Athletic scholarship or need based financial aid, or both?

chris85
Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:17:21 +0000

I’m new to CC and i’m so glad i found this site!

My daughter is a rising senior and is being recruited by all of the major swim schools in the US. she had thought she wanted to swim at one of the Ivies, but that’s now changed. she wants swimming to play a larger role in her college life, and i can’t really blame her. she’s an excellent student, great scores, and has Olympic Trials time standards. she’s a sprinter.

our issue has to do with the fact that my wife and i are self employed and our incomes fluctuate significantly from year to year. for 2011 i predict we would qualify for significant need based aid at the ivies, which is our “baseline”. she has been told by three schools directly that she is definitely a scholarship candidate. a couple have said “significant”.

her first choice schools have told her to go through the FA office to get and early “read”, but i have a good idea what our EFC would be by using calculators at similar schools and FAFSA, etc. we have been reading all we can about which is better, the FA first and then supplementing with athletic aid, or vice versa. she should earn a full ride scholarship, or close to it, in my opinion…

should we do the early FA read? it seems like there are 2 schools of thought on this: get as much athletic aid first, or the other way. what’s the consensus here? i do not want to hire a negotiaotor or consultant if possible as i don’t know who to trust.

thanks for reading…