College Financial Aid for athletes can be a tricky business.  We like to use a simple phrase to explain how to get the best financial aid package, that is, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.  This means that if you want a great deal on your college education you have to know how the system works and you have to ask for more money!

Sometimes families get caught up in the regalia of college administrators and fail to realize that the college is simply running a business and trying to maximize profits.  Sure they are concerned about things other than money, but at many schools admissions and financial aid are the backbone of the school.

Being an educated consumer in this process can save you THOUSANDS of dollars.  Here are ? things you must know and understand.

1. Ignore the sticker price.  The sticker price of the tuition of a school simply doesn’t matter.  What matters is how much they want you to pay.  Do yourself a favor and ignore the sticker price.
2. Good grades make a HUGE difference in athletic recruiting.  Your GPA and SAT/ACT will be much more important statistics than your batting average, yards per carry, or points per game.  College admission professionals want their incoming class to have a high GPA/SAT/ACT average, that is how they are evaluated on their jobs.  The higher your scores the more willing they will be to “find” you extra money.  Every point counts.
3. Complete the FAFSA.  The FAFSA stands for the “free application for federal student aid”.  Many families don’t fill this out because they assume they aren’t getting any free money anyway.  However, filling it out could at least lead to interest free loan opportunities or work study.  It also is important because it gives you an EFC which can help the individual schools find you more money (see below)
4. Understand your EFC.  Your EFC stands for your “expected family contribution”, or what the government thinks you can afford to pay for colleges.  Make sure you are taking advantage of all the tax benefits you can to get your EFC as low as possible.  Colleges use this number to try to get your price down to your EFC.  Because of this, you should never rule out really expensive schools.  The more they cost the more money they have to give you!
5. The coach can help.  Sure, most coaches will tell you that financial aid is out of their hands.  Technically, it may be.  However, they can help.  Once you know that a coach is interested in you, don’t be afraid to ask him or her directly about aid. Financial aid is one of the biggest tools that coaches have to bring student-athletes into their programs, and a coach can be a big help in both navigating the college financial aid jungle and in finding more sources of aid you may not have even known were there. The further in advance you ask, the better – money and scholarships can (and do) run out, so there’s an advantage to thinking ahead.
6. The first offer a school makes is not the final offer.  Once you have completed all the steps in the process a school will give you a final award letter or student aid report.  This report will tell you exactly what the school costs.  If you don’t like it (or even if you do), ask them to lower it.  This alone can save you thousands.
7. Competition matters.  Obtaining final award offers from other schools (especially schools very similar to each other or in the same conference) can help lower the price.  A college doesn’t want to lose out on a high academic athlete to a rival school.  Even if you are getting a great price on your education it is still better than an empty dorm room.

RECRUITING 101 SERIES VIDEO- “How to Talk to College Coaches”

The topic of highlight videos usually accounts for a large percentage of the questions we receive from athletes and families.  I want to make this as simple as possible, so here goes.  When it comes to sports recruiting videos there are only TWO essentials things…

1. You need to have one NOW
2. You need to get it to college coaches NOW

Sounds simple, right?  Don’t get caught up in all the minor details.  And don’t wait until it’s too late!

Let’s examine #1.  While you are waiting to get the right footage or waiting for the season to end so the coach can make a tape other kids are getting evaluated via video by college coaches.  When I was a college coach I’d often ask recruits to send us video so we could quickly evaluate them to see if they were worth calling, watching a full length tape, watching in person, or inviting to campus.  Many times the response was something like, “Uh, I think my mom was going to send some,” or “I think  my coach has some and I’ll try to get him to send you some.”  Most of the time the video never came or by the time I did I forgot who the kid was.  The athletes that quickly responded with a video got evaluated.  Now, I’m not saying the video makes them a better player, but at least it get’s them evaluated by a coach and not forgotten about.  The easiest way for you to be able to respond to coaches is to have your video on-line and know your URL to send to coaches.  This can easily be done by uploading to a free site like YouTube or Vimeo.

Let’s examine #2.  This one sometimes cracks me up.  I see kids all the time putting their videos on all these websites across the internet like Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sports video recruiting sites hoping that college coaches will stumble across the video and recruit them.  They post things like, “re-post this around, I’m trying to get this viral so I can get a scholarship.”  That may work for funny videos of cats and dogs, but this is a silly idea for college recruiting videos.  In my eight years as a college coach I had many busy days.  I never came to the office and decided I’d spend my day surfing on-line for that unknown talent.  Never!  All college coaches have a computer at their desk.  Inside that computer they have an e-mail account and personal e-mail address where they send and receive correspondence about work related things like their budget, their team, and recruiting.  Want a coach to watch your video?  Simply send the coach an e-mail with your video link.  Better yet, send 1,000 college coaches your video link.  If you have an awesome video with music and graphics and flames coming out of the ball it shows all your skill and ability but only your buds and grandma and grandpa watch, is it really an awesome video?  If a tree falls in the woods but no one hears it does it make a sound?

So there you have it.  If you are serious about playing in college….get a video NOW, and get it to coaches NOW.  At STUDENTathleteWorld.com part of what we do is make highlight videos out of your submitted films.  See the example above of one of our videos.  Most importantly, we SEND THIS VIDEO TO EVERY SCHOOL THAT YOU QUALIFY FOR ATHLETICALLY AND ACADEMICALLY!  The average athlete get’s their video sent to over 1,000 schools.  If we can help you with getting this video done and out to coaches, let us know by e-mailing us at tim@studentathleteworld.com or calling us at 919-526-3597.  For more information, please visit http://www.studentathleteworld.com/.

Are you a parent of a high school athlete that is not getting hounded by college coaches?  Why not?  Isn’t that how it works?  You pay lots of money for travel teams and exposure events and then the coaches come calling?  Right?

If you child is a Senior already, you probably know the answer.  It didn’t happen like you were told it would.  Maybe only a few coaches took interest.

Why?  Because of this fact….College Coaches don’t go to exposure events to find new recruits, they go to them mostly to evaluate the recruits they already know about.

Want to get recruited?  Unless you are in the top 1% of athletes nationwide, the solution is simple; start contacting college coaches!

What are you really hoping for when you go to an event?  That you make a shot or hit a homerun at the exact time a college coach happens to be walking by?  Is that really a good plan?  Why not just tell them who you are before the event.  Doesn’t that make much more sense?

And even if you do hit a homerun while they are watching, do you expect them to wait around until after the event, approach you, and then find out your contact information and verify that your grades meet their qualifications.  Do you really think this is how recruiting works?  When you actually write this out or explain it, it seems pretty silly doesn’t it?

So, here you are.  All the things the local pundits or so-called experts told you about recruiting and how it really works turns out to be crap.  And who’s suffered?  Your athlete.

STUDENTathleteWorld will put your child in the position to be noticed, evaluated, and recruited by college coaches because we actually send your athlete’s credentials to college coaches.  We target specific schools with our College Match program and open doors to opportunities you may not know about.

If your athlete is a good athlete and can play at some level of college sports, has good to excellent grades, has stayed clear of disciplinary problems and you are the type of parents that are supportive in every way, we can definitely help you.  You are our kind of parent and your child is our kind of athlete.

Explore our program and you will find a new world open to your child.  More schools than you could have imagined will respond.  Letters and emails will start flowing.  It will be exciting, fun and the experience of a lifetime for your child.

Or, you could keep doing what you’re doing and getting the same results.  It’s up to you!

For more information please visit: http://www.studentathleteworld.com/

Remember when a college coach reaches out to you they are not asking you if you would like to commit to their school.  They are simply reaching out to you to express interest in you or introduce their school to you.  This is the important first step.  Remember to keep an open mind and cast a wide net.  DO NOT TELL THEM YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED and do not ignore them!  Simply use this as an opportunity to learn about their school and program and introduce yourself to them.  Here is a list of things to do when a coach reaches out to you…

1. Record it on your College Contact Form
2. Explore the materials they sent you
3. Explore their website and learn a few things about the school and program
4. Contact the coach back in the same way they contacted you.  If they e-mailed then e-mail back.  If they called, call them back.
5. Thank them for their interest in you
6. Tell them you are interested in them and mentioned something specific you learned about them in researching their school.
7. Send them a link to your profile (and video)
8. Ask this question… “What do I need to do to be considered as a recruit for your program.”  … Typically they will tell you to apply, fill out their questionnaire, attend camp, visit, or keep them updated on your progress.
9. Follow up with them by doing what they asked above (of course you can’t visit and attend camp at every school that contacts you, but you can and need to do the other tasks)
10. Continue to reach out to these coaches every few weeks/months with things like updated stats, summer schedule, season schedule, post season updates, etc.

Following through with these coaches is ESSENTIAL.  It is common for athletes to assume the coach will reach back out to them if they are interested.  Remember, there may be THOUSANDS of kids who received that exact same letter as you.  Do not assume that the coach will contact you at a later date.  They reached out to you, so use that as an opportunity to start the conversation.  It is up to you to keep the conversation going.  Avoid being pushy, but you do want to be persistent!

STUDENTathleteWorld.com founder Tim Ryerson breaks downs college financial aid packaging for athletes.  More information at http://STUDENTathleteWorld.com.

Remember what is important to you; the bottom line price.  If the average NCAA DII baseball program has a total of five total scholarships and twenty-five student-athletes, then the AVERAGE athlete is getting a 1/5^th scholarship.  If the school costs $30,000 a year, that means baseball is picking up the tab for $6,000 a year.  The student-athlete gets to walk around school telling his buddies he got a “DII Baseball Scholarship”.  The parents get a bill in the mail for $24,000 for just the first year.

So, the amount of athletic aid is not as important as the bottom line price you have left to pay.  Schools will package together different types of financial aid in order to get the bottom line price as close to your Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) as possible.

Your EFC is determined by the federal government after you fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).  Factors influencing your FAFSA and EFC include family income, tax statement, divorce or separation, number of siblings, etc.  You want your EFC to be as low as possible, thereby demonstrating financial need to the schools you are interested in.

For example if the government determines your EFC at $15,000 they are assuming you can afford to pay $15,000 out of pocket for the upcoming year for your child’s education.  If a school costs $20,000 they may not need to discount the education very much to get you down to $15,000.  However, if a school cost’s $60,000 they too will try to get the price down to $15,000.  This is a major misunderstanding among parents, and a reason to consider really expensive schools.  As a general rule, the higher the tuition the more money the school has to give you.  The sticker price means absolutely nothing.

There are four different types of financial aid:

Athletic Aid

Based on a specific College or University’s interest in you and a specific ability in athletics.  Athletic aid is given out by the coach.  Some Colleges and Universities utilize athletic aid to attract student to attend their school.

Merit Based Aid

Based on a specific College or University’s interest in you and a specific ability.  Abilities in academic pursuits, the ability in music, drama or the like can create opportunities for aid.  Colleges and Universities utilize aid to attract student to attend their school.  Merit based aid is given out by the individual school’s financial aid offices.  You do not need to be a genius to qualify for academic money.  Sure, Harvard’s academic scholarship requirements are pretty high, but at some schools as low as a 2.5 GPA will qualify for some assistance academically.   Schools will vary based on their emphasis on GPA, SAT/ACT, or curriculum as the most important factor on your Merit Based Aid.  It’s beneficial to take standardized tests early and often because you usually improve on scores and you are able to combine scores from difference parts of the tests to form your optimum score.

Financial Need Based Aid

Based on your family’s Expected Family Contribution Number (a figure calculated by the U.S. Dept. of Education).  Aid can come in the form of grants, loans, and work-study.  Financial need based aid is given out by the federal government and/or by the individual schools financial aid offices.  I often hear families say things like, “We are not going to qualify for any financial aid”.  This is usually an incorrect statement.  You may not qualify for FAFSA money (even though you might be surprised the number of people who would qualify but don’t apply), but that doesn’t mean the individual schools won’t discount their education if you ask them to.

Leverage Aid

Based on a specific College or University’s interest in you and the relative offers you may have received from competitive schools.  This type of aid is not need, academic, or athletic; it’s simply business.  The more financial aid offers you have the more leverage you will have.  Leverage aid is given out by the individual schools financial aid offices to compete with alternative offers.  For a detailed description of how this works, please see Chapter 16- Leveraging a Tuition-Driven School.

Most people focus on Athletic Scholarships.  That money is usually very limited.  What you need to remember is that Academic Aid, Financial Need Based Aid, and Leverage Aid are all negotiable and basically come out of the same pot of money (except the government part of the Financial Need Based Aid).

Remember this….

“When it comes to financial aid, the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.

You are not going to get much aid unless you ask for it, negotiate the offer, and leverage for more.  Most of the scholarship money that is out there comes from a pot of money that is distributed until it runs dry.  Of course schools don’t want to give it out right away…you have to keep asking for it.

Here are the factors that can tip the financial aid scale according to U.S. News:

• The college’s expectation of the student’s contribution. Many of the schools on this list reduce the student’s need, and thus the aid package, by at least $1,000 (and some by much more), saying that the student is expected to contribute that much each year from summer earnings.

• How the college counts home equity. Some schools consider the equity parents have in their homes as a resource that should be tapped to help pay for college. Others don’t.  This question is not on the FAFSA.

• How the college considers divorced parents. Some schools, such as Yale, analyze the incomes of both stepparents and original parents and make their own judgments about which set of parents should be responsible for each student’s college costs. Others consider the incomes of only the original parents.  Colleges that only use the FAFSA consider only the custodial parents’ income, even if a stepparent has a prenuptial agreement relieving the stepparent of financial responsibility for the child.

• Pay attention to financial aid deadlines.  Many schools will use a deadline as a reason to deny financial aid, even if they have money remaining.  Others commit to meet the need of only those students admitted during the early or regular admission seasons and may run out of aid by the time they start admitting students off of the wait list.  There are still schools who worry less about the deadlines, but there is evidence that that list is shrinking.

• The aid policy for international students. There are a few schools like Princeton and others that commit to meet the financial needs of those who are not U. S. citizens.  Many others, such as Northwestern and Adrian (Mich.), don’t guarantee full aid for international students.

• Whether the school offers merit scholarships. These are granted regardless of how wealthy the parents are if the student qualifies under the conditions set forth for the grant.  But there are schools like Ivy League member Columbia that do not give merit aid.

• The effect of an aid application on admission. At least 28 colleges nationwide have committed to ignore a student’s aid application when deciding about admission.  But that’s risky and potentially expensive.  Most reserve at least some seats for students who can pay full price.  The number of full-paying customers can depend on the current year’s total financial aid pool.  Once the school runs out, it’s everyone for him or herself.

ACTION PLAN

Don’t let your ego get in the way

We often ask our athletes to rate on a scale of 1-10 their desire to play college sports.  We work with athletes that answer 10.  While most of our athletes WANT to play D1, they realize that sometimes playing D1 is out of their control.  Oftentimes a D1 athlete is just more physically gifted than other athletes.  It may not be fair, but that is life.  Also, oftentimes a D1 athlete is discovered and groomed for that position before even entering high school!

If you’re not one of the 1% of high school athletes who earn full rides to DI schools – do you want “nothing”?  Or do you want to find a school where you can compete in the sport you love, earn money towards your education, and change your life?  If you do – now is the time to learn about Division III and NAIA schools.

If someone told you that D3 or NAIA schools are no good or that they are too expensive, that person is misinformed.  There are 400 schools.  Some are no good and some are too expensive.  But there many be some fantastic opportunities out there for you.  And if you truly answered the above question as a 10, then you need to explore ALL of your options!

Division III

With over 400 members, including some of the nation’s top academic institutions, it is the largest of the three divisions of the NCAA. While technically speaking Division III schools cannot offer “athletic scholarships,” they can and do help their athletes fund their education with need-based, academic, and third party scholarships.

About Division III Recruiting

• Many of the top academic schools in the country are D3.  Have you ever heard of Amhert, Williams, Middlebury, Wash U, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Bowdoin, U of Chicago, Tufts, or Emory?  They are all D3!
• Most programs have less than $1,000 a year to use to recruit athletes. It’s tough for them to travel and see recruits who don’t live nearby. On the other hand – if you reach out to a Division III school, you have less competition. In other words, the advantages of being proactive are huge in Division III.
• Coaches have much more freedom to contact recruits. In Division III, there are some restrictions on in-person visits, but coaches can call, email, or text any athlete, at any time, for any reason.  Because of limited budgets they rely on those who are proactive and reach out to them.
• There is no National Letter of Intent. Any athlete who wants to attend a Division III schools must apply and be accepted before they commit, and isn’t fully committed until they receive and accept their financial aid package.

NAIA

There are also many opportunities available in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (or NAIA), a completely separate body from the NCAA. With almost 300 member schools, it is the second-largest athletic conference after Division III. NAIA schools are generally small (most have less than 5,000 students), and their recruiting rules are much less strict.

3 Things to Know About NAIA Recruiting

• Like Division III, most programs have small recruiting budgets. Unlike Division III, NAIA schools can offer athletic scholarships. This means that, despite their small size, NAIA schools have very competitive sports – about on the level of NCAA Division II.
• There are no restrictions at all on coach communications. Coaches can call, email, or text potential recruits. They can write on their Facebook walls or tweet at them. They can visit their houses or go to their games. There are no time or age restrictions. Even more so than Division III, being proactive can lead to huge benefits when it comes to recruiting.
• Although they don’t use the National Letter of Intent that Division I and II schools do, NAIA schools can draft their own binding letters of intent. This can give confidence to the school and the athlete about where they will be playing.

If you want competitive athletics and are dedicated and want an opportunity to play at the next level and get a college education, then Division III or the NAIA may be for you.

Do you have more questions, or are you interested in attending a Division III or NAIA school?  If so, fill out a free profile on our website and we will get you more information. Read more at http://studentathleteworld.com/.

I often hear parents tell me about the wait and see method.

The wait and see method is the widely used recruiting philosophy of doing nothing and expecting things to be different.  Einstein called it insanity.

If you have no, or little, recruiting attention (e-mails, letters, calls, offers, etc.) now and do nothing then you should expect no, or little, recruiting attention in the future.

The wait and see method is sometimes suggested by the high school coach.

DISCLAIMER- There are many fantastic high school coaches.  I by no means want to imply that high school coaches are inferior coaches to college or professional coaches.  In fact, oven times the opposite is true.  Their role is extremely important in the recruiting process and you should not try to go around them.  Sometimes, they just don’t know the recruiting process from the inside.  During my eight years as a college coach I never went up to a high school coach and said, “I like your kid but I’m also looking at one thousand other kids at the same position.”  Of course not; I buttered that coach up and told them what they wanted to hear….that I spent hours evaluating their kid and he or she was who I wanted.  This is why high school coaches sometimes don’t understand how the process works.  Even if they are great people and want to help, sometimes they hurt their student-athletes chances by recommending this ‘wait and see’ method.

With all due respect to your high school coaches, there is nothing that could hurt you more in the recruiting process than the wait and see approach.  Anything you do other than that will be a better game plan.

It’s a very common problem.

Ask any coach at any level and there is one thing they try to avoid; distractions.  They have a job to do, and it’s really tough; mold egos, build team cohesion, teach effort, teach skills, deal with parents, etc.  A freshman or sophomore athlete on the JV talking about playing in college is just a big distraction.

Here’s a scenario that occurs frequently…

Parents of an underclassman potential college athlete meet with their high school coach about college recruiting.   The high school coach advises them to ‘wait and see’.  Maybe this coach had experiences with other athletes they have coached who got recruited successfully, or maybe they were recruited themselves as athletes.  Other times, it’s an ego thing and they want to control all the recruiting.  The high school coach advises the ‘wait and see’ method and claims that he or she will take care of it in a few years.  They promise to get colleges to come live scout during Senior year.

The problem is that college recruiting lists are so big that colleges want to target freshman and sophomores and track and follow their progress.  If you get college coaches a recruit’s info early and let the coaches establish a recruiting relationship (e-mails, letters, camps, phone calls, checking grades and character, etc.) then when Junior year rolls around they may make it a priority to come see them play.  If you wait until Senior year to inform college coaches about a recruit, it’s often times too late.

The problem is that college recruiting lists are so big that colleges want to target freshman and sophomores and track and follow their progress.  If you get college coaches a recruit’s info early and let the coaches establish a recruiting relationship (e-mails, letters, camps, phone calls, checking grades and character, etc.) then when Junior year rolls around they may make it a priority to come see them play.  If you wait until Senior year to inform college coaches about a recruit, it’s often times too late.

THINK ABOUT THIS.  Does your program have a website that lists the former student-athletes and where they went to college?  Does it include the money they paid to go there?  I’ve never seen one that did.  This is why it’s important to take ownership of the recruiting process.  It’s your life and you are paying the bills.  If your high school coach agrees to pay the bills for your college, then use their wait and see method.

What to do when a Coach is Holding Letters

Occasionally I come across a high school coach who will actually hold and not deliver letters to student-athletes on their team that were sent to the school address in care of the coach.  This is absolutely a horrible idea and situation for you.  The old school reasons coaches might do this is to keep you from getting a big head or distracted, to save you from worry or junk mail, or to simply take control of the situation.  Most of the time the coach actually thinks they are doing you a favor, so give them the benefit of the doubt.  Many of these coaches do not understand the recruiting process, or are unwillingly to evolve.  The problem is they are not doing you a favor; they are drastically hurting your chances of saving money on college.

This is a huge problem and must be dealt with in a delicate way.  There won’t be much value in the parents storming the school and demanding the coach be fired.  Unfortunately you just need to stroke this coach’s ego.  Go talk to him or her and explain what you have learned about recruiting and explain that you will not let the process be a distraction.  Ask them for assistance in the process.  If you do this in a sincere and non-confrontational way and you have a good relationship with the coach you will probably get a decent result.  In some cases, high school coaches are just stubborn and filled with ego.  The best thing to do here is just work that much harder to contact the schools yourself and get the coaches your home address.  There will be nothing good in starting a war with a high school coach.  As you will see in the next section, no good will ever come of that.

Badmouthing a Coach

Never mention, allude to, or even hint at in a nice way, negative comments about your high school coach to a college coach.  Many student-athletes and parents try to spin this in a way that makes themselves look better. It doesn’t.  It’s a huge turnoff and often the reason why they don’t get recruited.  No coach wants someone who may talk bad about them in the future.

During my eight years as a college coach I’ve met with hundreds of families.  This always baffled me that maybe as many as 25% of them brought up negative comments about their high school coaches.  I’m sure most meant well and just trying to make the point that their son or daughter has yet to reach his or her potential.  It didn’t.  It just made me think worse of them and not want to recruit them.  You have to remember that coaches have large egos.  It goes with the profession.  Even if you are right, it just puts the following thought in the college coach’s head,

“What are these parents and this kid going to say about me in the future.”

Stay away from this.  Just say that you enjoyed playing in high school and look forward to competing in college.  Coaches want athletes that have great relationships with their high school coaches.  Don’t fight this battle.  You don’t end up looking good if you go there.

ACTION PLAN