Division 3 schools

Hello:

Our son just left home as an incoming first-year at a private, d3 school about 1,000 miles from home, where he will also play ball. So, we went through the d3 process last year - high academic private liberal arts schools.

Here's a basic rundown as I know it, forgive me if this information you already know:

Obviously, there is no athletic money. Merit money will be awarded after acceptance to the school, and it is based upon your son's academic achievement and test scores. You should complete the CSS PROFILE from the College Board during the application process as well. Of course the more selective the school, the higher the bar is set for gaining merit money, so it is really important that you balance that against your son's academic profile if attaining merit money is important.

As an example, your son might be admitted to schools like Wesleyan U, Hamilton, Macalester, Pomona, Whitman, etc. but not be awarded any merit money because of the exceptional academic profile of the incoming class. He might also be admitted to let's say Dickinson, or Willamette out west here, which are also very, very fine schools, and receive substantial merit money because their class profile places your son among the top 25% or so of applicants. So, if merit money is a necessity, you should consider the balance between school selectivity, and where your son's academic achievement and test scores place him on the school's class profile (bottom of middle 50% as an example versus top 20% at another)

Asides from merit money, most schools also offer money to exceptional performers in let's say, music, art, maybe debate, etc.

Then, there is needs-based financial aid, which is calculated from your FAFSA application, from which the school calculates your estimated family contribution to tuition. You can find easy estimator tools on-line that can help you determine what level of needs-based aid you might receive. Household gross income of about $150K and up probably precludes any needs-based aid.

The baseball coach may help your son's admission to the school by sponsoring his application through admissions, but he'll most likely have no ability to influence any form of merit money other than what your son would earn otherwise.

Very best of luck to you and your son.

....another thing, don't forget about scholarship opportunities in your local community. Groups like your local Kiwanis, Rotary and a multitude of organizations offer scholarships. A lot of times, they amazingly might not get that many applications. Your son's high school counseling office should have info on all scholarship opportunities/applications in your community.

My son had friends earn anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 from these sources - they just researched and applied. These are good students who are good citizens, but it's not like they needed to have personally "saved the whales" to earn these awards. It can't hurt for your son to go after these.

Pretty good summary from like2rake. I just dropped my son off at a D3 (Trinity, Tx) this week, and can more or less confirm what was posted. We are from the West Coast and my son was recruited by a number of Ivy’s, and D1 schools in the West. We really did not explore the D3 option until we got down to decision time and in the end we felt the D3 option was the best match for him from an economic and academic/baseball balance standpoint. He ended up getting more academic money than he was offered athletic at most places, and we were also concerned about the escalating costs in the California Universities which we felt was going to impact our costs in the later years. For whatever reason there was little academic money offered at these schools.

We had a talk with the HC this week and although they take their baseball very seriously at Trinity, they will also work around a players academic schedules more than you will see at a D1. I had not really thought about this, but he said that around 20% of the D3 schools have very serious baseball programs and others, while fielding good teams, do not put the resources into them. You can research all of this at their websites and D3baseball.com to get an idea on the schools baseball program profile in conjunction with the usual academic research tools.

You can also go here to get an idea on how much any school financially supports a program. We found that a there was quite a variation in the financial support of D1 programs also, which also affected how successful they were. Although it was not the primary decision variable for my son it certainly influenced it in wanting to play for a successful program, regardless of the level.

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/Index.aspx

At least in our case the admissions advisor gave us a pretty good idea on how much money would be offered to him in advance of the official letter of acceptance.

Good Luck!

Lot of good info here.

Oldest son was a football player trying to decide between Ivy League, D2, and D3. He ended up at a reasonably selective NAIA school with a much better merit deal than he could have received through the need formula at the Ivies or from academic money at highly selective schools.

Then there's the benefit that we sports-crazy parents don't like to think about: there was no financial consequence when he eventually decided to give up football ("Dad, no one from this school has ever played in the NFL, I'm not going to be the first, and there are other activities on campus I want to get involved in.").

Or injury, or new coach, or, or, or...

...hitting .182

Hello like2rake,

Thank you for responding with what you know. We have been researching shools and I did notice that the highly selective schools offer very little merit money.We also have been looking at a few division 2 schools who offer quite a bit of merit money( over 10,000 a year)and if a player can get a athletic scholarship the cost to go to school goes down signifigantly.

I appreciate the tip about going to the counselor to see what scholarship opportunities are available.

We will definitely be filling out the fafsa. We will have two kids in college at the same time so we might qualify for something there too.

Thanks again for your reply!

Bof, Thank you for sharing your son's recruting process. Congratulations on his choice of Trinity. I have heard many good things about the academia and also about the highly rated baseball team. I really feel the academic life that the D3 can offer is a big plus.

Thanks for reminding me about checking on how much the schools spend on their baseball programs. One of the things I looked at was how many players the different schools had rostered.From the schools I checked there was a low ( my alma mater) 21 to a whopping 56 players...sheesh I bet some kids never see the field unless they have a JV schedule. Most of the JV schedules that I saw consisted of about 6 games. .

I feel fortunate that I live in the midwest. There are so many opportunities to play ball all the way from D1 to the local community college.

THAnks again BOF

Swampboy, Did I read right that your oldest son quit the football team but retained his athletic money ? Is this something NAIA schools do ? I think another poster stated that his son could quit baseball and still keep is athletic scholarship.

Hello Runningaway.

Please keep in mind, It's not that the highest academic D3 schools don't offer lots of merit money, In fact, most offer tons of merit money. The gigantic billion dollar endowments of these small private schools like Williams, Grinnell, Amherst, Pomona etc. feed that.

What I am saying is that since those schools attract the absolute cream of the crop applicants, the student must be exceptional to earn merit money. For instance a kid/player who is an honors/AP student with a 3.9 weighted GPA and a 2000 SAT may be admitted to a school like Tufts, particularly if he's a impact baseball recruit who the coach tags through admissions, however, that GPA/SAT won't qualify you for academic money - you'd need maybe a 4.4 and a 2200+ SAT to earn a sizable merit award at a school like that. However, the same 3.9/2000 kid might get $20,000+ a year at a highly selective D3 school just a notch or two lower in profile.

Like2rake,

Thanks, Got it. My son would be at 4.0 weighted 3.75 unweighted. He's good student not the steller Ivy type though. He's trying to get his ACT up a point or two.We will see how it goes.

Runningaway. Check out Lindenwood in St Louis. My son got a very sizable offer from them. It did not fit him academically but they are moving from NAIA to DII.

Good luck!

Running... I'm with BOF, check out Lindenwood. The recruiting staff (Coaches Chris Emanual/Raul Corrales) were some of the best we meet. Yes, they are transitioning from NAIA to NCAA D2(MIAA Conference), so the total number of scholarships is going to take a hit. But, they have great academic packages that will help close the gap. AND... they fully fund their program!

Lindenwood definitely has the facilities, campus, academics and recruiting plan to be a national power in D2 baseball. It is an exciting time for them and any incoming student athlete.

There are some specific parameters that can create 3-4 scenarios that will effect their program thru 2014. PM me if you'd like.... they really have a great plan in place. GUN considered the LIONS program one of his top picks.

GED10DaD

BOF and Gun, Thank you for the suggestion of Lindenwood it looks like a terrific school. The facilities certainly look top notch. The school's athletic history is very solid,there is a definite committment to building strong competitive teams.I'm sure we will be sending our son's information on to the head coach.