For Parents
We know due to our own experiences and the conversations we have had with the parents of our athletes that the decision your daughter or son has made by accepting a scholarship to study abroad, brings a lot of worries with it. We are of course available at any time to discuss these problems and worries and hope the information contained here will help to answer some of the questions. We are also more than happy to meet up with you so you may get to know us personally. Just give us a call or send an email to team@scholarbook.net
What happens if my child is not happy at the university?
We make sure that before your child leaves that he/she has a personal impression of their new coach and that they get on with each other. In a lot of cases the universities pay for the athletes to visit the USA or the coaches visit the athletes in Germany. However if this problem does arise we guarantee, at no extra cost, to find another university for your child. Your child can at anytime due to personal reasons break off his studies and return to Germany. The contract is only binding for the university.
What happens if he is in the wrong team or at the wrong university?
Due to our presence in the USA we actually, personally know most of the coaches and have visited both the universities and their sports facilities. This means that we are able to judge whether your child will be in an athletic and academic environment that fits with his needs and abilities. We try and work with universities that have previous experience with international students.
Will there be someone there to help my child on arrival in the USA?
Yes there will be. Having international students on campus is very important to American universities and they take particular care of their international students. To make things easier at the beginning the universities often have a “Buddy Scheme” which means that all first semester students have an older American student as a “Buddy” to help them with their integration.
What happens in the case of injuries? Is there professional medical help available?
Unfortunately injuries are part of an athlete’s life, also of that of one with a sports scholarship. It is important to try and prevent injuries occurring in the first place and if they do occur it is important to receive the right treatment. However USA is one of the leading countries when it come to sports medicine and the universities have considerable financial resources to pay for doctors and physiotherapist that are always available for the athletes. It makes no economic sense to offer scholarships to athletes and then not look after them when they are injured.
Does doping take place at American universities?
The NCAA carries out thousands of non-advised doping controls every year. If a case of doping is discovered the coach is banned for life and the team suspended. The coaches usually work full time which means a case of doping in their team would threaten their existence. On top of this every university has an Anti-Doping official whose job it is to prevent doping.
How safe are the campuses?
Quite often the campus is a town within a town. This means that security is very good. The universities have their own Security service Firms and every entrance is controlled, in addition to this, every student in the living quarter or dorm, has a 24 hour reception desk.
Are flight costs included in the scholarship?
The universities would like to pay flight cost, however according to the NCAA statutes dealing with sports scholarships it is not allowed to pay for flights home. Flights to competitions are covered as well as any other travel costs incurred. The athletes are also usually booked into nice hotels as the budget for completion related costs is fairly high.
The flight costs to the regional airports close to the universities are fairly expensive. What can I do about this?
Firstly we recommend checking various websites before booking flights. STA Travel is a company which specializes in organizing travel for students and they have very reasonable prices (www.statravel.de). On top of this the bus networks are to be recommended and travelling by Greyhound bus almost has cult status (www.greyhound.com). For example, you can fly to Dallas and take a 4 hour bus journey to San Antonio, whereas you save the cost of a regional flight.
This all sounds too good to be true…
To be fair we just want to mention the fact that we do what we do because we believe in it and due to our own experiences it is hard to find anything negative to say about sports scholarships. For a young talented athlete there is no better way of combining their sport with academic studies.
Thank you for putting your trust in our hands
The Scholarbook Team
