“Both McDaniel and Albright have a 4+1 and are both recruiting him for football (and are within his budget) with the potential of Football getting messed up this year with the virus, the potential exists for getting packaged for a 5th year. They dont typically redshirt but have been packaging kids a 5th year if they want to play and remain in school.”
Division 3 schools do not ‘package’ a requirement to play football or offer an athlete anything they aren’t offering non-athlete students. If they are offering a 5th year, they are offering it to everyone (or those in the same academic/financial situation as athletes).
They might be offering a 5th year of merit because of Covid. The NCAA is allowing most athletes an additional year of eligibility, so the ‘5 years to play 4’ may be 6 years to play 4 (and there is also credit for some shortened seasons).
@Billb7581, I am sure @twoinanddone can correct me if I misunderstand why they clarified the packages your son is receiving, but I believe the reason they are clarifying this point is because there are many parents who read threads (even well after a thread is done) who may not understand the ins and outs of athletic recruiting as it pertains to each Division. The clarification was to help not confuse current and future readers of this thread.
You, having a child in active recruitment, possibly know most of this but many parents don’t know the following (by no means exhaustive) information:
Division I schools offer athletic scholarships, but only certain sports are designated “headcount” sports meaning they have full scholarships to offer for a specific number of athletes. Many athletic scholarships, even in Division I are not full rides and this can be a shock to families with recruited athletes. Major exception to this rule are Division 1 schools in the Ivy League. The Ivy League does not offer any athletic scholarships, need based only.
Division II schools can also offer athletic scholarships, most of which are partial scholarships.
Division III schools are prohibited to offer any kind of athletic scholarship, they can only offer the athletes they recruit the same financial aid other students at the school with the same grades/stats and financial need would be offered.
Have you looked at Kean University? Merit scholarships provided on a rolling admissions basis so while he would not know aid amount up front, may be worth applying with a 3.75 gpa. Known for teacher education. Doesn’t need car there and easy enough to take train home to SJ.
It just seems like wherever he applies for football he gets max merit, or close to it. I know how it is supposed to work. Coincidence maybe but all the calculators have been way off the mark thus far and the main reason I started this thread.
@Billb7581 - if you believe nothing else on this thread, please believe that the Division III schools your son is applying to are offering him the same “package” they would offer any other applicant with his stats/grades and financial need.
To believe otherwise is to believe that your son (who you say cannot be recruited in either Division II or Division I) has athletic skills that are causing these schools to risk their athletic programs (and fines) in order to offer him more money, in direct violation of the rules they work under. Does that even make sense?
Your son has the stats/grades and financial need to get the packages he is getting. The athletic part is just a cherry on top to the school, not the reason they are giving him money.
Ursinus just got busted for precisely that in the past year.
To act like it never happens is naive. I am not saying it is or it isn’t though. What I am saying is their calculators are way off, by a large margin and the reason for starting this thread.
Hi there, sorry to see it offers such low academic scholarship. Collegedata shows 31.2% of aid recipients received merit aid averaging over $3K and since your son’s GPA is well above the average 3.1, thought it might be higher.
FT tuition/fees =$12,444 for up to 19 credits flat rate (19 credits per semester allows a student to often pick up an extra classe a few semesters and graduate a semester early), room and Board on campus = $14,802, for $27,246 pre-scholarship, and the school website also shows off-campus housing a few thousand cheaper than on campus. I’m not sure what else the school is putting in that net price calc but fwiw, my college student spends far less on books and ‘other expenses’ than estimated by her college. Good luck!
Commuting to community college is likely the cheapest option. He does not need a car. You can drop him off in the mornings, he can likely find another kid to drop him home after school for a small fee, or he can sometimes take public transport or uber, and it is likely he won’t have class every day. 7 miles is very close, and he could make it work. If he gets a part time job on campus, even better.
OP, people are just brainstorming to try and help you find a creative solution. You’ve been resistant to any suggestions- or just avoiding asking your son to spend-- what- 2 hours exploring the different paths to teacher certification in different states, or to figure out how to qualify for various loan forgiveness programs, or what the requirements are to get a foundation to pay for a Master’s degree (yes, these exist) or a program to combine his first few years of teaching with just a subject matter degree- even if it’s in a private school- while he gets his Master’s at night.
You don’t want the advice? Great. But none of us are giving you the winning Lotto tickets- obviously- and your sarcasm to people trying to help you think out of the box is uncalled for.
I still think having your son create a spreadsheet of different ways of paying for teaching certification is a useful exercise. Especially if it points out to him that SPED in PA pays 50% more than in NJ, or some other helpful facts, before he commits to where he wants to go to college, live, work. I’ve got family members who are teachers all over the country and the pay differential (not to mention the retirement benefits) are all over the map. And in some districts, coaching gets you an extra stipend which is pretty generous- in others, it just means you have fewer lunchroom duties. Again- something to research.
I am intimately aware of alt tracking, having had 2 relatives do it. Both wished they just had taken the teaching track in the first place but at the time were unsure what they wanted to do. .
I don’t need to know your schedule. You drop him off, whenever. If he waits for 4 hours for class to start, so be it. A 2 hour commute for a young man with no other responsibilities isn’t that odd in the NYC area; I know moms who do it with two kids in tow to get to daycare and work. If you, and he, want to make it work, you will. Others do.
Alt tracking might be different in Virginia. It’s definitely different in Massachusetts. Your son- at age 17- can’t figure out how to explore the differences when it might mean the difference between affording his first choice college, and first choice career, or not?
Glad that 2 relatives (presumably in one state?) have permanently answered the question for you.
The problem is, most private schools here are Catholic, and most Catholic schools here are shutting their doors. My Neice had to basically work as a temp aid, and made basically what a sub does. Her husband managed to land a PT Catholic school gig but it was an ordeal to alt track.
I just did the “what if” on degree works on my daugters portal, she is in the process of completing her BS in mathematics. If I change her major to BA Math teaching track it lights up like a Christmas tree and is 40 credits short. .
He doesn’t need to do an alternative track for teacher certification. He can do a five year program which will include his content area major and certification/student teaching.
It sounds like he has some options that are close to your price point. If he can get his degree and fulfill teacher certification requirements, all the better.
As far as his future plans…college coaching, state police, educational leadership masters…let that all go for now.
As a young person, I was positive I wanted my advanced degree (post masters) to be in educational leadership. I took a couple of courses and hated it…just hated it.
@Billb7581, you seem to still have not given the people here (who are trying to help you!) enough information to know what you actually want for your son, or to know what your son wants (and the extent to which those match up). If you really want help, give everybody enough information to help; if you just want to kvetch, then let us know that and we’ll leave you to it.
But assuming you really are looking for help here, please actually listen to what people are saying to you, and don’t assume that you know everything about the things we’ve been talking about here based on conventional wisdom, or conversations with family members. Conventional wisdom is often wrong, and so are family members.
Further, nearly one-third of all students who enter college with a declared major change that major by the time they’re done (about three-quarters if you include those who enter undeclared, but that seems unfair), and the percentage is higher for education majors. That actually presents one advantage to the CC+articulation path, in that it lets students decide more clearly what they want to focus on.
(Oh, and the issue of transportation costs to the community college is a bit of a canard. No, your son wouldn’t have to have a car, even if the mass transit connections are bad. Carpooling backed up by Lyft is a completely viable option, just for starters.)