Thinking of swimming in college?

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As your child continues with their swimming journey into high school, it may become a natural thought process to start exploring the possibility of continuing to swim in college as well.  Some swimmers (and parents) may think of swimming as a platform to get into their dream college and incorrectly assume it can lead to a full-ride athletic scholarship.  So, can swimming really help a student-athlete to be admitted to their dream college?  Possibly, yes – it could indeed be a factor that could help the student’s case for college admission, but it should not be relied upon as the “only” factor.  As for a full-ride athletic scholarship in swimming, I would say the answer would be a “no” in most cases.
<Royalty free image from Pexels>

Full-ride athletic scholarships are generally offered to what is called a “headcount” sport.  A “headcount” sport generally produces a lot of revenue for the university and examples include sports such as men’s basketball & Division 1 FBS Football and women’s volleyball.  Head count sports mean the team is restricted in the number of athletes that can be on scholarship. For example, an NCAA DI FBS Football team is allowed 85 scholarships per year and they are only allowed to have 85 athletes on scholarship. They can’t divide that money up to give half scholarships to more athletes.1

Swimming is an “equivalency” sport & there is no restriction on how many athletes can be on scholarship, but there is a limit on the number of scholarships a team can have.1  A typical Division 1 men’s swim team would have a roster of almost 30 swimmers, but the coach only has about 10 scholarships. So mathematically, it is possible to have all 30 swimmers on partial scholarships that covers about 30% of their tuition.

<Headcount vs Equivalency Sports>
Source: 1 & 2 listed below

Based on the summary that I have compiled below using sources 3 & 4, the statistical chances of your high school swimmer continuing to swim at any collegiate level is only about 7%. If you were to restrict that to just NCAA Division I colleges, it is only about 3%.  So, if you do come across a high school swimmer who has made a verbal commitment to swim in college, celebrate and congratulate this amazing achievement.  At the same time, I hope this table is not seen as a deterrent but somewhat of a motivational goal for young swimmers thinking about swimming in college.  Yes, the statistical chances may seem low, but if you really enjoy the sport and you are willing to continue to put in the effort, there are almost 600 colleges out there that could be a good fit for you.

NCAA number of colleges data from Reference 4.
All other data from Reference 3.
NAIA = National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
CCCAA = California Community College Athletic Association
NJCAA = National Junior College Athletic Association
Location: Houston, TX, USA

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