Travel costs for sb now. Flight. Hotel. Car rental....

[RADcatcher]

Yes indeed! Thankfully and maturely, our ds chose a school where he was able to get a good chunk of merit money. We gave him the choice to go to other schools where no merit money would be offered, but he said he wanted to help us out, knowing that we were paying full tuition for our dd at a school where no merit is offered. Will help tremendously as the “2+ kids in college” tuition break will be going away soon, too. Love that kid!

It is obscene how much college costs anymore - even at state flagships.

Excellent!

@Vertigo glad to see you bring that up so I will toss it back to you...
Will you please share more for readers about what Merit Money is. Thank you



( I am aware of what it is but I think it's great to bring this up for anyone else reading the resource dfp is!)

 

[Vertigo]

Excellent!

@Vertigo glad to see you bring that up so I will toss it back to you...
Will you please share more for readers about what Merit Money is. Thank you



( I am aware of what it is but I think it's great to bring this up for anyone else reading the resource dfp is!)

Sure! Merit money (in our experience) is money offered typically based on academics. In our ds’ case, it was based on his GPA and SAT score. It is money he will not have to pay back. It also requires that he keeps his GPA above a certain number for it to be renewed each year. He will also be playing baseball for the school - and as it is a D3 program, there is no athletic money.

 

[nikkilugi]

Daughter's college move in is Aug 26. This is her last summer of travel. We travel from VA to CO for IDT and then we will travel from VA to Providence for NE Finest. CO alone with flights for 3 people, the expensive hotel room for 8 nights (we play practice games on 6/26 & 6/27), rental car and food will cost our family over $5,000. NE Finest will cost us probably $1,500. She is skipping TNJ so we don't have to make that stupid drive up the Eastern Shore so that will save us about $1,000. Last year we probably spent $3,000 for just DD and I to go to CO and we split a room with another family. So the price has gone up a little for us but not significantly based on what we paid last year.

We are doing these last tournaments because we love the team, she needs to still play the highest level of competition to be ready for college, and CO is really a combo vacation. Being from the KC area originally we see a lot of former teammates in CO and we get to spend time with them.

College is uber expensive. Daughter's scholarship(s) - athletic & academic (merit) are covering over half of her OOS COA (cost of attendance) which is about $26,000 (this is the .5 COA #) per year. Our highest year of summer spending was 2 summers ago when we went to TNJ, CO and PGF in LA. That summer we easily spent $10,000 alone on just summer travel - doesn't count Scenic City, Clearwater, etc and dues. If I am estimating I would say we need her to keep those scholarships for 3 years to break even - then year four is all gravy..... Kid gotta stay in college playing ball I guess.

 

[Orange Socks]

I highly recommend getting into the Credit Card points game. At minimum free flights and hotels if you do it right. I have not paid for a flight in 8 years. 10 flights in the past 12 months with another 4 round trips coming up in August.

Here a couple of facebook groups. You can easily get 90K Sign Up Bonuses and add on Biz cards another 90K Sign Up Bonus. There's a whole world out there that travel the world in luxury just through points.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MaximizeChaseUltimateRewards/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/travelonpoints/

 

[Gags]

. I just go along for the ride and try not to get the police called on me (I am like 90% successful on that..pretty good right?)

If my punch card computations are correct: over 10 tournaments, driving yourself once + 0 water bottles thrown = 90% success rate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[_MIA_]

If my punch card computations are correct: over 10 tournaments, driving yourself once + 0 water bottles thrown = 90% success rate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s happened only twice in 6 years one with a water bottle and one with me getting put in a choke hold by a 260 lb former MMA fighter..so even better than 90%.. I rock.

 

[Rolling Hard]

I highly recommend getting into the Credit Card points game. At minimum free flights and hotels if you do it right. I have not paid for a flight in 8 years. 10 flights in the past 12 months with another 4 round trips coming up in August.

Here a couple of facebook groups. You can easily get 90K Sign Up Bonuses and add on Biz cards another 90K Sign Up Bonus. There's a whole world out there that travel the world in luxury just through points.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MaximizeChaseUltimateRewards/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/travelonpoints/

Just be sure not carry a balance!

 

[RADcatcher]

 

[OmniscientFan]

Travel softball, especially at the highest levels, is inherently classist. Most in our society would be unable to afford it in a normal year, never mind a year with high inflation. Luckily, my daughter isn't quite elite enough to be on these types of teams, anyway, because it would be tough to have to let her down. I think a lot of people on this forum are not aware of how many kids - who could be great with the type of high-priced training some of you are able to afford for your daughters - are left out of the mix due to financial reasons.

 

[_MIA_]

Travel softball, especially at the highest levels, is inherently classist. Most in our society would be unable to afford it in a normal year, never mind a year with high inflation. Luckily, my daughter isn't quite elite enough to be on these types of teams, anyway, because it would be tough to have to let her down. I think a lot of people on this forum are not aware of how many kids - who could be great with the type of high-priced training some of you are able to afford for your daughters - are left out of the mix due to financial reasons.

Take a look at all those 6’ point guards in women’s basketball. You get half of those to play softball and the game would look much different. Yeah hitting/pitching a ball isn’t all athleticism but I am sure most would figure it out with training…your Suzy Q DFP isn’t that special. The segment of the population that most on here represent benefits from the game being non-inclusive.