My daughter is a HS jr. She has been speaking with several of the softball coaches at several of the Little Ivy’s like Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, and Amherst. We are expecting offers from more than one of these schools. She has the grades and test scores to get accepted without sports (ACT 32, 4.4 gpa from an academically rigorous HS). Since these schools are all D3 they don’t have sports scholarships. We have used the generic cost calculator to get a general idea of costs based on family income etc., but these schools may be out of our financial reach based on these numbers. Does anyone have a student athlete at one of these schools? Could you please give us an idea of what we might be looking at paying out of pocket? Did any of these schools find any extra grant money, discounts, work study, etc to help with cost?
In general, I guess we are asking should we take an offer or try to hold out for a D2/D1 where athletic money is available?
My impression (based only on my experience with 1 child being recruited to a NESCAC) is that this level of high-academic D3 doesn’t offer merit/academic scholarships as a way to substitute for athletic money. If you drop down to, say, T50ish (give or take) I get the impression that they do offer non-athletic scholarships to entice athletes to come. For instance, at the beginning of our process, we were given a “financial pre-read” at Dickinson where based on grades/test scores/recruited athlete status, it was clear that substantial scholarship dollars would likely follow if we were to commit. This is just one kid, so I can’t say for sure. But our experience matched the impressions I got from others that you won’t have the sort of “merit” offers we were in line for at Dickinson at the tippy-top schools (NESCAC, Claremont Colleges, Swat, UChicago, etc.).
edited to add for clarity: the financial pre-read we did wasn’t about need – they didn’t ask for any actual family financial info. It was all about what sort of merit $ might be available and was completed as a part of the athletic recruiting process.
You will pay the full cost, or whatever your EFC is. Use the Net Price Calculator on the websites.
EDIT: There are no scholarships of any sort at the NESCACs mentioned.
There are no grants for tuition. She can work, or take out a Fed Student Loan.
These are CSS profile colleges, need based. The money is going to be mostly tied into your resources. I have a friend who’s son played a sport at Cornell, he was one of the best in the nation, yet he had a lot of loans because they had resources according to CSS profile and he did not receive much need based money. They were hung up on the program and his ability to go farter after college in the sport, so they bit the bullet for him to go to Cornell.
I have another friend who’s son played baseball. He was a realist and knew college sports was it for him, the end of the line. No NBL for him. They selected a small private college D1 not too far from home so his parents could go to home games, that he fell in love for for the academic program. They were a FAFSA only school and had tons of merit money. He was a great student and went to said small private school for a fraction of the cost of the Ivy League kid. I always felt like this was a smarter choice given that abilities in both cases were not going to bring them into professional careers.
My daughter’s BFF could have played D2 basketball, but selected D3 at a small private for the same reason, she was a fantastic student and got more merit money. Don’t be in a rush to commit if money is a factor. Slow the roll and explore the offers. Run the net price and talk to coaches to see if more scholarships in other fashions can be offered.
Not true that there are no scholarships at any NESCACs. Conn and Trinity both offer merit scholarships. But I agree that at the other NESCACs, as well as Swarthmore/Haverford/Pomona, you will pay whatever your EFC is.
Conn and Trinity do offer merit scholarships but the candidate would need to qualify for the merit scholarship without consideration of her status as a recruit.
Has she done any pre-reads? Her 32 ACT may not be strong enough at some of these schools, even as a recruited athlete, so I would make sure she has a pre read. I worked with a recruited athlete who didn’t pass the pre-read at similar schools with a 33.
For the schools on her list that offer merit, you should also ask a financial aid review/pre-read.
The best estimate would be to go onto each college’s financial aid web site and find its net price calculator and use it. The results will vary between colleges.
Woman’s softball is an equivalency sport which means that scholarship money can be spread out across multiple players. The typical D2 roster has 26 players with about 7 scholarship equivalents meaning the typical athlete would get $5-10K at the most in most cases. For D1 the number of scholarships goes up to 12 but the roster stays the same so similar but potential a few thousand more in scholarships. There are D1 and D2 players on full rides but they are not typical and are the best of the best and highly sought after. If your daughter was in that category you would already know because she would likely have already been offered.
None of these NESCAC schools will be giving you an offer before the summer, after they have done a pre-read, so it’s not a matter of taking an offer at the moment.
As far as holding out for a D2/D1 where athletic money is available, if she wants to do a SLAC there are many outside the top 20 (and a few in the top 20) that provide merit money, probably in the range of $30K a year.
If she went D1 and wanted a top academic school, the options are Ivys (which won’t give any athletic or merit scholarships) or Duke/Stanford/Michigan/Cal/UCLA/UVA/UNC (where I imagine it’s very hard to get athletic scholarships). But of course you should explore whatever schools she’s interested in.
If the NPCs (and please do use the NPCs, not the MyIntuition cost calculator) are not showing affordability at the NESCAC schools, you can mention that to the coach if discussions progress. Many of these schools will do financial aid pre-reads for athletic recruits after they pass the academic pre-read. A 32 may not be enough at some of these schools unfortunately. Not that the coach won’t recruit you, but they might have to use a lower band and/or your D would be told to apply test optional. These schools are highly competitive.
All of these NESCACs have work-study, but sometimes it can be difficult for athletes to have jobs, their sport, and get good grades. The NESCAC schools do not ‘find’ extra grant money or discounts.
Conn College doesn’t have women’s softball, so the fact they give merit is moot. Look at Trinity college, where your student could possibly get merit. There is a new coach there, so contact her asap.
If you tell us your budget (you don’t have to) and your D’s softball level, posters would be able to better help. I also agree with the poster who said in general, the athletic money at D1 or D2 schools is not going to be much at all. At Ivies, the NPCs will likely be similar to what you are seeing at the non-merit NESCACs.
Daughter played at a NESCAC. We were full pay. Most of her teammates were either full pay or on FA, part grant, part loan, part work. On the edges, my D worked a lot of athletic events for pocket money. I would not be so certain that your D would get in without coach support with the stats you posted.
Agree with other posters that she should go through with the recruiting process with her top little Ivies and also look at less academically selective schools where she has a chance at some merit money. Run the net cost calculator of each school, not a generic. If she gets coach support/offer, see if the FA office will do a FA “pre read”.
We have not done any pre-reads yet. Just trying to be armed with as much info going in. She is having 3rd phone call with 2 schools and scheduled for 2 overnights at 2 other schools. She is drawing intrest from some smaller D1 schools like Dayton and Fairfield. Brown is following her but coach said she wouldn’t talk to her for real without test scores in hand. Her coaches are trying tonget her in front of coaches at Bucknell, Belmont, and FIU. She is looking for schools with Biophysics BA or open curriculum to make her own program. Her 32 act was her pretest from sophomore year. She is scheduled for ACT tests in Jan, Feb, and again in March. Her expected scores are 33-34.
Family income is between 220-240 a year with GAI of say 160-180 in expensive city. Both kids in Catholic schools.
Dayton is such a neat school. And they offer great merit aid. I’d encourage her to explore it further.
Biophysics is pretty niche for a bachelor’s degree. As for making her own program, that’s fine to do informally. But I’d advise against doing a formal customized major (at some schools they’d call it “interdisciplinary studies”).
She can major in something like biology or biochemistry or physics, add another one of those as a minor, and take courses with biophysics elements as electives. Most classes on cell/molecular biology, membranes, computational biology, pharmacology, or neuroscience will have biophysics elements.
In all the biophysics major programs that I’ve seen, there are aren’t specific classes offered with a biophysics prefix, and the program is just a collection of courses drawn from the fundamental subjects anyway. Add research in certain bio/chem/neuro labs and you’re golden for a biophysics-focused education even if the degree doesn’t say “biophysics”.
My only advice is to make sure the college supports her being in a lab based major. I have a child in another sport and many schools were either wishy washy, said they had never seen it work or set her up to speak with other team members that were in a lab major. I have heard stories of kids having to change their major, as it just didn’t work with being an athlete (D1 - no clue about D3). Check the rosters for all schools under consideration for majors of team members - that tells a lot.
Guess I have one more piece of advice, recruiting is a roller coaster and don’t get to attached early in the process. Good luck to you and your daughter.
Don’t mean to be negative but with 32 ACT admission might be tough at those school unless coaches really want her and will go to bat for her in a big way. And if she does get in its full pay unless there is need.
If she really wants to play and you are full pay why not look at D3 schools like Allegheny, Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Franklin & Marshall etc to name a few. Those types of schools will give lots of merit money to a student like yours. Not the prestige but very good schools and your daughter will get a great education. I’m from PA so more familiar with those schools. Im sure there are similar type schools all over the country.
As a travel softball coach for many years there is this idea from the parents “my kid is going get scholarship money for playing softball” As @Aimlesscat1 mentioned above even at D1 school very few woman are are getting much money at all. They spread it around to fill a large roster.
Every year I sit down our organization’s 14U girls and their parents and show them the amount of merit money that is out there for them as opposed to the very little scholarship money. I use generic stats such as a 3.5 GPA and 1250 SAT, a family income of 80K and run NPC for the schools and show them what they could expect in Merit money and how that compares to the paltry softball scholarship money. If she really wants to play as noted above there are a bunch of D3 schools with very good academics that will give her a lot academic money and probably cheaper to start with than the schools you listed.