Scholarships (or grants) are financial awards that you don't have to repay. They may be based on need or on merit or achievement, as in the case of athletic scholarships.
Loans are financial aid that you must eventually repay (except in rare cases in which an alternative arrangement is spelled out in the loan agreement). They usually carry an interest rate, which amounts to your fee or cost for having had the use of the money. Most loans to college students have a grace period, usually around six months following graduation, before you have to begin repayment.
Work-study is another form of campus-based financial aid, in which you earn money for jobs provided through the Financial Aid Office.
Most students on financial aid make their way through college by some combination of their own resources (including assistance from their family), scholarship aid, loans, and work-study. But you will have to seek financial aid; in most cases, it won't seek you (unless you are considered a blue-chip athletic recruit).
Although scholarships, loans, and work-study are distinct, separate forms of financial aid, people sometimes confuse them. Some unscrupulous coaches describe the aid that they are offering to athletes as scholarships, when the aid really is in the form of a loan. This practice is rare, but it happens enough that you should be sure that whatever scholarship you might be offered is confirmed in writing as a scholarship or grant and is not described as a loan or "indebtedness.
THE PROS AND CONS OF ATHLETIC SCHOLARSHIPS
Athletes who are good enough even to consider competing at the collegiate level frequently dream of being awarded an athletic scholarship. Whether or not their family can afford to pay for their education, potential college athletes think about athletic scholarships because being offered one is a reward, an honor, and a status symbol. An athletic scholarship is a reward for your hard work and success in high school or junior college athletics. It is an honor to be considered good enough to have your athletic services in effect paid for (making you "almost professional"). It is a status symbol because it tells other students that the college wants and needs you at least as much as you want to attend the college.
While many students have to struggle to pay for their years in college, the athlete with a full-ride scholarship cashes in just for being an athlete. This may give you high status in the minds of many students (including non-scholarship athletes), but it also tends to generate resentment and jealousy. The dumb jock myth, which exists more or less on every college campus, is often strongest at schools that give athletic scholarships. Where the athletic program is important enough to have money available to pay for athletes' educations, there is at least a temptation to bring in good athletes who might not meet the same academic standards that other students must meet. Other students sometimes resent the "free ride" that athletes get, while they have to work, save their money, deplete their savings and other assets, go begging to their parents, fill out numerous forms, wait in lines, and hunt sometimes far and wide for enough money to make ends meet in college.
FINANCING YOUR COLLEGE EDUCATION
We discussed earlier in the book the tight reins that coaches have over their scholarship athletes. No need to repeat the problems that this causes for athletes who are trying to make the most of their college education. Just remember that as a scholarship athlete, you run the risk of being treated as an employee. In that capacity, much of your life will be governed by your boss-coach. Athletes who have athletic scholarships not only may lose their place on the team if they displease the coach, they also may lose the source of money that is providing their education. If you need that money to afford to go to college, losing it would be devastating. But even if you don't absolutely need it to pay for your education, losing your athletic scholarship could mean a struggle to find new sources of money, often after the financial-aid application season has passed or the money has been awarded to other students.
According to current national athletic association guidelines and practices, athletic scholarships are given on a one-year, renewable basis. So, while your coach may have enticed you to enroll at his or her college with the promise of having your education paid by an athletic scholarship, that scholarship could disappear at the end of any year, leaving you to find some way to pay for the rest of your education. Worse yet, if you then want to transfer to another college, you lose a season of eligibility for athletics. The chances of your getting another athletic scholarship elsewhere are much less if your new coach won't be able to use you until a year passes.
So the question you must decide is whether you both want and need an athletic scholarship, or whether you just want one. The status and honor associated with having an athletic scholarship are great; however, are they worth the cost? While some coaches feel more of a commitment to athletes who are their "employees," other coaches will appreciate your getting funds for college some other way, because it frees up a scholarship for them to offer to another athlete.
THE ATHLETE'S GAME PLAN FOR COLLEGE AND CAREER
In any case, we believe strongly that the availability of an athletic scholarship should not be your primary reason for selecting one college over others. There are too many nonathletic sources of financial aid available for you to let the offer of an athletic scholarship determine which school you will attend.
WHO GETS SCHOLARSHIP OFFERS?
Most athletic scholarships at schools with top-level teams are reserved for the best high school and junior college athletes, the ones with established reputations in their sport. Many colleges that can attract such talent now do much of their scouting with the help of computer-based scouting services, which keep running records of the achievements and statistics of the nation's best prospects. Athletes at that level-"blue-chippers"-don't have to search for athletic scholarships; recruiters come knocking at their door (sometimes knocking down the door).
Virtually all NCAA Division I schools (except for the Ivy League colleges) offer athletic scholarships, although not all Division I schools are so competitive that they use computerized scouting services. Division II colleges also are allowed to offer athletic scholarships, though not all of them do. The vast majority of Division II schools conduct their own searches for high school and junior college recruits rather than using scouting services. Division III NCAA schools are not allowed to offer athletic scholarships, yet most of them still scout for talent. Remember that NCAA colleges may compete at a particular level in one sport and at another level in other sports. For example, a school with a Division II basketball team (athletic scholarships allowed) may field a Division III soccer team (no athletic scholarships). While this may be confusing, you only need to be concerned about the level at which they field a team in your sport.
Many colleges affiliated with the NAIA also offer scholarships. These schools tend to be smaller and less well known for their sports record, so they generally don't have as much money to put into athletic scholarships. A small number of junior colleges also offer athletic scholarships. Athletic scholarship offers from junior colleges and NAIA or NCAA Division II schools are more likely to be partial (e.g., quarter, half, or tuition-only) scholarships rather than "full rides."
Athletic scholarships for women have increased tremendously in recent years. In part, this is because of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. According to this federal law, colleges must provide equivalent amounts of athletic scholarship aid to female and male athletes. For example, if half of a school's male athletes have athletic scholarships, the school must provide athletics-related financial aid to half of its female athletes. (Title IX also states that all resources, support, and opportunities must be shared equally by males and females.)
Despite these advances, the opportunities women have for obtaining athletic scholarships still tend to lag behind the financial aid offered to male athletes at some colleges. Once you are in college and can see what sorts and amounts of aid are available to female athletes as compared to male athletes, you will be in a better position to determine whether women athletes are being discriminated against at your school. Contact the campus Affirmative Action Office and ask its staff to look into the situation if you think that women athletes are not getting their fair share. You may be considered a troublemaker by some people in the athletic department, but you deserve what the law allows and should be allowed to stand up for your rights.
HOW TO GENERATE AN OFFER
While colleges at all levels of athletic competition scout and recruit athletes, those at levels below Division I in the NCAA are more likely to consider unsolicited information submitted by an individual student who is seeking an athletic scholarship. The amount of scholarship money available each year in any given sport varies greatly, and even if the recruiters have not been knocking down your door, you still may have a chance of getting a scholarship offer if you follow the approach described below:
- Draw up a preliminary list of colleges that meet the criteria that are important to you as to location, size, overall cost, type of academic environment, availability of particular academic programs or majors, and sports opportunities (including whether the school has a junior varsity team, in case you don't make the varsity your first year).
- Find out the name of the head coach in your sport at the colleges on your preliminary list by consulting the Directory of College Athletics (Ray Franks Publishing, Amarillo, TX 79109; published yearly, with separate editions for men and women). This book should be available at college libraries or in your high school or junior college athletic department or guidance office. Remember that coaches change jobs frequently, so you should use a directory that is no more than a year old. The directory lists sports offered at each college, coaches' names, school addresses and phone numbers, and the division level for each sport.
- Starting with the three to six top contenders on your preliminary list, write a letter to the head coach in your sport at each school. In the letter, describe several important reasons why you want to come to his or her college. Explain that you are interested in competing on the team and that you would like to know what sources of financial aid are available for athletes. Don't be shy about telling the coach of your athletic strengths and relating statistics (true ones!) that will generate the coach's interest in you. Include copies of newspaper write-ups and action photos, if you have them. Films of you in competition may also help you to sell yourself to the coach. What you are really doing, after all, is selling yourself. There is absolutely no shame in that. In fact, this is good practice for when you graduate and have to sell an employer on your qualifications and accomplishments.
- If you are short on encouraging replies from the first group of head coaches you write to, work your way down your list of preliminary college choices. Eventually, your efforts are likely to pay off with one or more favorable responses.
- Ask your present or former coach to write a letter on your behalf to those coaches who show an interest in you. The letter of recommendation should stress how much of an asset you have been to your present squad and would be on a college team. Letters from two coaches are better than one, three coaches better than two, etc.
- Seldom will a coach offer a scholarship to an athlete sight unseen. Since most coaches operate with a tight recruiting budget, you may have to pay your own travel expenses to see a coach who shows interest. If you are then offered a scholarship-full or partial-your efforts have paid off. (Even if you don't get a scholarship, you've picked up some valuable self-promotion skills.) But beware when a coach promises an athletic scholarship in the future, "if things work out." The offer may come through for you but don't bank on it. Promises such as this one are written on air.
COMBINING SOURCES OF FINANCIAL AID TO FIT YOUR NEEDS
If you are among the majority of college athletes who get only a partial athletic scholarship or none at all, you may be eligible for financial aid based on need. Determining the extent of your need and the amount and kind of financial aid to which you are entitled is considerably more complicated than simply being told by a coach how much your scholarship is worth. It depends on several factors, including:
- the amount of money your parents can contribute
- the amount you can contribute (including such assets as savings or stocks and bonds)
- your summer earnings
- the cost of the college you are attending (tuition along with either room and board or commuting costs)
- the amount of financial aid from other sources (including other scholarships)
The actual amount of your financial aid package is likely to change from year to year because of changes in each of these factors as well as possible changes in your family status-marriage or divorce (your own or that of your parents) and births or deaths. In short, there is no way to predict how much need-based financial aid you will receive from one year to the next. You must go through the process of applying each year and let the school's Financial Aid Office make that determination for you.
