• ​Full-ride scholarship offer

Full-ride athletic scholarships are only available in six college sports:

• Football

• Men’s Basketball​​

• Women’s Basketball

• Women’s Gymnastic

• Tennis

• Volleyball​

These are known as head count sports that create revenue for the school. A full ride covers the major costs of attending college like tuition, room and board, books, and some course fees. The term “full ride” doesn’t mean for the “full four years.” Full ride scholarships, like all offers, are one-year agreements that may or may not be renewed.

 

• ​Partial scholarship offer

​The remaining sports or “equivalency sports” in NCAA Division I and II are where coaches essentially have a pool of scholarship money that they can divide up amongst their team. While not a full ride, a partial scholarship offer can still cover a significant portion of college costs or very little. It may be that one student-athlete on a team gets a scholarship that covers tuition, while a teammate may only get offered a scholarship that covers the costs of books.

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• ​Preferred walk-on offer

​Not all offers come with a monetary reward. Sometimes, the reward is simply a spot on the roster. A preferred walk-on offer means the coach would like you on the team but cannot (or won’t) offer any financial assistance at least for the first year. Preferred walk-ons can earn a scholarship going into their second season, but nothing is guaranteed. Some student-athletes will turn down scholarship offers at smaller schools to play for a bigger program as a preferred walk-on.​

 

• Recruited walk-on offer

A recruited walk-on offer means there is interest from the coach but no financial assistance and you must still earn a spot on the team through additional try-outs or summer training camp. Although there is no financial assistance or even a guarantee of making the team, some student-athletes still view a recruited walk-on offer as a great opportunity to be play at the highest level of competition.​

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• Unrecruited walk-on offer

Typically, this is when a student-athlete qualifies for admission to the school and plans to join the team through an open tryout. In this scenario, there is usually a conversation with the college coach prior to enrollment to confirm the student-athlete will be able to try out for the team.​​