2019Lefty21 posted:2019 just now getting to the point we are narrowing down our list of colleges, I know NOTHING about how to evaluate the financial end of things ......tuition and fees, room and board, in state vs out of state. After perusing costs at various schools, what is a minimal scholarship and what does that include? What is the max one should dream about? Just need to start evaluating real vs dreams!
As others have said SO MANY VARIABLES!!!! For all but the very cream of the crop, most money comes from somewhere other than athletic scholarship where 25% or lower is common for baseball. And sometimes that 25% is tuition only (to answer your minimal scholarship question, sort of). I don't recall what kind of student your son is but if he is anywhere close, hitting 3.5 GPA is one of those general benchmarks that typically equates to significantly more academic money. Of course, this is different for high academic schools. In-state v out-of-state is a huge factor with many schools but a non factor with many privates. And make sure you become familiar with any "neighboring state" discount opportunities. Typically, privates can come up with more funds from different buckets than publics, often to the point where it makes the difference negligible.
Another area to pay close attention to is housing and meal plans along with general cost of living and day-to-day expenses. Those can be big differentiators. When son was at school in a big city, housing was ridiculously high and prices in the local grocery store were often 50% higher than average. Gas, transit and parking were also higher.
And this doesn't even touch on needs based $.
What is the max one should dream about? Well, if your son projects to be one of the top arms at the level he is targeting, one could dream of a full ride, but I think these are few and far between. Even then, you may find different schools have different definitions... full tuition, tuition plus room & board, etc.