This guide has been written after consultation with scholarship athletes and/or their parents and their Irish coaches.

The best advice to give anyone is "Don’t give anyone any advice". However we are now going to break that rule and try to give some advice that might help young Irish athletes who are thinking about going to the USA on an athletic scholarship or who may be offered some financial aid by a US university.

There are many reasons why athletes decide to try their luck in the USA: personal athletic ambition; a chance to get a free education; a desire to see America; an opportunity to get away from home or maybe just a quest for adventure. All of those reasons are valid and if you do decide to set off to the New World we wish you the best of luck. However, before you decide on such a course of action there are a number of things that you should be aware of and that you should take into consideration. In this brief guide we will try to help you make a correct decision.

We are not the advocates for, or the opponents of, US athletic scholarships – we are dispassionate about the matter and we are only trying to help you in your difficult choice. There is an old saying that "Faraway hills are green" and, when we look at the standard of American collegiate athletes, a lot of us think that all American coaches and Universities are brilliant. Not so! There is a lot of mediocrity out there, as indeed there is in Ireland. Good coaches are good no matter where they are based and there are quite a number of good coaches in Ireland. There is also a growing awareness in Irish universities of the value of having high profile athletes in their institutions so you could also try that option. This guide, however, is intended for those who are interested in going to the USA so we shall concentrate on that group.

We assume that you are a good athlete and that you are interested (if only mildly) in looking for an American scholarship. If a recruiting coach makes an approach to you the first thing to do, is to find out the status of the scholarship. If it is not a FULL scholarship, i.e. with all tuition, fees and books paid by the University for the full four years, then our advice is to reject it. You would find it very difficult to adjust to a new culture, a new educational system, and a rigorous training schedule and, maybe, home sickness, without also worrying about money. If you are offered a partial scholarship you will have to make up the balance by taking a job and that is just not an option you would want to consider. So, a full scholarship is what you should be pursuing. If you do procure a full four-year scholarship you might think that all your problems are over but be warned. The college will be paying for your degree and they will look for a return. If you are injured and can’t compete the coach will certainly not be happy and there have been several cases where athletes in such circumstances have been sent home. Remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch. These cases are rare, however, and your stay will usually be a happy one

Seek out athletes who have taken up scholarships in the USA. There are quite a few of them around and they will be only too pleased to help you. It never fails to amaze us when we see young people take such an enormous decision without seeking as much advice as possible. If there are no such people in your part of the country, ask your coach to put you in touch with someone who will give advice, be they athletes or parents, etc.

Talk to the US coach. Find out as much as possible about the coaching, the facilities, the location of the college (remember you will be travelling to and from Ireland), the Division in which they compete (you should be looking for Division 1), the courses on offer and the value of their degrees. Some US colleges are second  rate and their degrees aren’t worth much. Check this out with the Higher Education Authority in Dublin. Remember: the US coach is a salesman who is trying to sell you a place in his college, so exercise a healthy cynicism – it will not go astray.

Try to pay a visit to the University before you decide to go there. A lot of colleges will assist you with travel and accomodation (for 48 hours) once you are in the US. Your travel to the US is up to you. If you are a good athlete you might find a local businessman to assist you air fare. It’s worth a try.

Another aspect that is often overlooked is the athletic orientation of the college. Is it known primarily for its middle and long distance athletes? If the answer is yes and you are a sprinter then you would be backing a long shot by joining them. If you are a middle distance runner and the University specialises in sprinters, the same will apply. Ask the coach to provide you with the college’s media guide. Find out which athletes the coach has trained in the past. Ask him if he is new to the college – if he is, ask him to give you details of where he coached in the immediate past and what his record was like. If he is a long time coach at the college in which you are interested, ask him for a copy of the college’s performance in the Conference championships for the previous few years.

Find out if any Irish athletes attended that college and try and make contact with them or their relatives.

Where is the college located? If, for instance the college is situated on the West Coast, the cost of travelling will be greater than for one on the East Coast, not to mention the time factor. This may seem a trivial matter but it is one you should consider together with all the others. Another factor in the location of the college is the weather. You will be in college between October and May and it gets very, very cold in the northern part of the USA in the winter. If you can’t stand the cold, beware. On the other hand, the southern states are very hot and this can be murderous on a distance runner. This is not to say that sprinters should go south and distance runners should go north. No! It is just one more factor to be considered.

Having examined all these factors and having decided, even tentatively, that you might take the plunge, what else should you do?

The most important thing needed, is your result from the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). You must sit this exam before you are allowed enter an American college. All details regarding the SAT can be obtained from the American Embassy, Dublin, including application forms, places where you may sit the exam and sample tests. You may sit this exam as many times as you like and your top score is accepted. We would advise you to apply for and to take the exam, as early as possible. It would be advisable to make enquiries when you are still in 5^th year, because a lot of American colleges require you to have applied for admission before February of your Leaving Certificate year.

You can purchase "Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges", which is an invaluable guide, containing in-depth descriptions of colleges and universities recognised by the accrediting associations.

If you are in the top rank of scholars in your school and you are thinking primarily of academic success, with the added benefit of having four years of athletic competition in the US, you should consider an Ivy League university. Competition for a place in these is very high but Irish students have done well there in the past. The Ivy Universities are;

Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale. Ivy League Universities are prohibited from granting athletic scholarships, i.e. tuition and fees, in return for your performance on their athletic team, but they are permitted to offer financial aid to incoming students. The difference between financial aid and an athletic scholarship is this; if you receive financial aid, your stay in the University is not dependent on your athletic performance and you need never put a foot on the track, if that is your wish. But financial aid, generous though it often can be, will never equal a full scholarship. With an athletic scholarship your continued stay at University could be governed by how valuable you are to the team, as decided by the coach, though instances of athletes losing their scholarships are rare.

Whatever your decision, we wish you the best of luck and if we can be of any further help you can Email us at info@waterfordac.com and we will endeavour to answer any queries that you may have.