<p>Some schools have begun offering 4 year athletic aid.</p>
<p>Mom222, it’s likely the coach is wondering if you will get more FA than Athletic Aid. If so, you can choose the FA (which doesn’t go away if your kid stops playing) over the AA</p>
<p>NJSoccerParent we did come right out and tell the coaches we spoke to our budget, (not right away but definitely before planning a visit) it helped trim the realistic options down very quickly. (There seemed to be no shortage of coaches who wanted my S if we would pay full tuition!) We got into details with only 3 D1 schools, but they all handled things slightly different in terms of who you worked with and when. One thing was consistent though, we were advised that financial aid is the first source of funding that the coach wants you to look for, then academic. In our case athletic money was a % of COA and documentation clearly calls out it can be reduced based on the amount of any other financial aid received. It is also one year renewable. The coach (via FA office) gave us a pre-read on what other money we would get, but in practice our athletic agreement was a % of what the cost to attend the school was after all other aid was considered. And yes, this was all signed earlier than official financial aid numbers or even school acceptance was received.</p>
<p>Very helpful…thank you!</p>
<p>(1) remember FA pre reads will be based on your 2012 tax returns, so if your 2013 returns change, then FA may go up or down when you get the actual award</p>
<p>(2) by going early you do not get to see aid packages fom other schools which could be more generous; but on the other hand if you get in early, you are in</p>
<p>It all depends on how much leverage you have. If you are a very high level recruit I might be worth it to wait, and vice versa</p>
<p>is it true “you do not get to see aid packages” by going early as Xwords59 says above? If a recruit has several verbal offers from D1 schools can family request financial pre reads from the athlete’s top three choices? Not sure if this will be financial need only or a mix of scholarship and financial need schools. i would think it’s important to know what cost would be to help an athlete make a choice. Thanks for any info.</p>
<p>Never mind I see imafan answers my question here and yes it seems even if you apply early you can get some financial pre-reads to see what schools will cost so that can be considered in the decision.</p>
<p>The operative word is “sometimes” you can get an early financial read. Not always.</p>
<p>Thanks Samurai. Can you elaborate on “sometimes?” I have read quite a few of the recruiting threads, but I’m smart enough to know there is plenty I do no know!</p>
<p>As the parent of a Division 1 early action applicant who signed an NLI in November, my D did not know beyond the partial athletic scholarship how much fin aid she was getting until spring. </p>
<p>Then the figures revised several times until June. </p>
<p>This has happened with other students I work with.</p>