Why We Built A Wise Athlete
We built this site for the child who loves a sport and is told to pick between it and studies, and for the family that has to make that call without knowing what the choices are.
I am Shubham Singal, the founder of A Wise Athlete. I have trained hard for fitness and sport since I was 15. I studied at an ordinary school in a town, and that school was not set up to help a student go far in sport. I never played at state or national level.
What nobody told me
Nobody around me knew that there are universities where you can get a good education, go on to a well-paid career and keep playing your sport seriously, all at the same time. If someone had told me that early, I would have taken that path. I learnt it later, after those years had passed.
Those universities exist, in India and abroad. In India, many universities admit students through a sports quota, field teams in national university competitions and offer scholarships beyond the quota seat. Universities in the US give athletic scholarships, and those in the UK, Australia and Canada run sport programmes for their students. None of this is secret. It just does not reach most families in time.
What I did instead
Studies took the lead. I did a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering at NIT Meghalaya and finished in 2022 with the President's Gold Medal, given to the best overall student of the batch across academics and activities. I then worked at Accenture as a product engineer and solutions architect in research and development.
Sport stayed with me. There were years when work and study left little room for it, and coming back took real effort. In the 2023–24 season, alongside the job, I trained at Payyade Cricket Academy in Borivali, Mumbai. I cleared CAT three times and chose not to join an IIM. I am now completing an MS (Research) in Applied Mechanics at IIT Delhi, and in 2024 I founded Ransh Innovations, the company that builds this site.
So sport and studies both stayed in my life, but not because anyone had planned it for me. A child today should not have to work it out alone.
What this site is for
We built A Wise Athlete to be the information I did not have, written for families like mine. It covers which school to choose at 11 or 12, sports quota in college admissions and jobs, government schemes such as Khelo India, NIOS for students whose school does not fit their training, universities in India and abroad, and careers in and after sport. There are also practice cards for starting a sport at home, one card at a time, with a grown-up who does not need to know the sport.
Every article points to the official source, because amounts and deadlines change, and ends with something to do this week. I have read and approved every article before it went up.
If this sounds like your child
If your child loves a sport and you have been told to choose, start with the Guide: four questions, and it points you to what matters at your child's age. If you are a student reading this for yourself, it is for you too. Who this site is for explains what each reader will find here.
Shubham Singal
Founder, A Wise Athlete