Expert: Jake Lanier - 1/14/2001

Question
My son is a Junior in High school (a 5A school in Texas). He has a 4.8 GPA, has been on the varsity golf team for 3 years and is currently the #1 player on the team. He is also a Texas All-State musician (plays Alto Sax) for three straight years.

He does not want to major in music but would like to minor. He wants to play golf in college, which means a warm climate year-round. He's considering pre-law, simply because it's so versatile and because he has no other driving desire (other than golf and music).

Where do we begin to search for scholarships for him? What do we look for in a school? Should the scholarships (if any) dictate the school or do you choose the school first and find scholarships to match that school?

We're brand new to this. I've done very brief searches and I realize how much I don't know (I don't even know what a fellowship is!!).  

Any help is appreciated.

Answer
Lori,
  First I would consider some of the state schools for playing golf, such as Texas and Texas A&M.  I don't know if they're looking at recruiting him for golf.  Those schools are very good schools.  A good college site for searching various topics is www.review.com.  It allows you to input various criteria in looking for a school.  The scholarships shouldn't dictate a school unless you are specifically looking at that school.  Many scholarships are independent from what school you choose, however if you narrow down a few schools, they will have scholarships for their school only.  Most schools will occupy that need for golf and music, especially the state schools. Some sites for scholarship searching are www.collegeboard.org and www.fastweb.com.  Those are just a few.  Another suggestion is to go the high school's guidance counselor, as they should have resources for college searching, especially at a Texas 5A school (as both my siblings attended Texas 5A schools in SA).  I hope this information helps and if you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.  Good luck.
                                                  JAKE