Swimming Scholarships

Earning a swimming scholarship to a US university will allow you the opportunity to pursue both an academic and swimming career simultaneously.  This means that you will be studying for a university degree – in a subject of your choice – whilst training and competing at an elite level, akin to that of professional sport.

Life as a college swimmer is extremely challenging and will involve being fully committed as both a full-time athlete whilst simultaneously pursuing a degree as a full-time student.  It is an environment that produces most of America’s professional and Olympic athletes.

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Academic and Sporting Preparation

Targeting University Programmes

Connecting with College Coaches

Ongoing Pastoral Care

To date, we've sent over 35,000 young men and women to the US. Securing over £300 million in scholarship awards and finding a place for every single qualifying applicant.

Every year, thousands of student-athletes and their families come face-to-face with the difficult challenge of securing a scholarship to an American university. What they often discover is that navigating university options is stressful enough, and adding sports into the mix brings it to a whole new level.

Even for those who do a little recruiting homework, they are often left with more questions, very few simple answers and an uneasy feeling they are somehow falling behind.

At FirstPoint, we understand what you’re going through. Many of us have experienced first-hand what the scholarship recruiting experience is like—as players and as coaches. And that experience, combined with our advanced online technology, expansive college coach network and proven recruiting methods, helps thousands of student-athletes and their families take control of their recruiting experience.

Whether you are a first-year high school student or a national ranked athlete, FirstPoint helps take the stress of uncertainty out of your scholarship journey by putting a plan in place to help you find your best university options in the USA.

HOW TO GET A SPORTS Scholarship

What our Student-Athletes say about us

Josh Mulhenny
"They've gone above and beyond "

Can't thank the guys at FirstPoint USA enough for helping my son get out to the US on a soccer scholarship. He's now in his second year in America and is loving it despite being homesick for the first few weeks! We spoke with multiple different companies before deciding which company to choose and although they weren't the cheapest, they've been with us every step of the way and only been a phone call or text message away if we had any issues. They never made any false promises or unrealistic expectations and delivered the service exactly as described. They've gone above and beyond to make sure we were well looked after every step of the way.

Sandra Mulhenny

Josh Hendry
"I couldn't be happier"

I couldn't be happier with my experience working with Firstpoint USA. Having just graduated from university in South Carolina, I am so grateful for the life changing experience and opportunities that have been available to me as an NCAA DI student athlete. None of which would have been possible without the expertise and knowledge of the staff at Firstpoint USA. Would highly recommend FPUSA to anyone thinking about going to university in the USA

Josh Hendry

Josh Mulhenny
"process has been made simple"

The FirstPointUSA team as a whole are excellent. The whole process has been made simple by their clear communication, especially Gemma Thomson who I worked with. The organisation in every aspect of their work is very good, and I would definitely recommend FirstPointUSA to anybody thinking about attaining a scholarship in the US..

Isaac Thomas

Frequently Asked Questions

College swimming coaches are looking for athletes who work just as hard in the classroom as they do in the pool. The swimming recruiting process is about being able to show improvement over the course of your high school career with clear potential.

These are the general guidelines for what coaches look for in a swimmer. If you don’t have the times yet, it doesn’t mean you can’t swim at that level, only that these are the averages. If you want to know if you are good enough to swim at a specific college, check their team website to see what times their swimmers are posting at meets. The following times are short course times and in yards.

  • 50 Free
    • <22.0 in NCAA DI
    • <23.5 in NCAA DII
    • <24.0 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
  • 500 Free
    • <4:45 in NCAA DI
    • <5:00 in NCAA DII
    • <5:05 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
  • 100 Back
    • <55.0 in NCAA DI
    • <57.0 in NCAA DII
    • <59.0 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
  • 100 Breast
    • <1:01 in NCAA DI
    • <1:04 in NCAA DII
    • <1:06 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
  • 100 Fly
    • <54.0 in NCAA DI
    • <57.0 in NCAA DII
    • <59.0 in NCAA DIII / NAIA
  • 200 IM
    • <2:01 in NCAA DI
    • <2:05 in NCAA DII
    • <2:08 in NCAA DIII / NAIA

The number of scholarships available varies by division level. Finding the right fit for you comes down to looking at scholarship opportunities and where your abilities fit.

Not all US colleges that are eligible to offer scholarships will choose to do so. For example, Ivy League schools choose not to offer athletic scholarships. Swimming is an equivalency sport, which means all scholarships are not full scholarships, and coaches may divide the total number of scholarships allotted to them between as many athletes as they wish. Swimming and diving share scholarship money, which means that they must divide up the scholarship amount in between both sports. Some swim teams choose not to have a diving team so that they can focus their scholarship money on swimmers.

  • NCAA Division I has 136 colleges offering 9.9 Scholarships per team
  • NCAA Division II has 77 colleges offering 8.1 Scholarships per team
  • NCAA Division III has 415 colleges with athletic scholarships unavailable
  • NAIA has 31 colleges offering 8 Scholarships per team
  • NJCAA (Junior College) has 60 colleges offering 15 Scholarships per team

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