<p>Snowball, </p>
<p>That happens a lot in smaller sports with limited scholarship money. They either offer a partial scholarship or they recruit athletes as invited walk-ons. Invited walk-ons are recruited and are on the team but just don't have the athletic aid like scholarship athletes. They even might be on the sports admission list to help give them a boast in admission.</p>
<p>RE: DIII - another experience story - my S had varied experience at several schools but all with coach interest - and seeming integrity. One school made a verbal committment to the team after an official visit - they said they didn't want to affect admission as he was a strong academic candidate - he received a full tuition scholarship from this school with no intervention from the coach. Another school - high caliber DIII - gave a lot of contact and attention but very little of substance to back it up. After visit S received large scholarship and call from coach on same day. Last school had a coach that was in e-mail contact for over a year, met with S twice, travelled to to our state to see him play and when learned of another school's full tuition offer, had a fed-ex admit offer in the mail the next day followed by contact. While there is not scholarship in DIII, it was apparent that this coach was very interested.S will be attending this school but will go to try-outs as in DIII there are no guarantees. We felt all the coaches we dealt with were pretty good, but some obviously more "close to the vest" than others. S is very happy and process was fun for him.He was clear all along that he wanted academics to come first - especially after two D1 visits - he just decided that wasn't for him. As a parent i think it was good for him to visit many programs so he could actually see the difference. The high powered DIII nati'l champ caliber team he was recruited for didn't thrill him because he wanted more of an academic focus - but I don't think he would have figured that out without visiting, meeting the guys and getting to that conclusion himself without parental involvement. He is really happy with his decision.</p>
<p>orjr- You can get strong academics at DI- Ivy League, Patriot League, Rice, Davidson etc. Going DI for athletics doesn't have to mean lesser academics at all.</p>
<p>Invited walk-ons in the Ivy League are athletes who do not need the admissions boost to get in, but whom the coach would like to have on the team. By offering them a walk-on spot, the coach reserves his big pushes for students who are more borderline.</p>
<p>It is also a way to get around quotas. The ivies are allowed a max of 35 officially recruited football players in each freshman class per the ivy charter. If they send 35 into admissions odds are they won't get all of them. The walk-ons help them round out their roster.</p>
<p>mowc - sorry if I sounded that way - I didn't mean academics were lesser - I meant the sport was more. For example, many athletes told him they were unable to graduate in 4 years on his DI visits. It was just his general impression that the sport was the driving force. Of course every school has it's own culture. I'm just sharing his perspective of his personal experience. As a parent, my observation is that his choice of DIII with an academic scholarship rather than NAIA or DI or II with an athletic scholarship has made him comfortable with his decision. There are so many factors - this whole process has got to be individually driven.</p>