Scholarships

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Sorry, I am not being prudish but I was brought up to not discuss private family finances out in the open and I think that the majority of OFC'ers are like minded. So, I don't believe that someone is going to come on here and say that my DD got "X" amount. There might be some that do though.

Again, it is up to the individual college coach as to how to divvy up their athletic money. When a family receives their athletic money offer, they can accept it, reject it, or try to alter it (barter). Just like in any business, you can gain, or you can lose. Buyer beware.

There are a whole lot of variables that go into determining just how much a certain girl will receive. Your best bet would be to talk directly to a D1 or D2 college coach.

You are correct in that for a lot of girls, athletic money is hard to come by. Coach Jones at the Univ of Akron gives a real good, down to earth talk to families at the Univ of Akron Winter Camps. Very informative and very eye-opening for kids and parents. For me, that is when the light bulb came on, concerning athletic money and the whole recruiting process. If you look at it strictly from the financial side, you would be better off taking all of the money that you spend on travel ball and investing it in a college fund. For the majority of families, you would come out ahead.

If you look at travel ball from the life experience side, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Also, no matter how much athletic money a girl will get or not get, that college coach can help "Open Doors", academically speaking, at that particular college.

It all depends on what your DD is trying to obtain for her college experience.

I think thats one of the issues with recruiting from a parental stand point. When our kids are 12u we all ( kids included ) dream of them playing for a Big time program. Then as they get older reality starts to set in. But to some parents the death of a dream dosent happen until they try marketing their dd to a mid or major D1 and they either get a cold response or no response at all. And some can just not believe their dd dosent make the cut. Either by skill level, academic level, roster issue ( the team your interested in dosent need what you offer ) or the college can get a kid just as good alot cheaper than they can get your dd.or the dd,s major dosent fit in with the softball teams time demands Or they waited to late in the recruiting process.

One of the Many visits and camps we went to her sophomore year A SEC coach told us after the clinic what they look for up front is a kid that stands out above her piers with the 5 basic skills but has that little extra that she brings to the table, be it speed, throwing speed, stick power anything that makes her a stand out, If you think about it honestly how many kids do you see like that week in and week out during travel ball. And add to that the fact they are spread so thin on schollie money they want great academics to boot. A 25 or higher on their ACT is a plus. Now put those two things together, a flat out stud with high grades, the pool of talent you see every weekend drops even more. Which explains why what they say is true only 1 to 1.5% of the kids go on to play D1 ball.

The kid usually knows long before the parent where she fits. Listen to your dd. Unless she is an absolute impact player be prepared to do some setting at the higher levels.

There are a ton of opportunities to play ball at the college level.The most important thing is to find the right fit and she will know when she walks on campus, it will just click. Try a bunch of colleges, of all divisions and remember if its not the right fit you will have alot of sleepless nights and crying phone calls. Softball isnt worth the last 2 no matter how much money they throw at you.

Tim

These two posts should be put in the archives!! Excellent material to be referred back to when recruiting discussions come up.

I agree with Bill concerning the financials - it's really a private family matter, and that privacy should be respected. I also don't think coaches would appreciate second-hand information about how they handle recruits and scholarships, which are all handled on a case-by-case basis.

We had the same experience with Julie Jones (at CSU at the time) who was VERY helpful and answered everything we asked about recruiting/scholarships. My advice is to go straight to the college coaches at clinics, etc. and ASK, ASK, ASK! Ask for an HONEST skills evaluation of your DD. None of them bite (to my knowledge) and we never once had one tell us they wouldn't answer our questions! They will remember your DD, and even if they don't have anything for your DD, they just might know a coach who does! It's part of getting into the recruiting network!

 

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Focus on academics!!!

 

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I changed the question to maybe something people may be more comfortable answering. As I am reading these posts it is clear that very few if any receive the "full ride" that are normal in football and basketball. So what is a "normal" softball scholarship? 25%, 33%, 50%, 67%???? Room and board? In-state tuition for an out-of-stater?

Your back to the college shell game here. A case in point you mentioned out of state tuition, A fact that many may not realize is that some colleges have agreements with adjoining states to offer instate tuition if the kid lives in certain counties. And they have other things like the kids sophomore year in college they have her change her drivers licence to the state shes playing college in and then change her schollie money to instate tuition. It dosent effect what the kid sees in any form but it makes it cheaper on said college.

From what i have seen if you receive 30 % your doing pretty darn good I would say the normal for a 30k tuition is around 10 to 15k, again that dosent include FASFA or any other scholarships she might receive.

If you are D1 ( im not sure if d2 falls into this same boat ) and receive a full tuition and then receive books or room and board some or all of that extra money will go against your athletic schollie and the athletic side has to give it back to the academic side. again more clam shell money. That is why the student is paid to go to study hall or pick up trash in the commons, they have a ton of ways to move money from one spot to another.

The best example of how much is to much to pay for college was from a D1 AD. If the college you want to attend is 25 k a year for 4 years and you recieve 50% say 12.500 per year you will owe on govt loans 50 k when you get out of college and join the work force. The trick to it is to keep your Fasfa to a minimum of one years salary when you join the work force. How can you do this? go to a college that offers 4 not 5 year programs, work work work on your ACT in HS. The higher the score the more money you receive. work for and receive as many extra scholarships as you possibly can. and last but not least ( and this is important for the 12u and under parents ) start saving for college NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! depending on your child getting enough softball scholarship money to get thru college is like using the lottery as your retirement Enjoy the ride folks lol

Tim

 

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Good advice Tim........and right on the "money"...lol.....like I said in earlier posts......just grateful and blessed to get what we did.....something for everyone but you have to work...don't sit back thinking your High School is going to set the kid up with anything....not gonna happen! Tims advice is right on.....grades grades grades first and foremost......most of the colleges we spoke with and visited who offered... put the push on that it was better to sign early as there was more money to be given......not sure if thats really true or not but kinda makes sense....I know the D2 school mine is going to , signed 6 of the 7 slots they wanted to fill in early signees.......with that being said probably makes sense to get as much done the Junior year as possible to at least make sure the visibility is there for early signing.