Athletic scholarships and Financial and Merit Aid

Athletic Recruits
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I am still being nosy and curious, not saying this will happen for my kid!

If a kid gets recruited with a partial scholarship, but they also qualify for needbased programs or merit aid at the same school how does that work?

Like let’s say the NPC says that a kid is likely to get 75% aid at Stanford, and they get offered a 25% athletic scholarship, do they add up to a full ride? Do they get 25% and then only 50% financial aid (so no benefit at all) or is it something in the middle.

Similarly with merit, particularly at schools with automatic merit. If a kid’s SAT and GPA means they get 50% off at Alabama, and they get 40% off for their sport, do they get 90% or or 50% and then 40% of the rest for 70% off total?

This whole process fascinates me.

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I believe it depends on the school. Some allow stacking, others do not.

Head count vs equivalency sports will also affect the scholarship allocation.

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@twoinanddone

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Highly selective privates that meet full need rarely allow you to stack and surpass their need formulas.

Some public state flagships will be more flexible with this.

Stanford provides great info.

Can I accept University need-based aid in conjunction with athletic aid?
Stanford rarely allows student-athletes to accept University need-based aid in conjunction with athletic aid. If you are interested in combining both sources of aid please talk with a member of your sport’s coaching staff.
How do I apply for Stanford need-based aid?
Please see the Stanford Financial Aid Office website at http://www.stanford.edu/dept/finaid/undergrad/ Returning student-athletes have a priority deadline of 4/30
Incoming student-athletes have a priority deadline of 2/15
Will accepting an outside scholarship affect my need-based scholarship?
The outside scholarship award will replace the Student Responsibility (generally $5,000).
The need-based scholarship will only be reduced in the event that the outside scholarship award exceeds the student responsibility. Outside scholarship award may not replace the parent contribution.

https://stanford_ftp.sidearmsports.com/custompages/Compliance/SAfinancialaidFAQ1617.pdf

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So if Stanford doesn’t let a student get need based and athletic aid, does the kid at least get to choose?

It seems very unfair that a kid could get into Stanford on another full need school and then not get to go because their athletic aid made in unaffordable. But maybe I am reading it wrong?

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On your Stanford question: coaches in equivalency sports will typically try to use need-based aid first; there is no value to the program or recruit in displacing need based aid with athletic money. In head count sports this isn’t an issue as it’s full ride or nothing. Stanford is unique among D1 schools in having great FA and also offering athletic scholarships.

You can generally think of athletic aid being treated like an outside scholarship wrt need-based aid, in that it displaces the same amount of need based aid. Specific practices vary by school.

Merit and athletic can typically stack but this depends on the school.

Differences in equivalency vs head count sports.

NIL is reshaping a lot of athletic funding and that’ll continue to evolve.

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Some schools allow stacking and others do not. A merit award can be viewed as reducing need and will be factored in accordingly, depending on the school.

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Things have changed in the last several years, so keep that in mind when reading older posts about combining need based aid (school only/fed and state aid could always be combined), merit, and athletic aid.

It was the case that school need based aid, if combined with athletic aid, counted against the coach’s total. So if the coach gave the athlete $10k and the school gave the student $10k, it was as if the coach gave all $20k in the eyes of the NCAA, which could take the coach above the team max. If the team wasn’t fully funded, the coach might have had some room for the need based aid to be given but it is an accounting nightmare. At my daughter’s school, one person in the FA office handled all the athletes to make sure everything was legit. If D got an outside athletic scholarship (like the boosters from her hs awarded one each year) it had to be accounted for as athletic money. This was before NIL where anyone can now pay athletes anything they want and student athletes can arrive at school with a suitcase full of cash from boosters, sponsors, YouTube.

For D1 and D2, merit aid is allowed and can be stacked (school’s option) if the aid is given to athletes under the same terms as it is given to all other students. The athlete also need to qualify by being in top 10/20% of hs class, have a certain gpa, or test score, but the standards aren’t that hard to meet. The NCAA doesn’t want schools to give athletes more athletic aid and call it merit to avoid the team maximums.

Now the NCAA does allow students on athletic grants to also get need based aid from the school but I’m not sure how much or how it counts against the teams maximums. It’s all fairly new (2018? 2019? and then covid hit and things were suspended) and then the NIL changes happened and the transfer portals and athletic funding is a new world. It’s up to the school if it can be stacked.

I think coaches will still be trying to balance ‘team money’ with financial need of other students. If recruit A can qualify for need based aid but recruit B cannot, the coach is going to be at least tempted to give the team money to recruit B and let need based aid pay for recruit A. It’s not fair, but that’s how it is.

There aren’t that many schools that meet full need that also give athletic scholarships so it didn’t come up as often as you’d think. Ivies, service academies, D3 schools don’t have athletic aid. I think the schools that do meet full need and do offer athletic scholarships do let the student take the better deal, need or athletic aid, but not both. Even if the need based FA is better than the athletic grantwhen comparing $ to $, there is still a big value in being the recruited athlete for admissions. In Power 5 conferences (and a few others) student athletes get a stipend that can be $6000 added to the grant. I think all athletes are restricted to the COA for aid from all sources, so football players get a full scholarship and the stipend, but then don’t get a Pell grant or other merit awards.

This stuff changes all the time, and you can ask these questions of the coaches/FA office so you know that you are comparing apples to apples. It wasn’t hard for me to play dumb in this area as I had NO IDEA how it all came together (“Let me just ask you …”) and the coach didn’t always know either. My daughter had 9 different sources of aid and her school allowed some stacking, but no funds given by the school could be paid to an outside source (insurance, rent) or refunded to her. Other schools do allow athletes to use their athletic grants to live off campus, but my daughter’s school did not.

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