Tuition - but not room and board

Not sure what parents expected.  Even the state schools costs between $15,000 and $25,000 minimum for tuition, books, fees, food and living expenses.  Private schools are usually at least double that.  The school would have had some financial aid available usually based on parental income, and at worst kid could have received loans.  Baseball scholarships are rarely full scholarships, (unlike football and basketball).  Only to crème-de-la crème pitchers get anything close to 100%. 

I agree, but I didn't ask any questions or get into their business regarding what the final cost would be. The kid told my son it was almost all paid for. And perhaps that was the case with the tuition only. A quick search yield a tuition cost of around $23,000 per year. With an apparent $8,000 in room and board, total cost of attendance is around $31,000.

This type of information is easily available and accessible if you look for it, or ask. This family is likely eligible for a good deal of financial aid and need based money based on a couple of things. Father works, mom is at home. This kid is the oldest and has several younger brothers and sisters.

However, this kid would have been a first generation college student. The kid and his parents probably didn't even consider total cost of attendance or realize that room and board wasn't part of his financial package. If you don't know, you don't know. If you don't know what questions to ask, you don't know.

Perhaps the coach should have been more clear. Perhaps, the college should have sent an itemized statement much sooner - and perhaps the school did and it was ignored? However, I just can't see that they didn't realize this until 5 weeks before he was to leave for college.

This is a communications breakdown.

I've heard coaches try to dress up an offer by phrasing it as "full tuition" or "100% tuition."  I always prefer the offer being in terms of a fixed percentage of total cost of attendance so that people know what they are getting into.  At a D1 school, the coach is working with portions of his 11.7, so it tends to line up well.  At an NAIA school, it's possible the coach is working on a strict dollars budget and thus, may need to set up deals on a dollars basis.

While the coach may be guilty of a bit of puffery, if someone says "full tuition" and something doesn't go off in your mind to say, "Wait, what about room, board, books, etc.?"  Then I think this is your own fault.  The fact that tuition is not all there is to pay for college is commonly known. 

On the other hand, his parents have been feeding him all these years.  If he's not living in their house, there will be some savings.  So they should appreciate that there is some offset to the net costs under discussion, before they just throw it all away and leave their son both out of college and out of baseball.

Certainly the coach could have recognized some folks need a little more hand-holding.  Perhaps the recruit and his parent(s) should have been asking more questions.   This is the part of the process (financial) that the recruit can't do it on his own.....the parent(s) have to get involved.   I'm all for letting the kid run his own recruiting campaign, but this is the point where the parents need to recognize this is a new situation for their son and they need to insert themselves.

I think it is a great idea when recruits visit coaches on unofficial visits to also meet with academic folks and financial aid folks when ever possible.  It has to be a fit all the way around.   JMO.

1- Very honest question here....  Can they go to the local community college for less than $8,000 if they are taking 12 - 15 credits (full time student)?

2 - Isn't taking on $8,000 in student loans worth it?  Even if the kid has to do that for 4 years he comes out "only" $32,000 in debt.  Last time I checked that is less than 1/2 of 1 years tuition at lots of schools.

Its an investment in the kids future!  I'd say any kid is worth investing in!

Rich

www.PlayInSchool.com/bus_tour

As previously said, this is a communication mistake that should not happen.  The coaching staff, advisers, ... all have a role in letting a player/parents know what they will be responsible for.  This is my daughter's senior year and we were disappointed that we will have to pay for all of the room and board this year.  Her amount of athletic scholarship has not changed.  Her freshman year, we hardly paid anything.  Her sophomore year much the same.  Last year, there was a jump in tuition but her athletic amount didn't change.  Still with the academic money, we were pretty good.  This year, we have to pay for all of the room and board as tuition went up again.  While were are not happy about that, we knew it was coming.  We do have good communication with the coach.  In so many ways, we have been blessed and so, this year we will just have to do it.  It won't be as much as that player in the OP mentioned. 

I feel badly for the young man.  When I attended college, I had an academic scholarship and no athletic monies.  I would have had my second year but dad told me I had to go to work since we could not afford for me to play ball and eat.  I hope this young man finds a way.  Good luck!

1. Yes, he can go to the local community college for much less than the $8,000.

2. IMO, $8,000 in loans is not worth it for a couple of very important reasons.

First, this kid will be at best a marginal student. I seriously doubt that he will be able to handle college work and stay eligible. He was lucky to get in at all.

This kid was at best, an average, to below average high school varsity player. Probably batted .235 as a junior and .210 as a senior. He's a shaky outfielder who makes some bad reads and doesn't always make the routine plays either. Matured early and was a good middle school and j.v. player but peaked by 9th grade. To be honest, everyone was surprised that he was going to play in college because he just wasn't that good. He must have had a great camp and hit well in BP or ran a decent 60. It just didn't make sense that he was going on to play in college.

My suspicion is this: School has an enrollment driven athletics program. School operates a j.v./developmental team and can offer a large amount of "baseball money", that doesn't count as athletic scholarships as a way to bring in players (students). If the kid makes varsity, great. If not, he's on the j.v. and is enrolled. I'm just guessing here, but I bet I'm right.

I find it hard to believe that all the financial stuff wasn't discussed sooner. Sounds fishy to me. Coaches don't want to waste their time on stuff like this. They would not just send a bill to the family without previous discussions. 

Secondly, if the kids family had this little involvement not to know there would become costs, shame on them.

My guess is that he never had an offer/scholarship to begin with. I thought NAIA could only offer financial aid &academic money. There is zero athletic $$$. That being said, the parents would have had to fill out a ton of paperwork and provide financials, thus, they would have known their financial responsibilities a lot sooner.

Picked Off. Yes there is athletic money available at NAIA schools. Before son accepted D2 offer he was offered 75% at an out of state NAIA in Athletic and Financial aid monies. While the OP sounds a little strange it looks like the right questions were not asked. Stafford. While the info in the OP does tend to paint the young man as a marginal student there is absolutely no way to judge the kids talent. D1 definitely and most all D2 schools will take a quick pass on lackluster students quicker then a New York minute. And that has nothing to do with talent. I just cant fathom saying the kid was a 250 hitter or a 210 hitter with NOTHING to go on. Pretty judgmental to me with no facts just a broad sweeping indictment of this kid. And as far as $8000 for going to a JC. In the Jersey vernacular, forgetaboutit, not gonna happen. Not when you tally everything up. Been there did that. $8000 worth of loans is actually not a bad deal in the big scheme of things. Good luck to this young man.

Oldmanmoses' post is pretty accurate per our experience.  My daughter plays softball at The University of Missouri at St. Louis.  Every girl on that team started with a mix of athletic and academic.  Her school, but for sure, schools in their conference are very serious about the "student" in "student athlete." 

I can't speak about NAIA schools.  However, for the 40 or so schools that recruited my kid, every one of them set the financial commitment we had to pay up front with us.  The academic advisers did as well. Those advisers are the ones who determine which academic monies might be available.  Every school that we took a official visit sent a follow up detailing their offer in total. 

Picked Off: I agree that it all sounds fishy as well. And there may be a different version or two of what happened come out before it is over. 

Oldmanmoses: I'm basing my judgment of him as a player based on his last two seasons of play, although I have watched this kid play since he was 12. I can fully understand why stats don't fit with projection and I'll defer my opinion to the coaching staff that offered him based on his camp.

But this kid committed in the fall, got his test scores up, and signed in the spring. The plan since the middle of the fall has been for him to go and now he's not. I don't know the real story or why they didn't know, I'm just passing along what he told my kid as to why and that it was they didn't know about the room and board cost.