Definition of 100%

Some states have a certain number of out of state tuition waivers for some scholarship winners (including athletes). Some don’t. Some state schools have discounted tuition arrangements with bordering states. Some states don’t. It varies even more with private schools, where more often financial aid is available (if you qualify) that most people can even imagine. That’s why it’s best to get all offers in writing because it can be very confusing when trying to compare one to another.

I had a somewhat similar question.  My kid is looking at an instate D2.  They have a little over 9 scholarships.  Instate tuition is $17k.  Out of state tuition is $40k.   In general, do schools prefer to take more instate kids to keep the payouts lower?   

@Dadbelly2023 posted:

I had a somewhat similar question.  My kid is looking at an instate D2.  They have a little over 9 scholarships.  Instate tuition is $17k.  Out of state tuition is $40k.   In general, do schools prefer to take more instate kids to keep the payouts lower?   

Most schools prefer instate students or those (reciprocal agreements) receiving in state pricing. It’s not just a matter of overall cost. It’s a matter of departmental budgeting.

I have found, in baseball, that “full ride” is something that each parent makes up to suit themselves. Some actually mean that the combination of baseball and academic fully covers all of their costs but many others use the loopholes you described above to say full ride when it is full tuition or tuition room and board but not books or other incidentals. IMHO full ride=full total costs (using head count sports as the benchmark). We never used the words “full ride” to discuss my son’s baseball package. The closest we would say is between an academic scholarship and his baseball offer we will pay very little for him to go to school. Most of the time we didn’t discuss it at all or would say “he got a great offer”because it was none of people’s business. 😂

Both my kids had 100% rides. What academics and baseball/softball didn’t cover I paid. They paid nothing. Full ride.

Whenever I hear someone say "full ride," I usually respond with "There's no full ride in baseball."

@Dadbelly2023 posted:

I had a somewhat similar question.  My kid is looking at an instate D2.  They have a little over 9 scholarships.  Instate tuition is $17k.  Out of state tuition is $40k.   In general, do schools prefer to take more instate kids to keep the payouts lower?   

Thanks to the wealth of information that one can get from College Baseball Insights, as well as the information shared on this board, one of the things that I learned that was tremendously valuable in my son's recruiting process was that most schools prefer in-state kids.

Think about it: Baseball scholarships are unicorns. If you're lucky enough to get one, it's a partial. On top of that, maybe you can get some academic money. But, the documented reality is that college baseball is a pay to play sport.

That said, it's natural for schools to attract in-state kids because it's cheaper for the kid to attend that school. And cheaper is important when you are paying.

Plus it's cheaper for schools to find in-state recruits because they don't have to travel that far. And we know about the budgets for college baseball programs.

Not that it's impossible. My son will be an out of state kid. But when you look at the college roster, he's one of the few.

People looking for a place to play really need to heavily consider in state schools because the probably of making that roster is much greater than a school 1,500 miles away.

The exceptions are kids who are super elite where any school would have them or a school like Vanderbilt who has money to give outside of their 11.7 scholarships.

@Francis7 posted:

Whenever I hear someone say "full ride," I usually respond with "There's no full ride in baseball."

I try my very best to say absolutely nothing, because typically when those words are uttered together in a sentence the person has no idea what that means or can detail exactly what it means.   I feel a strong need to walk the other way at cocktail parties.

Case and point, I was with one of my best friends this week playing golf in Florida with my college buddies.  His oldest daughter just signed her D1 Beach Volleyball NLI and he was talking to me about athletic and academic scholarship money.   He fell short of the "full ride" statement, but wanted to pick my brain how the 6 scholarships for 14 athletes works in Beach Volleyball.  I explained it works the same way in college baseball.   He is a very bright guy who runs his own company, and he had no idea whatsoever how this stuff worked.  His daughter signed her NLI this week, and I'm hoping she read it and her Mom read it because I know Daddy didn't.

JMO.

The devil's in the details. My oldest got an offer early on which the RC called a full ride. What he meant was tuition, did not include room and board, expenses.

In my mind 100% refers to total COA covered.

I had a guy argue with me the other day that my son got 100% baseball.  I said I would pay him to find the other part for me because I was taking out a loan every semester to pay our part.

Middle son got 75% which is the most I've ever heard of in just baseball money.  Most that school had ever given for baseball.  But they somewhat could afford to because in-state guys get 100% almost guaranteed from academic and individual giving money.

@PitchingFan posted:

I had a guy argue with me the other day that my son got 100% baseball.  I said I would pay him to find the other part for me because I was taking out a loan every semester to pay our part.

Middle son got 75% which is the most I've ever heard of in just baseball money.  Most that school had ever given for baseball.  But they somewhat could afford to because in-state guys get 100% almost guaranteed from academic and individual giving money.

I’m sure most of you can relate to this story - and many of you probably know a guy just like this. I was helping conduct a pitching clinic yesterday with 15 & 17 yr olds that are all in the same travel ball org. It’s a local DFW org that was started by a dad that has been very successful in business )but knows nothing about baseball) for the benefit of his two sons. He hires good coaches and had done enough things right to keep his org going, and even bring in better players (mostly because the coaching is good). After we finished talking to the kids (primarily about how you never know when someone is watching) this guy pipes up and says, “Jesse did all those things. That’s why he got a full ride to UT San Antonio.” I wanted to smack him in the mouth right then and there. I know Jesse and I can promise he wasn’t offered a 100% baseball scholarship to any 4 year school. But this was stated to 12 impressionable teenagers by someone that they (at least somewhat) look up to. Things like that just promote unrealistic expectations that more knowledge people have to “correct” somewhere down the line. I wish people in positions of influence would do better.

Catching up with an old friend yesterday.  Her son played CYO with mine but never made the varsity basketball team. A name came up - good friend of her son. I said whatever happened to his little brother; he was talented. She said he had a great HS career and got a full ride to play at   ______ college.   

It's a D3.

All I said was, oh, cool.

When my 22 got his NLI last week there was a bit of drama. His athletic money was less than originally discussed. Turned out they found another place to get some of the money from. Still getting same amount just from different places. Personally I'm fine with that. Any money outside of athletic will be pretty much guaranteed over 4 years.

It's laughable how many players and parents around my area spout off the "it's a full ride" nonsense.  Since no one ever has the audacity to ask for proof, there is seemingly no risk in promoting the lie.  Unless, of course, you count people like me coming here, talking about it and shaking their heads.  One of the latest ones I heard was a buddy of my son.  He's a 2022 and he got and accepted an offer from a lower SEC program in late August.  He's not a pitcher.  Not an Einstein.  Claims it's a full ride.  Some of us rolled our eyes, but there are undoubtedly some players and parents out there who believe it.  Or they want to say it's not true, but won't under the "maybe" or "you never know" premise.  I think it's funny the way it creates a sort of lore around the kid.

During my real estate career, the State of California provided an opportunity to talk 6 hours to a group of real estate agents. I always initiated the seminar with the word "substantial". There are 5 different definitions of the word in the real estate World.

It is the same as a 100% scholarship.

The answer is with the Athletic Dept of the College. The "bottom" line "can he play"!!!!!

Bob

@Francis7 posted:

Whenever I hear someone say "full ride," I usually respond with "There's no full ride in baseball."

You would be wrong. It's unlikely that somebody is on a full ride but they definitely exist

@PABaseball posted:

You would be wrong. It's unlikely that somebody is on a full ride but they definitely exist

I'm sure they do...but it's probably 1% of all college players who get them.

Pitchingfan. Can you clarify what "individual giving money" means? Thx

Son went to the Citadel which has individual scholarships given by alumni or families.  These are given to students to specific types of students, some with very detailed requirements.  They have the ability to find them for in-state students along with the many academic and state scholarships they have so in-state students who attend The Citadel usually are 100% on scholarship for something but never baseball.  Some of them will say a student has to graduate from a certain HS pursuing a certain degree with a certain financial need.  Very specific scholarships or grants given.

My child went to play softball and get a great education.  She played for four years and received academic scholarship monies all four years.  Our total out-of-pocket for those years was $2,500 including a summer course not covered.  Not bad and no college debt. 

If my taxi doesn't get me 100% of the way to my destination, it's not a full ride. Same with scholarships.

Anything other than 100% of costs to attend (tuition, room/board, mandatory fees) is not a full ride.

If you're part of the 5 to 12% of HS players (depending on your source) who move on to play in college, congrats. If you got $1,000 or $120,000 of your costs to attend covered due to your academic, athletic, or combination of said abilities, congrats. And if you got a full ride, congrats.

I know in the southeast there are states that provide free or heavily subsidized tuition within the state university system. Students get $x with a 3.0 high school GPA and $x+ with a higher GPA.

Does this scenario allow fully funded baseball programs to give out a bunch of free rides given tuition or a large portion of tuition is covered by the state? Does this money from the state full under the NCAA rules of receiving both academic and athletic money?

@RJM

Speaking only for Georgia generally, and UGA specifically: a recipient of the Zell Miller scholarship would have tuition at UGA 100% paid for (tuition only, nothing else). And as the requirements for receiving this scholarship (3.7 and 1200+) are higher than the NCAA requirements for exemption (3.5 and 1200+), you're correct that it SHOULD allow non-private schools to give out free (or nearly free) rides.

But when you move to a private school like Mercer, you'll still be on the hook for the remainder of the tuition (or you'll need some more scholarship $). Mercer coach said at a camp that their goal is to get at least 75% of costs covered for their athletes between academic and athletic means.

@RJM posted:

I know in the southeast there are states that provide free or heavily subsidized tuition within the state university system. Students get $x with a 3.0 high school GPA and $x+ with a higher GPA.

Does this scenario allow fully funded baseball programs to give out a bunch of free rides given tuition or a large portion of tuition is covered by the state? Does this money from the state full under the NCAA rules of receiving both academic and athletic money?

Yes it does.  The sad part is we own a home in TN but since we are not considered residents we get no benefit.  If we lived in TN, he would have definitely had all of his schooling paid for between baseball and academic scholarships and HOPE.  Most academic scholarships at public schools do not give them to out of state students and I know none that give lottery driven scholarships to out of state students.  Son does get in-state tuition through a Southeast Regional consortium.   But if he got baseball, academic, and HOPE it would not a 100% scholarship but a % for baseball, an amount for academic, and an amount for HOPE.