<p>I have searched these boards for a similar scenario and didn't see anything. If anyone has had experience with this I would love to hear your advice. My daughter is being recruited by some D1 & D3 schools for crew. Her first choice D1 school's coach wants her to sign! and that is great, except he has no idea what kind of FA$$$ we will get because it's too early for that and he said that there is no $$ for freshman crew athletes. When they are upperclassmen, yes, but now - no. She currently goes to a private HS and we qualify for FA there, they use a third party system like CSS profile that crunches the numbers and then reports back to the high school, then the HS FA committee allocates aid based on that.</p>
<p>So I am thinking, since we qualify for aid at the high school, should I assume we will qualify and get aid at the college? Then she could sign, we would have to wait and see what aid we get in Februrary. But if the aid pkg. is not sufficient enough that she can't attend, then she cannot row anywhere for 1 year and we are too late with apps at all the other schools she has been considering, and are recruiting her. (because once she signs, she cannot apply anywhere else - right?)</p>
<p>She really wants to go here and if she doesn't sign, she will most likely get in, but of course, no guarantees. And if she doesn't sign, she will apply elsewhere and get in somewhere - but it is all up in the air. this is the sure thing in terms of where she wants to go, but what should we do about the $$$ issue?</p>
<p>I called the school's FA office yesterday, and they couldn't tell me anything. Today the coach is going in with our financial figures to see if they can give him an idea of what we will get, if her grades qualify her for merit, etc.<br>
Any thoughts or help? Thanks.</p>
<p>^^If there is no athletic scholarship money, then she does not sign a letter of intent. She will only be verbally committing as a recruited walk-on. This is completely non-binding.</p>
<p>I would think you would get a very similar package at the D-1 school, perhaps better. You should call the financial aid office, ask them if they can provide you with an Early Read for f.a. I did that for my daughter, when she applied ED as an athletic recruit. Long story short, she ended up applying RD and was accepted and her FA package was best there…no scholarships but still the best. Good luck.</p>
<p>really? I hope you’re right because the coach said it was binding and if she signed, but then did not attend (and that would happen only if the FA pkg was insufficient) she could not row at any other college for 1 year because they all would honor the letter of intent.</p>
<p>Oh, radannie, this is a D1 school, so that is why I am so confused. And I did call the FA office but no one could do a pre read. Regarding your d’s situation, we could just not sign and apply to all the other schools, but she really wants to go here and there is a chance she would not get in. thank you so much</p>
<p>You should check with the NCAA, but I do believe LOI’s are only for scholarship athletes. My daughter was a recruited walk-on at a DI school, because they only had 1 scholarship available her year. Like your daughter, she was told money would be forthcoming in later years. No LOI because there was no scholarship.</p>
<p>An athlete can indeed sign a letter of intent with no scholarship attached. Been there done that. You could say my child “got the t-shirt” but the scholarship? That was another matter. Some goofy extenuating circumstances I wouldn’t wish on any young person which is why the athlete really better love that school with or without the sport.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to how binding a non scholarship NLI might be - but I would think any such agreement must carry some weight. If nothing else it would be bad form to enter into such an agreement thinking it might not be binding on the off chance financial aid isn’t sufficient. Hopefully the coach can track down someone in financial aid who can help you make an informed decision.</p>
<p>Only you can determine what your family is willing to take on financially. If she’s a strong candidate with a good chance going regular decision, maybe that is your better route? Will the coach still support her with a regular decision application? (And does coach support do anything at that point?) Tough call. You can’t count on that crew scholarship ever really materializing - did the coach speak to what might be available in following years? MIGHT being the key word here.</p>
<p>Vulture3, I’m curious about the letter of intent your athlete signed without athletic money. The National Letter of Intent website says specifically that an NLI is signed only for athletic money–that it is a contract (for 1 year) between the athlete and the institution. Perhaps yours was a LOI used by your college only, and not a National LOI? I’m asking because my D has been offered a roster spot but no money, so we have been assuming there will be nothing to sign.</p>
<p>My recollection is that it was the NLI, but I can’t find our copy to verify that. Our process was 3 years ago. We were well aware of the actual wording at the time and fully understood that in fact a scholarship was NOT part of the deal. My athlete had full coach support on the early decision application and was part of the list when that class of recruited athletes was announced. Many assumed there was a scholarship involved - it was a bizarre experience on many levels. Coach was “terminated” a couple of months before my child graduated from high school…</p>
<p>I’ll let you know if I come across the actual document as to whether it was the real deal or not.</p>
<p>I spoke to the coach this afternoon and the letter will have a small athletic scholarship attached to it, but nothing major. $1,000. Not much against a $40,000 ticket. Hey, but it is a start I suppose. He did visit the FA office to see what kind of package we could hopefully get, and on monday, the FA office will have some kind of information we can work with before we sign, or pass. So it is still kind of a gamble. It would be so nice to know what kind of FA she would get before we sign. </p>
<p>thank you to all of you for your information and stories. It has been really helpful and I will be checking in until Wed to see if there are any new posts. :)</p>
<p>I spoke to the coach this afternoon and the letter will have a small athletic scholarship attached to it, but nothing major. $1,000. Not much against a $40,000 ticket. Hey, but it is a start I suppose. He did visit the FA office to see what kind of package we could hopefully get, and on monday, the FA office will have some kind of information we can work with before we sign, or pass. So it is still kind of a gamble. It would be so nice to know what kind of FA she would get before we sign. </p>
<p>thank you to all of you for your information and stories. It has been really helpful and I will be checking in until Wed to see if there are any new posts. :)</p>
<p>^^That’s kind of underhanded of him, then. He could ask her to verbal without an NLI, then she wouldn’t be committed and you could take time to weigh your options.</p>
<p>Keylyme: he told me he got the $1000 attached as a way of showing that he really wants her. And last year he lost a recruit he really wanted under the exact same circumstances, she/her family could not commit without knowing the $$ situation. So as a RD applicant, she was not accepted. In my opinion, I think my daughter has a 90% chance of getting in without signing - 2 out of 3 SAT scores are below what there average applicant. and you know, there are so many applicants that do have the scores they want, so it is a gamble. </p>
<p>And did your daughter ever end up going to the school that recruited her with no scholarship that year?</p>
<p>I do think there might be a slight risk of not signing the NLI. If the coach is looking to recruit a specific number of recruits and your daughter is one of them if she chooses to not sign a NLI then he may move on to the next person on the list and sign them … then when she shows up as a walk-on your daughter is fine as long as the coach allows open tryouts for spots among NLI kids and walk-on kids. I have no idea if this coach or crew tends to open to walk-ons … I would guess yes as most “minor” sports are … but it totally a guess. </p>
<p>Somewhat ironically there is another thread going on at this time about guarenteed spots for recruits … the implication of guarenteed spots or playing time for recruits could be less opportunity for walk-ons.</p>
<p>Yes my daughter did go to the school and competes for them. In her sport, it is very common for the schools to take recruited walk-ons who are highly recruitable athletes. It is because in her sport (gymnastics), the school can ony have a total of 12 athletes on scholarship and they need around 15 or 16 on the team to provide enough depth. </p>
<p>I don’t think most DI teams have actual “walk-ons” anymore. I remember reading an article about the whole recruited walk-on thing where athletes are actively recruited and asked to be on the team (without scholarhsip) because the school just doesn’t have the funds or spots (in head count sports) to give everyone they need/want a scholarship. </p>
<p>If your daughter has a good chance of getting in, I would seriously think twice about signing an NLI for $1000. I think she can’t get need-based aid if she gets any athletic aid as it counts towards the team cap.</p>
<p>keylyme, did your daughter eventually earn some athletic scholarship money?</p>
<p>While $1,000 is a lovely gesture, it is a barely a drop in the bucket against $40,000 (or more). It’s really easy to get wrapped up in the athletic scholarship buzz and possibilities. Sounds like financial aid is still a very big piece of making this decision so I hope the coach can shake out some information for you. (And determine if or how much that $1,000 might impact possible financial aid.) We were fully prepared to pay for 4 years, and hopeful that maybe some “help” would materialize. It’s a good thing we were fully prepared.</p>
<p>keylyme & vulture3: can you elaborate regarding the $1000 scholarship impacting the FA? You both mentioned that and that sounds really scary!!! Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Call the NCAA and check it out. I still don’t know the ins and outs of it. We were at a college recruiting seminar with our son and one of the DI coaches said that if a player got need-based aid along with athletic money, the total amount of $$ counted toward the team cap. I still haven’t found the answer to this because we are not yet at that point with our son.</p>
<p>^^^ A DI coach told us a similar thing applied to merit money, not just need-based aid. But it seemed like there were other things that entered the decision, too. I’m pretty fuzzy on it all, and we ARE at the point we need to know. Time for a phone call, I guess!</p>