Can a 50% scholarship go all to tuition?

Hey Papa,

From my experiences with college admissions offices, the admissions officer in charge of your son's overall package of paperwork and allocation thereof can put the scholarship money wherever you so request or choose.
If there is an academic grant or scholarship for tuition, it may be required to be aplied toward tuition only as in some cases I've seen through the years, including mine It really doesn't matter though because the bottom-line amount of student-athlete cost will be the same if the candidate lives on campus and receives meal card or lives off campus. It will just be less money due to college or university if candidate lives off campus which of course means, your on your own in off-campus living which I strongly discourage a full-time student playing a full-time sport It is much more convenient or suitable, if you will, for a student-athlete to remain in main stream of college campus for many reasons. peace papa,RS

I guess I am assuming there is no out of state tuition waiver avalable? This would allow you to pay in-state tuition being from out of state. The offers we got were dollar amount not percentage. Not sure if I am helping.

In this instance, I think our experience is the norm: The athletic scholarship is credited to our son's account at the cashier's office. Therefore, whatever charges run through that office (i.e. tuition, fees, dorm, etc.)are covered first. If there's any left over after satisfying the cashier office's charges, you'd receive the surplus in the form of a check.

Also...the room & board part is taxable income...so you'd better want it applied towards tuition, books and fees.

I hear tell of football players (you know, those guys who get full rides) getting stipends, i.e., checks. In fact there was something of a stir when it was discovered that at Va. Tech, several football players were getting food stamps and living in subsidized housing based on their poverty, while they took their allowances and cashed them so they could pocket the money.

Now of course, no baseball player would do such a thing, BUT ...

My question is, to what extent can a player receive scholarship money in the form of a cash stipend? I would imagine there is some NCAA-imposed ceiling on such things.

Even though scholarships in baseball tend to be fractional and not full, lots of folks now have prepaid tuition plans -- and I do. So, if my boy got a fractional scholarship, we might prefer to use the prepaid plan to cover tuition and fees and let him get "an allowance" out of the baseball money.

Would that be kosher?

Nope.

The school will apply the scholarship to tuition, fees and books. Then whatever is left over (if anything) will go towards housing. If your son is living off campus, he will get the remaining funds in a "stipend" check.

I suppose some schools allocate differently, but this is the only way I've ever heard of.

Our experience is the same. Athletic scholarship funds go into the player's school "account". Tuition, on-campus housing/meals etc. are paid out of this account. Any balance is then transfered to the player's personal bank account. I have not heard of a situation where the scholarship funds are paid directly to the student. And yes, if any scholarship money is used for housing, the dollars are taxable income.

Midlo...

That's not exactly an accurate accounting of what took place at VT (and still does), which was absolutely above board and involved players from families very much in need.

And you are probably right about no baseball players involved in something similar. Not all, but in relative terms, nearly all of them come from families far better off.

I lived in Blacksburg when they first built Lane Stadium and they were still called the "Gobblers." Jerry Claiborne, et al. First college baseball game I ever saw Johnny Oates hit a HR for the Gobblers.

Ah, the good ole days.

Old joke: Why don't they use astro turf in Lane Stadium? Because the Hokies wouldn't know how to irrigate it.

I remember the late-great Johnny Oates....catcher, a very good one in fact!!!
LHH/Atlanta Braves-circa early 70s.
Location: Fulton County Stadium for Picture Day.
Had my picture taken with him along outfield fence on picture day and still have the picture He also managed the Texas Rangers and had much success there. May God Rest his Soul. peace, Shep

Is it is a crediting and debiting accounting system just like everything else.
You get all your expenses in one column and your scholarship money in another.

The bottom lines tells you what you OWE or what is owed to you.

A student who chooses to live off campus after freshman year (and most do) most likely will be owed on the bottom line (if your son has a larger scholarhsip). Once that money is deposited into his checking account (or cut a check), it becomes a "stipend" which is an "allowance" for housing and meals off campus, which should be used as such, but in reality belongs to you to do as you please. The stipend for off campus, is a set amount by the athletic department for each athlete, baseball, football, basketball, etc. The student can choose where he wants to live, sometimes in housing that is less than stipend, sometimes more.

Tuition and books are tax deductible items, housing, meals are not.


Midlo,
If you have prepaid tuition, that might have something to do with amount awarded, we didn't let anyone know we had or didn't have prepaid tuition, that was our business. You would discuss that with the right people at billing time as to how best to use all monies. But if you do have some left over, your gonna' need it, trust me on that!

Jemaz, all I know is what was in the papers. But you're right, by my age I should know better than to believe everything I see in them!

TPM, thanks, you told me exactly what I needed to know!

justbaseball:

Great place and great times and great memories. You are a very lucky man -- then and now. Johnny Oates was a very special man through to the end.

I guess In need to ask the question a different way. When a program has 11.7 sholarships, does that translate to in-state tuition etc times 11.7 even if a student is out-of-state and would pay more?

Can a program have 11.7 scholarships and all are out-of-state yet no one pays anything, or does the 11.7 translate into a pool of money at in-state tuition rates?

I know the college can allocate it out in the different "buckets".

Here is the situation. My son can play D-1 at two really good schools but both are out-of-state. If they offer 70%, I would want the first money to go to tuition, then the rest to the other categories. Something tells me it doesn't work that way.

The NCAA requires that public universities calculate a weighted average cost per student that takes into account the split between in-state and out-of-state students and the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition. So, if the total cost of an in-state student is $10,000 and the corresponding cost for an out-of-state student is $30,000; and if in-state students make up 80% of the total student population, a "scholarship" is valued at $14,000 (($10,000*.80) + ($30,000*.20)).

In the case of baseball, this result is then multiplied by 11.7 to create a pool of dollars available to the coaching staff. To extend the example, a scholarship value of $14,000 would yield a total pool of $163,800 to be divided among the players receiving grants-in-aid ($14,000*11.7).

In my opinion, applying percentages to various components of the total cost threatens to only confuse the isssue. The coaches grant a certain amount to the player, say $4,000. Each semester, the cashier's office is going to apply $2,000 to whatever it charges and the family pays the rest. End of story. Let's not make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Justbaseball,

I played for two years under Charlie Coffey and two years under Jimmy "dadgummit" Sharpe, and spent a lot of time in Lane Stadium.

Interestingly enough, the turf in Lane is now over a gazillion dollar pump system that pumps off rainwater from below, or forces water up if needed, which is why you will never see a muddy mess at Lane, and why the grass is green for those late November games.

We used to be given $15 a month in addition to our scholarships, for "laundry money"; it was paid in cash and we lined up and signed a receipt each month. I never saw a single guy use it for laundry in my 4 years.

Good times, good memories.

Prepster - Good information! I didn't know about the weighted average calculation.

hokieone and jemaz - Wonder if we were ever neighbors? (actually we moved away when Charlie Coffey was coming in).

hokieone - Did you play with Sid Snell (we called him Sidney as kids)? I remember playing Pop Warner (or whatever it was) against him...big dude rolling around the left end with the ball and I've gotta stop him WHAM! Or trying to run against him in the Cub Scout track meet at VPI. Geez, that was fun.

Great memories of Blacksburg for me. Ice skating on "Duck Pond," sledding all day Christmas day down the street in front of our house, canoe-ing on the New River, summer days at Claytor Lake, VPI football and basketball... Great times, great place to grow up.

justbaseball:

Sidney Snell was a stud at Blacksburg High School in both football and basketball (all state in both). He was a senior there in 1977-78 and then went on to star in football for the Hokies, although he never did quite as well as people might have expected when he was coming in. A very nice guy, but very, very quiet.

He was about three years behind hokieone but was recruited by Jimmie Sharpe. He then played for three years under Bill Dooley after Sharpe was fired. Again, great memories. I was a freshman at Tech for the last year of the Coffey regime (1973) and a year after the Hokies won the NIT in basketball under Don DeVoe, who had succeeded Howie Shannon, who you probably remember. You might have known his daughter, Maggie.

I got to know Sidney and a lot of these folks in my job as a sportswriter for the Collegiate Times (the campus newspaper) and then later the Blacksburg Sun, a twice-a-week paper in town. It is a very, very special place and I still get there a few times a year for football games. Hokieone, you will have to join us with your sons sometime for a tailgate.

Prepster:

Very good past that matches my understanding exactly, although I could not have explained it so well.

jemaz - I was a 'paper-boy' for the Blacksburg Sun.

Do you know what Sidney is doing now?

I guess we've hijacked this thread - huh?

Prepster, you add to my education, and thank you very much!

What this tells me is that a state university team can actually give out MORE than 11.7 scholarships if it focuses its recruiting in state.

That might explain why UNC has so few out-of-state players?

I always assumed the fractions were determined on a player-by-player basis and then added up, and couldn't exceed 11.7. I thought that the incentive to recruit in state was that the ceiling could be hit with fewer dollars being spent, and since money doesn't flow as freely to baseball as to, say, football, that sounded logical to me.

But what you're saying is that you first calculate how the 11.7 translates into dollars and then you allocate the dollars. Those dollars will go farther if you are spending them on kids who already benefit from in-state tuition.

I've always wondered about this because it seems like with all the kids you have claiming they got "full rides", or high %'s, it seemed to me the team had to be doling out more than 11.7. I understand some folks may well be bragging or exaggerating but now I also understand that there may be more than 11.7 at some state university programs after all.

Getting enlightenment like this makes it worth watching this site every day!

You, jemaz, and justbaseball are very welcome, Midlo Dad.

Generally speaking, you're absolutely right that state universities are able to stretch their available dollars farther by concentrating their attention on in-state recruits. Add "Hope-style" scholarships to this equation (scholarships which by virtue of their availability to the student body at-large are available to qualifying athletes), and you create a decided advantage to public universities. (North Carolina does not grant "Hope-style" scholarships.)

In UNC's specific case, this is a factor; but, the admissions office's relatively rigid standards for out-of-state students also bear a fair amount of responsibility for limiting the number of out-of-state players on the roster. (Also true for transfers.)

I have tried to explain it before, Prepster did an excellent job.

I hope your explanation can clear up misconceptions about how scholarships are determined.

Though many say a "full ride" is hardly given out, using the example given above, a coach in reality can give out a full scholarship (14K) if he wanted to and remain within his scholarship budget.

I am wondering, if some schools do not "fully fund", does that mean the coach has just not used up his budget allotment?

Now ya'll got me wondering where my part of the stipend is.

quote:

Originally posted by FormerObserver:
Now ya'll got me wondering where my part of the stipend is.

I don't believe that parents of college players are given an allowance!

Shoot, I thought I might have some back stipend coming.....

It got spent on laundry.

quote:

Originally posted by Tiger Paw Mom:
I am wondering, if some schools do not "fully fund", does that mean the coach has just not used up his budget allotment?

If you use Prepster's example, the total fund for the program would be $163,800. My understanding is that a school could say "Coach, we're only giving you $140,000 for the baseball program". So instead of it being "fully funded" at $163.8K, it's "partially funded" at "$140k or 10 scholarships. It's simplified but is that correct?