Not to go off thread here, but funds can absolutely increase after an NLI is signed, they just can’t decrease or be eliminated, it is a binding contract for at least that amount for an academic year. Also, once NLI signed, school search is over…By signing a National Letter of Intent, a prospective student-athlete agrees to attend the designated college or university for one academic year.
I disagree. My daughter hadn’t even been accepted to her school when she signed. Her only restriction was that she couldn’t sign another NLI. She could have gone to a D-3 school and MANY of them were still contacting her after she told them she had signed. She could have gone to any school and not been an athlete.
NLI commitment is binding just like ED. Yes you can back out. It’s a free country. But, you better have a darn good reason (i.e. pregnancy, death of parent, etc) to gain the support of a coach who recruited you and passed on other qualified sportsman. Div III is still NCAA. She would 90% loose her eligibilty.
NCAA rules allow you to drop down to Div 3 any time you want and play immediately. You don’t need a reason, good or bad. In fact, my daughter can walk away from her team right now, not play one second of the season, can keep her scholarship for this semester .She can transfer to any school she wants to but would have to sit out a year if she wants to play sports unless it is a Div 3 school. The Div 3 schools were calling her last fall. She told them she was committed, and they said “Doesn’t matter, you can still play for us if you want to change your mind.” The athlete can also ask for a release and the NCAA can grant it and allow immediate eligibility, but doesn’t always grant that request.
How do you ‘90% lose’ your eligibility? You either are eligible or not.
With ED the other schools have agreed not to accept students who reject the ED offer in bad faith. Other schools have not agreed to not accept, academically, a student who has withdrawn an NLI. The student can’t play a sport for the new school (if Div 1 or 2) but academically the student can still be accepted.
DIII doesn’t offer athletic scholarships. NLI is a financial contract when ATHLETIC scholarships are in play, even D1 athletes don’t need to sign an NLI if they aren’t getting any money, but can still commit to play. I think there is confusion on they type of scholarship in this conversation. Yes there is no binding commitment required for the DIII athlete because there is no money involved on the athletic side (there may be merit or other type grants/awards in play)
“DIII colleges are not allowed to offer athletic scholarships and the amount of practice time a coach can have is reduced; athletes here are competing for the love of competition. Schools can and do give financial aid through leadership grants and needs based financial aid but they are not the full rides. D3 is thought of as the lowest level of competition in college.”
Sorry to hijack thread, but there is so much misinformation on athletic scholarships and NLIs out there.
I’m not confused at all. I know what I signed (parents have to sign the NLI or at least I did because my daughter was 16 when she signed it). I know what signing meant - that she could back out, but if she did she couldn’t sign another NLI for one academic year. She still had the option to go to a D3 school and ‘participate for the love of the game.’ She STILL has that option and could leave her current school today and go play at a D3.
I asked all these questions before I signed. I read the NCAA information pages. She didn’t apply ED so had no obligations on the academic side of admissions. One of the ‘outs’ for the NLI is if the student isn’t admitted academically to the school, she can sign another NLI.
But back to the original question - how could a parent NOT help with the paperwork when a student applies to more than about 5 schools? I don’t think any high school student could manage school and all the paperwork.
D applied to nine schools. I set up a spreadsheet, ran the NPCs, and have been adjusting the numbers as the various merit scholarships are coming in. D managed all of her own deadlines, but she is good at that and pretty dependable.
I didn’t look over her essay, though her GC at school did. When an adcom member at one of her acceptances sent her a little note saying how much she enjoyed her essay, I finally read it. It was really good!
Actually, many have no choice. Uninterested or uneducated parents --especially in immigrants’ communities-- and abysmal advice at the GC level cause many students to be on their own. Check the Questbridge or Gates forum and you will see how students are raging their battles on their own, and at times with uncooperative parents.
A decade ago, a poster shared a compelling story how she managed to leave an unsafe environment (including being shot in her apartment) for a stint at Yale. The girl not only managed her own precarious health but had to take care of her parent. This in addition of the multiple applications. It was an inspiring story.
Let’s be real … having dedicated parents who are in the position of helping is a MUCH better alternative. Some kids, however, display an amazing resiliency and learn to manage a complicated process. In a way, THIS forum might have become a proxy for the lack of adults in their life.
NEPatsGirl - I’d honestly say that the college application & scholarship workload has been about 70% effort by me and 30% effort from my S. If I had left everything to him, little (or nothing) would have gotten done. As you know, the process is a lot of work & my S would have been completely overwhelmed by it. I was kind of torn over the whole thing and wondered many times if I should just make him do more. As a parent, I personally didn’t feel that this was the best time to “teach him a life lesson,” about doing these important tasks on his own because there’s a limited amount of time in which to get everything done. To his credit, S cranked out whatever essays I requested from him without much resistance. He does have quite an academic workload, but I’d also estimate that when he does 1 hour of homework on the computer, about 20 minutes is spent doing actual homework & 40 minutes of that hour is spent instant messaging with his friends. Is it just him, or do other kids have that problem as well? S is a really good kid, and I wouldn’t want him to miss out on opportunities because of his lack of awareness/motivation at this point in his young life. Anyway, 7 colleges applied for & 14 different scholarship applications submitted.
I kept track of deadlines, payments, and submissions of my D’s college application. She did most of the works but I did not want her to make any careless mistake. I also helped her with essay ideas and proofread them although I did not involve in the actual writing process.
D didnt’ want me to read any of her essay or supplements so I was out of the loop on that. She did have two teachers read each one and help her edit. But, like it has been said, I did most of the tracking and organization because it is an overwhelming process and I’d hate to have her miss something and lose out on a great school choice. There is just so much to track that it is sometimes overwhelming for me as well.
Good luck to everyone! Its now sit back and wait time. And then probably the hardest part…knowing that D will most likely only get to choose between a few of the schools, only those that come in financially affordable. There are two safeties already that have come in doable, albeit on the very high $$ side so I can’t honestly say she’d be happy attending one of those schools at the end price we’re looking at.
Skipping from the front page, can I just say that I do not understand the compulsion to make spreadsheets. Many of the people who make them seem to be extremely stressed out about the process. I wonder which came first: the need to commit every detail to a spreadsheet, or the stress? 
Lots of parents seem to approach it that way. It would drive me crazy. S applied to 11 schools, before the days of the mandatory NPC, and needed almost a full ride, so he was applying only to the most selective schools. His “safety” was the University of Rochester. Yes, it was a high wire act to some degree, yes there was definitely stress, but not at this level.
Clark is a great school. I cannot imagine it being in the bottom 5!! Your daughter’s list must have a lot of top schools.
Your involvement would be needed at this level, I would think, with that many schools. My kids applied to 2-4 schools, and one also applied to two conservatories for a total of 6. Those senior years were stressful enough.
I understand the apparent need to apply to many to try to get some merit aid, but I think the laws of probability would argue against that approach In other words, her chance of getting merit aid might not vary among the various schools so probability of getting merit aid doesn’t go up with the number of schools.
Any support you can give, that does not involve writing things for her, would be sorely needed I would think. If my kids had to do 18 applications and all those supplements, I think they would have been too burned out to go to college at all. Your daughter is built of sturdy stuff and that certainly bodes well for her future.
@compmom, I agree that Clark U is a very good school. In terms of fit, it is in her bottom 5. She isn’t particularly thrilled about the Worcester area. We did visit the school but arrived when admissions office was closing so we self-toured the premises. They have great offerings and their Leep Scholarship and fifth year free program are why she is applying. She would also be able to get at least a semester and possibly a full years’ credit with the IB diploma, which is a savings of course. Their FA otoh isn’t great from all accounts but we’ll see what they offer. In terms of academics, it is a safety for her I think, or at least a very low match. If the package offered is good, we’ll go back and do a real tour
The town gown relationship is inspiring. Sounds like your daughter has a lot of good choices, maybe too many
We did 16 applications, and yes, I made a spreadsheet.
I think that a high number is helpful when you are applying to top 20 schools or when you are looking for financial aid.
For me the spreadsheet was very helpful in keeping track of details and pro and cons of colleges as we went on visits and assessed them relative to each other. As we learned new things about the schools, I added them. Without doing that, I could not keep the details straight. The school begin to run together.
Spreadsheet is the easiest way to track multiple items. I have a spreadsheet for my D summer programs this year. She is a junior and is looking for a research opportunities this summer. Despite some harsh responses from some parents that it is a student responsibility to fully being involved in application process I believe that parent involvement on at least an organizational level can bring better results.
D’s gotten 7 offers so far (in her case, half) and the merit awards have varied from COA of $10K to COA of $35K. The $10K one was guaranteed so not a surprise, but the others have not necessarily been what I would have expected.
An interesting wrinkle for us, in addition to having an NCP who may or may not send all required paperwork, is that I may begin a new job that changes my own financial picture for FA in years 2-4 of her college. As it is a positive change, need-based aid will likely go down and merit become more important. I am very glad she was able to apply to 15.
Wow, are we twins? We did the exact same thing. Self-toured when the office was closed (very limited hours, that office…) and initially were interested by the LEEP and 5th year programs. Worcester turned her so off that she didn’t apply, though.
I was the administrative assistant during my child’s application process (which also involved auditioning). She applied to a dozen schools with about half a dozen auditions.
While my daughter could have done everything in her own, sacrifices would probably have been made which would affect her (and us) for years. Her mind was all over the place at that time and there was little room for any error.
If my husband (or mother or father) had to complete all of that paperwork while still working a full time job, people would probably think that I was a monster if I didn’t assist them. I can’t understand why people think it’s ok to make a 17 year old so everything but not a 40 year old.
Not all kids, applications, families, finances are created equal.
What paperwork, exactly? I’m not talking about the athlete (recruitment), performers (auditions) or artists (portfolios)- just the average typical student applicant. Assume I’m talking about the average kid who is submitting just a college application without any major extras (e.g., auditions, portfolios, whatever athletes have to do).
I did the spreadsheet thing in the beginning. It was very helpful in tracking the EFCs from the NPCs; thus eliminating unaffordable schools upfront but that’s when the usefulness for us ran out. I shared that file with D, so she had equal access to this but really, neither one of us looked at it after she set her school list.
D did all the paperwork. I paid for the transcripts, test scores and application fees. I was around for D to bounce ideas off - she and I discussed when she would submit her applications (not the day before or on the deadline), and I was there when D pressed the submit button (she needed someone to sit next to her). If she made typos on her app, oh well.
D, in the end, applied to 7 schools. She kept track of any essay requirements; I never saw the CA essay; she set up and conducted phone interviews; she contacted the colleges whenever she had a question. All this occurred without my knowledge, never mind, any tracking or management on my part. Now if D chose to apply to more than 10 schools, I think I may have been needed to coordinate interview scheduling. Luckily, she had self-imposed the limit of 7 schools.
My role was that of a cheerleader and funder. The best thing I did was purchase a giant calendar with the last 3 months of 2014 and first 3 months of 2015 on one side. She used that to schedule her time - school and college apps and ECs. In the end, D learned a lot about herself, gained confidence in talking to strange adults over the phone, learned how to ask questions via email or phone. She made mistakes but the colleges took those in stride and were, in fact, rather encouraging to her in her application process.
So far, 5 acceptances with two more responses to go (I expect one of the colleges to reject). She has a folder with all the paperwork from the colleges. She wanted to take charge of that - her colleges, her responsibility, her papers (her decision, not mine). Again, mistakes may be made but for now, I can’t foresee any big ones. (and even the big ones are fixable)