HA D3 Dilemma

One HA coach gave us a contact in the financial aid office, and they did an estimate.  Each school calculates things differently based on the same financial information, with sometimes wide variations, so you really do have to ask each one.  Two sons next year at two schools, the EFCs differed by several thousand dollars.

I do think that the rigor and challenge of coursework is greater at schools that are more selective, and the students with whom you do groupwork are likely to be more capable and focused.  If baseball reduces the time available for out-of-class educational activities (jobs in labs, clubs, or serving as TAs, for example), then the classes themselves are more important.  However, what any student gets out of an education is what he makes of it.

My son works for an international as a consultant. His starting salary was totally based upon his school; graduates of other schools started lower (5 figures lower). The gap has not been closed in three years.

My daughter (same school) works in IB. She was not top 10% of graduating class; others in her cohort, from other schools, were required to be top 10%. While she is not objective, she claims her school prepared her better for this type of work; not in giving her actual, useful knowledge, but in teaching her how to think, analyze, communicate (orally and in writing), prioritize, work in hard bursts (often times 100/hrs per week), teach herself new areas and produce unique work product without constant supervision. 

Be sure you are narrowly defining HA; there is a difference between admit rates of 4% and admit rates of 15%. (Also, those 4% schools have incredible FA. We got roughly 40% off [over 6 years] sticker with no loans. Ask for a FA read before committing if ED is asked of you.)

Press the coach to tell you what players who graduated over the past 5 years are now doing.