How much does Athletics Help Acceptance and FinAid

<p>I'm wondering, for D-III schools and D-I schools that don't give athletics scholarships (i.e. the Ivys), how much does being a recruited athleted (in this case, golf), help your acceptance, and just as importantly, does the FinAid office tend to be more generous to athletes, even if it does take a push on the athletes part?</p>

<p>those schools are not allowed to give any financial consideration to athletes simply because they are recruited athletes.<br>
and i don’t think being recruited for golf is going to win very much favour. it’s just not something that’s gonna bring them what a football, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, or hockey recruit would.</p>

<p>sorry man.</p>

<p>i’m not sure what a lacrosse or hockey recruit would bring besides debt… Thats why so few schools have these sports. But in my experience (along with a lot of kids I played with) in another non revenue sport (although a lot more revenue then golf i’m sure) being recruited can help you a good bit in getting accepted. These schools want all their sports to be great, great athletes brings great alumni. Look at Ohio State for example they have so many great athletes that come out of there but literally about a fourth of their campus has been built by jack nicklaus. About financial aid I also think that they give preference. I have not been thru this experience because I play at a school that gives scholarships but I know a kid who goes to a well respected dIII school and has a half scholarship for leadership. This kid had about no extra curriculars during high school except for soccer but they gave it to him because the coach pushed it and he was captain of his high school team. </p>

<p>So although schools say they don’t give preference, everyone knows that they do. And i’ve seen examples of it many times. But coaches can only help you so much. You can’t play at an IVY school if you aren’t anywhere close to having the stats to do so. But if your on the bubble or right outside of it the coaches often have enough pull to get you in.</p>

<p>They are not supposed to make money available based on athletic ability, but in the case of DIII, they most certainly take it into consideration as part of merit based aid. Three of my daughter’s teammates all went the DIII route and coaches told them that money would be forthcoming for merit because they were really wanted for the team. All three got very generous fa packages with solid merit aid. They were good students, but not necessarily students who would have received merit aid had they not had the athletics to go with their academics.</p>

<p>Ok what about a school like Emory or NYU, which are D-III, or a school that doesn’t give scholarships in golf, but is D-I, like Fordham, Villanova or BC?</p>

<p>I would say that it is true for most schools but I can’t comment on specific cases and colleges.</p>

<p>Being recruited for golf can help with admissions, although probably not as much as revenue sports such as football, basketball. Your grades and SATs still need to be in the ballpark. I do know golfers recruited to Ivys like Yale or Penn with SATs of around 2000-2100. Generally, the more they want you, the more flexibility they have with SAT scores (to a point). Scholarship schools (Division 1 or II) usually have greater flexibility with grades and scores than non-scholarship schools.</p>

<p>From this family’s perspective with Patriot and Ivy League recruitment, coaches were very straight forward. The key is if you are actually recruited… not simply shown interest or having a pleasant chat with coach. For my youngest D’s sport at Ivy, coaches have a certain number of slots for his or her recruiting list. In our case, after a review of transcript by coaches, were told what was needed for SAT and SAT IIs . Once D achieved those scores, coaches and D committed to each other. Admissions has the last say but all players on coaches list (5) were admitted EA. In retrospect, it all happened (likely letter) exactly as coaches said it would play out. Now I am sure(having followed CC) there are exceptions . Again, key is coaches actually recruiting you. good luck</p>

<p>Very true Nightsky. If you are being recruited, you will know it! Generally coaches maintain regular (weekly) contact by email with recruits during the junior year and are allowed to telephone the recruit July 1 following the junior year. Pay close attention to the coach’s behavior. If he/she emails regularly or sends hand-written cards or letters, he/she is interested. If the coach does not return emails, doesn’t answer his/her cell phone or is always “unavailable”, chances are good that the coach is not terribly interested or may be stringing the recruit along as backup in case his/her top choices decide not to attend. It is important to read the signals accurately so that the student targets appropriate schools and is not left out in the cold.</p>

<p>nightsky is correct, D was recruited at a number of Ivies and it played out like he/she said. However, Ivies are need based for the most part, so money in the form of atheletic scholarships does not really exist. But if you have financial needs they will work with you if you get in. Keep in mind regardless of athletic prowess, the ivy coaches will not use up a slot on their list for a student who they think won’t make it past admissions. They will go for a lesser athlete who can get it. We saw that happen, and were later told by the coach “I would have liked to get X, but no way X would have gotten in”. At Stanford (and some others) coaches must run a basic atheletic resume (including grades, test scores, ec’s etc) by admissions before they are allowed to continue the recruiting process.</p>