Ways to Go to School Completely For Free

Paying for College
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<p>You’ve list some scholarships that CAN be all inclusive, or may be just for tuition or just a dollar amount. The question may be if you can stack them. There are only 6 athletic scholarships that are required to be ‘full ride’, all only for D1 schools: men’s football and basketball, women’s basketball, gymnastics, tennis and volleyball. For those sports the scholarships cannot be split among players, so normally the school will award the full scholarship to the allowed number (don’t have to, just can’t split them; many schools do not fully fund the team, so while a gymnastic team is allowed 12 scholarships, only 9 may be funded or the coach could award all 12 at less than full ride). When someone is claiming a full ride scholarship, it is normally in one of these 6 sports, and only in D1. The school pays for books, tuition, fees, room and board. It cannot pay for transportation except to games or events. Another sport or Division 2 can award a full scholarship to an athlete, but that means there is less money for other players. For example, a woman’s D1 lacrosse team usually has about 35 players and a max of 12 scholarships, so if one player gets a full scholarship, other players may get nothing, or just books, or 10%. It’s very rare for one player to get a whole scholarship.</p>

<p>Some military scholarships are full, but some are for less, or an amount of money that might be enough at some schools, not enough at others… </p>

<p>You really need to know what you can stack and what’s available. Of the 4 scholarships you listed, my daughter has 3(no ROTC) plus 2 others, and is just shy of a full ride. All 5 stack: merit, athletic, Bright Futures, a state grant, and a private scholarship.</p>

<p>Others that can stack are Pell, SEOG, state financial need grants, other private scholarships. Athletic scholarship cannot stack with institutional need based aid, but can with federal or state need based aid.</p>

<p>Another way would be for the student to work for the institution. Usually after 6 months or so, there is a tuition benefit. Of course, the trick if finding a college to hire you without a college degree.</p>

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<p>The OP,says this is not for his own use. I feel like he is asking us to help compile a list he can give to others. Is this his job? If so, I think he should,do some of his own research.</p>

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<p>There is no such thing as a free ride. Any scholarship aid over the cost of tuition, fees and books is considered taxable income to the student.</p>

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<p>Tuition exchange only gets taxed if it covers room and/or board. Not tuition-only.</p>

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<p>U.S. Service Academies.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure I’d call a number of these very generous deal “free.” Those full ride athletic scholarships demand more than a pound of flesh. Some majors might be next to impossible with the athletic schedule. Anything military related requires years of service post-graduation, or in the case of the national guard, the real possibility of deployment and an interruption of education. Tuition remission/exchange often doesn’t cover any more than tuition, not even tuition and fees. </p>

<p>“Free” is very, very rare. </p>

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<p>None of these are guaranteed. There are very few athletes that get full rides. My friend’s DD was a soccer recruit at Ohio State. No full ride benefit for her. I know some top swimmers who got only partial rides. Though there may be some school out there that would give those athletes a free ride, and these are top athletes able to play at top D-1 schools in their sport, it’s not every school that will give them that. If they’d chose to go to Harvard or any other ivy league, school, they’d not have gotten a dime, as the ivies don’t give athletic scholarships.</p>

<p>My son could have gotten a full ride at schools he did not want as an athlete scholar. The schools he wanted, were did not offer him any cost remission, but gave him a break in terms of admissions standards. And just as ROTC is a work/study sort of thing, so is being on a NCAA team. Especially in a sport for which a college is willing to pay big bucks. My son spent 20-30 hours on his sport while he competed. I don’t begrudge the athletes a cent. And giving the non existant classes, is cheating them in the long run, not giving them any benefit. </p>

<p>I don’t think there is really any guaranteed free ride for any given student. It is possible that some students can find free rides but nothing guaranteed.</p>

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<p>Actually, some schools offer 4-year guaranteed scholarships to their student-athletes now (including all of the Big Ten, if I remember correctly).</p>

<p>There are some academic scholarships that are guaranteed for 5 years, even (assuming that you meet GPA minimums). OU’s NMS scholarship is one.</p>

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<p>Not very many scholarship are for the 4 years, although most coaches agree to offer at least the same amount for subsequent years IF the athlete continues to perform. That’s what my daughter’s coach promised, but it is just her word and we have no way to enforce it. If she offers less next year, I would expect her to release my daughter to play at another school without sitting out a year. Many of us are hoping for MORE money in the coming years, and don’t want to be locked into the initial contracts. Since football and basketball are head count scholarships, they can’t get any better.</p>

<p>Each of the Big Ten schools might offer SOME 4 year scholarships, but not all scholarships are 4 years. It seems fewer than 10% are,and only in football and basketball. Everyone else is still year to year.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24711067/schools-can-give-out-4-year-scholarships-to-athletes-but-many-dont”>http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/jon-solomon/24711067/schools-can-give-out-4-year-scholarships-to-athletes-but-many-dont&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>

As I understand it that’s not up to the coach, but the NCAA. And yes, at this point I’ve only read football and basketball are offering the four year agreement (revenue sports).</p>

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<p>Most athletes who got athletic awards got them for all four years with certain conditions. There are almost always conditions, like min gpa, satisfactory full time status, etc which come with most awards. Fin aid has its conditions too. </p>

<p>The fact of the matter is that full athletic awards are not something the vast, vast majority of students can hope to get. The same with an full ride award. Even a strong student, good athlete, need student, all of these have to cast a wide net to get a full ride offer. There are some full tuition awards that are out there with certain grades and test scores, and that’s about as good as it gets. Also certain schools are tuition free or low tuition. But you have to be acccpeted.</p>

<p>SUNY is offering the top 10% of grads free tuition if they major in STEM and work in it in NY. There are such awards, yes. But not full ride that I know.</p>

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<p>Four year NCAA scholarships have only been available for 3 years (this is the third). However, there are so many outs for the coaches/schools that the 4 year awards are not any stronger than the one+one+one+one that most have. The coaches have the right not to renew for all kinds of things, just like they’d have the right not to issue a new scholarship.</p>

<p>One reason the 4 year scholarships are more popular for football and basketball are that those are head count sports. Each scholarship athlete has a full scholarship, so there is nothing to negotiate. Most other athletes hope that their scholarship amounts will go up each year. Many freshmen only have a smaller amount, like 10% scholarship, while upperclassmen can have 50-100%. Personally, I know my daughter wants more next year! At one school we looked at the coach outright said she didn’t give money to freshmen (to have them committed to an NLI, she only has to give a minimum of book money); she saves all her money for upperclassmen. Coach’s choice, but my daughter couldn’t go there without money.</p>

<p>Yes, the NCAA has to approve a transfer waiver of the one year to sit out, but if the current coach approves the NCAA takes that into consideration, and if the current coach isn’t offering a scholarship, that goes a long way toward approving the transfer with immediate eligibility to play. The coach withdrawing money is a statement that the student isn’t wanted anymore, so it’s not the student quitting for a better deal but more being fired.</p>

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<p>Looks like the PAC-12 just adopted the 4 year scholarship guarantee for all sports, as long as the athlete meets the “terms” of the award. I wonder how specific those terms exactly are…</p>