In State vs Out of State Tuition

beachball said:

My daughter recently committed to a D2 program. Not a lot of scholarship money but it's a good program and the school fits her academically and I think she will play. It's a state school and we are out of state. Price wise it's reasonable but there is about a 10,000 per year difference between in state and out of state tuition.

My question is this: Do the coaches and/or administration have the ability to offer in state tuition to out of state athletes? If the coaches are to be believed (and I do believe them) they don't have a huge scholarship budget, no where near the 7.2 allowed but can they offer similar tuition as in state residents would pay?

Any advice is appreciated.

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If a school wasn't using all of their allotted scholarships I would say the coach could offer your DD In-state tuition. In that case it would depend on school policy and how they do their accounting. When schools use all their scholarships any money or “tricks” above and beyond what’s available to ALL students would be an NCAA violation. As others have said, talk to the coach.

Some schools can do that. When an out of state D2 school offered my daughter, the coach said since they have only 7.5 scholarships, they will find other scholarships and sort of put them all in a bank. Out of State Tuition exemption was one of them. Ask the coach if they can do that for your daughter.

jimbob2 said:

From my limited experience, it seems coaches have a "bag of tricks" given to them by the administration to help with recruiting. The bag may include things like: flexibility in academic standards (a girl with a low ACT score is granted acceptance to the school), academic scholarships given to athletes, or maybe giving in-state tuition to athletes. These tricks/tools are school specific and Orange Socks is correct in saying "you need to ask the coach".

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This is so very true!

Orange Socks said:

Interesting. The school my DD has committed to is "exploring" the option of moving up to D2 which could qualify for athletic dollars starting her soph year. Wondering how many schollies they will give to all of their athletes if it passes. I kind of hope they stay D3.

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Hate to be nosey Orange, but did your DD get a "good deal" to play. Did you get good academic and other money? I know D3's don't have athletic scholarships but they have "other" money available and sometimes more so I am told. Just curious your experience if you don't mind sharing and no worries if you do mind.

STRIKE3 said:

Hate to be nosey Orange, but did your DD get a "good deal" to play. Did you get good academic and other money? I know D3's don't have athletic scholarships but they have "other" money available and sometimes more so I am told. Just curious your experience if you don't mind sharing and no worries if you do mind.

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I don't mind sharing as this is important to many families here. First and foremost, every school is unique and have different ways of doing things. The athletes that go to UTD are treated just like every other student. No favors since it is considered an academic school and there is a high percentage of Texas valedictorians that attend so it is quite competitive at the upper end. This is a state school and is very large (27K students) as opposed to the Texas privates which are very small. The privates have more leeway to discount and negotiate tuition since their MSRP starts much higher. Privates can end up costing lower than a state school for many students.

Before the coach even considered allowing a visit she had to be at least in the top 10% of her class or have some nice scores. Based on the 3 tiers of Academic scholarships that are available to the student body, she could get Half her tuition paid for, Full tuition plus $1000 stipend, or Full plus $3000 stipend. A softball mom who has a kid at an Ivy and the other at a d3 told me this sage advice: Instead spending your money on batting lessons, spend your money on a private ACT tutor. You will get more academic/merit money than you will in athletic money. Soooo very true!!! In a few weeks we will see if the tutor paid for himself 5x over. In the end, it is a good fit academically, athletically, and monetarily for our family.

Btw, UTD is exploring the option of going D2 in the next few years just like UTT did. That could change the scholly landscape in the future, but we are not relying on that and frankly I hope it doesn't happen. The other schools in the conference wish they would move up.

As many have said before and will continue to say: Do your due diligence and ask the coach/admissions counselor/anyone who has been there the questions that are of concern. This site is a great tool and frankly am surprised that more parents don't spend as much time as I do here!!! The parents on my DD's team wonder how I have all of this softball knowledge. I spend a few minutes a day here as a daily routine instead of reading TMZ.com. LOL!

Orange Socks said:

A softball mom who has a kid at an Ivy and the other at a d3 told me this sage advice: Instead spending your money on batting lessons, spend your money on a private ACT tutor.

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Thank you for posting this and I really appreciate the entire post but wanted to quote the above as this is so true! We were just having this conversation a few weeks ago as we were discussing college goals outside of softball. I almost started a new thread on this topic and still might as I would be curious to hear how many people are relying on softball to help pay for college. I imagine the number is quite high but not sure.

If that is the case and the kid isn't 110% wanting to play softball in college then money spent on the a tutor, Princeton Review (or similar) etc. would likely cost less up front and provide far more financially as you stated above.

For DD’s school, among other academic qualifications the difference between an ACT score of 24 and 28 is $2,500 a year. Those study courses are expensive, but $1,000 for an extra $10,000 is a pretty good investment.

To put it in perspective how important academics are if you kid has above a 3.0 GPA or is ranked in the top 25% of their your class they get $5,500 a year which comes to 25% of tuition. Those are pretty easy standards to meet if a kid puts even a fraction of time into their studies as they do in softball. The figures vary by college of course, but you get the point.

MNDad said:

For DD’s school, among other academic qualifications the difference between an ACT score of 24 and 28 is $2,500 a year. Those study courses are expensive, but $1,000 for an extra $10,000 is a pretty good investment.

To put it in perspective how important academics are if you kid has above a 3.0 GPA or is ranked in the top 25% of their your class they get $5,500 a year which comes to 25% of tuition. Those are pretty easy standards to meet if a kid puts even a fraction of much time into their studies as they do in softball. The figures vary by college of course, but you get the point.

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The difference between a 27 (gets you nothing) and 28(threshold) could be worth as much $25K over 4 years! A 32-35 could be worth $64K. It's real money that the coach can't take away or dangle over her head based on performance.

Let me add to this. My DD took a Testmasters class room setting crash course. She actually did worse on her next SAT. I started talking to this private tutor over a 5 month period to come to an agreement based on the goals, the school, the possible merit monies and he has a guarantee that if she does not reach a certain point gain that he will be pay me back pro rata. The private tutor is a coach that holds her accountable and doesn't take any BS. He knows what's on the line and he has skin in the game too! As a family we chose private over the class room setting because there is a lot on the line for the family too!! 1st test she took after he started working with her...she gained 3 points!!!!