{"id":778,"date":"2010-07-14T06:04:41","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T12:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/\/?p=778"},"modified":"2010-07-14T06:04:41","modified_gmt":"2010-07-14T12:04:41","slug":"the-athletic-academic-connection-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/the-athletic-academic-connection-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"The Athletic-Academic Connection: Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Financial Aid Packaging: Colleges&#8217; Way of\u00a0Making Freshman Year Affordable<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Packaging is a term used by college admissions officials and coaches to describe financial assistance for prospective \u00a0college student-athletes.\u00a0 It occurs at every level of college sports, even NCAA Division I.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Surprised?\u00a0 Well, you aren\u2019t alone.\u00a0 Very few parents and athletes are aware this happens, much less expect it, yet most families encounter this very common strategy when working with college coaches and admissions departments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_803\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-803\" style=\"width: 140px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Athletes-studying6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-803\" title=\"Athletes studying\" src=\"\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Athletes-studying6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"98\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-803\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The NCAA has set firm rules for high school and college students to follow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>All things regarding financial aid for a freshman athlete begin with academics.\u00a0 Once an admissions office has\u00a0received\u00a0a prospect\u2019s official high school transcript along with proof of standardized test scores (SAT or ACT), decisions regarding financial assistance can start in earnest.\u00a0 Three high school academic measuring sticks are examined to\u00a0establish academic scholarships:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unweighted, core course grade point average<\/li>\n<li>Class rank<\/li>\n<li>Standardized test score<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With these scores in hand, any admissions officer can calculate a prospect\u2019s basic academic award.\u00a0 Other issues can be influential, but the foundation of any academic scholarship is built on these three key factors.\u00a0 College credits earned while in high school, advanced placement classes and other\u00a0recommendations can add more to the base amount.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After the academic award number is finalized, the admissions office then considers merit, institutional, state and other \u00a0scholarships which the prospective student may be eligible to receive.\u00a0 They then add any need-based award assigned to the student by the Department of Education.\u00a0 Parents must submit a copy of their personal financial status to the school as well as fill out and submit the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form to determine this amount.\u00a0 In this process, the Department of Education seeks to determine if a family qualifies for the Pell Grant or any other free federal monies. \u00a0\u00a0Finally, the admissions office tacks on any state or federal loans to supplement the package and lower the immediate cash outlay for the family.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_791\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-791\" style=\"width: 114px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Athletes-studying-21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-791\" title=\"Athletes studying 2\" src=\"\/\/blog.nsr-inc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Athletes-studying-21.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"124\" height=\"79\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-791\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Packaging helps parents and prospects understand where they are financially.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>College coaches, knowing all this, will ask freshmen (and JUCO) prospects to apply to the college prior to committing to an athletic scholarship amount.\u00a0 Once that information is in hand, the coach then can add an athletic scholarship dollar number to the package.\u00a0 Knowing that most families want their out-of-pocket expense to be at or below what they might otherwise spend for their child to attend an in-state, public institution, coaches will typically attempt to add an amount which will help the family reach or exceed that goal.\u00a0 This amount can also be influenced by any one or more of these important issues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The amount of athletic scholarship money available to the coach after taking into account the other committed scholarships to current players and prospects<\/li>\n<li>The coach\u2019s opinion of the prospect\u2019s anticipated impact on the program<\/li>\n<li>Anticipated competition with other college coaches to sign the prospect<\/li>\n<li>The quality of the relationship established with the prospect and parents<\/li>\n<li>The quality of the relationship and reliability of the sources which connected the coach with the prospect<\/li>\n<li>The expectation of capturing a another prospect closely connected to the prospect such as a teammate or sibling<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The final package is then sent to the family for their consideration.\u00a0 In some cases, the amounts are negotiable which gives the parents the option to get a few more dollars here or there from the college.\u00a0 As for the athletic scholarship amount*, that depends almost solely on the coach and the value he or she attaches to the prospect.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Next in this series, we will examine how and why college coaches are limited in regards to which prospects they can or will recruit and the connection to academics in that part of the recruiting process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Financial Aid Packaging: Colleges&#8217; Way of\u00a0Making Freshman Year Affordable Packaging is a term used by college admissions officials and coaches to describe financial assistance for prospective \u00a0college student-athletes.\u00a0 It occurs at every level of college sports, even NCAA Division I.\u00a0\u00a0 Surprised?\u00a0 Well, you aren\u2019t alone.\u00a0 Very few parents and athletes are aware this happens, much &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/the-athletic-academic-connection-part-i\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}