9.9 simply means that a team can offer a maximum of 9.9 scholarships to the entire team every year (women is 14.4 I think). So if two kids are getting full rides, the remaining 27 players are splitting 7.9 scholarships, so you can why significant athletic money is simply not there.
Couple of things to keep in mind:
Not all schools have the funds to offer 9.9 scholarships. So they may only offer 7 in total for example. Again, split among the entire 29 man roster.
Some schools don’t give much/any scholarship money to freshman, opting instead to spread the money out among upperclassmen.
My S22 is a soccer stud who will probably have a 3.0 unless he starts studying harder. I believe soccer will open some admission doors that might otherwise be closed, but I’m not counting on ANY money. I think that’s pretty typical for men’s soccer.
I think the reason for asking for the EFC might be the opposite of what you are thinking. If your EFC is high, the coach might realize you have no hope of getting any need based aid and would need a soccer scholarship to make the school work.
It is rare that a school will give need based aid and athletic aid to the same student, because if they do the need based aid counts as athletic aid (toward the 9.9 allowed scholarships). It just comes out of a different budget if they call it need based aid or athletic aid.
Once the school gives you that $1k or book money, you are a recruited athlete and any need based aid you receive ‘counts’ toward the team max. You can receive merit aid and combine it with athletic aid IF you meet the NCAA requirement, which for D1 are top 10% of your class, 3.5/4.0 gpa OR 1200 SAT score/105 ACT sum score.
The coach telling you to get the gpa up .1 or .2 to get merit aid may not be a school requirement but the NCAA requirement.
I am the mom of a high school class of 2019 grad who was in this GPA range. I don’t know if it’s been mentioned but some of the schools that my S applied to and got into would be great schools for kids in this GPA range. Especially if you live out west (we live in Southern CA).
He applied to:
Western Washington
NAU (Northern Arizona University)
Sonoma State
Humboldt
Colorado State
@twoinanddone – S20 has the SAT score for NCAA but his GPA is currently 3.2. No, the coach specifically said…since your EFC is high your best bet is to try for merit aid.
Right, your EFC is high so you won’t get need based aid. I don’t think the coach was asking for the EFC to see if he needed to give you MORE money but to see if taking need based aid would be a better deal for you than athletic money which he knows would be very limited because his budget is limited to 9.9 scholarships.
The coaches are all hoping their athletes can get merit and then they can give less athletic aid to that recruit - at least to those athletes who qualify to take a merit scholarship under NCAA rules. My daughter’s coach liked kids from Florida who were bringing their Bright Futures, their Florida Resident grant, and any local scholarships with them, often over $10k, so she could save a little on the athletic money and perhaps give it to another recruit. Tuition was the same for all students (private school) but the FL residents had extra money to start with.
Of course the school may not offer merit aid for an SAT 1200/gpa 3.2. The school still has to follow its own rules for merit aid, even for athletes (treat all applicants the same for merit awards). That’s why the coach is advising to get the gpa up a little. He may know of a merit award that requires a 3.3 or 3.5.
Congrats to everyone getting early acceptances - that is such great news! DS just submitted three early apps, with two more almost ready to go that I am hoping he can get to this weekend. Then one more app for our public school which should be easy. He is not going to work on any RD apps until he hears back from the EA schools so it will be a very long wait until December,
@Marcie123 , congrats on the Oregon acceptance! May I ask, did your son submit the “optional” supplemental essay? My son is looking to meet the Nov. 1 Early Action deadline for Oregon, but hasn’t yet done that supplement. Sigh.
My D has acceptances so far to Radford, U of Wyoming, Old Dominion, Point Park, and Springfield College. Waiting for auditions at Radford, point park, and ODU to see if she’s also in for dance. ODU came with an 85% tuition scholarship for four years.
@FourAtShore Yes, he did the optional Oregon essay. I believe it was on diversity. Fortunately, he has several colleges that have essays on diversity. They range from 600 words down to 250. He wrote a longer essay and then modified it for the schools that required fewer words.
@Marcie123 , thanks for your response! You’ve confirmed what my son and I were thinking – the optional Oregon supplement is very similar to the required CU Boulder supplement, and I think there’s at least one other school he’s looking at with a similar diversity-theme supplement. So, he might as well get something reasonably OK on paper for Oregon’s Nov. 1 EA deadline, and then he can improve/modify it for CU Boulder’s Nov. 15 EA deadline, as well as for any RD schools with that type of supplement.
@Marcie123 , we also visited Boulder and my son really liked it. Haven’t visited Oregon but he was very impressed by the AO’s presentation at his high school. He’s still all over the place with his preferences, so I can’t really say what his top choices are, but I have a feeling he’d be happy to attend either school.
Congratulations to everyone getting early acceptances! It’s such a relief when they start rolling in. DD20 has already chosen and committed to her top choice, we’ve paid the housing app fee and 2 weeks ago went on another campus-sponsored tour and were able to pick her dorm room. We got all the info we need for the Hazelwood act while were there as well. FAFSA is done, she “may qualify” for a loan. sigh… I knew that was coming. And now it’s just a matter of doing a few essays for scholarships.
Now comes the fun part … shopping for her room. lol She’s my landlocked beach girl, so we are going all out beach theme in her room. We found a really nice thick mattress topper on Wayfair for 1/2 off, ordered her comforter set and are slowly getting room decor (HomeGoods, Bed Bath and Beyond and Kirkland’s are our friends right now). I’m a big proponent of “shop early and scour the sales racks” to keep from having to a huge outlay all at once. Sending good luck vibes to everyone waiting to hear back and those trying not to pull our hair out while the kiddos procrastinate over the essay!
@FourAtShore we haven’t visited Oregon yet either. But we know many kids who love it there. I’m hoping it makes the final cut so that we can visit in the spring.
Total was 12, all EA and rolling. She was accepted to her likely last week so just hoping to get a good number of positive responses so we truly know we are done. In addition to being in this GPA category she has very low scores so it is really hard to feel like we can exhale yet. We shall see…soon, gulp.
@MinnieFan I know that feeling well. D has low scores too, and is interested in a competitive audition-only major to boot. The whole process is a mess on my anxiety. She is actually far more chill than I am. Ha.
Sending good luck vibes to everyone waiting to hear back and those trying not to pull our hair out while the kiddos procrastinate over the essay!