I’m new to this forum, so I apologize if this topic has already been discussed. My son is having a difficult time deciding between attending Boston College on a full ride for football and going to one of several Ivy League schools (Harvard, Yale and Penn (Wharton)). Anyone been in a similar situation and have any insights?
Has he received acceptances form any of these schools?
He was actually offered at all 8 Ivies and narrowed his choices down to Harvard, Yale and Penn. He has received likely letters from all three. He wants to study business, so he is looking at BC’s Carroll School, Wharton and studying economics at Harvard and Yale.
Or likelies?
I suppose it depends on your financial needs, to a large extent.
Leaving $$ aside, I personally would pick Yale or Harvard over the others, but then I am not interested in studying business, nor was my kid. 
Does your kid have academic interests that Wharton would not satisfy? What if he decides he doesn’t want a business-oriented major after all? (I have no idea how this works there.)
Some questions: What about the long-term risk of head injuries? Would he continue to receive the athletic scholarship if he was injured in some other way and couldn’t play? What if he decides to quit FB because he just isn’t motivated anymore? Does he realistically aspire to play in the NFL–size and all that–or is this strictly a school activity? Could you afford BC without that money? You are likely to get a lot more $$ from H and Y on a purely need-based basis. Is it enough? How does he feel about going to a Catholic school with a crucifix on the wall of every classroom? (Sure, there are plenty of non-Catholics there, but the degree of comfort with this depends on the individual.) Are the demands of playing FB greater at BC than at the other schools, and is he concerned about this impacting his academics?
I know this is a harder decision than it sounds. Obviously, you need to consider academics and finances. But, as the mother of a former football player, I know that there’s a whole other set of factors, like coaching staff and team dynamics, to take into account. Still, it’s a nice problem to have.
This is a family decision. Yes, I’ve seen people in this situation many times. Because the ivies do not give out any athletic or merit scholarships. a family who does not qualify for much or any financial aid has to make the decision whether it is worth stretching family dollars to pay for what the schools cost vs taking a full ride at another school. This happens with merit awards as well as with athletic scholarships. I know a number of kids from son’s high school who chose to go with the substantial merit money over a more selective school. This happens a lot. Our tour guide at BC chose it over UPenn because he got one of BC’s merit awards and UPEnn would have been full pay for him.
On the other hand, I know a football player who chose to go to UPenn on financial aid vs getting athletic scholarships at any number of schools. It all comes down to whether the family can afford to buy the experience.
My close friend has a talented athlete student and he chose a school that gave him a full athletic award over the ivies. The family did not qualify for any financial aid so only merit and athletic awards were in the mix in terms of getting funds.
Personally, we had caps on what we could pay for our children, but did not qualify for financial aid with just one in college (and we have our kids spaced out so that there is no more than one year each cycle where we would have 2 in college at the same time), so our kids had to stick to schools with sticker prices at or below our limit or get merit money. They had no problem with those issues. If your son were mine, the answer is quite simple since we would not be able to afford the $60-70K cost of an ivy league school without causing some serious financial damage. BC it would be without a thought.
Now when it came to a full ride vs the maximum of what we said we would/could pay, we left that up to our kids. All of them had options that were very low cost, nearly no cost in some cases, yet most of them picked the absolutley most expensive choice within the range we gave, and that was fine with us. If son wanted to go to College A that cost $40K a year and he was going to come up with the $5K gap himself with student loans and/or work/savings, we went along with it even if he could go for less than $10K out of our pocket and nothing out of his. But different parents look at this differently.
Friends of ours a few years ago did offer to come up with the full cost of BC for their daughter as it was her first choice dream school She was accepted but did not get any financial or merit money. On the other hand Providence and some other school came up with some nice $s for merit She went to Providence and is now at BC for law.
So there is no right answer if the family can afford full priced Ivies. If it involves a lot of borrowing on part of the parent and risky savings depletion, of say retirement funds, it should be considered v-e-r-y carefully as to whether it is really worth it to the family
For us, cost for attending Ivies is $20K/yr. We can afford, but would be tight. Have older son graduating from college this spring and there is a good chance he will attend post bacc program to prepare for medical school. So, we will have significant expenses over the next several years.
Regarding my son’s potential in football, he is projected to have ability to play beyond college. He would be considered the top Ivy candidate for football, so he would stand out in that environment. He is also top 10% of BC football prospects from an athletic perspective and coaches identified him as top academic prospect in his recruiting class. But, BC is more competitive for playing time. So, he would probably not stand out as much at BC.
If he is injured, whether concussion or any other type, most probably he would be red-shirted for a year, but wouldn’t lose scholarship unless the injury is so severe or repeated again. If that happens early on, he would probably maintain scholarship for two years. But, it is difficult to think about such a scenario.
Regarding studying business, Penn does permit him to transfer from Wharton to other concentration within Penn. Yale and Harvard do have a more broad base of concentrations, but Penn has sufficient non-business options from which to choose. Within business, Wharton is rated higher than all others options being considered. But, other Ivies are very comparable in overall career value.
Just trying to clarify. Your son has received likely letters from all 8 Ivies, and BC, correct? Not official acceptance letters, correct? And the need based aid is an early read, right, not the official offer, right?
- Some of these schools will not count your post bac son as a student in college when calculating financial aid for next year. Did you include him as a student in college on this younger son's information? You need to clarify whether the colleges will in fact count the older sibling next year when he is not an undergrad any longer.
- Is the BC award all an athletic scholarship, or is there a need component there as well?
- These are all good schools. Is there some reason why this decision needs to be made before you get your official acceptances and your official financial aid award? I know sometimes coaches want to finalize their lists....but is this an essential thing that you are being pushed to do now?
- Some of these schools have ED...was your son accepted ED to any of them? And some are SCEA...so if your son applied early to a SCEA school, that would preclude him applying early to other schools.
As you can see…I’m a bit perplexed by your comment that he has been accepted to all 8 Ivies and BC…none have sent out regular decision acceptances yet.
I do realize that coaches can get you a preliminary read on your application…and athlets do often get an early read on financial aid.
All of these are terrific colleges. What does your son want to do…within your budget?
Likely letters? Do you mean for athletics? Without applying ED to any of the schools?
It depends 100% on your resources. Since many people on CC seem to have money somewhere but not where it needs to be to pay for college, a full ride to BC might be the best bet.
A degree from BC will not hold him back in any way.
But I am curious - where would he rather play football? What sense does he have of the coaches?
And the Likely Letters are kind of odd if he did not apply ED anywhere. NLI signing is next week I think.
I know it is difficult to think about, but if he lost his FB scholarship at BC, how much would it cost you per year? It would seem that your maximum exposure at the Ivies is $80K, but what is it at BC? (Of course, your EFC at the Ivies and BC would be affected by the number of kids in school…would it go up after S1 graduates, or are there others coming along?)
How likely is it, do you think, that he will actually want to play beyond college? Or, indeed, play all the way through college?
BC is in the ACC, and football scholarships should be changing (for the better) to include all 4 years and guarantees for continued scholarships if the student is injured. The football scholarship would be entirely ‘athletic’ but the student could also accept a Pell grant or other non-institution need based aid (sounds unlikely in this family’s case)
I think your son should pick the best football program for him. The Ivy programs are going to be different, with the life outcome different. Yes, it certainly is easier to get to the pros from BC, but even that isn’t easy. It’s not like BC doesn’t have the alum network or name recognition that the Ivies have. You have to decide if BC is as strong for your/son’s needs.
Thanks for all of the feedback/questions!!!
To start, he was officially “offered” to play football at each of these schools. In order to receive likely letters, he needed to submit application to each school. This was followed up by each school with a pre-read for both potential academic qualifications and financial need for Ivies. A likely letter from Ivies means that you will be accepted unless you screw up prior to matriculation (poor grades in final semester of HS or post a dumb Facebook/Twitter post).
- Financial aid questionnaires asked for copies of last three years of tax returns, so I assume they calculated estimated financial need upon my oldest being in college. Great point about not taking into account my oldest attending post bacc program. However, their estimate is a range from $16K to $20K. So, I assumed the higher.
- BC is a full athletic scholarship with no need component.
- NCAA Signing Day is approaching for all D1 scholarship schools (BC). So, we are pressed to make a decision. But, we can de-commit afterwards for a non-scholarship school (All Ivies).
- He submitted applications to each school. Not sure if they consider these ED. But, once he receives "likely letters" rarely are athletes not admitted and then it is due to some viable reason such as bad final semester HS grades or bad behavior of some type.
My son is truly split between all of the schools. He visited each a few times and coaches have visited him at home several times each. Each school has different pros/cons, but nothing is pushing him in one direction or another. He is being heavily recruited, so everyone is throwing praise upon him making him feel good about each school.
While the football signing day is next week, he doesn’t have to commit on that day. I think there is a lot of pressure to do it, but I think it would be better not to commit than to commit and then change his mind. If he’s not sure, wait.
I noticed a lot of the best players held out last year (and in prior years) because there was just too much pressure around ‘the day.’ My daughter committed on the early signing day in 2013, but she didn’t do the signing ceremony until the spring signing day. Her school made the spring signing day a fun celebration, including many who had signed early or who weren’t really signing at all (D-3, Naval Academy, jr colleges) which took the pressure off, or at least spread it around a little.
To simplify the situation, he believes he would enjoy attending any of the schools. He would prefer to play football at BC as it has a better football program. But, if football was not part of the picture, he would prefer attending Ivy league schools.
On average, BC puts three players into NFL each year and each of the Ivies place only one in NFL if any at all. He would also play against the top national football programs (Clemson, Notre Dame, FSU, etc…). However, he believes the Ivies offer stronger career opportunities if the NFL does not come to fruition. He feels he would fit in socially and academically at all schools.
How can he give up the opportunity to attend Ivy league considering that the cost of attending is mostly guaranteed and there is a chance (although slim) that he could get injured and lose his athletic scholarship at BC?
This kid is an elite football recruit with the academics, folks, so there’s no reason to worry about acceptances. And yes, signing day is coming up.
In terms of the next level, the Ivy League can get you to the NFL, but the competition is on a completely different level from FBS. One of the kids on “Friday Night Lights” went to Harvard to play football, but he quit because the intensity didn’t match elite TX HS football. On the other hand,
- In terms of what kids of done and how brilliant they are, the student body at H/Y will be a different level from BC.
- You can actually quit football at the Ivies with little serious repercussions.
I would not worry about playing time at BC. Competition will push you and make you better.
Ask him to consider what school he pictures himself being most proud of being an alum of 30 years from now. I think that any school will get him places; BC would be better for the NFL (but Ivy League players do make it); the H/Y network may be better post-football (but BC’s isn’t weak; especially around Boston). And yes, what he thinks of the coaching staff and team culture matters a lot as well. As a football player, football will be a big chunk of his life where ever he goes.
I’m curious: no offers from Stanford/Northwestern/Duke?
PurpleTitan - you nailed it…
Duke offered as did UVA, VA Tech and Vandy to name the better academic institutions. He didn’t want to consider Vandy due to changes in coaching staff. He was interested in Penn State until O’Brian’s departure. He was offered at Penn State and Kentucky. But, wanted higher education. We lived in Chicago for a short time and he didn’t like so much. So, he didn’t go to Northwestern camp. We had to decide on going out to Stanford camp or cancel a commitment to a special invite with Harvard coaches. We now wish we went out to Stanford…
@PurpleTitan. Unless OP’s son was one of the top “nationally” (not northeast corridor) recruited football player with the academic credentials to go along with it…he would not have been recruited nor offered by Stanford…look at the recent football commitments that Stanford got leading up to NLI day next week…
Stanford and Notre Dame looked at his highlight film, but they wanted him to visit before considering an offer. Early on, we didn’t think an offer was probable. So, we focused our efforts on Ivies and other more probable East Coast schools. You live and learn…
The Ivies are great. I love the Jesuit schools and as a D1 recruit your son will have the opportunity to receive the best from BC. Hard to turn down a full ride. Good luck to you and your son.
If your son is strong academically, he will receive an excellent education at BC. I think BC offers him the best of everything, football, academics and scholarship. One does not need an Ivy degree to succeed.
Congratulations and good luck.