Zeke
I'm going to add another perspective to your statment. My son and I did not realize what it cost to attend private schools until mid way his jr year. We were shocked with what we saw, 32,000 - 27,500 - 25,500 etc. While these were the only schools interested in him for his baseball skills we realized we would not be able to afford the tution unless he improved his grades (2.88 end of his JR year). Well parents and players don't let that word senioritice or what ever its called (lazyness) stop you from your dream. Well he went to work on improving his grades and his GPA for his senior yr end up at 3.65 which gave him a total GPA of 3.07. He also took his SAT 4 times and improved each time. The college loved that work ethic. The academic money they gave him, well long story short he now attends that 32,000 a yr institute and I'm paying about the same cost if we had sent him to a state university. So it doesn't have to be in that 3.8 to 4.0 to recieive free money you just need to show some williness to work hard and show success and the institutions will work with you.
Go Hampden-Sydney Tigers