My DD is currently a freshman and will be eligible for a TE scholarship.
Obviously, we do not have her stats yet but to this point, all indications are that they will be solid to strong. She is a straight A student in advanced classes including AP Bio and Junior level math. She has scored well on standardized tests to this point.
She is also good soccer player. How good, time will tell but based on my own experience she will be a mid level DIII to lower level DI prospect. I do not think the home school will work. I do not think the campus or the school itself will be a good fit for her. Also, I think she may not be good enough to actually “play” soccer there. I would rather her not go into a “walk on” situation. I do not think she would enjoy sitting the bench for four years. The bottom line is that as of now soccer is important to her and will play a factor in her decision as to what school she will attend. I have read a ton on TE on this website which has been extremely helpful. My question is has anyone had experience as a parent of a student athlete or as a student athlete obtaining a TE scholarship before April in this situation. My instinct is that at certain institutions a coach may get involved with admissions and help expedite this process as most recruits at all levels are typically signed way before April. I know coaches love to hear that players can get a significant scholarship/grant from a source outside of his or her pool which I think will be very advantageous in gaining interest. However, I am not sure how advantageous it will be if we have to wait until April because roster spots will be full. Any insight on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
I know we are early but we are trying to get ahead of this situation as best as possible. Also, recruiting for women’s soccer begins the summer before sophomore year so we have to be as informed as possible going into this process.
As an aside, is there any way to find out which schools stack and which do not. I have not seen any type of list on this.
What kind of TE? There are quite a few different te groups a college might belong to. In a DIII situation, the college cannot allow the coach to become involved in the scholarship process as that amounts to giving scholarships specifically for athletics and the school will steer clear due to the potential NCAA violation. It’s also unwise on the part of the school, given that they “can’t” give athletic money, so the workaround may result in an athlete who quits after one year in the sport and otherwise would not have been the student the institution chose to fund. In NAIA, DI, and DII schools things may be different.
If she commits early with a soccer scholarship, I don’t think you’ll know about TE until her senior year. The commitment for soccer is only verbal and she can withdraw, but then the opportunity is gone to get another soccer offer. That is not an unusual situation as most athletes who commit early don’t know about other merit scholarships from the school until the regular application timeline, often well into senior year.
I do not think the coach will have pull on the TE. Schools tend to keep the athletic side separate from the academic awards. NCAA allows athletes to accept awards that the school has control over like ‘interview scholarships’ or SEOG, but it has to be an independent process and awarded under the same conditions as all other students are reviewed. They can’t just give a Jefferson scholarship to the best football player or basketball guy, his stats have to show he deserves the scholarship independent of a coach’s request.
The schools may have a rule about TE and other school aid being combined, or set a maximum. Several schools do allow TE and merit aid, but others don’t. I think in most cases, you’d be much better off with the TE than an athletic scholarship, which might be tiny.
Thank you for the information. It is helpful. In terms of your 2nd paragraph, I may have been a bit confusing (because I am confused). I am not saying a school would give a TE to an unqualified athlete. I guess my question is if DD is in fact qualified based off of previous years and what is currently in front of whoever makes the decision on a TE, are exceptions ever made in situations where a decision needs to be made before April. Like a TE, athletic scholarships and grants typically have a time limit.
You make a good point in regard to the verbal commitment. That may be the best course of action if the opportunity presents itself. My thought is when she contacts coaches to disclose the fact the TE is a possibility and see if any of them address it. The more the coach wants her, the more he or she will help put her in the best position to get the TE and any other available money.
I am interested to see if anyone has gone through this.
You might be better off contacting the Tuition Exchange Liaison Officer at your work and talk to them about how they would handle an athlete coming from somewhere as it might be a good indication of how it is done generally. That being said member institutions may handle it differently and it may depend of the NCAA Division.
I didn’t mean that your daughter wouldn’t be qualified for admission to the school, just that I don’t know if athletes can get TE preference. As I understand it, the student gets accepted to the school as a regular applicant, and then the school decides if they will get TE. Being a TE applicant doesn’t get them special consideration for admissions like being an athlete might with a slot or a tip. Once they are accepted, the TE office then decides if they get $$$. That’s where I don’t know if the coach can help. TE might be considered merit money by the NCAA, and if so then any amount awarded would have to be on the same terms and conditions as all other applicants receive it.
As an example, say a lax player signs to play at Virginia, applies and is admitted in Nov. This is good student and is nominated as a Jefferson scholar. He can combine that Jefferson sch. with his athletic money, but the coach cannot request he receive special consideration because he can’t afford UVa without some merit money. The athlete has to be in the same pool as all other merit applicants and evaluated in the same way. If that student doesn’t get merit money, he may have to look for another team late in the cycle.
I’d assume the coach cannot request the athlete receive TE money or special consideration, that the soccer player get TE before the chemist from State U’s daughter or the kid with the perfect SAT/gpa. However the school awards TE, that’s how it should be awarded to the pool of TE applicants, athletes included. It may be that the OP’s soccer player is first in line for TE at that school because of the ‘sending’ school’s status in the TE world, or the parent’s status as highest ranking professor.
But to answer your question (I think), the athletic decision is on a different timeline than the TE decision, and I don’t think either will move. She may have to commit to a soccer team long before the TE decisions come out. For D1 schools, that’s likely because soccer commitment happens long before TE decisions are made. For D3 schools, the coaches will be likely to hold team spots longer because they don’t give money and many of the recruits have to wait for financial aid decisions to commit.
Based on hearing stories at our home school, I bet some schools used the TE to sweeten the pot for a valuable recruit. Valuable meaning top recruit so depending on your DD’s recruiting value, you may want to search out the big fish in a smaller pond to get the mist and even ability to stack. In my research, it seems like merit usually doesn’t stack but there is never any mention of athletic scholarships.
If my DD20 decides to go for a TE school I’m hoping that will also be the case. Waiting until February or April May be difficult timing wise though.
I have limited experience with TE. My non athlete son did receive a TE offer but declined it for another, non TE scholarship. But depending on which TE program you’re in, space may be extremely limited. One TE school in our program only took 2 net per year. Public website basically said to apply ED if you want to even be in the running for TE.
Schools can set their own rules about athletic aid stacking. Some schools make students pick one type of aid. If schools do allow stacking, it is usually merit and athletic. If a school gives need based aid the NCAA rules might require the need based aid to be part of the overall team amount, so the coach is penalized (therefore they just don’t give it).
Coaches may not even know about TE unless they have their own kids using it. D’s coach didn’t really understand other aid available at the school or the state programs.
@MAandMEmom. Thanks and that is what I was thinking in terms of the recruiting side. It will be important to gauge how much pull the respective coach has at the school and how much knowledge he or she has in regard to aid and scholarships as a whole. I know it drastically varies. I guess we will figure it out as we go. I was just hoping for some people who encountered the same situation. I am really just trying to figure out everything and provide her with the best guidance as possible.
A couple posters have hit on this and on of my main concerns is that on the athletic side, especially at the DI level, roster spots and scholarships are only available for so long. My guess is that if the opportunity presents itself and she wants to take one of those spots she will have to make a verbal commitment and hope TE comes through. If it does not, she will need some backups probably at the DIII level. If she ends up just being recruited at the DIII level this will be less of an issue because the coaches will hold the spot.
Sounds like you are putting the cart before the horse here… although I realize that due to timing you want to be prepared.
What is your D going to be looking for academically? Geography? Urban/Rural? How far from home? Possible majors?
I’d start there with the usual college search parameters… and then go through the list and when necessary, pop a quick email to admissions to ask if TE/Athletic scholarships are mutually exclusive or if they can stack. Cross out colleges which will be unaffordable, and then zero in on the ones which have your D’s academic needs AND the soccer/financial piece.
I think you can drive yourself nuts going through a random list of 500 colleges to see how they will handle TE and soccer. Whittle that down to the colleges your D would be interested in even if an ankle injury knocked her off the team… (that does happen- you don’t want her at a college which doesn’t work for her if an injury sidelines her athletic career) and then figure out the money.
So my D20 was offered an official visit yesterday for next spring and coach is looking for a commitment by May. This is a division I mid-major. Trouble is we would also want the TE and that won’t happen for many months after that and will be an important part of the equation as DD will be looking to go to grad school afterward. I’m not exactly certainly yet how we will handle this but before any visit are agreed to, we will need to know options in terms of stacking and timing.
Coaches do understand that some athletes cannot attend on athletic money alone and will take the commitment based on that- yes I’ll commit but I still need money from TE or merit or a state grant or a Pell grant . My daughter’s coach did and we were pretty honest that we couldn’t attend without $x of merit. There was nothing the coach could do to get us that amount of merit. Her school did allow stacking but only allowed total merit and athletic money to be used on things billed by the school and not paid to a third party (insurance). Two of her outside scholarships could only be used for tuition. It becomes a game to apply the awards in the order to get the best value out of them.
You can certainly find out if TE can stack with any other school scholarships - merit, need based, talent, athletic, alumni. At some schools the answer is no, TE is the max you can get. You can also find out how the schools award the TE if there are more applicants than TE’s available. Is it based on stats or majors or holistic? Is there some way to get a boost like from a coach or director of the orchestra or a professor looking for a researcher? If there is no stacking and TE is decided on stats only, you’ll be prepared to move on.
I think you’ll find the coaches will have little influence on TE awards and who is awarded TE. For admissions yes, athletes get a boost but not for money from other departments, and TE is money from another department.
@blossom Yes, we have gone through the list and narrowed the schools which we think will be a good fit academically and athletically at both the DI and DIII level. We will start sending her to ID camps in the spring. My wife and I plan on having a long sit down in June and make additions and subtractions based on what she says.
@momtogirls2 Tuition Exchange is a reciprocal benefit for employees and dependents who work at private colleges. It can be very competitive so the net must be cast wide to be successful and the timing is not great as students will be accepted potentially long before they know if they are granted the TE. This is further complicated for recruited athletes who are being asked to commit earlier and earlier. I also have a senior with two acceptances so far with the highest merit available but no decision on the TE, which may not come until February. Most schools will not stack merit and TE but I’m not certain if they would consider it for a student they really want. This is all new to me this year.
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Most schools will not stack merit and TE but I’m not certain if they would consider it for a student they really want. This is all new to me this year.[/quote
If they won’t stack merit and TE, it is likely they won’t stack TE and athletic $$. If they do, the NCAA might consider all the aid as athletic aid and that would throw the totals off for the team. If the TE is merit money (awarded to the best students, the highest gpa) it can be stacked with athletic money (if the school allows it) but then the athletic dept can have no influence on the TE award. Do it for all TE students or no TE student, but don’t do it for athletes the school ‘really wants.’
and for the DIII schools, the coach cannot have any input/say/influence as NO athletic money is allowed for DIII, and a coach securing aid for an athlete would be just that. My d14 went to a dIII school and had tuition exchange.
And if a school considers athletics in its TE decisions, I’d be willing to bet the awards would go to students in revenue generating sports.