Track and Field Scholarship
Male athletes should have reached the standards for Youth Championships in their country for a sports scholarship. However, on the women’s side the situation is slightly easier because the universities have more scholarship funds for the women’s teams. A female track athlete should be highly ranked in the Regional Championships.
Depending on the strength of the college teams, we can also help those who do not quite meet the criteria yet to get scholarships or financial aid. Therefore, we look at each athlete individually and what they want when we do the Opportunity Assessment.
You can also look for yourself, we have compiled some guidelines for you. This is the level you need to be at when the studying begins.
a track and field scholarship?
5 STEPS TO A Track and Field SCHOLARSHIP
OVERCOMING ALL ACDEMIC HURDLES
There are three possibilities with which you can easily qualify for a study in the USA: 1. You complete successfully a good entrance qualification such as the vocational diploma, the Abitur (German equivalent of the “A Levels”) or the Matura (Austrian and Swiss Qualification). 2. You have your intermediate secondary school certificate and complete the so-called GED test. 3. You have completed a vocational training. Of course you have to meet only one of the three criteria.
CONTACT SCHOLARBOOK
Ideally, you would contact us about 1 to 1.5 years before you begin your studies in the US. Simply fill out our Assessment of Opportunities. You are a spontaneous person and the idea to study in the US just came to your mind at the last minute? No problem, in exceptional circumstances we can mediate your universtity place even up to 3 months prior to commencing studies. Once we receive your Assessment of Opportunity, we will contact you within 24 hours with our response.
COMPLETE APPLICATION
To complete your candidate profile we need video footage showing you during training and during competition. We also collect all information about your athletic and academic background. Your video and the added information will complete your athlete profile to then receive offers from the coaches.
CHOOSE COLLEGE
Once we have introduced you to the coaches, you will receive your scholarship offers. Your supervisor will advise you on your offers with regard to the athletic and academic interest of the university and together you choose your absolute favourite.
SIGNING THE OFFER
Congratulations! You have found your dream university including an athletic scholarship. Now you only have to seal your choice with the signing of your scholarship contract and apply for your visa. For all the remaining organisational steps you will receive our support and we will complete all steps for you.
5 Reasons for aTrack and Field Scholarship
Perfectly Combining Studies and Competitive Sports
Your training plan will be adjusted to your study programme – and vice versa. Due to the perfect compatibility that is unique in the world, you will find yourself developing optimal in an athletic and academical way and achieve top performance in sports and studies.
Professional Training Conditions
For the sportive advancement, the college teams provide you with several full-time, extremely well qualified coaches, team physicians, physiotherapists, gyms and university own stadiums that can hold up to 100,000 spectators.
Recognition for your Performance
Your athletic performance will finally be recognised and also financially rewarded in the form of a scholarship. Moreover, on campus, you will be treated like a star, receive a lot of recognition and various privileges.
Studying at the Best Universities in the World
The American university system is one of the best in the world. The worldwide rankings are dominated by the American universities, such as Harvard, Princeton or Stanford. Study at one of the most prestigious universities and secure this way your future dream job.
The Best Time of Your Life
Would you like to escape after school into the world and collect unique experiences? With an athletic scholarship, you will get to know other cultures and make friends from around the world and experience things that you will remember for a lifetime.
What is the scholarship situation?
The distribution of scholarships is the following:
| Men | Women | |
| Universities with Track & Field Teams | 752 | 833 |
| Full scholarships per team | 12,6 | 18 |
When should I apply?
The best time to get a track scholarship in the US is directly after you graduate from high school. The coaches like to recruit younger students so they can build a better athlete over the course of your bachelor studies. Of course you can also go for only a few semesters to the US. Or even do your Master’s degree while receiving a track and field scholarship. In general, you should contact us 12 to 15 months before you want to study in America.
Performance development of our athletes
Almost all the athletes that received scholarships and trained in America with the help of Scholarbook were able to significantly improve their personal best. Below you can see the performance improvements of our clients:
How is the training structured in America?
In general, the college teams practice up to six times a week for two hours. You will get the best chance to improve yourself, with great facilities on campus, a private stadium and in some cases the university might have its own indoor place with a 200m or 400m running track.
As an athlete, you can imagine there are various types of coaches in the US. It is important that the training philosophy of you and your future coach match. However, you can be certain that you will be in professional hands. The American coaches are full-time coaches, paid by the university and can therefore devote themselves to developing their athletes.
You will also have plenty of time to focus on your studies. Your lecture plan and training plans are adjusted to each other.
What does the season look like?
The Track and Field season begins with indoor competitions in the spring semester. Then it switches to outdoor competitions. The NCAA National Championships are in mid June and that’s when the season officially ends. You have plenty of opportunities to take part in competitions. Long distance runners get a head start of practice and competition since their season can start with the cross-country team, which is the fall semester. Since only America has such a great opportunity to combine studies with sports, some of the best athletes in the world come to America and get a sports scholarship. This means the competition is on a higher level than most athletes are used to. Thomas Bojanowski, Scholarbook-founder and track athlete can confirm this:
“In order to get to the finals of our conference in the 800m, in 2014 you needed to run almost a second faster than at the German Championships the same year.”
Despite the high level, Thomas believes that these experiences in the US are only enriching:
“Even today, I get goose bumps when I think of the time when I ran a relay race at Penn Relays. My boys and I ran in front of over 40,000 spectators. The moment we stepped on the track we knew: Now we can enjoy every second to the fullest.”
Thomas Bojanowski, Wake Forest University
Without Scholarbook I would probably had a hard time getting a scholarship for a Master’s degree in the United States. It was a successful, organized and very pleasant cooperation!
Beatrice Decker– Track and Field –Alaska Anchorage University – 2014
