Greetings!
Welcome
to the College Bound Athlete Newsletter! We'll highlight our
clients' achievements and will feature informative articles for
student-athletes and their parents.
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Athletes
and SAT/ACT Tests
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Why is it so important for athletes to take the SAT or ACT
early
and often? Simply stated that in order to receive athletic
grants from Division I or Division II NCAA Schools, you must
qualify academically.
The NCAA Eligibility Center
governs all who will receive athletic $$ based on their academic
criteria. In other words, they don't want student athletes to fail
out of college because they were recruited athletes incapable of
passing their courses. They want successful student-athletes.
The NCAA Eligibility Center will certify the academic credentials
of all college-bound student athletes
who wish to compete in NCAA Division I or II athletics. The
Eligibility Center can easily be reached at 1-877-262-1492 if you
have questions or concerns.
Nearly all colleges accept test results from SAT, which is a
company called (College Board) or ACT (American College of
Testing).
Athletes should take their first SAT or ACT in sophomore
year.
This is my opinion, not the rule. The reason being, it will
give
the student-athlete a chance to realize what level they are at
academically and time to improve upon their weak areas.
With the verbal commitment policy now the norm, it can only enhance
the student-athlete to know early on their academic level and will
also give the recruiting coaches an idea of not only the players'
athletic level but also who the student is academically.
This will also impact on the amount of money the coach can
offer
a student in the athletic package. Athletic packages consist
of:
- Academic money
- Athletic money
- Financial need money
So basically if you are visiting a college coach in your junior
year, of course you initiated the visit since college coaches
cannot actively recruit you until the end of junior year and the
coach says he or she wants you for his program and you respond that
accept this offer is called a verbal commitment. The key piece of
information is knowing how much money you can expect, so having
your ACT or SAT available will enhance these negotiations.
Important things to remember when taking the SAT or ACT: Send your
test results to the NCAA Eligibility Center using Code 9999. Also,
many schools will mix and match; that is, if you took the SAT in
October and scored high in the match and then took it again in
November and the math went down, but the English portion went up,
they will accept the highest score of both tests.
File with the NCAA Eligibility Center early in your junior year,
and be sure they received your information, follow-up with them.
Remember to send your final transcript upon graduation, if not you
will not be cleared to participate in pre-season at your college of
choice.
ACT/SAT can also help with negotiation in D-III Programs. Since D-III
cannot offer athletic grants, they basically are limited to
financial aid and academic grants. So again, knowing your SAT, ACT
early on can certainly be of benefit to you and the coach
recruiting you.
I recommend you contact the NCAA Eligibility
Center and request the 2010-11 Guide for the College-Bound
Student Athlete. It's free, it's important and it's the key to
success.
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