What if a Recruited, Admitted Player CANNOT afford the tuition?

[Cannonball]

DD was just talking to a friend about this very subject. Friend has accumulated some $30,000 in debt before senior year while playing at D-I school. Then, medical school is next. Man I can't imagine the potential debt.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Please realize that those colleges, don't mean a heck of a lot, to most of us. I have raised 3 kids and 1 went to U of Chicago. So, we did look at Drake, and U of IL., in the midwest.

What scholarships has she applied for? Will she be getting any monetary awards from her HS?

I suggest that you take her to see many colleges and talk to classmates that have gone there. With a student that has as many accolades as you mention, you should pay very little. Can I ask her SAT score?

 

[JAD]

Not to sound harsh but there are tons of great athletes who don't go to State college at all because their parents can't afford to pay $5,000 a year. Your problem is not that big of a problem, send your dd to a school you can afford.

Andrew McCutchen wrote an essay on this and he claims this is the reason that there are so few African Americans playing in MLB, the top athletes have to make a choice, go to school on a full ride basketball or football scholarship, or play baseball on a half ride. The inner city kids can't afford the half ride so they switch to a sport in 9th or 10th that will give them a full scholarship. If it wasn't for a knee injury he was about to quit baseball and would have played college football.

A lot of the top baseball players go straight to the draft out of high school and bypass college all together.

 

[Seattlecoach]

Amy- just curious but did your kid play at U Chicago?

 

[Sweet Lou]

Your income level places you in the top 12% of all US family incomes. It's not that you cannot afford the tuition, it's that you've decided it is more than you are willing to pay, which is perfectly fine. But there are a number of options available to your daughter if she simply must attend a $63K a year school though all of them likely involve you and/or your daughter taking on significant debt to finance the education or you making significant sacrifices to your current standard of living, what ever that standard currently is.

There are merit scholarships available that are not offered through specific schools but you do need to do quite a bit of research sometimes to find and apply for them on your own.

The other options are to look for state schools that do offer both athletic and/or merit scholarships and change the choice of schools. There are plenty of fine academic universities that I'm sure you could easily afford at your income level even in a high cost of living area with or without scholarship aid, it's all about setting the right goals.

And a lot of D3 schools will "find" academic money t o close the gap so that it is close to public school if they really want your daughter to attend. Get to know the financial aid folks at several schools your daughter would be happy to attend and play one off the other. "Hmm, school X is offering us $$$$ to attend and she really loves school X, but you're her dream school, what can you do to close the cost gap?" Something like that.

 

[Classof2020]

I'm not quite following the huge conundrum - we've established she is brilliant so won't schools want her because of that? then we've established she is one of the best pitchers in your state, and probably in the country, you are saying so it sounds like plenty of schools will want her because of that? and you make 3 times the amount of money as our family and we are getting by ok - sounds like you'll be just fine.

I think most of the people on here have different issues with girls who are doing good in school and pretty well in softball and are hoping they might get to play for a local school and get a little money toward their education and plan to keep driving their old mini van 3 more years to help make that dream happen.

But I second what everyone else who is nicer above me said too.

 

[NoGolfTil2017]

You might want to do some reading on College Confidential on the academically elite schools. While your daughter is a very good student, virtually nothing, short of curing cancer, will make acceptance at top schools a sure thing when you base it on academics alone. If she is DI material and plans to play in college, then her SAT score will likely be good enough to get her into an Ivy. (I am basing this off of a PSAT score you provided in another post.)

Things have changed a lot since I applied to schools. Back then, Ivies had acceptance rates in the 30-40% range, so a good student back then might have applied to four Ivy/elite schools and had a very good chance of gaining acceptance to at least one school. Now, with single digit acceptance rates, the elite schools are not guaranteed unless you have a major hook. That hook might be recruited athlete, national/international level academic awards, published significant scientific research, etc.

Even with great credentials, you still might not get in. I am not familiar with recruiting at Pomona, but at some academically elite DIII schools the coach does not have the power to guarantee admission. At the NESCAC schools, I understand that there are "tips" or "slots", and that if you have one, you are basically assured admission if you apply ED (and that poses another issue with your financial concerns). However, there are other schools where the coach might be able to help your chances, but there is no guarantee of admission. In fact, if she has good test scores - maybe 2250+ SAT or 33+ ACT - the coach might not push as hard for her at a DIII during ED, because the coach hopes she can get in on her own (without the coach using a slot/tip/favor with admissions). If she gets deferred during ED, then the coach might push more during RD.

If you think she has the potential to have really good SAT scores, then focus on the junior year PSAT. The PSAT and SAT are changing, but she will have one trial of the new PSAT sophomore year before it counts. If she has a NMSF/NMF qualifying score junior year, there are a number of schools that will give good merit. While it will not be merit from an academically elite school, there are some decent schools that will give you full tuition+. Since the cutoff score for the PSAT varies by state, and I don't know where you live, I'm not sure what sort of score increase she needs (but her current score wouldn't qualify her).

Good luck with the process. Our eldest didn't get into the schools she wanted, but she is happy where she is now. Our middle kid will be a senior and applying to schools in the fall. There will be some disappointments with her too, though we hope she can get into a top school (though she hasn't cured cancer yet, and is unlikely to do so by sitting on the couch and watching Netflix). She has very good SAT/ACT scores, some good (not great) academic awards (including a perfect score in a national competition), is a board member for a non-profit...but she knows that none of that guarantees she will get into a top school.

 

[girliesmom]

Thank you everyone for the valuable insight. Your wise words are greatly appreciated.

I agree with everyone here. Just because a school isn't in the top 25 doesn't mean it's not a good school. I also don't believe that we should mortgage our home to pay for her education - willingness or otherwise. With her grades, she should be able to get Merit somewhere - although that somewhere may not be her first choice. But hey, that's life. We don't always get our first choice. But we learn to do the best with it and that's what makes us better, right?

SoCal Dad, you hit on a great point, her long range plans are to attend grad or med school. Keeping that in mind, if she does attend an elite school now, her college debt coupled with her postgrad debt will bury her and us. Agree, certainly not a wise decision.

Just a little background. This all came about when we started talking about contacting coaches at the HYP and the other elite schools on her list. After consulting with the wise folks here, we agreed that there was no harm in doing so. But before she did that and wasted hers, ours and the coaches' time, I asked that she figure out a few things first And once she figured out these things, we should then be able to narrow down the list of whom she should contact.

Here's what I asked of her: 1.) Does she stand a chance of being admitted to the school she's interested in; 2.) Is she capable at playing at that particular level; 3.) How much of a Softball comittment is she looking for in College; and finally, 4.) Can we afford it if there's no Athletic Scholarship, Fin Aid or Merit?

Here's what she came back with: 1.) She stands a "chance" of getting into her "Reach" schools - no guarantees, but a good chance; 2.) She's not capable of playing D1. She's good but not THAT good. 3.) She wants Softball to be a part of her college experience but she's not willing to sacrifice her education for Softball - hence D3 schools. 4.) This was the toughie! She ran the NPC on most of her schools and came whining to us that we were too rich to qualify for Fin Aid but too poor to pay for school. Reality sucks! lol

Hence my question. Will Need Based schools provide non-need help? Deep down inside, we both knew the answer. Guess we weren't quite ready to face reality. And as a parent, I was truly hoping that someone may have had a similar experience but gotten some money. We were both hoping against all hope that "need based only" schools will somehow find a way to gap those who don't qualify for need. In hindsight, that's just a stupid question isn't it????!!! lol

Yes, I agree with all here. She needs to focus on schools that offer Merit Aid - so she's now back to the drawing board trying to find a new list of schools. I'm disappointed for her but she'll survive. As like of the other parents said, it's her who defines her future and not her school.

Thank you all for your insightful advise. It was all well received.

 

[girliesmom]

Oops! Ended up posting it 2x.

 

[Rocketech1]

For parents with younger kids, you should really look into 529 college savings plans. The gains grow tax free and any withdrawals are also tax free as long they are used for qualified school expenses. Any unused monies can be used for graduate school or another family member going to college. Some states even allow you to deduct some of the contributions each year. Any family members (grandparents, parents, relatives) can sock away a few hundred dollars a month for 18 years for your kid and you will have a nice sum of money to spend for your kid's college education.

To the OP, in your situation I would look at good state schools that are a third of the cost. No one should be saddled with 250K in debt for an undergraduate degree.