Swimming Scholarships
Earning a swimming scholarship to a US university will allow you the opportunity to pursue both an academic and swimming career simultaneously. This means that you will be studying for a university degree – in a subject of your choice – whilst training and competing at an elite level, akin to that of professional sport.
Life as a college swimmer is extremely challenging and will involve being fully committed as both a full-time athlete whilst simultaneously pursuing a degree as a full-time student. It is an environment that produces most of America’s professional and Olympic athletes.
Academic and Sporting Preparation
Targeting University Programmes
Connecting with College Coaches
Ongoing Pastoral Care
To date, we've sent over 35,000 young men and women to the US. Securing over $400 million in scholarship awards and finding a place for every single qualifying applicant.
Every year, thousands of student-athletes and their families come face-to-face with the difficult challenge of securing a scholarship to an American university. What they often discover is that navigating university options is stressful enough, and adding sports into the mix brings it to a whole new level.
Even for those who do a little recruiting homework, they are often left with more questions, very few simple answers and an uneasy feeling they are somehow falling behind.
At FirstPoint, we understand what you’re going through. Many of us have experienced first-hand what the scholarship recruiting experience is like—as players and as coaches. And that experience, combined with our advanced online technology, expansive college coach network and proven recruiting methods, helps thousands of student-athletes and their families take control of their recruiting experience.
Whether you are a first-year high school student or a national ranked athlete, FirstPoint helps take the stress of uncertainty out of your scholarship journey by putting a plan in place to help you find your best university options in the USA.
HOW TO GET A SPORTS Scholarship
Testimonials
I am so grateful for the life changing experience and opportunities that have been available to me as an NCAA DI student athlete. None of which would have been possible without the expertise and knowledge of the staff at FirstPoint USA.
Josh Hendry
A huge thank you to the team at FirstPoint USA for the diligence and attention to detail throughout the whole process. They left no stone unturned gaining interest from a large amount of prestigious universities in USA through their network. Thank you!
John Patton
My son has started his USA rugby scholarship journey. In a very short space of time he’s had his first offer of interest. FirstPoint USA have been excellent - no waffle, straight talking about the reality of what happens and quick to respond to our queries.
Hilary Bolton
Frequently Asked Questions
Not all US colleges that are eligible to offer scholarships will choose to do so. For example, Ivy League schools choose not to offer athletic scholarships. Swimming is an equivalency sport, which means all scholarships are not full scholarships, and coaches may divide the total number of scholarships allotted to them between as many athletes as they wish. Swimming and diving share scholarship money, which means that they must divide up the scholarship amount in between both sports. Some swim teams choose not to have a diving team so that they can focus their scholarship money on swimmers.
- NCAA Division I has 199 colleges offering 14 Scholarships per team.
- NCAA Division II has 106 colleges offering 8.1 Scholarships per team.
- NCAA Division III has 259 colleges with athletic scholarships per team.
- NAIA has 36 colleges offering 8 Scholarships per team.
- Junior College has 65 colleges offering 15 Scholarships per team.
Many families ask how much the average women's college Swimming scholarship is. Unfortunately, that's pretty difficult to pinpoint. Women's Swimming is an equivalency sport, meaning that coaches are not required to give out full scholarships to their athletes and can instead break them up however they want. So, for a D1 team with 28 roster spots, a coach could give out 14 full-ride scholarships, or 28 scholarships that cover half the tuition.
Additionally, the cost of tuition at each college and university is going to vary. An in-state student at a public university could pay close to $10,000 a year, while an out-of-state student at a private university could pay $60,000 a year. Trying to find an average women's college scholarship amount doesn't account for those differences in tuition. Furthermore, not all athletes receive scholarships all four years of their college women's Swimming career. Instead of trying to determine what the average scholarship amount is, we recommend families first figure out how much they are willing to pay for four years of college. Then, while going through the recruiting process, student-athletes can compare offers based on their family's expected contribution-the amount they will pay out of pocket after factoring in all scholarship dollars.
College swimming coaches are looking for athletes who work just as hard in the classroom as they do in the pool. The swimming recruiting process is about being able to show improvement over the course of your high school career with clear potential.
These are the general guidelines for what coaches look for in a swimmer. If you don’t have the times yet, it doesn’t mean you can’t swim at that level, only that these are the averages. If you want to know if you are good enough to swim at a specific college, check their team website to see what times their swimmers are posting at meets. The following times are short course times and in yards.
- 50 Free
- <25.0 in NCAA DI
- <26.5 in NCAA DII
- <28.0 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
- 500 Free
- <5:06 in NCAA DI
- <5:18 in NCAA DII
- <5:32 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
- 100 Back
- <1:00 in NCAA DI
- <1:02 in NCAA DII
- <1:06 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
- 100 Breast
- <1:12 in NCAA DI
- <1:15 in NCAA DII
- <1:17 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
- 100 Fly
- <0:59 in NCAA DI
- <1:02 in NCAA DII
- <1:07 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
- 200 IM
- <2:10 in NCAA DI
- <2:16 in NCAA DII
- <2:24 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
The number of scholarships available varies by division level. Finding the right fit for you comes down to looking at scholarship opportunities and where your abilities fit.
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