Your Game Plan: Snag Scholarship Money for Sports Management School
Sports Management is a very specialized business field and it’s not for the feint of heart. Go-getters, aggressive sales and marketers are all strong contenders in this gritty business field.
Solid scholarship sources you should be checking out include:
- Private and professional organizations and associations
- Colleges and universities
Because various areas of sports management and administration are lacking in diversity, you will likely discover abundant scholarship opportunities for ethnic minorities and for women.
Private and Professional Sources for Sports Management Scholarships
Private sources often have the deepest pockets, particularly in the sports arena. Professional associations are in the business of advocating for both professionals as well as students. Most offer quite nice scholarships. Some examples:
- Women’s Sports Foundation takes a vested interest in putting women into top-level sports education, and ultimately careers. The tuition is costly and the women remain underrepresented. To these ends you’ll discover a little diamond mine of scholarship opportunities. The flagship, however, is the Dorothy Harris Endowed Scholarship available to women enrolled in graduate degree programs leading to Sports Management careers and closely related fields. Awards range from $1,500 to $3,000.
- The Black Coaches Association (BCA) sponsors a handful of student scholarships annually. The Ethnic Minority Post Graduate Scholarship for Careers in Athletics financially sponsors eligible students in a variety of sports-related degrees, including those in post-graduate Sports Business Management and administration degrees.
College and University Sources for Sports Business Scholarships
Priority should be given to your college or university when it comes to ramping up a scholarship search.
Most schools that feature a Sports Management, Sports Business and Administration program also offer some level of scholarship aid, particularly given the lack of diversity in this field. If funds are not directly available through the general Finaid or Scholarship office, check with department heads in the Sports Management Department for a list of scholarships that fit your goals.
- The University of Massachusetts-Amherst Isenberg School of Management offers enrolled students of the Sport Management Department the chance to compete for scholarships in Sport Management major and even Sport Law.
- Indiana State University offers scholarships annually in its Department of Recreation and Sport Management. Awards range from $200 to $650.
- Ohio State University, one of the few schools with a Doctoral degree in Sport Management, offers an eclectic mix of endowed scholarships in the larger College of Education and Human Ecology, while the Graduate School of Physical Activity and Educational Services offers a number of well-funded assistantships specifically for Sport Management majors.
You could end up working in a wide spectrum of jobs related to Sports Management, including athletic and sports marketing, retail sales, product manufacturing, coaching and consulting, even athletic sponsorship and management of elite teams and athletes. Choose your educational pathway wisely and use scholarship money to help grease that pathway.