Athletic as well as academic scholarships are much more common in the US than in most other countries. Athletic scholarships are awarded to athletes of outstanding performance in order to enable them to finance their studies in the US. The athlete participates fully in practice sessions with the college team and represents the university in various tournaments and competitions. The coaches’ job is to professionally look after the teams; in this sense, he has a similar position to that of a professor and is also paid accordingly.

For what reasons are scholarships awarded?

For generations, American universities have had college teams in all kinds of sports. These teams are professionally managed by specially employed coaches and serve as an advertisement for the respective university in numerous competitions. If a team has regional or even nationwide success, the media will cover its development. That is why college teams are a means to market the university in order to recruit new students. For this reason, the universities provide the coaches with a budget to recruit talented athletes from around the world and help them finance their studies or even their entire stay abroad.