Skip to main content

How to Get a Scholarship

Requirements

To be considered and be eligible to become a student-athlete, the PSA must have the following requirements:

  • High School Diploma;
  • Less than 24 years of age;
  • Be a competitive sportsman in one of the sponsored sports;
  • Demonstrate that you have the level of English required by the college.

High School Diploma

Oh yes, unfortunately without having obtained it you can’t go anywhere. Having maturity is a condition sine qua non, But there is a positive part. In itself, the high school graduation grade does not have a specific weight for whether or not you are admitted to a college, but what really matters is the grade point average of all 5 years of high school.

Less than 24 years of age

Again, there are not many possible variations, but this limit is defined differently for each league and division and also based on very particular personal situations, it can be slightly modified.

Be a competitive sportsman in one of the sponsored sports

There are not many sports that have a recognized university championship and that are regulated by the different leagues (see All university sports). That’s not to say that there aren’t other sports you can do during college, but the sports that aren’t on that list usually have a smaller following in the States and have different leagues, also following different rules of
recruiting
and
eligibility
.

Demonstrate that you have the level of English required by the college

There is no one-size-fits-all score for colleges in America to prove that you possess the appropriate language skills to attend their classes and take exams. Each college sets its own minimum requirement, there are some colleges that don’t even require a test (there are very few), but as a general rule, getting a score of 61 on the TOEFL, 5.5 on the IELTS, or 100 on the DUOLINGO can guarantee admission to many universities. Of course, there are also colleges with much higher demands on these tests and without which it is not possible to be admitted.

Although no longer as conclusive as they were in the pre-pandemic period, standardized SAT or ACT tests are well accepted by most institutions, especially when it comes to international students.

We all know how difficult it is in Italy to have a 9 or a 10 on the report card and we do not hide the fact that students with an average of 8 – 8.5 are considered as excellent students, but the truth is that, in an objective conversion of the grade in the US scale, they correspond only to the 3.2-3.4 GPA (Grade Point Average) of the American system, A far cry from the excellent student who starts from 3.8 up to 4.0. For this reason, taking the standardized tests (SAT or ACT) can be useful to demonstrate your skills and abilities objectively.

SCHOLARSHIPS ARE ANNUAL

Conceptually, both sports and academic scholarships are held annually, which means that the signing of a scholarship only involves one academic year.

It is true, however, that coaches, with a few exceptions, tend to offer a place in the team with a scholarship that can be renewed under the same conditions in the following years and for the period necessary to complete the study plan. In particular, if a player is recruited from a 2-year junior college, the coach will set aside the scholarship for both years but effectively the scholarship will be renewed for the second year at the end of the academic year, usually around mid-May, after the academic and sports evaluation of the year just ended.

The same will happen if the offer is made by a coach from a 4-year college, at the start the scholarship will be there for the full 4 years but they will have to be officially renewed at the end of each academic year.

If, on the other hand, you want to learn more about the steps to follow to be considered by American coaches to obtain scholarships, read “the recruiting procedure”.

Do you want to make your dream come true?

Register for an assessment.