<p>I was told by a parent whose son just stated his freshman year at a high level academic D3 school that indeed there is money given for athletic talent in the form of merit aid , the parent said he basically was able to negotiate almost 80% of merit aid from the coach on his behalf , it definitely was not financial aid as he did not qualify for any.</p>
<p>He said all the D3 schools were offering money for the most part but this one particular school really stepped up after his negotiating.</p>
<p>Most of the top D-3s don’t offer merit aid from what I have been told. With admissions in the single digits on some places (think MIT, etc) they don’t need to lure high stats students. Also I don’t believe upper level NESCACS, UChi, Johns Hopkins, etc, offer much if any merit aid. </p>
<p>We know a freshman athlete at a good D3 LAC who received a surprisingly generous merit award. The parents aren’t really sure if it was partially due to athletics, but they weren’t expecting anything near what it is. It’s actually better than an athletic scholarship because there’s no athletic commitment involved.</p>
<p>We had a D3 coach tell my son that his school had “academic” scholarships that were only offered to applicants that met very specific criteria. These basically take the place of athletic scholarships, and were for the most part alumni funded /memorial type scholarship offerings. So it was the “John Brown” memorial scholarship offered to an athlete in xyz sport that is not eligible for need based aid, etc. </p>
<p>You can usually find these on the school website as “other scholarships”. The one mentioned to us was listed and not surprisingly, there is no way to apply for it, a coach nominated you to be considered. We even saw scholarships on the list, (at a different school) for kids that played only certain instruments in the band, so this case was not unique. With a high endowment level, there may be lots of creative ways to get an athlete funded at some schools. </p>
<p>Question for , Varska , Stemit , Sherpa , OhiodAD , wise responders on these boards . Can any of you comment on the quality and support of the football program at Ithaca College , they appear to be very committed to a successful program , as well as any academic insight anyone would like to share</p>