NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

Coach Taylor – Your blog talks a lot about Financial Aid and its availability, but how do I get started securing Financial aid for my student-athletes?

Fantastic question.  Unfortunately I am not the best person at NCSA to answer this question.  I am going to turn things over to NCSA’s financial expert, Bob Shriner.

Maximizing your financial aid award package is a top priority for countless high school students and their families. The difficult part is learning some tips for how to go about accomplishing this. Remember, you want to think of this as a business; the more revenue streams you can tap into, the more likely you are to receive a positive end result.

Here are some places to check when looking for scholarship and grant opportunities outside of what the college or university is offering.

• Websites such as collegeboard.com and fastweb.com.

• Community Groups such as the Kiwanis Club, Lions Club, or Rotary Club.

• Parents’ employers (Some companies provide grant opportunities for their employees’ children).

• Local alumni chapters of the college you will be attending.

• Local bank managers. They will most likely know what local funds are established that you may be able to apply for.

Families will also want to be prepared to ask schools three important questions to help determine how affordable each college may actually end up being. Keep these three questions in mind when speaking to any financial aid office at a college or university.

* 1) What percent of a student’s need will you fund?

This will tell you how much of your need you can expect to have covered by the school when you receive your financial aid award package.

* 2) Does your school stack monies?

If a school does stack funding this means you will be able to add additional forms of financial aid from outside sources on top of what the school has already offered you. The benefit of stacking reveals itself when you can add additional aid to the point where your financial award exceeds your need exhibited. This means your out-of-pocket expenses are being cut.

If a school does not stack funding, they will replace funding. In this situation a school will look to fund only up to the need you exhibit at that school. Any outside financial aid awards will simply replace other awards you would receive from the school. In this case you will not be able to benefit as much with a decrease in out-of-pocket expenses.

* 3) What is your funding breakdown (packaging policy)?

This asks the school to let you know how much funding you can expect to be provided from grants, loans, and work study.

An Example:

School A:

Cost: $30,000

EFC: $10,000 (Need: $20,000)

Funds up to: 100% of need

Funding Breakdown: 50% Grants, 30% Loans, 20% Work Study

Anticipated award in grant money: $10,000

School B:

Cost: $30,000

EFC: $10,000 (Need: $20,000)

Funds up to: 100% of need

Funding Breakdown: 80% Grants, 10% Loans, 10% Work Study

Anticipated award in grant money: $16,000

In this example, you can see, although the sticker price of each school is equal, you can expect to receive a much different amount of grant monies from each of these schools.

Some of this information can also be found by looking on princetonreview.com to learn more about the statistics and data for the colleges you are in contact with. By asking these questions, you will be able to learn valuable information from schools that will help you evaluate each school based on how affordable it will actually be for you. This will take you one step closer to finding the right fit academically, athletically, and financially.

Send your recruiting questions to askcoachtaylor@ncsasports.org

If you would like to speak with a NCSA Recruiting Coordinator about your personal recruiting situation, call 866-579-6272.

Read this entire article from Saturday’s Wall Street Journal about a doctor who incurred $250,000 in student loans and now owes $555,000.  Some of the “money” quotes are:

“Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn’t look at the fine print,”

“Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can’t make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens.”

If you’re a decent HS athlete with great grades, you can avoid student-loans and play your sport in college.  You can also get a good portion of your school funded, reducing those burdensome student loans which can hang over you for decades.  If you’re a parent, plan for college expenses now.  Even if your oldest child is in 7th or 8th grade – start taking action now!  To find out more about how you can do that, go here.

Over 99% of all college student athletes go pro in something other than their sport.  So what will your profession be?  After having phone conversations with over 5,000 student-athletes, I’ve found that less than 10% have a real clear picture of what career field to pursue.  I’ve also learned that the vast majority of college students will change their major at least once while in college.  All of this is NORMAL.  So when I hear parents tell me that they’re going to wait until their kid decides what they want to do before looking at colleges, I cringe.  Waiting on researching colleges for any reason limits a child’s opportunities.

Part of deciding on career fields will be finding out what career opportunities are available in those majors.  Thanks to my colleague, Byron, here’s a link to help you research this topic.  Read the PayScale College Salary Report to gain insights on what you (your child) should major in.  Also, don’t forget that NCSA is with our student athletes until they graduate from college.  The life skills a child learns by navigating the recruiting process are transferable to the job search.

I talk to families every day who have no plan on how to pay for college.  When I ask the question, “How important is a scholarship when choosing your child’s college?”  The typical answer is, ”a scholarship is real important, but s/he is going to college no matter what.”  What they mean is that they are willing to borrow all kinds of money, go into all kinds of debt, to make sure the all important degree is obtained.  It is clear from these answers that these families are not aware of the quickly changing landscape in lending practices now. 

In this article in yesterday’s Washington Post, the rising costs of college and the reduced availability of student loans is documented.  The key sentence is, “The upheaval in financial markets did not just eliminate generous lending for home buyers; it also ended an era of easy credit for students and their families facing the soaring cost of a college degree.”  Read the entire article.  If you need a plan for paying for college and a student who is also a good athlete and enjoys playing their sport, that may be a way to reduce those student loans.  To learn more about opening up opportunities to play sports in college so your child’s education can be funded by means other than student loans, go here.  If your child is an 8th grader or older and you haven’t begun to plan for college expenses, you’re already late.

The National Bureau of Economic Research declared that the current economic downturn (recession) began in December 2007.  In the intervening 2 years, I’ve spoken with about 3,000 families about their child going to college.  Naturally, part of that discussion involves how families will pay for college.  As seen here, the average cost of a college education is above $30,000 per year.  The rate of increase is around 7% per year.  If you have a freshman in high school, your college expense will exceed $35,000 per year, on average.  These facts have led to some serious discussions between parents and their children on how they’ll pay for college.  In some cases, parents of good students are considering the local junior college route to get the core courses out of the way and save a lot of money during the first 2 years.  In other cases, the parents have encouraged their children to search for scholarships on the internet.  These kids are spending a lot of time doing this.  In some cases, parents are giving their children a budget to work with and any expense exceeding that budget will be the responsibility of the child.  In short, 99% of the families that I speak with do not have enough money stashed away to pay all college expenses.  So they’re at great risk of having their children graduate with a large financial burden called student loans. 

Financial Aid has two main categories:  grants/scholarships, i.e. money that doesn’t have to be repaid and loans.  To see the impact of student loans, read this NY Times article.  Because every college and university has different funding sources, financial aid policies, and pools of money available to offset the cost of college, it’s impossible to navigate this process efficiently by yourself.  You can’t gather all of the information from all potential schools with less than thousands of hours of grinding research on the internet.  Most families don’t have that kind of time.  Most don’t know enough about how financial aid is granted to increase any grant or scholarship awards.  NCSA has data from thousands of colleges and experts that will help families navigate the financial aid process.  One important aspect of this is completing forms correctly and on time.  Many families lose need-based aid because of inconsistencies on their FAFSA.  Others lose because they’re uncertain on timelines.  NCSA’s financial aid experts aid families in navigating financial aid.  The most important thing a family can do to increase financial aid if their student is also a talented athlete, is to make sure that there are a number of college coaches recruiting their child. 

In my case, my child received recruiting letters from 145 college coaches.  About 20 had real genuine interest.  My child narrowed those schools down to 3 great academic choices.  She’ll graduate from her selected college in May, 2010.  She would have never had this opportunity if it wasn’t for the hard work she did and the help we received from NCSA.  My return on that investment is she’ll graduate with no student loans.  My out-of-pocket expense for all 4 years was less than one semester at her private high school she attended.  My return on NCSA’s investment was 6,677%.  But the real return is priceless: Four years of playing a sport that she loves, a college degree from one of the top academic universities in the country, developing friendships that last a lifetime, and job interest in a career field that she chose.  What parent doesn’t want that for their child?  If you need help to get that for your child, go here.

With all of the useful recruiting information provided on this blog, why do families use NCSA?  Here are some answers:

NCSA has been well worth the investment. I now actually consider it a bargain.

NCSA has taught us how to approach recruiting. Would have no idea without NCSA’s help.

NCSA gives the athlete a lot of exposure. It also lets you know DI is not the only division out there! The information available to the student-athlete from NCSA (coaching sessions, newsletters, reminders about the profiles, etc…) are very helpful in what you should be doing at certain times.

The coach knows us personally and we are more than just a person in a file.

My initial reaction was one of skepticism. I had just invested in an unknown commodity. I was concerned about the direction my son would be receiving and whether or not our goals would be taken into account or whether we would be pushed off to some obscure college just to fill a quota. I was impressed with Coach Matt Roe. He was upfront with us and put together a plan of action that was along the lines of our goals and my son’s ambitions. This was our first session so we still have a long way to go, but if the rest of the sessions and coaching go as well as the first session my concerns will be alleviated and my son’s college football future assured.

You have helped me through all the proper recruiting steps and guided me to the colleges that meet my needs and expectations. Also have explained to me the importance of any extracurricular activities and how it could help for a college application.

You have done everything we could ask for and the info and leadership is right on. NCSA has been the best thing we ever did for our son to get recruited.

Before I joined NCSA, I didn’t realize half the things I had to do in order to get myself out there to coaches. Now that I am part of it, NCSA is kind of like a guide that helps me. E. They don’t do my work for me, but make sure I’m doing the right things to get noticed. Just a big help in general. And the people are really nice.

NCSA has opened a lot of doors for me. It has helped me to get looks from colleges that never would have known about me otherwise. If I get to go to any of the schools that have contacted me for basketball I definitely owe a lot of that to NCSA.

NCSA is for real. It has a system and a process that alerts its athletes of many crucial points about being recruited. In short it is a great tool and resource to play at the next level. 

NCSA is a good resource. The athlete can get as much out of the program as they want. The resources are there, it is up to the athlete to use them all.

The web based information you provide is great. We got off on a bad foot but I have to tell you you guys “rock” and the thing is, as a family, we are learning the process. Don’t you worry, I have already recommended friends and other folks to NCSA.

I am now realizing the value of the investment with NCSA., Our son is realizing the potential also by the letters he is receiving vs. the results his teammates are getting from colleges.

We have had nothing but great experiences with NCSA. You’re always there when we need you and give us good advice. Amanda Rawson has been great and very helpful. She’s very knowledgeable about the recruiting process. Jon has already been accepted at one of his #1 college choices and just waiting for the other one to respond regarding admission.

NCSA provides athletes with a wealth of information. I think it’s imperative that any athlete looking to play at the next level get involved with NCSA.

I know Jay would not have received so many phone calls and letters that he did without this service. Some of the best LAX schools in the country have contacted him solely off his video!!!!

NCSA provides me with resources that help me maximize my time through the recruiting process as well as has a game plan in place to help me get recruited.

I think NCSA has a good recruiting process that helps underrated and undiscovered football players such as myself get five steps closer to receiving a scholarship.

College application time is quickly approaching for high school seniors and there are a couple of tips to keep in mind for student athletes who are thinking about financial aid.

Colleges and universities can often provide early financial aid estimates for prospective student athletes in order to help families better determine how financially feasible attending a school might be.  If you are a student athlete interested in attending a school, now is a great time to speak with the coach to see how you can request an early financial aid estimate. By letting the coach know your interest in receiving an early financial aid estimate they will be able to get you in touch with the proper member of the Financial Aid or Admissions staff.

While you are checking on the potential of an early financial aid estimate you may also check with the coach to see if he or she can waive the application fee for you. First, let coach know you are very interested in applying to their school and then ask if they might be able to provide you with an application fee waiver. Application fees can add up quickly and this step will help you bypass those additional costs.

Remember, thinking about the next step is always critical in the admissions and financial aid process. Don’t be afraid to ask questions at schools you are interested in attending. Asking questions will make certain you know the proper information at each school.

FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid and can be found at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ The biggest mistake a lot of families make is not filling the FAFSA out because they think their family income is too high. This could not be further from the truth. Every family, regardless of income, has an EFC (estimated family contribution) number and the LOWER your EFC, the more aid you will receive. Even if you may not receive a significant amount of financial aid, you should still complete the FAFSA because it can act as an insurance policy for your son/daughter’s education. If there is a change or loss of income or an emergency in your family; you will not be eligible for college funds if you do not complete the FAFSA on an annual basis.

The first date you may submit the FAFSA is January 1 of senior year. Submit the FAFSAS on this date or as soon after as possible! University financial aid budgets are limited and are awarded on a first come first serve basis, so the earlier you submit your FAFSA, the better your chances of receiving aid. Each college/university has a specific deadline and at a certain point, the money does run out.

EFC stands for Expected Family Contribution. Use the EFC calculator HERE to determine an estimate of this number. Whatever your family’s EFC turns out to be, will make a big difference in the amount you are expected to contribute to college. So think of the EFC as the amount of money you will be expected to come up with for school (to which academic/athletic scholarships will be added).

As a review, you know the need to market your child in order for her/him to be recruited.  You know that you could do this yourself or you could use an expert.  In either case, you’ll have to invest time and money into the process.  The need for this service is even greater than it was in the 1980’s for several reasons.  Among these are:

1. the cost of college today
2. the even greater restrictions the NCAA has placed on college coaches. 
3. The internet.
4. The accelerating recruiting calendar.
5. The misinformation about recruiting from so called experts like HS coaches, Athletic Directors, and parents who went through it 15-30 years ago.

But whether a family chooses to navigate the recruiting waters by themselves or chooses to hire professional help, they are going to have to spend time and money on this process.  They are also going to have to coach their kids on how to speak to college coaches.  No college coach will offer any student-athlete a college scholarship without knowing that child.   So where do you allocate your marketing dollars?

You could choose to go to a lot of college camps.  As you’ve learned from the 5 things you need to do, your child must be involved with at least 100-200 realistic possibilities.  How many camps will you be able to attend?  Are they the right ones?  How much will they cost including transportation?  What makes you think your child will stand out from others at that camp in a college coach’s eyes?  My child received recruiting interest from 145 college coaches.  She never attended a college camp after the 8^th grade.  We went to one and that was all it took to realize that the camps are money makers for the coaching staff at the school.  Can a kid improve their skills?  Maybe.  But don’t expect to get your child recruited by attending camps.

You could market your child on our own.  You’ll have to research 100-200 realistic college opportunities.  You’ll have to determine if they have roster openings.  You’ll have to get your child’s information in front of that coach.  You’ll have to hope that information is believed and isn’t trashed.  You’ll have to put video together and do it the right way.  I’ve seen college coaches turn video off after 5-10 seconds of viewing.  Would you want that to happen to your child’s video?  You need to update coaches as your child makes progress.  And, Mom and Dad, the most important thing you need to do is to teach your child to be the “front” person with the college coach.  If you are the one calling and writing college coaches on behalf of your child, that raises a huge red flag in the coach’s mind of how serious this is for the child.  A coach will recruit a lesser athlete that is articulate, serious, and a team player over a child who relies on mom and dad to do the talking. 

As you navigate the process, how are you going to advise your child on maximizing his financial aid package?  How are you going to advise him on what happens if a college coach ceases communications?  How are you going to advise her/him on how to make the best choice for them?  All parents want their children to make the best choice.  Empowering a child to make that choice is the best gift a parent can give their child.  Do you want amateurs who have never been through recruiting in the internet age advising your child?  Or do you want a professional, whose expertise is navigating this process and have seen over 25,000 recruiting situations, advising your child?  If you choose to navigate this yourself, you must read this book.

Finally, you could choose professional help.  If you choose a recruiting company, find out the following:

• 1) Are they organized as a franchise? Are you speaking with the franchise owner? How long has the owner owned his franchise/territory? If they are not a franchise organization, what year was the first recruiting class they worked with? (Hint, if 2005 or later, they haven’t been in business long enough to develop an impact with the college coaching community.)
• 2) How are their student-athletes marketed to college coaches? Is it a targeted approach to the right schools? Or, is it a shotgun approach to all colleges? Is 21^st century technology used, or is it still snail mail and faxes? Can you track which college coaches reviewed your child’s resume and video?
• 3) What is that organization’s true relationship with college coaches? If that organization doesn’t attend college coaches’ conventions, do they really have relationships with those college coaches? College coaches are not allowed by the NCAA to endorse recruiting companies. But those coaches do request student-athletes from those companies. Ask to see a list of those college coach requests with dates.
• 4) Who are the partnerships of that recruiting company? Companies who partner with recruiting companies do a lot of due diligence before putting their good name with someone. See who those partners are.
• 5) Find out about the client service after signing up. Find out the contact information and expected response times to your questions.
• 6) Find out about the financial aid advice the recruiting company offers.
• 7) Find out about the standardized test preparation a recruiting company offers.
• 8) Find out how your student-athlete can determine what college coaches are truly interested in your child.
• 9) Find out about what happens if a child suffers a career ending injury and can’t play in college. Do you get your money back?
• 10) Some recruiting companies like to do the “up-sale”. They’ll entice you with a low price and then constantly ask for more money as you move forward. Make sure your recruiting company spells out exactly the service you’re receiving and the time frame that service is available.
• 11) As with all businesses, make sure the company has been in business long enough to ensure that it’ll remain in business. If the company has been in business less than 5 years, be careful.

Doing your due diligence with any decision involving your child is important.  The most important due diligence a parent can help their child with is their college choice.  Getting professional help is a great way to help your child with their college decision.  To choose the right professional help ask those due diligence questions listed above.

Good luck to all of you who have the good fortune to be the parent of a talented student-athlete!