Do I make the choice for my player?

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Jul 22, 2015
851
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Just to be clear. Are you saying the majority of girls who play A ball get scholarships?
I meant the vast majority who play college ball are on a scholarship of some type. However, my experience has also been that if a girl is good enough to play "A" or top-level select through 18u then there is a scholarship out there for her (even if it's mostly academic) at some level between D1 and Juco.
 
Feb 20, 2020
377
63
Okay, I understand that. But there's also the element that a lot of these schools are offering scholarships as an enticement for attendance. For example -- my DD is not a great player. Just read my various posts. But she's been in contact with the head coach of a fairly reputable D2 team for a pretty good small liberal arts college that's near a town we vacation in a lot. On a lark, DD and I stopped by to chat with the coach, and she was very nice, watched my DD throw a few and asked us to send her some clips. When that coach saw her videos, the reactions were "God, who taught her how to pitch?"and "that swing is not horrible, and with some coaching she could have real power" but she said she saw potential and had us talk to the financial aid people. They told us that the coach thought there would be some scholarship money available for my DD if she wanted to attend, to keep in touch and send her some stuff after this season and her spring club season. But they also made it clear that even if softball was unavailable, there would be other options to help offset the cost.

Now my DD is thrilled because she's thinking she has a chance at a scholarship. And technically she does. But the cost of attendance for this school is about 75K a year. 85 percent of their students get some financial help, through academic or athletic scholarships. My DD is a good enough student to be able to get an academic scholarship. But the numbers they are talking about are taking 15-20K off the number. A savings, but we're still talking 55-60K a year. Now it's a good school and fills in a lot of my DD's blanks and I think it would be a fine place for her to attend. But I've watched enough softball to know where my DD falls in the spectrum. They'd like her to attend and if a little money from softball helps get the other 220K over four years, they're okay with that tradeoff.

And that's the case with a lot of these D2 and D3 and JUCOs. They'd like to get the player, but what they'd really like is the money from a student whose attending a school she wouldn't otherwise consider. I have a pal whose daughter went to Southeast Oklahoma A&M or something because they offered her a scholarship. I'm sure it's a fine school, but one that would have never been on her radar if they hadn't offered softball money. And she's still paying 30 percent out-of-state tuition, plus books, plus housing, plus fees for a degree from a small college no one has ever heard of.

The programs themselves are loss leaders for the schools, but they help them get students they would not be able to get otherwise.

Every girl who gets any kind of offer should be proud of that -- it's a real accomplishment to be recognized. But I think the actual net rewards for those scholarships does not counteract the cost of earning them, and if the choice is A) forwarding her softball career versus B) having fun with her friends, the benefit of choice A might not be as great as it seems.
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,132
113
Dallas, Texas
My DD played on multiple high level teams. She wanted the competition. She knew it could not be about friends. On most of the teams she never hung out with any of the girls on the team. They were spread out too far geographically. She hung out with her HS school friends. To this day she is closer to her HS school friends. Even with her college teammates, she stays in touch with them through social media occasionally. But that's about it.

Excellent advice!
 
Jul 14, 2018
982
93
for private schools, virtually any student who is better than the average student will get some decent money. private schools have a lot more money to give out (it is kinda like the big brand name deprt stores offering sales 70%, only way to do that is that prices were inflated to begin with).

From what I’ve seen some friends go through recently, this is 100% true. None of the 2020 kids I know personally are paying ‘sticker price,’ most pay less than half at private schools. And they’re all NARPs, the schools just put together a package that appeals to them.

For instance, one kid is into theater, so they crafted an aid package that had some theater slant to it. Another is majoring in genetic research, so she got a bunch of science-themed aid. They can call it whatever they like, I think it’s more marketing than anything else.

Sorry, that turned into more of a tangent than I intended. Play for fun, if facing the best competition is what you consider fun, all the better.


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Jul 22, 2015
851
93
Okay, I understand that. But there's also the element that a lot of these schools are offering scholarships as an enticement for attendance. For example -- my DD is not a great player. Just read my various posts. But she's been in contact with the head coach of a fairly reputable D2 team for a pretty good small liberal arts college that's near a town we vacation in a lot. On a lark, DD and I stopped by to chat with the coach, and she was very nice, watched my DD throw a few and asked us to send her some clips. When that coach saw her videos, the reactions were "God, who taught her how to pitch?"and "that swing is not horrible, and with some coaching she could have real power" but she said she saw potential and had us talk to the financial aid people. They told us that the coach thought there would be some scholarship money available for my DD if she wanted to attend, to keep in touch and send her some stuff after this season and her spring club season. But they also made it clear that even if softball was unavailable, there would be other options to help offset the cost.

Now my DD is thrilled because she's thinking she has a chance at a scholarship. And technically she does. But the cost of attendance for this school is about 75K a year. 85 percent of their students get some financial help, through academic or athletic scholarships. My DD is a good enough student to be able to get an academic scholarship. But the numbers they are talking about are taking 15-20K off the number. A savings, but we're still talking 55-60K a year. Now it's a good school and fills in a lot of my DD's blanks and I think it would be a fine place for her to attend. But I've watched enough softball to know where my DD falls in the spectrum. They'd like her to attend and if a little money from softball helps get the other 220K over four years, they're okay with that tradeoff.

And that's the case with a lot of these D2 and D3 and JUCOs. They'd like to get the player, but what they'd really like is the money from a student whose attending a school she wouldn't otherwise consider. I have a pal whose daughter went to Southeast Oklahoma A&M or something because they offered her a scholarship. I'm sure it's a fine school, but one that would have never been on her radar if they hadn't offered softball money. And she's still paying 30 percent out-of-state tuition, plus books, plus housing, plus fees for a degree from a small college no one has ever heard of.

The programs themselves are loss leaders for the schools, but they help them get students they would not be able to get otherwise.

Every girl who gets any kind of offer should be proud of that -- it's a real accomplishment to be recognized. But I think the actual net rewards for those scholarships does not counteract the cost of earning them, and if the choice is A) forwarding her softball career versus B) having fun with her friends, the benefit of choice A might not be as great as it seems.
I agree with much of what you said, but I view it a bit differently. For example, my dd will be playing softball and attending a private NAIA school that we simply never could have afforded without her scholarships for both softball and academics. Ultimately, it won't end up being much cheaper than most state schools, but has a much better student to professor ratio, more academic support, and a much smaller campus than those state schools have. In essence, softball brought many more schools into play for her to consider. If you are simply looking at the least expensive way to attend school, then clearly state JUCOs are the way to go, and there are scholarships available there as well. But, I think you can often leverage softball to allow for attending a school that would have been out of reach otherwise.
 

ez_softball

Life at the diamond...
Apr 14, 2017
158
28
I agree with much of what you said, but I view it a bit differently. For example, my dd will be playing softball and attending a private NAIA school that we simply never could have afforded without her scholarships for both softball and academics. Ultimately, it won't end up being much cheaper than most state schools, but has a much better student to professor ratio, more academic support, and a much smaller campus than those state schools have. In essence, softball brought many more schools into play for her to consider. If you are simply looking at the least expensive way to attend school, then clearly state JUCOs are the way to go, and there are scholarships available there as well. But, I think you can often leverage softball to allow for attending a school that would have been out of reach otherwise.

This is almost an identical situation for my daughter. (y)

I would never make this decision for my daughter. She needed to make the decisions about what team to play for... heck that remained true all the way through college recruitment and commitment. I would council her and provide scenarios etc. but the decision was hers to make. Even when I was coaching, I would tell her to tryout other places and then make a decision on where to play. At old 14U it made sense for her to play on a larger travel ball team and so, she told dad to put the bownets and buckets in the garage. After weaseling my way back into the dugout (lol) she again moved to an even higher level of travel ball at old 16U.

The one thing I was told years ago that rings true to this day, is that if you are paying for your DD to play travel ball then you can probably afford to pay for a good portion of a college education. This is said, with the reality that it might not be a high level private school but add up all the team fees, gear, and travel costs for a year... then go look at the cost of tuition at a state school. I bet the numbers are pretty close. LOL
 
Feb 15, 2017
920
63
$220,000 for college education. I'm getting light headed...
And to think my first semester at Kansas was 757.00 Books were almost as much as tuition and my room and board was 1200.00

Interesting fact. The cost of college tuition has outpaced the increase in healthcare costs over the last twenty years.



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