Name: From Tel Aviv to Tampa: Life as an International Student-Athlete with David Adler
Uploaded: 2026-01-12T17:30:52.000Z
Duration: 21 min 20 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Welcome back to another episode of Breaking Boundaries, the world's premier podcast for international students.

Or at least that's what I tell the guests.

I'm honored today to be joined by David Adler, the founder and CEO of ApplyWave.

David, thank you so much for joining us today.

Now you have a unique perspective because you're an expert on global education and you're also a former international student athlete in the US And I'm really interested to dive into your own journey as a student athlete.

But before we get there, do you mind sharing a little bit about your work at ApplyWave?

Yeah, I mean, ApplyWave came after more than 25 years in, you know, after being an international student athlete.

And ApplyWave really helps international students to find what we call the best fit institution for them.

And by saying best fit is based on their.

What they want to, what kind of experience they want to, where they want to study, what they want to study.

But also look into budgets, how much it costs, what scholarship is available for them, what kind of experience they're going to have.

You know, many international students like myself, you know, like the warm weather.

So where are the schools with the warm weather under $15,000 that offers scholarship for international students?

So think about it as a booking.com for educations and schools or Airbnb for students who wants to study in the US or elsewhere?

Airbnb with just a slightly longer duration than a typical time.

You also mentioned beaches, which might be a clue to my second question.

But you grew up in Israel Tel Aviv and traveled to University of South Florida for college.

Am I correct in guessing that the proximity of a beach in warm weather were keys to your best fit as you ran the numbers?

So I played basketball here in Israel, was a national team player, played for one of the best club here in the country.

And I was recruited by many universities and it really came down to three.

Was invited to do what, what it's called, official visit, where they bring you on campus and show you around.

So it came down to La Salle LaSalle in Philadelphia back in the days and, and

actually over there, it's an interesting story.

I played against Kobe Bryant when he was 16 years old on a pickup gang because his dad was the.

Yeah, his dad was the assistant coach for La Salle University.

So I met him and I asked his dad after the visit, is Kobe gonna play at La Salle.

And he said he hoped so, and he ended up in the NBA.

He did play in Europe, so that's how we got connected.

So I ended up visiting La Salle in Philadelphia and then flew all the way to Gonzaga in Spokane, Washington.

And the second assistant at Spokane, Washington is today, Mark Few is the head coach, and he.

And he brought the team to, you know, national championship.

So Gonzaga wasn't that good back in the days, and it was in Spokane, Washington, so far.

And then I ended up my last visit in University of South Florida in Tampa, where after visiting the street of Philadelphia, the White Mountains of Washington and Spokane, I end up in the beautiful green campus of University of South Florida, which had pools and, you know, golf carts, palm trees, sun.

And I remember telling the coach, pretty much very quick in the visit, where do I sign, how I end up in South Florida.

That's really interesting that Gonzaga was already talking to you because before their rise to national prominence, that's how they built the program, was recruiting students from overseas, and

So another question I have for you is, how did these recruiters spot you?

Was it because of your time on the Israeli national team?

So first of all, I was very, very eager and keen to study in the US in college.

Back in the day, we sent letters, but that's before the Internet.

And I would send those tapes, you know, VHR tapes to the coaches.

More difficult than it is today, for sure.

Your tape, I mean, they call you back and they, you know, the negotiations start.

And it's a process which today in our company, we do it more efficiently.

So if student athletes who play sports, any sport at any level, I mean, that's part of what we do today.

Because I know how difficult it is to be in front of those coaches, and

I know how difficult is it to get seen, especially if you're a good player and you want to.

Want to study in the US on one end is easier, but

on the other end, there's a lot of competition as well, a lot of international students trying to get those basketball Scholarship, which can get to today, full ride scholarship.

And even today, now with the new rules, I mean, if you're a good basketball player, you can make a lot of money.

Yes, yes, the landscape has certainly changed.

Back in the day, you had a scholarship, which was very meaningful, but

you weren't making money on top of the scholarship today back then.

So now I was, I'm looking at the kind of money that those athletes, basketball players do today.

And I was like, well, I wish I was leaving Tina.

I wish I was younger today so I can get not only the Fulbright scholarship, which I was very fortunate about, but, but

actually set for life because those kids get half a million dollars, 600,000 million dollars if they're good, they'll get.

Has certainly ratcheted up the stakes of the recruitment of international basketball players in the U.S.

david, I shared with you earlier, I played basketball as well in college at a much lower level because I was not being recruited by schools of that caliber.

And you know, if he were playing today, I think he would certainly be making hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Back then, you know, scholarship and free cafeteria food.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

From Tel Aviv to Tampa: Life as an International Student-Athlete with David Adler

perspective

figure

accent

experience