<p>I have a son who has a 1470 SAT and 4.08 GPA. He is a very bright kid and has very high expectations in terms of choosing a college based on quality of the academics. He is currently a Junior in HS and is an above average baseball player who wants to play at the collegiate level. The only question in my mind is whether he will be a DI or DIII caliber player.</p>
<p>Having said all that, most of the schools he is interested in are in the $35,000 - $40,000 range. Also, even at the DI level, schools don't have many athletic scholarships to pass around. He will want to apply to schools like Stanford, Harvard, Amherst, etc... </p>
<p>My question is, what top academic DIII schools are known to be genorous with financial/merit aid to athletes? Also, are any Ivy League schools known for this as well? I want to encourage him to apply to good academic schools that are generous with financial/merit aid to athletes.</p>
<p>Any thoughts in this area would be appreciated.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>DIII schools do not give athletic scholarships ... any merit aid will be based on academic accomplishments (and financial aid will depend on aid)</p></li>
<li><p>IVY league schools and some other top schools do not give either athletic scholarships or merit aid</p></li>
<li><p>That still leaves a ton of other school that are in the hunt for scholarships or aid</p></li>
<li><p>I would talk to the coach about your son and his college possibilities and I would also talk to any other coaches that know him (club team, summer camps, etc). From my limited experience I think you'd probably have hints if he was a DI scholarship prospect by now ... your son probably would already have been contacted by schools interested in him ... although he may be a late bloomer or be in a place where he is not visible.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, getting to play sports in college is a totally seperate question than getting a scholarship to play in college ... and getting a DI scholarship (a few hundred new baseball scholarships granted per year as a guess) is much-much tougher than playing DI (lots of kids are not on scholarship) and DIII opens ups thousands of more spots (albeit with no scholarships). </p></li>
</ul>
<p>If your son is a highly desired athlete, the D-1 schools with athletic scholarships will ante up. You need to research which schools have athletic scholarships in his sport, and if he is at the athletic calibre to be competitive for them. He then needs to throw his name in the hat, talk to the coach, visit, etc, etc. The ivies do not give athletic scholarships, nor do they give merit aid, so if that is a heavy consideration, you may want to limit applications to them and any like schools. </p>
<p>As 3togo points out, D-3 schools do not give athletic scholarships. Some do give merit scholarships and if the candidate is an athlete that can count very heavily in the decisions for those awards. So you want to take a look at those schools. It has been my experience that Catholic colleges are generous in student athlete scholarships. Also top D-3 schools in that specific sport (look up where they placed in the sport in the NCAA championships) often reward athletes. Also tech schools tend to reward their athletes. Carnegie Mellon and Case Western are examples. They do not give athletic scholarships, but any athletes that make their scholarship criteria have a leg up in getting the awards as ECs are heavily considered.</p>
<p>I guess what I am looking for is DIII schools that have merit aid programs where athletes would have a leg up. A couple I have heard of that do are Emory and Williams. Does anybody else know of any others?</p>
<p>Look for schools that give 100% of demonstrated aid such as Williams or Emory, and that are interested in athletes. Again, you need to check the NCAA list of school that are ranked in the championships and you will see if the sport is heavily supported by the school. If they don't care about the sport you are not going to get as much aid. By looking at the rankings, you can see which schools have been actively recruiting athletes. That usually means generous award packages for those who qualify for financial aid. Denison ranks high on that list, CMU, Case, Wash U--but for certain sports. Allegheny College loves its athletes.</p>
<p>Claremont McKenna and Pomona are great with fin aid and sports may help with admissions . The problem with counting on athletic scholarships is injury and then possible loss of scholarship. It happens a lot .</p>
<p>I have just read Chris Lincoln's book, Playing the Game, Inside Athletic Recruiting in the Ivy League, 2004, Nomad Press. It is very interesting and informative. </p>
<p>It doesn't really give any tips but offers an insight into what the coaches are up against in recruiting and has been helpful in some of our family discussions & thoughts.</p>