D2 completed a D1 overnight recently. After meeting with track coach, she realized no scholarship would be offered freshman year, but potentially could obtain scholarship in future years… Coach mentioned getting her to sign real soon.
Currently we have 6 colleges with acceptances. But only 1 D1 program that has shown interest. All others are D2/D3.
My reservations are there are no guarantees of scholarship in future. Anyone else have similar situation or a recommendation on waiting until late May to consider signing with any school. We are not anticipating any FA at the D1 school and anticipate our costs to exceed 30,000. We will have merit aid of presidential Scholarship. But need to weigh what no FA and no scholarship in subsequent years would mean for our family.
It is my understanding that a letter or intent (NLI) must come with some financial offer? If your D “signed” what exactly would the coach be offering her? I do know that coaches give “preferred walk-on” spots, meaning an athlete has a roster spot just not a “binding” contract.
Right now, only football, soccer and water polo can sign. Most sports are in a dead period until April 13.
Cheetahgirl is right that to sign an NLI, there also has to be an award letter. Something, even if it is only book money of $500 or so. Some sports (baseball) have a minimum amount for a scholarship, like 20% of COA or a set $$ amount.
Some schools do only offer scholarships once the athlete has proved herself. We had one school like that, and we walked away. Had to, as we couldn’t have afforded the school anyway. That school is in the same conference as my daughter’s school, the coach has 9.9 scholarships to give out, and gives them all to upperclassmen (split). I don’t know how the coach does it, but she attracts 12-15 freshmen every year to this team, and the team often has 35 or more players (which means there is not a lot of playing time for most freshmen either; that’s a large team). This school does have some merit scholarship which can attract freshmen, and if there is no athletic money, the student could get need based aid too.
My friend’s daughter did start school with a smaller scholarship in swimming, and by the time she graduated had a full tuition scholarship. It is not unusual for the scholarship to increase during the time in school, but for me the problem was getting to the scholarship years and paying for freshman year without one.
I’d ask the coach what he meant by ‘signing real soon.’ Ask how the school awards scholarships. Ask how much the average sophomore gets, the junior, the senior. I tiptoed around asking at some schools, and then I decided I was wasting everyone’s time and just asked.
Thank you for the insight. I am not a fan of signing without some indication of what will happen in the future. Daughter has decent offers from other schools within 5 hours of home. To be on the hook for 30,000 plus for 4 years is not feasible for our family. Program is primarily all distance runners.
Real soon I took to mean April D1 signings. Locally, other athletes have signed as admitted walk ons. The time commitment, purchasing of own gear, plus having to live in dorm when your parent lives 10 minutes away …makes me question signing anything. She was admitted prior to contacting the coach. It was one of the schools she thought initially that she would not run and live at home. That cost would still be 20,000 with merit aid.
I will contact the assistant coach and like you said, “just ask”.
If being on the hook for 30K+ for 4 years is not feasible then you have your answer - either coach commits to a scholarship down the line in writing (which they are now allowed to do), or you should not commit to the school.
I wouldn’t commit based on a promise. If it’s the right school and the right situation - go for it. If a scholarship develops, all the better. Coaches change, injuries happen, kids priorities sometimes change, rules can change. Too many variables in my opinion. But, like I said, if she loves it, go for it. You might get it.
BTW, baseball minimum scholarship is 25%. If you don’t get a full 25% (or more), you don’t get anything at all in terms of athletic money.
You need to ask the coach to clearly explain to you what they are offering. If they are offering a walk on with a chance for future money you need to get an understanding of what that means - how much money and what constitutues getting it. Some schools do a great job giving money after performance warrants it, others are cut throat and will tell you anything to get you in school and then not deliver on those promises.
Coach at my D’s school told a transfer that she needed to hit a certain mark to get X amount of money. She competed unattached at several meets last Spring and passed that mark, coach gave her the amount of money promised.
You have to face the real reality of D liking the school and wanting to continue attending without her sport, and then you are on the hook for all the tuition. Is that affordable and realistic? Sounds like its not.
It is ok to tell a coach that the finances have to come into the discussion and you have to consider those as well. Most coaches understand this.
As others have said, if there is no scholarship, there is nothing you are required to sign. The coach may be suggesting that she should announce that she is going to this particular school to stop other schools from talking to her and also to be sure he can count on her on his roster, but even if he sends some document that the school calls a letter of intent, it isn’t a binding NCAA document.
Also be aware that even if the coach does make a minimal scholarship offer, and you are sent an NLI and a financial agreement, most scholarships for track, with the exception of PAC12, are for one year only. Athletes are not guaranteed anything for 4 years. Much in the same way as most academic money has a min GPA to maintain funding, athletic money can be cut or reduced if an athlete does not perform as expected. Even athletes that are given incentive targets often never get what is originally promised since teams and what they need, change from year to year. It is important to be able to accommodate the worst case financial scenario.
If she decides to attend with no NLI, keep in mind that she may not receive the benefits of the scholarship athletes, including things like preferential class selection, a special academic advisor for the team, access to athlete medical staff, dorm preferences, free uniforms and shoes, food when on travel trips, etc. Make sure you ask.
I think those on the team get the benefits of being on the team like uniforms and food and trainers.
I do know that on my daughter’s team everyone gets at least a small scholarship, and I think it makes it easier for the coach to administer things like team meals and travel. However, accepting an athletic scholarship means you aren’t eligible for other need based financial aid from the institution, so the athlete might have to make a choice of the $2000 athletic scholarship or perhaps more from the financial aid office.
Wiseacre – One thing to note, that is more typical for track vs. other team sports, don’t be as concerned as much about the Division of the school, but look at the meets the team travels to. My son is a D1 track athlete but at EVERY meet he competes at, there are athletes from all divisions as well as open/pro athletes. He has attended two different D1 schools and while the school he went to his freshman year was part of a great conference, they went to small local meets most of the time. He is now at what I would call a lower tier D1, but is actually going to bigger meets as part of the regular season schedule. So look at the school, and what you are willing to pay for an education, not the division of the team.
So much has happened so quickly, that we are really trying to process all of the great comments.
@ontrack2013- Thank you for the meet information… 3 of the 7 schools will require NLI. Of those 3, 2 go to larger meets, however 1 is a state school in same conference as private that she thought was her first choice.
Following up on what Wiseacre said - kids and adults get so hung up on measuring schols and programs by their football status. There are plenty of P5 schools with track programs that can’t complete with programs in the “next tier” of football confrences or even 1-AA football conferences. Thankfully my daughter turned down several larger school D-1 offers and accepted one at a school that plays 1-AA football. She is in a better track program and a school that fits her much better, and she gets to compete against and regularly beat runners from those bigger schools at meets.
It is interesting that as noted, in some track invitationals you will see D1, D2 and D3 athletes all competing in the same meets. I believe that in general, the D1 athletes are going to have the best marks (the data is all on TFRRS) but it’s not unheard of for a D2 athlete to place first and even some D3 athletes may place above some of the D1 athletes.
Now I don’t know if anyone in D2/3 is going to be competitive with the best track athletes at powerhouses like Oregon and Florida. But things do seem more fluid across divisions in track than in other sports, perhaps due to the individual rather than team nature of the competition (excluding relays).