Scouse Express

:hysterical

sir_eccles

College level Rugby sevens is getting pretty popular.

penguinsix

Hi,

You have a couple problems with your plan.

1) Visa. There is no gap year visa--you'll either need to come over on some employment visa (hint: at 18, tough) or through some sort of academic visa (expensive). Either way though, neither visa is designed for you to just lounge about and play rugby when you want to.

2) Rugby. Rugby is a club sport here often made up of expats from other parts of the world, ex-American football players, and a few other blokes. At the university level it is not a 'team' sport (i.e. sponsored by the university) which means there are no scholarships available. There is a well-established network of clubs in some of the major cities should you get here.

3) Public transit. With the exception of NY and a few other places, there is no real 'effective' public transit in the US. Yes, there are buses and even subways in most cities, but they are relatively inconvenient and at time unconnected (much of the public transit is a spoke-hub setup, designed to bring commuters into the urban core, as compared to London for example which is designed to transport Londoners to all places within the urban core). As such doing simple tasks like grocery shopping or going to the movies while using public transit is basically a non-starter. In short, you'll be buying a car.

4) Weather. When it is 30c in Florida is can be snowing in Boston. It's a truly big country so you'll have to be more specific as to what your preferences are about climate.


Basically, the more specific you can be about exactly HOW you plan to get here and WHAT you like and WHERE you want to live will be helpful. The US is one of the hardest countries in the world to immigrate to, even if for you it's just a 'gap year' (a concept that doesn't even exist for kids here).

In short, you might have more luck heading somewhere else.

Good luck with your quest.

Bob

Probably a better chance

rugbyali

Thanks for the replies regarding the visa's looks like I may have to settle for a 90 day travellers visa. Sorry if I was a bit vague, but its still early days with me trying to organise this. And it would have been a good idea to put this at the start of the thread but I've had positive replies regarding help with accomodation from Long Island, San Francisco Golden Gate, Santa Monica and Santa Barbara at this point. And if I was also vague when saying "good weather" I refer to warm weather. If I got a 90 day visa I would travel from March to May or September to November.

Noorah101

My question would be, are you coming to the USA just for a visit, and while you're here you're going to play some rugby for fun? That's all you can do on the VWP.

Since you keep referring to having a club help you with accommodation, it sounds more like the focus of your trip is not really tourism, but to play for a rugby team - and although you won't get paid in money, the team/club is going to pay you back by way of accommodation. This is not allowed on the VWP.

Now, if you have a friend who is on the rugby team, who has his own apartment, and he says "hey, why don't you come visit me in the USA, you can stay at my place, and while you're here you can come play a couple games of rugy with us for fun!", that would be different.

Rene

Noorah101

There's no such thing as a 90 day (travellers) visa.

You are thinking of the VWP (Visa Waiver Program), which allows you to visit the USA for up to 90 days *without* a visa. You will need to complete ESTA (the pre-approval form) and get it approved before traveling to the USA.

Rene

celticgrid

I saw some college rugby final game on TV recently and noted that one college seemed to be taking rugby a little seriously. At least, that was my assumption based on the number players they had on their side from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji. I wonder if this is a growing area for scholarships?

Bob

You want to ask those clubs specifically what visa they will get for you.

They won't be in much of any trouble if you play on the VWP, but you could well be. Being young, you don't want to under estimate the effects of messing up the VWP for your future and any other potential head aches in getting a visa you might cause now.

If you want to play rugby at any serious level, I'd have thought you'd rather go to Aus, SA, NZ or a bit more local, and go to France etc.

Jerseygirl

I thought it was American football.

rugbyali

I understand what you mean by the VWP now. The main focus of my trip would be the rugby so I'm going to look into scholarships to see how they work for now.

penguinsix

In the US almost all college athletics fall under the jurisdiction of the NCAA, the National Collegiate Athletic Association. This is the umbrella group for football, basketball, fencing, swimming, athletics, etc. Universities belong to the NCAA and follow very specific guidelines on the funding of scholarships and student-athlete's academic progress. Universities, by US civil rights law, also have to ensure that an equal amount of money is spent on men's and women's athletics (in fact, women's rugby is already approaching NCAA qualified status).

Rugby, for men, is currently not an NCAA-sanctioned sport at US universities, and as such, rarely receives any official school funding. The oversight comes from US Rugby, the association that covers everything from internationals down to local pub sides. As such college teams generally form what is known as "club" teams, being supported by a hodgepodge of funding, everything from gifts from wealthy alumni to a local bar buying them rugby kits.

Scholarships are essentially nonexistent. You may find a very few schools here and there if you look at the College Rugby section of the US Rugby site, but the amounts are but a pittance when compared to the overall cost of a year of university in the US. Some individual schools will spend more on water polo, tennis and golf scholarships than all the money for rugby scholarships combined. You may also look to see if there is any scholarships from some clubs in the UK to assist you in your travels, but generally you're going to be paying your own way for your rugby tour.

http://www.usarugby.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_rugby

caleyjag

Ehhhh..... WRONG!!!!

San Francisco has plenty of teams, and fits the OP's description perfectly, with good transportation and reasonable weather.

US rugby is in rude health. There are probably over a hundred teams in California alone.



There are some key points that have been raised:

1. Visa. At the age of 18 I can't see what visa you could get that would let you do a gap year.

2. Funding. If you are amazing (ie aspiring professional) you could potentially look into one of the US Super League teams, but I suspect you might be a little young. As stated the majority of teams are strictly amateur sides, and all of their money goes on beer (seriously).


That is not strictly true. There are a few universities where rugby is a varsity sport, with the potential for a full ride. Unfortunately the best one, Berkeley, just last year downgraded it to a club sport. Damn NCAA ruining everything as usual.

OP, I am a rugby guy and have been involved up and down the west coast so if you have specific questions feel free to PM me.

In this case you really should consider a move to Canada. You CAN get a gap year visa for Canada, and the standard of rugby in Canada is generally higher. Vancouver in particular has a very good rugby scene.

OzSheila

I was at a conference at Stanford a few years ago and was v surprised to see a rugby team. Ever since have been trying to convince son to apply for scholarship (has played since aged 5 in both the UK and Aus) but he is hankering after a cadetship with a certain airline. Oh well will start on son no 2.

rugbyali

Had a brief look into rugby scholarships and they seem hard to come by. Plus education would be very expensive even with a scholarship.