11/10/97 A SCHOLARSHIP FOR EVERY STRIPE

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A SCHOLARSHIP FOR EVERY STRIPE

No matter where your child's passion lies, from the oboe to Chinese affairs, chances are there's a college scholarship that fits the bill. The U.S. is teeming with niche scholarships and grants for all sorts of specialties. The Net is a good place to hunt them down. Start at www.finaid.org., sponsored by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Once a few have been targeted, prepare your high schooler to do some serious self-marketing.
And if your kid is short on niche passions, consider the meat-and-potatoes of college scholarships: sports and the military.
Most likely, Junior can't throw a football 65 yards and may not even be All State in a sport. But there may be a scholarship even for someone who's merely a pretty good fullback on a soccer team or the butterfly leg on a swim team's medley relay. Landing it means turning the traditional process on its head, with your child hunting out recruiters. The tools for self-marketing? Everything from teacher testimonials to videos and essays.
A LEG UP. The possibilities for college sports scholarships are bright. Ever since Title IX became law in 1972, pushing college athletic departments toward gender equity, opportunities have grown in all the sports rarely seen on TV. This holds true for men as well as women: While football and men's basketball have had their recruiting privileges trimmed, sports such as volleyball and soccer are booming. ''If you market yourself, there's a good chance you'll find something, maybe in division two or division three,'' says Betsy Porter, director of admissions and financial aid at the University of Pittsburgh.
So how does one get seen? Talk to your kid's coach about summer camps, which can cost a few hundred dollars for a three-day session, and move up from there. Camps are informal recruiting stations. Often, college coaches work at the camps. If they like what they see, your kid has got a leg up. These coaches also are good sources for recommendations.
A more expensive route is to hire a sports-recruiting service. For a fee ranging from several hundred dollars to more than $1,000, these companies help high school athletes market themselves, preparing and circulating paper and video resumes. Coaches can steer you toward a reputable service. But ask the service for names of alumni they've placed, and give the athletes a call. Also, be aware that these services are a better bet for low-budget sports where coaches can't afford to do much recruiting. Many basketball and football coaches pay the mailings little heed. ''I usually pitch it, because I know it's generated from the parents' money,'' says Larry Gipson, head basketball coach at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla.
If sports scholarships aren't appropriate for your high schooler, the military offers terrific scholarships, too, and the process is much more straightforward. But Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) scholarships come with one large condition: The college graduate must serve four to eight years in the military, entering as a second lieutenant. If war breaks out, chances are the apple of your eye is going.
BRIGHTER CANDIDATES. In this post-cold war period, the military is interested in fewer, brighter candidates, preferably those with technical skills (table). Last year, the Air Force's program accepted only 1,300 of more than 10,000 applicants. On average, successful applicants had a 3.7 grade-point average and an SAT score of 1320. But scores aren't everything. ''We look for people who seek out opportunities for leadership,'' says Arthur Tucker Jr., an ROTC admissions officer in Pittsburgh.
Interested high school seniors should hurry to fill out ROTC applications, available in guidance counselors' offices. Most deadlines are in November. Candidates must go through an interview and a physicial fitness exam. The chosen get their tuition, room, board, fees, and even incidental expenses paid for. At college, they take ROTC courses in addition to the regular curriculum and spend several weeks between junior and senior years at a military camp.
If your high school senior misses out on the scholarship, there's another route: taking ROTC courses at college. And if at that point a military career still holds some allure, he or she can apply for a scholarship to pay for the rest of college, and even for medical or law school. Not even the greatest college athletes get a deal like that.
Stephen Baker

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