I have a 16 year old friend, Swiss citizen of Eritrean origin, who is a very good 
student and plays basketball for Swiss junior league. He will graduate
from high-school in three years and is hoping to go to a top US
university on a scholarship.
Question: Which schools do you think could be interested in him and
what must he do between now and then to be a good candidate for a
scholarship?

Dear tosop-ga;

Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question.

Basketball scholarships are a very sought ?after and competitive
thing. Because time rocks on and the industry is bound my rules and
can be very unforgiving when certain opportunities are missed, I
recommend your friend seek professional guidance in his quest for a
scholarship. In this way he can avoid costly mistakes that can
essentially take him out of the running for such an award and insure,
at the very least, that he will be considered if/when the opportunity
arises.

Basketball is classed as a "head count" sport. This means that the
athletic scholarships that are offered are "full ride" scholarships.
There are 327 division 1 and 281 division 2 colleges that offer men's
basketball scholarships. So, what this equates to is a total of 7,061
men's basketball scholarships available, and that?s in the NCAA alone.
Clearly you can see that there are many scholarships available but
there are also many more qualified people seeking each one of them.
The competition for these scholarships is fierce.

To begin, lead your friend to this source: 

BASKETBALL SCHOLARSHIPS USA
http://www.sport-scholarships.com/english/basketballscholarshipsusa.htm

You will find a very clear, detailed explanation of how basketball
scholarships work, what his expectations might be and what the
expectations of him might be. They can help him prepare for his
scholarship search and can provide a number of excellent tips for the
preparation process.

In addition, they offer a no-obligation assessment and evaluation with
will in turn help them to provide information concerning scholarship
opportunities at various schools and help determine which school would
be right for him under the circumstances.

APPLICATION & CHANCE EVALUATION
http://www.sport-scholarships.com/english/application.htm

In the meantime it would be in his best interest to become involved in
structured practice sessions and strength and conditioning training
during both seasonal and off-season activities. In short he will need
to eat, sleep and breathe basketball in order to be competitive with
like-minded scholarship seekers. It might also help for him to produce
a strong and demonstrative video of his skills on the court so he can
distribute this to interested parties so they can objectively judge
his abilities (keep in mind that this scholarship is work about
$45,000 so this process is no less important that an audition).

This same source offers an Athletic Scholarship Service that will do
much of the work for him. In the end the service will promote him to
various scholarship opportunities as sort of an agent.

ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIP SERVICE
http://www.sport-scholarships.com/english/athleticscholarshipservice.htm
http://www.sport-scholarships.com/english/index.htm

 In addition he might seek out a reputable basketball camp or
workshops and attend for one of more seasons leading up to his
collegiate career. Here he will not only learn valuable skills, but he
can raise his skill level and receive some professional guidance and
personal evaluation from knowledgeable instructors. Be sure to obtain
a certificate as proof of attendance so you will have it later for
your portfolio. Here is one such schedule (for 2005) but you can find
many other current schedules by simply searching for ?basketball camp?
in a major search engine like Google:

ADVANTAGE BASKETBALL CAMPS SCHEDULE 2005
http://www.advantagebasketball.com/schedule.htm

GOOGLE: basketball camp schedule 2006
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22basketball+camp%22+2006+schedule

GOOGLE: basketball workshops
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=basketball+workshops

Your friend might also find a reputable Basketball Recruiting Service
and, if nothing else, make inquires about what they can and cannot
reasonably do for him. Here are some options for recruiting services
but you can find many more by searching for ?college basketball
recruiting service? using Google:

ATHLETICSCHOLARSHIPS.NET
http://athleticscholarships.net/whatido.htm
http://athleticscholarships.net/basketballscholarships.htm

INTERNATIONAL SCOUTING SERVICE
http://www.inthoops.com/

BE RECRUITED
http://www.berecruited.com/college-recruiting-basketball.html

HOOPS RECRUIT
http://www.hoopsrecruit.com/

UNIVERSITY PROSPECTS
http://www.universityprospects.com/

Other:
OPEN DIRECTORY
http://dmoz.org/Sports/Basketball/Recruiting/

GOOGLE
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=college+basketball+recruiting+service

In the meantime it might be useful for him to obtain and study a guide
to college sports scholarships such as this one published by Mark
Bercik, himself a former professional and NCAA Division I athlete,
coach, and scout, who has professional insight into the college
scholarship industry. It should arm him with quiet a bit of advance
knowledge about the industry and provide him with a number of current
options:

ATHLETIC RECRUITING & COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP BOOK
http://www.athleticscholarshipbook.com/

The COLLEGE BOARD also offers some tips about scholarships in general
and how to prepare for them:

COLLEGE BOARD
http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,3868,6-30-0-8936,00.html

This same sources offers these tips that your friend can start doing now:

Look locally first. There is less competition for local scholarships. 

Start early developing talents, grades, and skills that will help you
win scholarship competition.

See if a local company offers scholarships. Even some fast food
companies offer scholarships.
 
Ask organizations in your community if they offer scholarships. 

Find out if your parents' employers offer a scholarship to employees' children. 

Do some research using FREE scholarship search engines: 
College Board: http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp
Fastweb: http://www.fastweb.com/
SRN Express: http://www.srnexpress.com/index.cfm
Wiredscholar:
http://www.collegeanswer.com/paying/scholarship_search/pay_scholarship_search.jsp

Beware of scams: http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,3868,6-30-0-408,00.html

Contact your local board of education about state scholarships. 

Ask the school that you?d like to attend what kind of scholarships they offer.

I hope you find that my answer exceeds your expectations. If you have
any questions about my research please post a clarification request
prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



INFORMATION SOURCES

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SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

Basketball

College

Scholarships

Hints

Tips

Search

Qualify

Prepare

Recruiting

Service

Camps

Workshops

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Request for Answer Clarification by tosop-ga on 21 Oct 2005 08:37 PDT

Thank you for a prompt answer. It will take my friend Elias some time
to browse through your different suggestion. In the meantime, thank
you for an excellent job.

As you read, my friend is Swiss. Will that make it so much more
difficult for him? How about the Ivy colleges? Don't they look for
bright students with an exceptional athletic ability?

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Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 21 Oct 2005 09:17 PDT

Certainly all collegiate level sports are seeking exceptionally
talented and intelligent student atheletes. The fact that your friend
is Swiss should have little impact on his potential selection for a
scholarship provided he is a qualified applicant and can legally
attend school in the US.

tutuzdad-ga