<p>My son seems to think the only schalorships he will ever get are for Cross Country Running, He is annoying me terribly with this attitude, I told him he will probably get next to nothing, as Colleges are more interested in Football, etc. He is not the best runner in his grade or school either, but lives to run. His main focus on picking a College is what kind of Cross Country Program they have. #1 Question: Does the Colleges who have the Best or Good Cross Country teams give more AID to a good Cross Country Runner, #2 What kind of schalorships do Cross Country Runners normally get --if anything---money wise? I want to settle this with him, he seems to think he will make thousands because he is a runner, so I wanted to ask you who know about these things. Thank you.</p>
<p>It depends what type of 5k times he is getting. A friend of mine is top 5 in the state (NJ) at Cross Country. He could get a full ride at some schools, but chose to go to Georgetown instead. GU has a great program and is very good academically so he used his x-c position to get him into school. That being said, they didn't give him money. So it would help to know his times.</p>
<p>there are at least a couple questions involved here</p>
<p>Division 1 programs can give scholarships for track or cross country ... there are maybe 300 DI cross country programs in the country out of the 3000 4-year colleges. DIII schools <em>can not</em> give scholarships for track or cross country and that is another 2500+ schools. I am not sure about the 200 or so DII schools (or if there even DII for track and corss country). The 300 DI schools are allowed a total of 10-15 scholarships total for track and cross country ... that is 10-15 total scholarships across 4 years of kids and across all the track disciplines (sprints, distance, jumps, weights, etc) ... most schools split these scholarships among their best in each discipline (which means very few for distance runners in any one class). Visiting ... <a href="http://www.ncaa.org%5B/url%5D">www.ncaa.org</a> ... can provide the details on recruiting and scholarships for cross country and track and field by college division. </p>
<p>The punchline of all this is scholarships as a distance runner are VERY hard to come by ... typically a runner needs to be a near state champion in most states or an all-state runner in the big track states like California or Texas. I was an all-state runner in Maryland and didn't get a sniff about scholarships because I was probably the 250th best miler in my HS class and the scholarships might go to the top 100 or so. From your posting of your son's running it does not sound like he is a top 100 type talent in the US which makes getting a scholarship unlikely ... that said his track/cross country accomplishments might be a great hook to get him into DIII schools. (while I was nowhere near a DI scholarship athlete lots of DIII programs would have loved to have me on their team). I'd suggest talking to his coach to gage your son's potential and also to possibly talk to your son about the best plan for continuing his running in college.</p>
<p>Good luck! (PS - his passion for running sounds like the kind of EC colleges love to hear about)</p>
<p>overrunwith sons:</p>
<p>he might want to go ahead and contact ncaa d2, naia and junior college programs. running one or two years at a junior college would be an option and then moving on to a four year school if it's really important to him to run in college.......... and other options are limited. start now to contact coaches at the colleges if he is serious about this. contact coaches by e-mail at their websites, questionnaires at their websites, or by calling them directly.</p>
<p>How do you find out what Division a College is? We tenitively plan on him going to Slippery ROck Universitey in PA. This is a state school, and people say they have a nice Cross Country Program. Thanks for all the help with these answers. I just read them to my son, he feels like he has no chance of any scharolships now. He is on a GREAT team, in fact, they came in 2nd in the state of PA for CC in Nov, but he is the newest/youngest runner. One of his friends (and on his team) is in the top 4 in the country long distance runners, so he has alot of inspiration to go by. And I know this kid got alot for college, but my son is not near that good. He just feels this would be his only hope because he is lousy at Writing & Essays and most schalorships are in this form. He is good in math. How do I find out about NON-writing schalorships?</p>
<p>Stick around this forum and you will learn everything you need! Try posting on the Parents Forum instead of here on Financial Aid and you will get more responses. My son just graduated from high school and was recruited by colleges for track and cross country. There is very little money available, and it really depends a lot more on your track times than on cross country times. With track times, the coaches can compare apples to apples instead of trying to figure out if the cross country course was measured accurately and whether it was flat or hilly. Does your son also run track? If the Slippery Rock coach wanted him enough there might be a few dollars available if his times improve by junior year track season. I am not sure what grade your son is in right now.
Go to the websites for the colleges and go to the athletic pages. You will see what division the college competes in. You can also look at the times of the team members and can usually see what they achieved in high school (there is usually a bio section for each runner). Good luck and let me know if I can help. My son will be running for Penn.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How do you find out what Division a College is?
[/quote]
I have a couple klugy ways ... about 90% of schools are Division 3 (no scholarships) ... this link ... <a href="http://www.d3hoops.com/regions/confstd.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.d3hoops.com/regions/confstd.htm</a> ... will get you to basketball listings of D3 schools. Similarly, this link shows the D1 basketball schools ... <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/standings%5B/url%5D">http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/standings</a> . These lists might not be dead-on for cross country or track & field but they should be close.</p>
<p>The 2005 College Handbook by the College Board lists by state and division what appears to be a comprehensive list of Cross country and Track and Field Teams. I have no idea how accurate it is for Pa but it was very accurate when we used it to check out schools in NY and New England. </p>
<p>Per this resource, there are 18 DII college/universities in Pa including Slippery Rock. Division II schools offering cross country: Bloomberg U of Penn, Calif U of Penn, Cheyney U of Penn, Clarion U of Penn, East Strudsvberugh , Edinboro, Gannon, Holy Family U, Indiana U , Kutztown U, Lock Haven U, Mercyhurst, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, U of Pitt at Johnstown W, U of Science at Phil, West Chester U of Penn.
Per this same resource; Division I cross country schools in Pa include Bucknell, Duquesne, La Salle, Lafayette, Lehigh, Penn State, Robert Morris, U of Penn, U of Pitt, and Villanova.
Hope this helps! Good luck on your search and enjoy the process.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for this information about the Division 1 & Division II schools. DO you understand what exactly the difference is between Div 1 and Div II ? I rememeber the Post up above saying Division III offers NO scharorships for Track/Cross Country. Sorry for all these questions.</p>
<p>What's the difference between Divisions I, II and III?</p>
<p>Division I</p>
<p>Division I member institutions have to sponsor at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) with two team sports for each gender. Each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well. There are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria. For sports other than football and basketball, Division I schools must play 100 percent of the minimum number of contests against Division I opponents -- anything over the minimum number of games has to be 50 percent Division I. Men's and women's basketball teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams; for men, they must play one-third of all their contests in the home arena. Schools that have football are classified as Division I-A or I-AA. I-A football schools are usually fairly elaborate programs. Division I-A teams have to meet minimum attendance requirements (average 15,000 people in actual or paid attendance per home game), which must be met once in a rolling two-year period. Division I-AA teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements. **Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, and there are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that a Division I school cannot exceed. **</p>
<p>Division II</p>
<p>Division II institutions have to sponsor at least four sports for men and four for women, with two team sports for each gender, and each playing season represented by each gender. There are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria -- football and men's and women's basketball teams must play at least 50% of their games against Div. II or I-A or I-AA opponents. For sports other than football and basketball there are no scheduling requirements. There are not attendance requirements for football, or arena game requirements for basketball. There are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that a Div. II school must not exceed. Division II teams usually feature a number of local or in-state student-athletes. Many Division II student-athletes pay for school through a combination of scholarship money, grants, student loans and employment earnings. Division II athletics programs are financed in the institution's budget like other academic departments on campus. Traditional rivalries with regional institutions dominate schedules of many Division II athletics programs. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.ncaa.org/about/div_criteria.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ncaa.org/about/div_criteria.html</a></p>
<p>Scholarships: </p>
<p>Division I-A schools are currently limited to a total of 85 players receiving financial assistance. For competitive reasons, and due to the fact that a student on partial scholarship counts fully against the total of 85, virtually all I-A schools that are not on NCAA probation give 85 full scholarships. The service academiesin this context, Army, Navy, and Air Forceare exempt from this rule, as all of their students receive full scholarships from the federal government. </p>
<p>Division I-AA schools are currently restricted to giving financial assistance amounting to 63 full scholarships. Unlike I-A schools, I-AA schools may give partial scholarships; but are limited to 85 players receiving any sort of athletic financial aid for football. However, competitive forces mean that a substantial number of players in I-AA programs are on full scholarships. Notably, the Ivy League, a Division I-AA conference, does not offer athletic scholarships at all, and a football-only I-AA conference, the Pioneer Football League, does not offer scholarships in that sport. </p>
<p>**Division II schools tend to be smaller public universities and many private institutions.[ Athletic scholarships are offered in most sponsored sports at most institutions, but with more stringent limits as to the numbers offered in any one sport than at the Division I level. Division II schools may give up to 36 scholarships, although some Division II conferences limit the number of scholarships to a lower level. **Division II scholarship programs are frequently the recipients of student-athletes transferring from Division I schools; a transfer student does not have to sit out a year before resuming sports participation as would be the case in the event of transferring from one Division I institution to another (with the exception of football players transferring from a Division I-A school to a I-AA school, who also do not have to sit out a year).</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_II%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_II</a></p>
<p>Thank you for that indepth reply about the divisions. I did a sample fasta, for Geneva-estimating for a few years from now, seems the family contribution would be about $5,600, with needing another $20,000 for one year. It said nothing about grants after that, but needing schalorships & loans. How does one get some idea how many grants one is eligable for? IT sounds like that depend on how bad the school wants your son/daughter?? What is "adjusted Gross income" mean exactly? I just put what he made the whole year -before taxes, before 401K contributions, before deducting dependants?? I don't know if that was correct or not?</p>
<p>sybbie719 - great explanation. i'll add that the recruiting at the DII level can sometimes depend upon the level of competition within the conference. for example...........a trend we're hearing is that one conference that we're familiar with is now recruiting more and more from the junior college ranks.......and sometimes even from the out of state jc's..........to fill their rosters. probably also depends upon what sport. in this case, it's a revenue sport. the DII athletes that we know who happen to play non-revenue sports, were given scholarships for tuition only. some of these students made up the difference with academic scholarships and/or financial aid. </p>
<p>overrun - i'll pass along the advice once given me from a cc poster..........use the financial aid calculator at the princeton website. your adjusted gross figure is from the federal tax return. you can use last year's federal tax return as an estimate. </p>
<p>from what i can tell, the majority of the colleges with the highly selective admissions (and the most often discussed on cc) tend to be either D1 or DIII level schools. the naia level schools tend to be small, privates. there is a website for naia too as well as ncaa. just do a search on the web.</p>
<p>I still do not know what they mean by Adjusted Gross income, is this the figure BEFORE we deduct our 5 children and 401 K (what I call regular Gross income) or the MUCH lower figure that we end up with further down our taxes (on page 2) after the Deductions of 5 children & the 401 K ? We do not do long forms for expenses of any kind. I looked this term up on Google, and did not see anything about deducting children, or 401K's, so I am confused.</p>
<p>the money you put into your retirement account isn't counted toward available income for EFC * EXCEPT* in the year that you add it.
otherwise
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/archive/index.php/t-101933.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/archive/index.php/t-101933.html</a></p>
<p>Adjusted Gross Income is the number you write at the bottom of page 1 of your IRS 1040 form, and then copy again to the top of page 2. (I would tell you the line number but it varies from year to year and form to form.)</p>
<p>Does anyone have an estimate of the times that Divison 1 colleges will look at and consider giving a scholarship too??? I run Cross Country and Track but im a much better Cross Country runner. So is there any info on about what the time is you have to run for a 3 mile race to get a D1 scholarship???</p>
<p>Cross</a> Country Teams - NCAA.com
No idea who gets a scholarship but here are the D1 cross country teams, you can at least see if you are good enough to make a team.</p>
<p>re. #16 ... see the earlier replies. Colleges will tend to look at track times to project college performance, even CC ... although performance at regional / national cross country meets may help. Scholarships for cross country and/or track can be full scholarships or partial scholarships ... and to get even an partial scholarship you will need to be an excellent runner (near state champ in most states). As mentioned earlier if you connect to the web-site of various teams the rosters often mention high-school times which will give you an idea if you have a chance. Off the top of my head I'd assume a male runner needs to be in the 4:20/9:20 range to get scholarship money ... while LOTS of other runners would be welcome additions to teams; they just won't get bucks to run.</p>
<p>overrunwithsons - our middle son will be running CC at a D1 school (out of state) this fall. He will actually be a walk on (also considered red-shirting) because he will not receive any athletic aid. As you have read from the other posters, athletic money for track and CC is limited. My son placed 26th in the State CC race both junior and senior year. His 5k PR is 15:40. He placed 31st as a sophomore. As for track, son qualified for the 3200 m State race for DI high schools both Junior and Senior year. His personal best was only 9:27. He finally made it to the podium just a few weeks ago. </p>
<p>Son does have a full academic scholarship thanks to being a National Merit Finalist. Being a strong students helps when college coaches are looking as posible candidates. My son was VERY pro active about contacting the coaches of the schools he could see himself at. He provided them updates after each big meet. If your son is dead set on Slippery Rock, he will be competing for a limited amount of resources (scholarships - both academic and athletic). My son obtained offers of admission from ten top tiered schools. The biggest deciding factors had nothing to do with the running program. He had to make college visits (even revisit three) to get a better perspective than a college mailer could provide. He made his decision based on where he felt most comfortable. </p>
<p>Another factor for your son to consider is, will he like to college even if he does not run. Injuries sideline many athletes year after year. Scholarship money may not be renewable. Will the college be able to support the running program (Ohio University recently dropped men's track).</p>
<p>NCAA</a> School and Conference Athletic Web Sites</p>
<p>This link will take you to a site which lists ALL the schools in all divisions. It's a good place to start for an athlete, although you'll still have to do plenty of your own research. </p>
<p>BTW, my D is a runner too.</p>