Experience with NESCAC schools?

DD (2018) gets good grades(4.14/5.0), takes a lot of honors courses, is taking her first AP course this year and is in the top 10% of her class.

She is very excited about a NESCAC school that she had included as an academic reach-school. Now that she has met the coach and the team and toured the school, she is really excited about this school. The coaches told her that they really want her but she needs to get the grades to get accepted by the school first (I had heard that from another NESCAC coach as well)

1) in your experience, do you know of any instances where a coach was able to give a recruit help getting into a NESCAC school or does this not happen in this conference? (could it vary from school to school?)

2) Does a coach helping a recruit to get in the door have any effect on Financial aid, or is it that once they are accepted, they are all in the same need-based financial aid boat? If she gets in, we will need a lot of financial aid help!

My daughter was initially looking at a couple of NESCAC schools. I can't speak for all 10 schools in the conference, but for the two she was looking at you absolutely have to be able to get in on your own merit. If you don't have the grades, being a softball player will not help you. That said, if you do have the grades and the admissions team is trying to decide between equally qualified candidates, the fact that your daughter will be playing a varsity sport may help her out.

Regarding financial aid, these two schools are "need blind" and will cover 100% of the student's demonstrated need (basically FAFSA). The coach cannot affect that (and if they do, that is an NCAA violation). Again, don't know if that is the same at all NESCAC schools.

My son competed in the NESCAC. It's complicated. In general the coaches can give full support for admission to 2-4 girls BUT they have to meet certain requirements-excellent grades(a 4.1 out of 5 is borderline) and an ACT at 29 or higher, depending on the school, player, and other "hooks" such as first generation to college, low socioeconomic status, race etc. They can give a "tip" to other girls, which means they tell admissions they want to girl, but she has to have scores and grades at least average for the school.
For example, the Amherst coach told my son (who had a 95 average and was in the top 5%) of his class that he would give him a "tip" but not a "slot" ans that he needed to retake his ACT(31) and get a 32.
The average ACT for the 4 "slots" has to meet the school's criteria-all are above 30 for the average. This is like the Ivy's "athletic bands" where an athlete with a lower GPA and set of test scores can be balanced by a higher scoring recruit.
It sounds like the coaches are willing to give your D a "tip" but not a "slot".
All the NESCACs agree how many recruits are allowed to get "tips" and "slots" at each school per sport based on enrollment size, to not give one school an advantage over the others. They also don't want students who can't do the work. The season is shorter and there are strict rules about out of season practice. There is no Fall ball, for example.
There is no such thing as an athletic scholarship. As TMD stated, you fill out the aid form and see what you qualify for. Some school have big enough endowments that all demonstrated need is met with scholarship, no loans. People making as much as $150,000 may qualify for aid. It also counts if you have another child in school at the same time. We had 2 in at once, so the price was the same total...
PM me if you have more specific questions.

Slappinandstealin said:

My son competed in the NESCAC. It's complicated. In general the coaches can give full support for admission to 2-4 girls BUT they have to meet certain requirements-excellent grades(a 4.1 out of 5 is borderline) and an ACT at 29 or higher, depending on the school, player, and other "hooks" such as first generation to college, low socioeconomic status, race etc. They can give a "tip" to other girls, which means they tell admissions they want to girl, but she has to have scores and grades at least average for the school.
For example, the Amherst coach told my son (who had a 95 average and was in the top 5%) of his class that he would give him a "tip" but not a "slot" ans that he needed to retake his ACT(31) and get a 32.
The average ACT for the 4 "slots" has to meet the school's criteria-all are above 30 for the average. This is like the Ivy's "athletic bands" where an athlete with a lower GPA and set of test scores can be balanced by a higher scoring recruit.
It sounds like the coaches are willing to give your D a "tip" but not a "slot".
All the NESCACs agree how many recruits are allowed to get "tips" and "slots" at each school per sport based on enrollment size, to not give one school an advantage over the others. They also don't want students who can't do the work. The season is shorter and there are strict rules about out of season practice. There is no Fall ball, for example.
There is no such thing as an athletic scholarship. As TMD stated, you fill out the aid form and see what you qualify for. Some school have big enough endowments that all demonstrated need is met with scholarship, no loans. People making as much as $150,000 may qualify for aid. It also counts if you have another child in school at the same time. We had 2 in at once, so the price was the same total...
PM me if you have more specific questions.

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Sounds much like the same when DD was looking at several NESCAC schools 5 years ago. One additional thing we were told is that the "slotted" athletes would need to apply Early Decision. The potential problem with that, if you get accepted, is that you are not supposed to apply to other schools; however, financial aid awards normally don't accompany the ED notifications but rather are made several months later at the same time as regular admissions notification dates. This presents a potential problem if your attendance at a school is dependent on financial aid. You can reneg on an ED acceptance for very few reasons, one of which is financial. Although discouraged, your only option in that case is to apply ED AND regular admissions to your other schools of interest and if accepted ED, go with it but not withdraw the other applications and then make your final decision based in March/April based on financial aid awards.

Obb - I would agree w/ S&S - your DD would've been advised if she were being considered a "slot" player (and prob advised to apply ED), and may or may not be in the 'tip' category. Also, it is important to understand that these schools are extremely competitive academically - the majority of applicants to these schools are well qualified (i.e., fall within the schools 25-75 percentile ranks for grades and SAT scores (which are optional at number) but get rejected because the acceptance rates are LOW (e.g., closer to 10% than 20% at Amherst and Williams last time I checked). IMO, its harder to get into these schools than it is to make the SB team and all the coaches are more than happy to take a good look at any "walk on" who shows up and has real game.

All this said, it is worth chasing a couple of dream/reach schools IMO. You never know how it will end up, but if you get into a NESCAC school and need financial aid, you'll more than likely get it (see note below).

Note: the FAFSA EFC (expected family contribution) $ estimate is generally a pretty good estimate for what you would need to pay out of pocket for any of the NESCAC schools, which all are generously endowed, some to the point that, as noted in the prior post, all financial aid is in the form of grant money, which doesnt' require repayment unlike student loans.

Thanks- this is EXACTLY what I needed! DD has only taken the PSAT so far and while her scores were ok, they weren't what you need at this school. now this can be motivation for her- if you want to go to this school, you'll have to do a little better in school and get good scores on standardized testing- which will only help with the other schools she's looking at.

On the financial side, this school (with expenses) costs about $60K and we need it to be closer to $30K (which is what we are paying for DD#1's school) this school awards scholarships and grants for financial aid-which is good, but IF she gets in I doubt we could get enough Fin Aid to cover the difference.

So it is looking like a longer shot, but a good opportunity to put the responsibility on her and see how she does. maybe if SHE can make it work, we will be able to work something out.

something I'm thinking about is that she works VERY hard for the grades she gets (great work ethic), so a NESCAC school might be too academically demanding for her anyway. I wouldn't want her to get in only to find she's over her head.

thanks again!