With college tuition costs going through the roof, any help parents can get to defray the massive expense and keep their child out of student loan debt is greatly appreciated. At in-state colleges, tuition and room and board will set you back $20,092 per year, while private schools cost $45,385, according to the college board. Numbers like those leave parents praying their kid will be athletic enough to land themselves an NCAA scholarship.
But what sport gives the kid the best chance of landing that elusive scholarship? Patrick O’Rourke, an accountant from Washington, D.C., who is also a father to a baseball player, wanted to figure that out after hearing other parents discuss which sports had the most opportunities at the collegiate level. So he created ScholarshipStats.com to compile stats and sort fact from fiction.
“There’s a lot of bleacher talk that goes on, and a lot of it is just wrong—especially where it comes to scholarships,” O’Rourke told MarketWatch. “Everyone thinks their kid is the best player on Earth and is going to get a Division I scholarship, and first they’ll find out that there’s a lot more competition out there than they think.”
O’Rourke found certain sports where there are better odds of a high school athlete making it on the college level. On the men’s side, gymnastics (20-to-1) and fencing (22-to-1) top O’Rourke’s list. And for women, rowing (2-to-1) and equestrian (3-to-1) are at the top.
But before you buy your kid an épée, O’Rourke will admit that some of his numbers are a little skewed, especially for niche sports. His calculations don’t factor in the number of kids who play a sport on a club team and on a high school team, as is the case with many gymnasts and equestrians because their high school doesn’t offer the sport. So those 24-to-1 odds for women’s gymnasts to land a scholarship may actually be much longer. And what you’ll pay for all that private coaching may offset the gains of partial college scholarship.
As for the more popular youth participation sports such as baseball, lacrosse, soccer, and volleyball, O’Rourke’s data can show which sports offer kids better odds of landing some scholarship money. Though parents had told O’Rourke that there were more opportunities for boys in lacrosse than in baseball, he was able to show that’s not true. Baseball for boys has 60-to-1 odds, while the odds for lacrosse are 85-to-1. And on the women’s side, soccer (40-to-1) offers more opportunity than softball (50-to-1).
Overall, you probably shouldn’t hold your breath that your little one will get a full ride from their athletic feats. Of the 8 million kids playing high school sports, only 480,000 will appear on the collegiate level, and most of those won’t play football or basketball, where full rides are given. While you should definitely encourage your kids to play sports for personal and athletic development, it may be a better idea to have them hit the books and try for some academic scholarships.
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TikTok shocked by 15-year-old unhinged viral clip of kids performing Scarface in school play
Think about the most outrageous film that could be adapted to the stage. Now, imagine the cast of that theatrical production is entirely children, ranging in age from 7 to 10. Now, film it and let the world react.
That’s what director Marc Klasfeld had in mind when he held auditions with professional child actors for a shocking video, meant to look like an elementary school production of the cult film-favorite Scarface. In a now 15-year-old interview with Entertainment Weekly, when asked why he thought this was a good idea, Klasfeld admits, "I thought this would be a nice fit into the kind of YouTube arena of viral videos. And I was right."
The result? Kids yelling “mother-fudger,” piles of popcorn meant to look like cocaine, and outrageous, lengthy scenes of children pointing Super Soakers at one another.
Marc, mostly known as an accomplished commercial and music video director, later adds, "I enjoy making provocative art. I like stirring debate and causing conversation. You're going to get two sides of the coin no matter what you do. People are going to love and hate everything. People loved and hated Avatar. People loved and hated the Jennifer Aniston movie. And people love and hate this. I guess that's a part of having something that's successful out there. There’s got to be certain people that hate it for people to love it."
Once they got their perfect cast, it didn’t take long to put together. He shares, "It was a one-take, so it was pretty much just choosing the right take. About a month altogether."
People sure did react, as it acquired millions of views and comments from all over the Internet. Some were horrified, some were outraged, and many thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen. But Marc emphasizes that the kids in the video were not scandalized. "They’ve heard the f-word. They’ve seen more violence in their everyday lives for as long as they can remember. So for this, they’ve seen worse things than this all the time. So this wasn’t that big of a deal for them."
Enter TikTok. The clip (which just popped up again recently on Facebook) was reposted a few years back, and, once again, the comments continue to run the gamut from indignation to full praise. One TikTok user exclaimed, "Bro, I can’t even remember my grocery list, how the fudge did these kids memorize this whole scene lol?"
Others expressed confusion: "I'm not sure whether to be angry or amazed." Some chose anger: "Just imagine, you know these kids watched the movie to get the characters right. And the parents cheering? Yeah, yeah."
Many commenters believed it was a real school play and commended the production for "keepin' it real": "That school keeps it real. Nowadays, kids know so much about guns and drugs, might as well teach them that bad choices don’t end well."
Yet another enjoyed it but was concerned that the parents of the children would not. "Love the tray full of popcorn. But my God, I would hate to see the hell these parents probably raised."
For the most part, the reviews were glowing. Many complimented the acting, and one claimed they definitely would have "preferred this play over their own school production of Macbeth."
And perhaps the biggest compliment? "Al Pacino will be proud."