SanDiegoRealist posted:9and7Dad,
First post on this forum and I hope to continue to learn as much from reading current and past posts as I do in corresponding with members of the forum.
I look at college a little differently than some, I guess, as I paid my own way through college and took the 15-year route to finishing a bachelors degree while working (no college debt). I don't look at financial aid that you have to pay back as any kind of assistance to a student, it's just debt that you have to pay back with interest - yuck! Like you said, every family is different based on a number of factors. I have a daughter in a Pac-12 school currently (out-of-state) and we are only paying about $1,800 per term, including housing and meal plan, based on academic merit-based scholarship and other school scholarships she earned (none sports related - she is not an athlete). This is a $38K a year bill normally, and according to FAFSA I would be responsible for the entire bill based on family income. If she were to be relying on loans or financial aid that needed to be repaid, she would not be attending there, she would be attending college at a school where she can get the education she desires with the least out-of-pocket expense to her (and our family).
I agree that you should not restrict where your student-athlete is trying to attend school and play ball based on your perception of how much it is going to cost you to attend, because scholarships are abundant and funny things. First thing that you need to consider though, especially as an athlete's parent, is can you afford to attend the college without athletic program aid? If the answer is no, then you need to ask yourself if the school is where your student wants to get a degree from in the event they get cut, lose scholarship money, or otherwise have to fund their education themselves. Transferring schools almost always slows down the time to graduation, and as we all know - TIME IS MONEY!
Roothog, I have seen that you are a frequent poster and have a lot to add to this board, learning a great deal from your posts. I was under the impression D1 offers are based on the amount of a "full ride," therefore a 50% scholarship to Arkansas with a $23K out-of-state tuition is going to cost the program more than your projected $12K, because you have to include the value of room and board in that as well. Am I right here?
Can you share the secret of only paying $1800 per semester for college? She must have had stellar SAT or ACT scores and a 4.0 GPA or close to it... Congrats to your daughter - that is wonderful.