There has been a lot of discussion since Athens about foreign swimmers training in the United States. Most of them attend U.S. Universities, receive athletic scholarships, and compete at NCAA's. Some notable examples include Duje Draganja (Cal), Fred Bousquet and Kirsty Coventry (Auburn), Markus Rogan (Stanford), and the South African sprinters (Arizona). Some train in the U.S., but don't compete for a university (Inge de Bruijn). All of these athletes benefit from U.S. coaching, from training with U.S. swimmers, and in some cases, from financial support provided by U.S. entities (athletic scholarships). They all turn around and then win medals for other countries.
A couple questions: 1) What do you think about this arrangement generally? 2) Is it of benefit or detriment to U.S. swimming to have these foreign athletes training and competing here? 3) Should we be giving athletic scholarships, which are a scarce resource in swimming, to foreign athletes who will represent their own countries internationally instead of U.S.-born swimmers who will represent us internationally?
I'm sure there are other issues, but these come directly to mind.
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by Tom Ellison
"There are hundreds of millions of dollars of scholarships that aren't used every year so these few swimmers aren't denying anyone an education. "
NOT IN MEN'S SWIMMING IN THIS COUNTRY....SHOW ME ONE DOLLAR IN NCAA MEN'S SWIMMING THAT IS NOT USED....and I WILL WEAR A MOOSE SUIT TO WORLDS....A PINK MOOSE SUIT AT THAT....!
While trying desparately to find money for college, I kept hearing about the "hundreds of millions of dollars" in scholarships that are not used every year. Thinking (as many did) "I can get a scholarship", I started looking for the money. Often times, what they don't tell you is that these large pools of money are often for VERY SPECIFIC scholarships. There may very well be swimming scholarship money not used at American colleges and universities. Why? Perhaps the scholarship also requires you to major in Comparative Literature and have a documentable Polish background. Perhaps the swim team consist of 12 people and is coached by the dean's wife. Maybe it requires you to spend your summers teaching swimming in Third World countries. The point is, most unused scholarship money is unused because of the way the money is set up.
I noticed, Tom, that in responding to the info about scholarship $$, you specified "NCAA" - when the original poster didn't mention which schools may have money going unused.
I used to do applicatant interviews for my alma mater and always warned parents and students about the dangers of assuming their kids are "shoe-ins" for scholarships - whether academic or athletic. If you're worried about paying for your kids college, better to do the research on need-based aid, college/university endowments, and financing. They're much better bets than performance-based scholarships.
Kae (who worked for 2 years as an assistant to a financial aid advisor at a private university and got more money from the private university as need-based aid than from the public uni I attended for grad school, thanks to a better endowment).
Originally posted by Tom Ellison
"There are hundreds of millions of dollars of scholarships that aren't used every year so these few swimmers aren't denying anyone an education. "
NOT IN MEN'S SWIMMING IN THIS COUNTRY....SHOW ME ONE DOLLAR IN NCAA MEN'S SWIMMING THAT IS NOT USED....and I WILL WEAR A MOOSE SUIT TO WORLDS....A PINK MOOSE SUIT AT THAT....!
While trying desparately to find money for college, I kept hearing about the "hundreds of millions of dollars" in scholarships that are not used every year. Thinking (as many did) "I can get a scholarship", I started looking for the money. Often times, what they don't tell you is that these large pools of money are often for VERY SPECIFIC scholarships. There may very well be swimming scholarship money not used at American colleges and universities. Why? Perhaps the scholarship also requires you to major in Comparative Literature and have a documentable Polish background. Perhaps the swim team consist of 12 people and is coached by the dean's wife. Maybe it requires you to spend your summers teaching swimming in Third World countries. The point is, most unused scholarship money is unused because of the way the money is set up.
I noticed, Tom, that in responding to the info about scholarship $$, you specified "NCAA" - when the original poster didn't mention which schools may have money going unused.
I used to do applicatant interviews for my alma mater and always warned parents and students about the dangers of assuming their kids are "shoe-ins" for scholarships - whether academic or athletic. If you're worried about paying for your kids college, better to do the research on need-based aid, college/university endowments, and financing. They're much better bets than performance-based scholarships.
Kae (who worked for 2 years as an assistant to a financial aid advisor at a private university and got more money from the private university as need-based aid than from the public uni I attended for grad school, thanks to a better endowment).
