England is one of the largest sources of athletes for American college sport in our data. Our database counts 1,478 English athletes on today's US college rosters (team lists), plus another 181 from Scotland, in a dataset of 357,904 roster records.
This is why recruiting agencies advertise all over London. More British athletes are recruited than athletes from any other country, and more of them are given bad advice. This guide covers the steps and the costs.
The numbers by sport
Of the English athletes, 1,050 play soccer, 225 play golf, 134 play tennis, and 69 swim. Scotland adds 128 footballers.
Soccer leads for a reason. Over two decades American coaches have learned that a released academy player, or a strong non-league player at step 3 to step 5, is often good enough to start at once for a good US program (a program is a college team). In England, being released at 16 or 18 feels like the end. In the US system it is a starting point, and coaches know what "was at a Category 2 academy" means.
Golf also stands out. Scotland has 36 golfers to England's 225, a high share for a small country. College golf is also one of the best-funded routes for international players relative to roster size.
Grades, amateur status and timing
A-levels convert without trouble, which is an advantage. The NCAA is the main US college sports association, and its Eligibility Center checks whether you may compete. That office and university admissions offices know what A-levels, GCSEs, and Scottish Highers are. Strong GCSE grades plus two or three A-levels typically meet the NCAA core-course requirements (the school subjects the NCAA asks for). BTECs are less certain. They can work, but have them evaluated early, because some combinations create eligibility problems that only show up late.
Your grades are worth money. UK families consistently underrate this. American universities award academic merit scholarships (money for good grades) from published criteria, and A-level results count directly towards them. An athlete with AAB is eligible, and at many schools also receives automatic academic money in addition to whatever the coach offers.
Check your academy paperwork for amateurism problems. Scholarship terms at pro academies, appearance money, or anything that resembles a professional contract can put your NCAA eligibility at risk. Most released academy players are fine, but some are not. Have your amateur status certified through the Eligibility Center before your final season starts.
US recruiting runs ahead of the UK school calendar. UK students think in terms of UCAS deadlines and results day in August. American rosters for an August intake are largely settled by the previous winter. If you want to start in the US the September after Year 13, coaches should know your name in Year 12. Good players who wait for their A-level results before they start end up choosing from the places that are left.
Which divisions recruit British players
All of them do, although agency marketing often gives a different impression. The English and Scottish athletes in our data play in NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III (written D-I, D-II, D-III) and in the NAIA, a separate college sports association.
D-I is the best-known level, but it does not always make the best offer. D-II and NAIA programs often put together more money in total for international players, because they can combine athletic and academic aid more flexibly. D-III awards no athletic scholarships at all. Its academic money can be substantial, though, and for a strong student the final bill at a D-III school can be lower than with a partial D-I offer.
The division tells you less than two other questions: who needs my position next year, and what will I pay?
What it costs
Every UK family should know three facts about cost.
First, the sticker price (the published price) is not what you pay. The 60,000-dollar-a-year figure on a university website is the starting point of a negotiation.
Second, different kinds of aid add up. You can receive an athletic scholarship, an academic merit scholarship and, at some schools, additional grants. Your final cost is what remains after all of them. Two offers of "50 percent athletic" can differ by 20,000 dollars a year once academic money is counted.
Third, full rides (scholarships that cover everything) are rare in soccer. Aid in college soccer is split across large rosters. A typical good result is a sizeable partial athletic award combined with academic aid, which together cover most of the cost. Do not trust anyone who guarantees you a full ride before a coach has seen you play.
Common mistakes by British athletes
- Paying an agency thousands of pounds for access to a school list you could build yourself with better data.
- Looking only at D-I and ignoring better-funded offers one level lower.
- Leaving BTEC or Higher combinations unchecked until the Eligibility Center finds a problem with them.
- Starting after results day, months after coaches finished recruiting for that year.
- Comparing scholarship percentages instead of the final amount you pay per year.
What Varsio does
Varsio is a data product and does not act as an agency. The counts in this article are taken from its current rosters and update as rosters change.
Varsio does three things with this data. First, recruiting history: we show which programs already have English and Scottish players on the roster in your sport, because a coach's past recruiting predicts who will answer your email. Second, roster openings: from each roster's class years (first to fourth year) we estimate how many players a team is likely to lose before next season, in soccer by position. Checked against past seasons, that estimate was within three players about six times in ten. Third, cost: we have read the published scholarship rules of 181 schools. Where your grades alone decide the award and we can convert your grading system (most continental European school grades and a US GPA so far; A-levels not yet, so enter a US GPA if you have one), you see the price after that money before your first email.
1,478 athletes from England and 181 from Scotland are already on US rosters, so the route is well used. The difficult part is picking the right 15 schools out of 2,053. Varsio's data is built for that choice.