Scholarships are offered by various colleges and each college has its criteria in which some colleges offer full-ride scholarships and some scholarships are partially funded by them. The cheerleading scholarship opportunities vary from college to college and program to program and it is not easy to obtain. If the cheerleading program is more competitive and established then more funding will be available for the athletic students. So, it depends upon the colleges and their criteria. Here, we will discuss what is cheerleading, what colleges offer scholarships for cheerleading and the full-ride scholarships are available or not. Also, how you can get a scholarship for cheerleading etc. So, let’s begin with the context of cheerleading.

What is Cheerleading?

Cheerleading is a kind of activity that is performed by individuals to entertain spectators and encourage players. The activities of cheerleading include chanting slogans, cheering, jumping, stunting, dancing, and acrobatics in support of the sports team. The main purpose of cheerleading is to motivate the sports team and to entertain the audience. So, the cheerleader is a person who openly encourages and supports the success of a person or a team. Cheerleading is considered a sport because it is critically important in the field of Athletics. Cheerleading squads are most of the time sponsored by the sports such as volleyball, ice hockey, baseball, wrestling, and soccer. A lot of colleges offer scholarships for cheerleading sports and the eligibility and retirement criteria may vary from college to college.

What Colleges give full-ride Scholarships for Cheerleading?

The full-ride scholarships are not common for cheerleading because cheerleading isn’t a sanctioned sport. The coaches of cheerleading programs do not receive a good amount of funding as other sports. If the program is highly competitive then some funding is available to award to cheerleaders. Sometimes the size of the team is so large and due to this, it is very difficult for the coaches to provide full-ride scholarships. Some programs offer scholarships for male athletes and due to this male cheerleaders have a better option to attain full-ride scholarships.

Although, most of the scholarship programs do not cover the full cost but offer small budgets for cheerleading scholarships that cover the cost of College tuition, uniforms, and book expenses. Less funding is available for cheerleaders because there is no defined allocation mentioned in the rules of the NCAA. Therefore, various scholarships are available for cheerleading but they may contain both partially funded and fully funded.

Colleges for Cheerleading Scholarships

Concordia University Ann Arbor: It provides athletic cheer scholarships to students after verifying their skills, ability, and seniority, among others. The amount of scholarship may also vary depending upon the abilities of the candidate. This university offers both merit-based grants and need-based grants for cheer scholars. After applying for the scholarship, student-athletes must compete with the university’s competitive teams, and in this, the cheerleaders are also required to move between teams according to the discretion of the head coach. Concordia University provides scholarships that are renewed every year.
University of Hawaii: This University provides scholarships and various other benefits for cheerleaders. It provides scholarships that cover the entire tuition cost and not only for the in-state cheerleaders but also for the qualified out-of-state cheerleaders. University of Hawaii offers 12 to 14 full tuition scholarships which are exclusively available for the cheerleading team members. One more thing is that it offers one more scholarship program for out-of-state cheerleaders in which the qualified candidates only have to pay the half tuition cost.
Oklahoma Panhandle State University (OPSU): Oklahoma University offers scholarships for generous cheerleaders of in-state and out-of-state student-athletes. This university is known for its Aggies in which football and rodeo teams are not included. The amount of scholarship for the qualified students is around $10,500.

For in-state students, the qualification requirement includes a GPA of 2.5 and a minimum of 3 years of residency in Oklahoma. If colleges are NCAA-recognized, then cheerleaders have to meet high academic standards and must comply with athletic demands for achieving the scholarship.

Texas Tech University: In most of the sporting events, the Texas Tech Cheer Squad performs for the athletic teams. They represent the university at NCA College National Competitions. The Texas cheerleaders will get paid uniform workout gear and other accessories, a $1,000 leadership scholarship, academic tutoring services, access to a strength and conditioning program, etc.
Louisiana State University: The University has two cheerleading squads and they offer scholarships to their members based on seniority or the number of years as a cheerleader in a squad. The academic requirement includes at least a 2.3 GPA. The name of the first squad is the gold squad and the second one is purple.
Belmont University: Belmont University provides various advantages for cheerleaders. It offers partial scholarships and full support scholarships depending upon seniority and academic and athletic performance. In full support scholarships, cheerleaders receive all their uniforms, shoes, practice clothes, warm-ups, megaphones, traveling expenses, as well as bags. The amount for a partial scholarship varies from $1,000 to $2,500. The award amount for partial scholarship is decided by the athletics staff, coaches, and other concerned University staff.

It offers merit-based scholarships as well and the amount of award varies from $3,000 to $10,000 every year.

University of Delaware: If you are in the athletic team of Delaware University then you are eligible for the cheerleading scholarships. If you are a resident of Delaware then you will get around $7,500. These scholarships are awarded by the Department of Athletics based on students’ athletic and academic performance.

Therefore, these are the best colleges or universities that offer scholarship programs for cheerleading and to get eligible athletes have to maintain good GPAs and must develop specialized skills.

Conclusion

Some colleges and universities offer full-ride scholarships for cheerleaders but some offer partial scholarships. Most of the scholarships for cheerleading are based on partial funding and some colleges offer small budgets to cover the cost of tuition, uniform, and book expenses. On the other hand, you can say that the lesson is available for cheerleading because and NCAA does not provide proper allocation for Cheerleading. The basic thing is that if you are in the team of the athletes then you are eligible for the cheerleading scholarships. The candidates are selected for college athletic teams based on their academic and athletic skills.