<p>Looking for some advice as we are now starting the search for colleges. Our son, a junior, has stellar academics with a 3.9 UW for a top ranked HS while taking all the hardest possible classes. His program is all IB and scored a 5 on the only AP test he has taken. He took his SATs early and is over 2000 with his reading/math close to perfect. He is struggling on what he wants to study or where he wants to go but he definitely wants to swim for a college team. While he is no rock star swimmer, he swam a full load at YNats as a sophomore and made the USA Scholastic All American Team.</p>
<p>We would love for him to swim for an Ivy League school but are worried that we will not be able to afford it. Is it even worth pursing if we live in the NE? His dad was a former Ivy League swimmer(team record holder). We think we may be just over the line for financial help and have 2 more siblings closely following behind him. </p>
<p>Are we better off financially targeting a D3 or non-ivy D1 school in hopes of academic merit money?</p>
<p>Before we figured out his academics weren’t in the ballpark, S and I went to a general presentation at Cornell where they assured the visitors not to let the price tag hold them back. Ivies have healthier endowments than many of the other schools and are on the whole wanting to make it work for those they admit. Cornell in particular came up with a figure which was the maximum they would require any family to borrow (and I’m sorry, I don’t remember what it was!!!) So I wouldn’t let that stop you from at least exploring it.</p>
<p>If you go to look at other schools that do offer merit or athletic scholarships, you’ve probably heard that there isn’t much money for swimmers in general and male swimmers in particular, but our experience after being ALMOST through with this is the schools that wanted him found a way to bring his COA down to the cost of our state public flagship. </p>
<p>You might want to play around with the FAFSA calculators online too. Our daughter is one year behind our son and when I ran those numbers for two kids in college it was a pleasant surprise too.</p>
<p>Since you are looking at swim teams in the northeast let me also put in a plug for Binghamton University in the SUNY system… even though that particular coach never did respond to my son. Their reputation is that of a public ivy, they are in a pretty good conference… and while the town itself is lackluster there is a shuttle to take students to Ithaca.</p>
<p>I agree with ByeByeSavings. If your son has the grades, and athletic ability I wouldn’t worry about the financial stuff right now (before you start the recruiting process). I’ve known many people who cross an Ivy off the list because they presume something. Don’t presume. </p>
<p>Our experience was similiar to BBS at Cornell. My son is a junior (baseball) there, and they worked with us on the finances. I also have two sons in high school right behind the oldest. My advice would be to do your due diligence on this, and don’t cross any off the list until you have ALL the information.</p>
<p>I would encourage you to pursue as many situations (D3 or a D1) as possible that fit your son’s long term goals. Use College Navigator to identify schools, and begin to network with the swim coach to develop a recruiting strategy. Your son really needs to start this process ASAP. Learn as much as you can, and then start reaching out to coaches and visiting schools.</p>
<p>Run the FAFSA forecaster to see what your expected family contribution is and then run the net price calculators on various college websites instead of guessing. It will help your process immensely . Nice thing about swimming is your time is what it is. Look up the various college websites and see if he would be a top recruit in college at the various Ivy’s. If yes, that will help with admissions, along with the legacy status and his academics.</p>
<p>There are a lot of schools out there that give fantastic aid to higher income families. Check out the net price calculator at Dickinson for example. Is he a National Merit Finalist or Semi-Finalist? If so, there are several colleges out there that give full rides or at least full tuition to NMSF/F. Even without that, with his test scores and GPA he would be in the running for a lot of merit aid at most colleges. The problem is, east coast schools just are not as generous with those funds as schools elsewhere. </p>
<p>There are a lot of really good D3 schools with excellent swim teams though too. If he is a top recruit they tend to find “academic” money for those kids.</p>