaper option. It’s win/win/win on cost, rugby standard and education standard

For example: Compare say Bath Uni and train at Bath rugby academy to random US college. No contest!

She has zero contacts here and a lot of the opportunities in her field come from knowing people. So she's back to square one. She didn't particularly enjoy it as she felt the coaches prioritised the US girls. But she did have three years playing sport, which simply isn't available here.

Rugby scholarships are possible. I know of a few kids that have gone but not sure on the financial details.

My son is in Canada on a partial academic scholarship. Its still fricking expensive. It works for him for various reasons but bloody hell it is a big commitment.

As someone above says, the fact he is REALLY far away from "home" half of the year and then REALLY far away from all his friends the other half is tough going and discombobulating for him. He still loves it though!

is she still pursuing her sport to an elite level?

Sometimes I think ‘getting a scholarship to a US university’ is seen as the pinnacle, but I wonder if it always is.

No, she is back at a community level, plus training kids.

So no real gain?

(Hope you don’t mind me asking).

I'm sorry but this is sooooooo inaccurate. Many US colleges have incredible rugby programs (they may not offer scholarships, but that's a different matter) - Babson, Boston College, Yale and Northeastern to name just a few within an hour of me! There are some where the academics are 'lower' but there are dozens at this academic level across the States.

Nothing inaccurate about what I’ve said

I am looking at the same for DD though for a different sport and it looks very feasible to me without an agency, as the coaches highly value proactive candidates. it comes very much down to academic credentials and level of the sport played. Here is what I have found helpful:

• have an accurate idea of the academic level of your son to determine realistic options (for example, people post on here about Yale etc but be aware if your child's academic achievements are in that Ivy League ballpark or rather in a different league)
• follow instagram of schools you are interested in
• all the information about coaches is on their websites
• many sports departments offer clinics and summer camps for prospective candidates - this would be a great way to get to know coaches and establish contacts
• even if you don't want to pay for an agency, these US scholarship agencies offer US college tours and scouting events in the UK occasionally which you can sign up for to establish contacts
• what I found very helpful is go through the roster of programmes we are interested in: they have in-depth profiles of candidates in their current team. This gives you an idea of the level of achievement you need to be at (in DD's sport, for example, almost all UK candidates who made it into the Ivy League roster were in the England U16 or U18 teams by the time they were recruited).

Regarding costs - it is not accurate to say that Ivy League does not offer scholarships as others have pointed out. They do not have sports scholarships because they have full financial aid programmes, hence if your income is low you can get a full-ride if admitted.

Best of luck!

If it ends up being cheaper than a UK uni and DC has a good time then that’s the gain surely?

The point of US sports scholarships isn’t to succeed in the sport, it’s to get uni paid for and have the experience instead of going to the US instead of Hull or Surrey.

If DC are turning down a top 10 uni for University of Albuquerque or something then yes it might not be worth it.

No. She has no mates here. It was a bad idea tbh.