Student athletes and parents have undoubtedly spent countless hours in the recruiting process narrowing their search for the right college and using relationships with coaches to build leverage in the process. After learning valuable tools about how to create leverage, don’t leave these tools unused during the financial aid process.
Leveraging your financial aid package works much the same as leveraging your athletic opportunities. Colleges compete for students just like coaches compete for athletes. Always keep in mind that a school doesn’t want to lose a student to one of their competitors just like a coach doesn’t want to lose a recruit to a competitor.
So, how do you know what a good leveraging opportunity looks like? There are three keys to look for that will give you insight as to how strong a leveraging tool a certain school is when negotiating with your number one choice.
1) Look for schools in close geographic proximity
2) Look for schools in the same athletic conference
3) Look for schools that have strengths in similar areas of study (Leverage an engineering school with another engineering school)
If you are still unsure which schools are the best leveraging opportunities you can always ask your number one choice school. Simply ask them who their main academic competitors are. This will give you some solid information when trying to keep the right schools in the mix to ultimately come away with the best financial aid award package possible.
