If you are looking for the strongest academic institutions in the country, there is no doubt that the schools among the Ivy League are certainly high on that list. These elite academic programs continue to hold all students to extremely strong standards and make you put in a lot of time and effort in order to graduate from their school.
And while playing a sport at any of these programs is difficult, it certainly can be done. But what exactly can an Ivy League school offer for athletics? Can they extend a football scholarship for me? How about a basketball scholarship?
The first thing that I must stress before going any further is that Ivy League schools are not allowed to offer any athletic scholarships. You may be the #1 player in the country on the football field but don’t expect Harvard to come calling with an athletic scholarship because it is against conference rules.
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This obviously makes it very, very tough for Ivy League programs to recruit against other Division I schools. But with their strong academics and reputation for helping students following graduation, it is easy to see why the programs are so attractive.
There may not be an athletic scholarship but there is no doubt that you will likely qualify for a need based scholarship. The schools take into account your academics and the finances of your parents in order to determine where you stand for a need based scholarship.
Because of the hefty cost to attend an Ivy League school, Princeton and Yale both have used their endowment to help students avoid taking out loans during their undergraduate education. That does make both schools much more attractive because leaving college debt free versus $40,000 in student loans is a huge difference throughout the rest of your life.
If you are interested in an Ivy League school and want to learn more about their overall recruiting process for athletics, consider purchasing Playing the Game by Chris Lincoln. This is a fantastic book that I have been meaning to do a review on for sometime. It really is an excellent look at what schools go through in the athletic recruiting process and how they scour the nation for prospective athletes.
