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!
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Strongly encourage you to research the schools your son is interested in at these sites (below) to understand the specific cost of a school and how to interpret all the financial data that could potentially come your way. Also, encourage you to call the Financial Aid office to answer specific questions about the school and your situation. If your son is offered an athletic and/or academic scholarship, the school will generate a financial package for him. If you have already done your homework, you'll understand what to expect, and be able to ask the right questions for your families financial situation rather than fly by the seat of your pants like I did with oldest son. Keep in mind, there are all kinds of financial aid models these schools use, so that is why I'm suggesting getting ahead of the curve.
http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
http://collegecost.ed.gov/netpricecenter.aspx
http://collegecost.ed.gov/catc/Default.aspx
Good luck, and remember it is your money. Most of the financial aid folks we dealt with were very helpful, but somewhat overwhelmed with requests. Keep the coaches updated on your financial aid progress and they can grease the skids when needed. That was our experience.
Go to the cost calculator for a few of the targeted colleges on your 2019's list. Private colleges, public, in state, out of state, D3/Ivy's no scholarship, strong need based financial assistance... So many variables.
I'd be encouraging your 2019 to take school as serious as he's taking his baseball, and more so. Coaches can help find money that can complement the baseball scholarship, and if the player maintains a certain gpa the academic money can be renewed. It can be a difference of getting 25% and getting 40% financial assistance (baseball plus academic). You'd be surprised......
I know a specific player attending a power conference academic. He rec'd 25% baseball and 15% academic; total of 40% of a $65,000 education. As long as the player made the roster sophomore year he'd be bumped up to 50% baseball. If he maintained a 3.0gpa, he'd keep the 15% academic money. His sophomore year he was able to get up to 60% total scholarship money. This kid was a 29ACT at a college where the avg ACT is 33.
Came down to can the family afford remaining balance of $39,000 for the first year of college. Was the family willing to take the risk that the player/son could keep a 3.0 gpa while playing a power conference schedule? Would the player be good enough the first year to be rostered the second year? (which would bring the cost down to $26,000 the second year?
A lot of unknowns, and after four years there is still going to be a lot of student debt. Is the player going into a career field that will pay him enough to pay off the student loans? If the family has sufficient income, there's no issue.
This kid would have likely gone to a Mid D1 state school if the family couldn't afford it. The top D1 power conference schools weren't recruiting this player.
If you're talking about a D1, figure 25% for baseball.....unless your kid is a stud, that's likely where he'll be. You should be able to find academic scholarship info on almost every college's site. It will show guarantee scholarships that are determined by GPA and ACT. It's not always easy to find, but I think in every college we looked at, we eventually found it. They usually have a search box at the top of the front page....try "scholarships" in that box. If you can't, call the finance office. It's a little tough considering your son is a 2019, likely won't have his final ACT for a couple years and you're estimating GPA....but you really don't have a more reliable way for a 2019.
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.
When people calculate the cost of college they often overlook ...
- books, they're expensive
- laptop
- student fees
- cost of coming home for Thanksgiving, Christmas and end of school year
- spending money
- parent's travel to see kid play
The small stuff adds up.
I was recently visiting where my kids grew up. I dropped by a good friend's house. They had a Mercedes and a BMW in the garage. I asked about the new cars. The answer with a big smile, "No more college to pay for!"
RJM posted:When people calculate the cost of college they often overlook ...
- books, they're expensive
- laptop
- student fees
- cost of coming home for Thanksgiving, Christmas and end of school year
- spending money
- parent's travel to see kid play
The small stuff adds up.
All true, but OTOH, you save on food, (and maybe) gas, and auto insurance when they are not at home. That adds up too.
Thanks guys! So much to think about.....wanna make sure as things continue to develop we have some idea about what is realistic and what isn't. Son is about a 3.7 GPA right now and pushing hard academically. Do high school counselors have the capacity to aid you in preliminary assessments of schools? Getting ready to attend our first couple college camps after very successful summer tour....trying to think about what we need to think about!
"Do high school counselors have the capacity to aid you in preliminary assessments of schools?"
They should. In our HS they had a detailed process that students followed outlining when they were supposed to have a list of targeted schools and a review process with the GC (and then lots of other steps from there). Everything was loaded into a system called Navance - I'm not sure how widely it's used across the country but it was very useful for us to look at the schools he was targeting and where he stood academically. It shows all the GPA, SAT, ACT averages for each school, shows all the applicants from our HS on a graph and where son's grades fell on the same graph (and if those other students were admitted, wait-listed, denied, etc). We met with the guidance counselor and reviewed the list (and discussed son's plans for baseball and academics) and she added schools to the list that she felt would be a good fit based on that discussion. She did not take baseball into account when she did that.
As you start to get closer the financial aid offices of the programs you are interested can be very helpful. Also in the cost equation you need to consider are visits, also if you plan on attending games (d'oh) but this can add up quickly if you consider flights, hotels, food, rental cars, and something that ALWAYS happens when you show up; the kid has been eating dorm food for months and wants to go out, of course a couple of friends tag along and pretty soon you have a hefty meal bill. Trips home for breaks, Thanksgiving, Christmas, so distance from home plays into this when selecting a program. We always made a trip to the local Wallmart or Costco to "stock up" my son for the next couple of months of snacks, etc and this was always at least another $100+. You can plan for a 0.5GPA drop from HS to College to keep academic scholarship money.
... so plan for lots of unplanned expenses.
Travel tip: At least for us the first year we got a SW Airline credit card and ended up getting a free companion pass so at least one of us could fly free, plus the points always added up so I could fly Jr home for breaks much cheaper.
Best of luck, there are lots of us who have been there. 
I recently came across http://www.thecollegesolution.com
While it is not aimed at athletes per se, it has an extraordinary amount of tips about college finances in particular. A couple of hours of research and I felt much more informed. She highly stresses applying for FAFSA and using Net Price Calculators to get started.
2019Lefty21 posted:Do high school counselors have the capacity to aid you in preliminary assessments of schools? Getting ready to attend our first couple college camps after very successful summer tour....trying to think about what we need to think about!
I would expect a high school councilor to help you, but you have to tell them what you want. In other words, you need to be "driving the bus". In my oldest son's case, he was being recruited by some schools that were not in our region. Frankly I'm not sure if the guidance staff ever heard of some of these schools or knew where they were. Essentially it was up to us to figure things out and then have the guidance councelor help out as needed. In our case the guidance councelor was also his baseball coach and I think he learned a lot along the way.
If there is one thing I learned about all of this recruiting mumbo jumbo is that you can only rely on your son and spouse. There will be people that help you through various aspects of the recruiting journey (travel coach, legion coach, guidance councilor, folks at HSBBWeb, websites, books) but for the most part it is up to you to figure out. There is only a "not so easy" button.
Good luck!
I'll give you some if the things I've learned.
1) if you're looking out of state, check for schools that have reciprocal agreements with your state or offer out of state tuition waivers or automatic scholarships for non-resident students. My son has offers, but all seem to be from schools that provide little to no non-resident help. For these schools even a 50-60% offer leaves a lot unpaid for. For example, he has an offer from one public institution of 60%. However, tuition runs $33K / year. Another only offers 40%, but tuition is $20k.
2) We haven't had an offer where the % didn't cover tuition, fees, and room and board. Some can also apply that to the cost of living as a whole. Some do, some don't (to do so coats them budget money but doesn't count against their scholarship allotment). This makes a big difference.
3) The amount offered isn't necessarily tied to talent level. Plenty of studs only get offered 25% because they can cover much of the rest from other sources and they will often feel the need to offer out of state kids without other resources bigger %'s.
4) A limited number of public schools will have the ability to qualify for residency after the first year. Not a lot, but a few.
Several parents at SSU have considered - buying a house at 10% down and renting rooms to the baseball players.
This is Business 101.
In "growth" areas like California, the house can increase in value to offset the College costs.
Bob
Academic Common Market may help as well:
In our experience, after the offer was made and accepted after son's sophomore year, the JULY BEFORE SON ARRIVED ON CAMPUS the school raised tuition $4500 per year. Over 4 years, that was like a whole additional year of tuition we needed to pay. In our case, tuition was then frozen for his 4 years, but that hike was something we didn't see coming.
There are some schools, good baseball schools, that if you meet certain SAT levels, you get instate tuition rates. These are offered to all students and can usually be found on the school's website. South Carolina and Alabama(?) come to mind and I am sure there are others.
Sometimes living off campus is cheaper depending on where the school is located. Spring semester food bill may drop since they may receive a per diem stipend for food for away games. Son made a few bucks from the stipends in the spring semesters since we often took him out to eat after away games.
Don't necessarily look for the best "deal" for your son for his 3-4-5 years in college. There are too many variables. Go where he can get a good education and maybe have some of it paid for by baseball. Be prepared to pay the full tab after the first year because baseball scholarships can go away.
Just wondering, since a lot of people mentioned "financial aid pre-read" -- will the pre-read also include merit aid? I've checked a few college web site, and very few have any concrete criteria on merit aid. A lot of them are vague, I think by-design, such as "you have to show leadership potential". I think some of those are reserved for athletes (in D3 schools); is that a valid assumption?
It all boils down to the total aid package. We are fortunate enough to afford a private school (barely), but that means that we get no financial need assistance. However the merit aid offered by some of the privates schools made the total cost less than if my sons went to the local state schools which offered us next to nothing.
Shoveit4Ks posted:Academic Common Market may help as well:
I took a look...home state is Texas. Out of state offerings were all graduate level degrees. Maybe if home state is different, a different answer.
2boydad posted:It all boils down to the total aid package. We are fortunate enough to afford a private school (barely), but that means that we get no financial need assistance. However the merit aid offered by some of the privates schools made the total cost less than if my sons went to the local state schools which offered us next to nothing.
This was also the case for our son. He wouldn't have received anything from the state schools. Very solid package at his private school.
Folks on this site will also frequently comment that walk ons (preferred and otherwise) don't often have the same footing athletically as their scholarship counterparts. That isn't always the case. Some schools want a kid that they expect to contribute without using any baseball dollars if they can pull it off. Always do your homework.
Go44dad posted:Shoveit4Ks posted:Academic Common Market may help as well:
I took a look...home state is Texas. Out of state offerings were all graduate level degrees. Maybe if home state is different, a different answer.
I believe Arkansas offers a scholarship to cover the delta between OOS and IS tuition. Has some metrics to be met but a possible option.
Shoveit4Ks posted:Go44dad posted:Shoveit4Ks posted:Academic Common Market may help as well:
I took a look...home state is Texas. Out of state offerings were all graduate level degrees. Maybe if home state is different, a different answer.
I believe Arkansas offers a scholarship to cover the delta between OOS and IS tuition. Has some metrics to be met but a possible option.
Son had a summer HS teammate go to Arkansas from OOS. They were offereing IS tuition if he met an ACT/GPA combination, I can't remember the specific requirement.
In order to keep on track to graduate on time WINTER courses are sometimes required. May want to check what is covered when they say X% of tuition.
I always recommend freshman live ON campus. This helps with the transition from their parents house to "living on their own". Living on campus will REQUIRE you to purchase a food plan, just keep that in mind. After Freshman year off campus housing is preferable because it has more freedom to come and go as well as to store/cook your own food. The prices are in some cases even cheaper than the dorms, and you have the added bonus to have a place to stay for winter classes.
Many colleges post on their websites "the extras" as far as the average cost of room/board/books per semester. The cost of books needs to be doubled for any science major. Us lucky few have the privilege of attending class for 3-4 hours per week and then attend a lab for 3-4 hours a week....for the same amount of credits. 
