June 15, 2019 Phyllis Hillwig Fun Topics

Invest Time in Sports or Math? Comparing the Return on Investments

Yes, I am one of those parents—the kind who drives her kids from sports field to sports field, investing $5,000+ a year on individual training, club teams, and travel back and forth. The minimum time each our children invests in practice is 20 hours a month. In 10 years, this means my husband and I will have invested more than 4,800 hours and more than $100,000 for both children.

Why do all of this? We want them to have fun, but secretly, the dream is that they will play in college and perhaps get a scholarship to help defray the cost. When they are not in the mood to go, or I’m tired of eating out of my car, I wonder if all of this time and money is worth it. Sure, they will make friends and learn important life skills, all the while doing something they enjoy. Those are all good things, but if your goal is college scholarship, is it worth it?

As a parent, I need to step back and look at this rationally. I have limited time and resources. If I want to invest time and money into an activity that will give my child the best opportunities for college and beyond, where should I put that money?

Getting a full scholarship would be a huge financial relief, but experts will tell me that the chances of my children qualifying for an athletic scholarship are very, very slim. Less than 1% of Division 1 college athletic scholarships are awarded to existing high school players. To put it bluntly, if our goal is an athletic scholarship, more than 99% of the time, we will have wasted our time and money.

This is why most coaches will tell athletes and parents to invest in academics instead. Get the grades and do well in school because the ROI towards your future is stronger and more certain.

Academic scholarships vary, but if you have good grades, there is a 19% chance you’ll get at least some money. That’s almost 20 times greater than the chances of getting an athletic scholarship. In addition, if you have strong standardized test scores, there is a 13% chance of getting even more financial aid. If you have an interest in and aptitude for math, your chances of scholarship dollars go up even more. In fact, according to scholarships.com, there are many more federal and state loan forgiveness programs for high-demand fields such as healthcare and STEM majors than for other disciplines. Graduates of STEM majors also have the highest paying jobs and the best job prospects after graduation.

From an ROI perspective, spending time investing in a child’s math education is more likely to yield greater academic scholarship opportunities and more income potential for the future. Even if your child doesn’t go into a STEM field, many competitive non-STEM majors will require a minimum math score. You can’t escape math easily because it is so important and relevant to many fields of study.

The challenge, though, is that math is not fun, right? I can’t get my child to spend two hours to do extra math per month, let alone 20 hours a month. How do you get them to invest time in something they don’t like?

Often, children don’t like math because they have only seen classroom math. They haven’t seen “real” math. Unlike what we often see in the classroom, real math is contextual, rich with interesting examples and highly relevant to their worlds. For example, if your child is on social media, they may be interested in the basic concept behind the friend recommendations. If they watch Netflix or listen to music on Spotify, math helps determine which shows, movies, and artists pop up in their recommendations and why their playlist is different from those of their friends. From this perspective, learning math becomes much more fun.

If you want the best ROI for your child’s future, consider investing in math learning, but learning that is meaningful and interesting. Imagine what might happen if your child starts to engage in math and actually enjoys it! According to some experts, it may be the best investment you can make for their future.

Want to know how we make math fun, interesting, and relevant? Contact us to get our five best examples that will open your eyes to the importance and beauty of mathematics.