Did you know that studying at an American university can cost up to $80.000 annually? An amount that isn’t realistic for most students. Luckily almost all universities offer both an athletic and academic scholarship.
A scholarship is an amount of money a student receives to lower the costs of college. Those scholarships gives athletes the opportunity to play college sports at an American university, without having to pay the full costs of college. But how much money do you spend as a student-athlete? The amount of the costs depends on several factors that vary per university and per athlete.
Curious about more? Keep reading!
Study and housing costs
The total study and housing costs vary per university. From 10,000 up to 80,000 dollars a year. These are the costs that a student has to pay at the university without scholarships. In almost all cases, this includes the costs housing and meals.
The amount you eventually have to pay to the university depends on the amount of scholarships you receive, this depends on your academic and athletic results. The amount of scholarship you receive is deducted from the total costs.
Costs for athletics
In the Netherlands (and other countries), many costs are incurred annually for training, competitions and materials. In America, all these costs are covered by the university through an athletic scholarship. This is the reward that athletes receive for playing for the university team.
Besides that, also travel and residence costs at matches and tournaments are covered by the university. There are even universities that have their own planes for student-athletes, such as Ohio State University! Here you can see that the football team of Ohio State is travelling with their own plane to their playoffs. Crazy right?!
Also universities are often sponsored by major brands such as Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, which means that you do not incur any costs for (sports) clothing. As a student-athlete you can often also use services such as physiotherapy and a gym especially for student-athletes.
Other costs
During your time in the States you will, just like in any other country, have other costs and expenses to take into account. Think of your phone bill, leisure costs, flights home during the holidays etc. The amount of extra other costs is different for everyone. Ofcourse, this depends on your personal lifestyle.
As mentioned earlier, the amount of how much you spend as a student-athlete can vary a lot per person. Some athletes receive full scholarships, which means they do not have to pay anything for four years of college sports and studies. Others receive partial scholarships that cover part of the total costs. In some cases athletes even receive extra money from the university, some kind of salary.
As a student-athlete, you spend a lot of time on you sport and study and therefore have little time for a sidejob. But there are certainly ways to make some extra money as a student-athlete. In the video below, a student-athlete shows 5 ways to still make money as a student-athlete.
Do you want to become a student-athlete? Slamstox helps you find the best universities and applying for a scholarship. We always try to look for the optimal mix of an academic and athletic scholarship.
