What is a scholarship and how does it work?
A scholarship is a way to get your education in the US paid for. However, many students and young people are confused about how the whole process works. How is the money allocated and what is it actually spent on? How do you get a scholarship and what is it?
If you are unsure about how scholarships work, this might be the quick guide for you!
What is a scholarship?
For colleges and universities in the US, scholarships are financial aid designed to help a student pay for an education in the US. Sometimes a scholarship is a one-off grant, while other scholarships are renewable and provide financial support every semester or school year.
A scholarship can therefore vary in value and length, but its main purpose is to reduce the costs associated with a student’s education in the US.
Sometimes financial aid can also be know a scholarship as a stipend or a grant.
Sport scholarships
A Sport Scholarship like a normal scholarship, is a financial aid to reduce the student’s payment for an education in the US. This financial support can be awarded on the basis of the student’s athletic or sporting level. It can be any sport that the given college or university has as part of their program. Sports can range from basketball and football to tennis and track and field. The amount of opportunities and offers you can get from various colleges and universities depends on the level you possess and can demonstrate in your given sport.
In other words, the higher your sporting level, the bigger the Sport Scholarship you can get.
Academic scholarships
An academic scholarship is a financial aid designed to reduce the student’s payment for an education in the United States. This financial support can be awarded on the basis of the student’s academic level and performance.
Academic scholarships are often merit-based, meaning they are awarded based on a student’s grades, test scores (e.g. SAT test) and other achievements. Some academic scholarships are renewable, meaning they can be used for several years of a student’s college education, while others are lump sums.
The range of opportunities and offers you can get from various colleges and universities depends on the level of academic ability you possess and can demonstrate.
In other words, the higher your academic level, the bigger the academic scholarship you can get.
An academic scholarship can be combined with a sports scholarship!
How does the size of a scholarship vary?
There are different types of Scholarships depending on the size of the Scholarship and what they cover in terms of costs.
Therefore, first and foremost, we need to know the different costs that a Scholarship covers…
They are divided into 3 different areas:
Tuition: Covers all costs for classes.
Room: Covers all accommodation costs
Board: Covers all living expenses (food, etc.)
Full ride Scholarships
Et full ride scholarship is basically the best scholarship you can get.
Here ALL costs are covered; both tuition, room and board.
Full tuition Scholarships
And Full tuition scholarship is also a large scholarship. It covers all education costs. In Denmark and throughout Scandinavia, higher education is paid for through the welfare system and is therefore ‘free’. For the public sector – and the US colleges – the annual cost of education for a single student will be around +$15.000 on average. A full tuition scholarship is therefore a significant grant!
Partial Scholarships
Partial scholarships are, as the name suggests, partial scholarships. Regardless of its size, getting a scholarship is an achievement in itself. A partial scholarship will partially cover some of the costs associated with attending college. Here, a percentage grant will be given, which is variable depending on how much the given college can and will extend to how much value they potentially see you adding to the institution itself and the given sports team.
Stretching this percentage as much as possible and giving you the highest possible subsidy is, among many other things, one of our tasks here at the NSSA.
Who can give me a scholarship?
Scholarships can come from a multitude of different places.
These can be sports clubs, companies, charities, individual persons as well as the public sector. Most importantly and frequently, however, colleges and universities in the United States award a number of scholarships each year to national and international students depending on what they specifically need – for example, on their football team – in order to compete with other colleges and universities.
How do I get a scholarship?
It can be really difficult to manage the whole process yourself. Just having to sort through hundreds of colleges and universities can be problematic. Add to this formal aspects such as targeted applications, visas, translation of important documents and many other things it requires.
Such a process can be difficult, uncertain and time-consuming to do as an individual.
Fortunately, there are a number of organizations that help send young people to college in the United States.
At NSSA, we do just that and specialize in Sport Scholarships for footballers and other athletes. So, if you play soccer or any other sport and think education in the US sounds exciting, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
