NCSA College Athletic Scholarships Blog

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.

 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.

• 1) Websites such as collegeboard.com and fastweb.com.
• 2) Community Groups such as the Kiwanis Club, Lions Club, or Rotary Club.
• 3) Parents’ employers (Some companies provide grant opportunities for their employees’ children).
• 4) Local alumni chapters of the college you will be attending.
• 5) Local bank managers. They will most likely know what local funds are established that you may be able to apply for.

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With all the recent hype about signing day (see Brian’s last post) I want to remind everyone that there are many other ways to earn financial assistance besides athletic scholarships. Student-athletes can earn scholarships through academics, merit grants and by seeking other creative opportunities. Need-based aid can also help pay the college tuition bills.

Academic Scholarships

Most (but not all) colleges and universities offer academic scholarships to students with qualifying grades and test scores. Each institution determines what the requirements are to earn academic aid at their school. Usually, the higher the grades the greater the financial reward. College coaches are attracted to students who qualify for academic scholarships because this means the coach will not have to use his or her athletic scholarship funds on these players and can reserve that pool of money for other recruits. Applicants must submit their full application before receiving academic scholarships.

Merit Grants

Like academic scholarships, each college and university has their own policy for merit grants and related financial awards. Many schools have merit scholarships that are given out on the basis of leadership and/or motivation. Most colleges seek diversity and many offer financial assistance to students who will help bring ethnic or geographic diversity to their student-body. College coaches can sometimes push for their recruits to receive additional merit funding so prospects should always inquire about these opportunities.

Other

Here is a sample of eight colleges where students can earn free tuition. There are many websites such as finaid.org where students can search for independent scholarships. For example, there are scholarships available for left handed applicants and kids who know how to juggle. These scholarships usually only offer a few thousand dollars at best, but in the grand scheme of college bills every little bit helps.  A great resource to research how to find scholarships and college grants is Careers and Colleges.

Need-Based Aid

Regardless of athletic, academic, merit or other scholarships, all college applicants should submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to find out how much federal aid they may qualify for. Even if a family will not qualify for any assistance, they should still fill out the FAFSA to have it on file in case their economic situation should suddenly change. Many of the schools with the highest sticker prices offer the most competitive financial aid plans. For example, at Princeton there are no loans in their financial aid awards and students only receive grant aids that do not have to be repaid. If parents of a Yale applicant have an income of $90,000 they will pay less than $3,000 per year for their son or daughter to attend the Ivy League institution.

Less than one percent of athletes receive a full athletic scholarship. With college tuition costs on the rise do not leave any stone un-turned when exploring opportunities for financial assistance. 

Every parent who wants to help their child play at the next level will be investing a lot of time and money in that goal.  99% of parents I speak with don’t have the experience or knowledge on how to allocate those scarce resources (time & money) to maximize the recruiting opportunities for their child.  They compound that inexperience or lack of knowledge by relying on information from non-experts.  Non-experts on recruiting include HS coaches, Club coaches, friends and relatives who may have had a successful recruiting experience, or hear-say.  As lawyer friend told me, “a person who represents himself in court, has a fool for a client.”  A college decision for your youngster will impact them for the next 50-60 years.  Should a parent leave that process in the hands of amateurs?  I guess it depends on how serious a parent is about finding the right academic and athletic fit for their child. 

 So let’s get to the point:  How much time and money needs to be spent on a child’s recruiting?  Let’s start with some assumptions based on facts.  First, unless your child is the bluest of the blue chips, they will not be discovered by college coaches.  There will be over 75,000 high school student athletes graduating this year who will be on college rosters next school year.  Less than 7,000 of them will fall into the “Blue Chip” category.  The other 68,000 student athletes will have engaged in a lot of effort to make recruiting happen for them.  The sad reality is that 1/3 to 1/2 of those students will make a wrong choice because they had to settle for what was available.  How does a parent avoid this for their child?  They MUST invest in the recruiting process.

You’ve read on these pages the 5 things you need to know and the 5 things you must do.  But no one has written about specific costs.  Regardless of the sport your child plays, they will need to participate in events outside of their high school team in order to get placed on a college coaches’ radar.  Depending on the sport, those are club, travel, elite, premier, AAU, or other teams.  These clubs spring up and die all of the time so make sure your travel team is participating in the right tournaments.  If your child is a football player, they’ll need to attend camps and combines to improve their skills.  From the time a kid is in 6^th grade until they graduate, a parent can expect to pay $3,000 to $5,000 per year on club fees, travel, lessons, personal trainers, etc.  If you aren’t doing that, you’ll have a severe competitive disadvantage with families who are doing that. 

The frustrating thing for parents is that all of that investment will not get a kid looks by college coaches.  A travel coach will promote her/his team by saying s/he participates in all of the right tournaments and that 100′s of college coaches will be in attendance.  While the college coaches will be in attendance, they come with a list of specific players to evaluate in person.  They do not attend with the idea of discovering players.  So, in addition to all of the funds parents have spent on the above activities, they still NEED to market their child.  Marketing costs break down this way:

Most parents don’t have the time to devote to all of these activities.  If they separate these activities among different vendors, they run the risk of not using an expert.  For example, how many video companies use music to enhance the video?  How much are you paying for that feature?  Now, how many college coaches have the volume turned on when they’re watching the video?  ZERO.  Then what parent has the expertise to lay out a comprehensive marketing plan for their child?  What parent can transfer ownership of the process to their child?  As a parent who has been through this, the hardest thing some parents can do is to encourage their child to do the work necessary.  Where does that empowerment come from?  It comes from an expert’s knowledge.

Parents who truly want the best for their kids and want to help their kids achieve their dreams, must be willing to invest the TIME and MONEY to make that happen.  Only in the rarest of cases, will a parent hit the lottery with a gifted, hard-working student-athlete who will get discovered and recruited by her/his dream school college coach.  In all other cases, parents should not rely on “LUCK”.  As a wise man once said, luck is the residue of clearly defined goals and hard work.  If you need help defining that game plan, start here.

I love this story because so many parents I talk to think that playing college sports is different than getting an education.  Getting a college degree and playing college sports are NOT mutually exclusive activities.  In fact, one enhances the other.  As related in the article, Myron Rolle will delay entry into the NFL in order to become a Rhodes Scholar.  Mr. Rolle completed his 4 year degree playing in a big time college program in  2 1/2 years.  WOW!  The most important aspect is that he will graduate without having to pay back any student loans.  His education was fully funded.  Do you value education?  Do you want to play in college?  Find out about college scholarships and see what college programs you qualify for. 

In an article in Dec. 4th’s Wall Street Journal, Harvard’s endowment has been hit by losses of 22% in the 4 months between July 1st and October 31st.  That’s 8 Billion dollars!  More than the total endowments of all but 6 universities.  Income from Harvard’s endowment funds 35% of its budget.  That includes athletics.  As mentioned in the article, all other college endowments have suffered a similar fate.  State schools, who don’t have large endowments, must cut back because of reduced tax receipts. 

So what does that mean to student athletes and their parents?  First, recruiting budgets for college coaches are going to be reduced.  That means less travel for coaches.  They will be relying more on video than ever before to evaluate talent.  Second, college coaches are going to be more careful in their selections.  So those high school students they’ve known the longest (starting freshman year) will be more likely to score the scholarship.  Third, colleges will be reducing the financial aid awarded for academics.  A smaller percentage of elite students will receive the top awards.  A student athlete who wants to compete will need better grades and test scores than ever.  She/he better be working on that starting freshman year!  Fourth, large state institutions will be cutting costs.  That means larger class sizes for required courses.   If your student-athlete doesn’t do well in class sizes of 300 or more, then they need to find a better fit.  Finally, student-athletes will be competing harder than ever for the existing scholarship dollars.  That competition will be in the work out room, in the class room, in preparing for college entrance exams, and finally in knowing the rules of the recruiting game.   How can you gain a significant competitive advantage over others and win the recruiting game?  Start here.

 An important part of the college search process is knowing how to secure as much financial aid as possible. For high school seniors, this process gets into full swing on January 1^st when FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) applications can begin to be submitted. With two months remaining until this date there are still some important steps families can take to help prepare for this process. Here are three steps you can take prior to January 1^st to give you a running start with financial aid.

• 1) Get an estimate of your family’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC). By visiting here you can get an estimate of your family’s EFC. This is helpful because with your EFC you can then determine your level of need at each college of interest. You will also be able to use this information to determine roughly what types of financial aid you may qualify for at each college or university.
• 2) Visit the website of each college you have been communicating with. Many colleges will provide either a financial aid estimator or a list of different institutional grant monies offered. This information is typically located under the “Financial Aid” or “Prospective Students” tab on the college’s main website and can help you better determine what types of financial aid you may qualify for at an individual school.
• 3) Begin your search for privately funded grants and scholarships. Federal, State, and institutional monies are not the only sources of financial assistance available for families. Many community service groups such as the Kiwanis Club or Lion’s Club often provide funding opportunities for local students to help defray the cost of attending college. In addition, there are websites such as College Board and FastWeb which list privately funded scholarships available to students. Most of these will require you to submit and application and compose an essay; however there may be several grants you could qualify to receive.

Completing these steps will help you get a firm grasp on the financial aid process so you can move into the new year equipped to maximize your financial aid award. As January 1^st approaches you can also visit FAFSA to learn more about how to submit the FAFSA online. Remember, there are a lot of steps to take when navigating the financial aid process, so preparation and research early will help relieve some of the stress of the upcoming months.

How are you going to pay for college?  Here’s a great article on what to expect on college costs and how to fund those college costs.  If you’re a good high school athlete and good student, learn how to play the college recruiting game so you can pay for college.  A good first step is here.

Just in time for Halloween, comes this article about a young man who graduated so deep in debt for his college education that he’s afraid to return to the United States.   The key paragraph in the article: “These are people new to borrowing and they didn’t understand what they were getting into,” says Mark Kantrowitz of Finaid.org, an online student loan information Web site. “It’s a very sorry situation that it comes to students feeling they have no option than to leave the country,” he says. “It’s a sign the system is broken.”

Why would anyone put themselves in that position?  More importantly, why would a student-athlete with some great athletic skills and good grades put themselves in that position?  If you know how to play the college recruiting game and apply a little effort, you can get a good portion of college paid for and get to play your favorite sport.  Now that’s a win-win. 

Parents, if your kids are good at sports and you don’t want them to be burdened by excessive student loans when they graduate, you should educate yourself on what is available to student-athletes in the way of financial aid.  You can begin here.

Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback is one of my weekly must-reads.  It combines his strong thoughts on football startegy with random but extremely thoughful remarks on society.  For the last few seasons he has been recapping the previous weeks Friday Night Lights television show episode.  This week he pointed out a common myth in the maistream media that often skews the thoughts of high school athletes.

The Real Way Many Kids Reach College: Here’s a spoiler that matters to public policy — a subplot of the current season of “Friday Night Lights” has Brian “Smash” Williams, graduated from Dillon High but without an athletic scholarship owing to an injury, rehabbing his knee and trying to get an offer from a college. Reader Robert Matranga of Orange, Calif., writes, “The show is giving the implication that a football scholarship is his only ticket to college — that without it, college is unreachable. Smash’s family cannot afford the tuition to Texas A&M, where he hopes to go — but what about an academic or need-based scholarship? The show’s implication that athletic scholarship is the only way Brian can attain college feeds the already poor awareness of federal aid in the form of Pell grants and subsidized loans, plus the need-based aid offered by many colleges directly.”

His points about the scholarship system are 100% correct.  However, what he fails to recognize is that many times athletes that aren’t offered full scholarships have the inside track to recieve as much funding from grants and other sources.  So,yes, many do get too hung up on the word scholarship, but athletics COMBINED with strong academics can be a ticket to college.