I'm considering going to university in the US and have some questions, it would be great to get some answers off guys who are doing it at the moment/have been/happen to know anything relevant!
1. What is the rough cost (just tuition fees) per year for a non US citizen?
2. What are the levels of best, average and lower slalom skiiers in the div 1 teams?
3. Which Universities are the best options when trying to get a good balance of skiing quality and educational quality?
4. Where can i ski the most!
Any other stuff i need to consider?
Do the research on the schools listed below, as they are from the NCWSA 08 eastern regionals. Don't forget to look at the, "Left coast" as well. Go to the NCWSA.com site for a complete list.
You cannot just look at tuition as a cost of the education. Tuition is only a part of the whole. You will have to pay for the dorm room and meals as well as the dreaded, "fees" some schools charge. I am well aware of tuition that is extremely inexpensive in some places and yet the fees are many times the tuition in some universities.
To my knowledge, there is no increase for a non US student in comparison to a US resident, but there are discounts to state owned and operated schools for a resident of that state, in comparison to a resident of another state. In that case, you would just be classified as the other non state residents.
Where is your home country?
Be advised that you should only be looking at schools with ski teams, as they tend to be in areas of the USA where you can ski year round. You would not want to attend a school in the North and be snowed out of the water skiing you could be doing elsewhere.
If you ski well, then by all means, check out the financial scholarships available to team members.
Wade's the guy to talk to since he has been through all this.
Best wishes.
09U024C EASTERN REGION REGIONALS COMBINED TEAM
DETAILS OF TEAM SCORES AND PLACES AS OF 15:25 09-28-2008
TEAM NAME ID SLALOM PLC
FLORIDA SOUTHERN COLLE FSC 3290.0 1
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA ALA 2540.0 2
CLEMSON UNIVERSITY CLE 2415.0 3
ROLLINS COLLEGE ROL 2375.0 4
UNIV OF NC CHAPEL HILL NCH 1720.0 6
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA UGA 1955.0 5
GEORGIA SOUTHERN GAS 1310.0 7
WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY WFU 840.0 8
ELON UNIVERSITY ELU 830.0 9
AUBURN UNIVERSITY AUB 565.0 11
Tuition fees vary dramatically dependent on what state the school is in, whether they or a private or public institution, and the general standing of the school. (better = more $)
You can see scorebooks from Nationals at the NCWSA Website to get more info, but the top 5 scores at Nationals for mens slalom last year was 3@38 off. When I was skiing collegiately, that would have been 10th place. But it varies year-to-year and team-to-team.
Arizona State University has a competitive team and they have a great school
University of Central Florida has the best location (15 mins from SkiTek) but their team is not well organized. There is plenty of skiing local, it would be easy enough for you to organize a team, but it's much easier when those things are already in place.
Alabama is a good one too but I went to Florida Southern so I consider them my sworn enemy, don't go there :-) I wouldn't recommend Florida Southern for their educational experience, but with the lake right across the street from campus you sure can ski probably more than anywhere else. I would stress the lack of an exceptional academic experience though.
There are lots of great opportunities all over the place. If your goal is skiing, in my mind you have to go to Florida.
The most important thing to consider is your long-term goals. I would pick a geographical location that appeals to you first, then a good school, and third the ski team. In FL most of the college ski scene has collapsed but there is still plenty of waterskiing and opportunity if you seek it out.
List of Teams
US News College Rankings
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Make sure you also look into scholarships that are available for international students as there are many of those offered by schools in an effort to have more students like yourself.
I'm going to plug my University, Clemson.
"Clemson is ranked No. 34 in Kiplinger financial magazine’s, “Best Values in Public Colleges for 2008-2009,” which highlights institutions that offer top-quality educations at reasonable prices. "
Clemson is located on Lake Hartwell which is a public lake that has many long narrow coves great for water skiing. The ski team keeps a 2009 Mastercraft in the water with easy access to the team's slalom course and jump ramp.
You can go to http://www.ncwsa.com/ to see how the team scored in the fall.
Don't forget about good ol' ULM! Louisiana Monroe does pretty good in 3 event skiing.
I attend the University of Wisconsin and I love being on the team. It is without a doubt my favorite thing about going to school. I believe we have a great education at this school, and we finished 6th overall at Nationals last year. Even though we are up north, we get in as much skiing as possible in the fall and spring and always are sure to have a good time. Good luck choosing a school!
Jp keep us posted this fall! Do u have your tournament schedule already?
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Tuition and fees will all be completely different and i would suggest looking finding some schools you're interested for other reasons before considering them. There is also a great variance in skiers in all of the D1 teams. I am going to the University of Texas, and our team ranges from people who are beginning open-water skiers all the way to two of us who reached -38 at a tournament last weekend. Look at usnews.com and you can find a huge list of all the best schools and probably some tuitions, and then find where you're favourite ski teams are placed academically. I know all of the ski teams in the south central region ski year round, not sure about the others. Anywhere you go the best part of collegiate skiing is making sure to have as much fun as possible in the sport.
what scores would you need to be legible for a scholarship?
Dependsob what school you go to. In collegiate skiing, overall three event skiers are more economical
than a single eventer. So if you're a great overall skier you'll have a g
better chance with the scholarships, but it isn't exactly college football or anything, I don't think you'll in a full ride. A lot of small schools do a good job of offering academc scholarships if you have any sort of decent grades in high school -- you'll have more assistance if you can get both awards.
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Hi all,
I'm currently going to UCF for computer engineering, but I'm a HUGE skier and have nowhere to go!
Wade - I'm Doug Shields' son if you remember the tall bald guy you gave a lesson to sometime back.
The only time I really get to ski is when i go to Clermont to ski with Will and the guys, but that's far and I'd LOVE to ski for my University!
Just wondering, if there is any ski team management at UCF how do i go about contacting them? (a little google searching gave me mixed results)
If there isn't any management I'd love to start something up (I hear the UCF wakeboarding team has a ton of support from the university?)
Let me know if theres anything you guys can do for me.
Thanks much,
Eric
Eric --
Chase it up through the UCF management. Club sports department. It is basically YOUR deal. No one else has their act together @ UCF. Florida Southen & Rollins have a few tournaments with each other this fall, and all you need is some approval from your school in order to start (or restart) your college team.
I remember Doug - I seem to recall something about you heading to UCF too. You should roll out to SkiTek if you need some skiing, it's right down the road
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Cool,
Thanks Wade, last year i went searching but came up empty handed when people looked at me like i had four eyes saying "we have a waterski team?!"
I'll go in with more drive this time...
Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know what I come up with.