Top Colleges for Swimming & Diving Scholarships
The 50 U.S. colleges with the largest swimming & diving programs by athlete participation — each shown with its school-level athletic-aid context.
Among schools that sponsor swimming & diving, Stanford University in California tops our list — a NCAA Division I-FBS program with one of the largest athletic-aid budgets and 73 swimming & diving athletes. We rank scholarship-awarding schools (NCAA Division I/II & NAIA — Division III awards no athletic aid) by division tier, then by the school’s overall athletic-aid scale, then by swimming & diving roster size — because EADA reports athletic aid only school-wide (men’s/women’s totals), never per sport.
⚠️ About these aid figures
The athletic-aid columns below are school-level totals (all sports combined, split men’s/women’s) straight from EADA. They are not the amount awarded to swimming & diving athletes specifically — EADA does not publish per-sport aid. Use them only as a signal of how much a school invests in athletics overall.
| # | School | Division | Swimming & Diving athletes | Men’s aid school-wide, all sports | Women’s aid school-wide, all sports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stanford University Stanford, CA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 73 | $19,645,560 | $20,055,491 |
| 2 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI | NCAA Division I-FBS | 73 | $17,359,163 | $13,811,731 |
| 3 | University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN | NCAA Division I-FBS | 69 | $18,224,011 | $12,830,979 |
| 4 | Duke University Durham, NC | NCAA Division I-FBS | 54 | $15,690,493 | $14,408,801 |
| 5 | Ohio State University-Main Campus Columbus, OH | NCAA Division I-FBS | 109 | $15,234,454 | $13,816,950 |
| 6 | University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 68 | $15,118,920 | $13,525,051 |
| 7 | Northwestern University Evanston, IL | NCAA Division I-FBS | 57 | $14,880,630 | $13,049,548 |
| 8 | Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 59 | $14,106,996 | $12,962,005 |
| 9 | Southern Methodist University Dallas, TX | NCAA Division I-FBS | 54 | $14,048,800 | $12,058,976 |
| 10 | University of Virginia-Main Campus Charlottesville, VA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 63 | $14,175,770 | $11,154,557 |
| 11 | Rutgers University-New Brunswick New Brunswick, NJ | NCAA Division I-FBS | 35 | $13,653,780 | $11,643,557 |
| 12 | Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX | NCAA Division I-FBS | 61 | $14,468,095 | $10,661,381 |
| 13 | Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus University Park, PA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 58 | $14,065,058 | $10,299,943 |
| 14 | The University of Tennessee-Knoxville Knoxville, TN | NCAA Division I-FBS | 63 | $12,260,488 | $11,447,980 |
| 15 | University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 77 | $12,306,273 | $10,832,606 |
| 16 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN | NCAA Division I-FBS | 36 | $12,975,789 | $8,521,844 |
| 17 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, VA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 83 | $12,472,888 | $8,380,411 |
| 18 | University of Miami Coral Gables, FL | NCAA Division I-FBS | 28 | $11,056,171 | $9,527,348 |
| 19 | University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, PA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 67 | $11,887,217 | $8,225,423 |
| 20 | Rice University Houston, TX | NCAA Division I-FBS | 27 | $12,535,937 | $7,429,458 |
| 21 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion Tempe, AZ | NCAA Division I-FBS | 74 | $10,976,181 | $8,596,399 |
| 22 | Indiana University-Bloomington Bloomington, IN | NCAA Division I-FBS | 96 | $10,607,303 | $8,778,138 |
| 23 | Tulane University of Louisiana New Orleans, LA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 24 | $11,564,470 | $7,807,326 |
| 24 | University of California-Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 40 | $9,893,320 | $9,235,885 |
| 25 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN | NCAA Division I-FBS | 62 | $9,757,332 | $9,264,581 |
| 26 | Auburn University Auburn, AL | NCAA Division I-FBS | 90 | $10,416,469 | $8,415,182 |
| 27 | University of Wisconsin-Madison Madison, WI | NCAA Division I-FBS | 64 | $10,704,429 | $7,924,356 |
| 28 | The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL | NCAA Division I-FBS | 76 | $9,257,661 | $7,931,284 |
| 29 | University of Iowa Iowa City, IA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 28 | $7,802,248 | $9,371,272 |
| 30 | University of Kentucky Lexington, KY | NCAA Division I-FBS | 81 | $9,552,135 | $7,404,713 |
| 31 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC | NCAA Division I-FBS | 72 | $9,121,336 | $8,028,006 |
| 32 | University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT | NCAA Division I-FBS | 79 | $9,858,505 | $6,785,141 |
| 33 | University of Florida Gainesville, FL | NCAA Division I-FBS | 74 | $8,560,624 | $7,735,235 |
| 34 | The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX | NCAA Division I-FBS | 77 | $8,766,679 | $7,450,570 |
| 35 | University of Louisville Louisville, KY | NCAA Division I-FBS | 68 | $8,893,178 | $7,003,358 |
| 36 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL | NCAA Division I-FBS | 36 | $8,613,622 | $6,396,796 |
| 37 | University of Kansas Lawrence, KS | NCAA Division I-FBS | 34 | $7,519,848 | $7,211,641 |
| 38 | University of Connecticut Storrs, CT | NCAA Division I-FBS | 30 | $7,415,129 | $6,962,175 |
| 39 | University of South Carolina-Columbia Columbia, SC | NCAA Division I-FBS | 71 | $6,953,077 | $6,806,841 |
| 40 | University of Massachusetts-Amherst Amherst, MA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 47 | $6,993,887 | $6,591,712 |
| 41 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus Atlanta, GA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 72 | $8,688,387 | $4,662,610 |
| 42 | Texas A & M University-College Station College Station, TX | NCAA Division I-FBS | 95 | $7,407,229 | $5,914,617 |
| 43 | Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN | NCAA Division I-FBS | 83 | $7,893,890 | $4,937,179 |
| 44 | University of Georgia Athens, GA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 69 | $6,695,845 | $6,116,334 |
| 45 | University of Arizona Tucson, AZ | NCAA Division I-FBS | 70 | $6,425,554 | $6,336,173 |
| 46 | Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Baton Rouge, LA | NCAA Division I-FBS | 58 | $6,677,501 | $6,073,856 |
| 47 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, NE | NCAA Division I-FBS | 25 | $7,103,791 | $5,591,586 |
| 48 | Miami University-Oxford Oxford, OH | NCAA Division I-FBS | 74 | $7,553,520 | $5,077,561 |
| 49 | University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR | NCAA Division I-FBS | 25 | $7,057,606 | $5,516,647 |
| 50 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, NC | NCAA Division I-FBS | 66 | $7,539,922 | $4,667,024 |
How we ranked this
Schools are ranked by NCAA/NAIA division tier (Division I-FBS and I-FCS first), then by the school’s overall athletic-aid scale, then by swimming & diving roster size (men + women), all reported to the U.S. Department of Education under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA). Division III schools are excluded because they do not award athletic scholarships. The athletic-aid columns are the school’s men’s and women’s aid totals across all sports, shown for context; they are not allocated to swimming & diving — EADA reports aid only school-wide, never per sport. Only schools that can be matched to a named institution and report at least one swimming & diving participant are listed (minimum 5schools to publish a page). Empty cells (“—”) mean the school reported no value; we never estimate.
Frequently asked questions
Does EADA data show swimming & diving scholarship amounts per sport?+
No. The federal Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) reports athletic student aid only as a school-level total, split into men’s and women’s totals — it does not break aid down by individual sport. This page therefore ranks schools by their participation in swimming & diving and shows the school’s overall athletic-aid totals as context only. We never present a per-sport aid figure.
Which colleges rank highest for swimming & diving scholarships?+
Stanford University (California), a NCAA Division I-FBS program, leads our ranking of scholarship-awarding swimming & diving schools. We rank by division tier and the school's overall athletic-aid scale (athletic aid is reported school-wide, not per sport), then by swimming & diving roster size.
Do all swimming & diving programs offer athletic scholarships?+
No. NCAA Division III and some other associations do not award athletic scholarships at all, while Division I, Division II and NAIA schools may. A school showing $0 in athletic aid in our table typically does not offer athletic scholarships. Always confirm with the program directly.
How are these swimming & diving colleges ranked?+
By the number of student-athletes participating in the sport (men plus women) as reported to EADA — the only per-sport signal the dataset provides. A larger program generally means more roster spots and recruiting activity, but it does not guarantee a larger scholarship.
Keep exploring
Data sources: U.S. Dept. of Education EADA (Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act) · IPEDS · College Scorecard. Figures are the most recent values published in each federal dataset; cells with no published value are shown as “—” and never estimated. CertiHomes Education does not sell rankings or accept placement fees.