2 Major Ways To Cut The Cost Of College

Numbers don’t lie when it comes to paying for a college education.

According to the College Board, the people who administer the SAT, the average annual cost of a private college in America is $35,000. State-supported colleges cost an average of $10,000 per year.

Regardless of which route a family chooses, they still face other expenses for books, fees, travel, clothing, entertainment and other essentials.  In short, sending a child to college is expensive.

For athletes, however, there are two major ways to cut down on the cost of college: great grades and athletic scholarships.

National Scouting Report scouts always weed out athletes with poor grades. Why? Because they are unattractive to college coaches who rely on academic and need-based awards to help them drop the amount of athletic scholarship dollars they will have to offer a prospect.  Coaches always want to make college affordable for families, keeping out-of-pocket expenses at or below what families would otherwise pay to go to an in-state school.

State-supported college coaches don’t have money falling out of their pockets, either. Their budgets are typically very restrictive, too.

When a prospect posts lackluster grades and test scores, it is common for coaches to move on to other athletes who would require a lower hit to the coaches’ budgets. Conversely, Good grades produce a different outcome that usually works well for coaches and families.

See, one of the biggest misconceptions by parents and prospects about college athletics is that all scholarships are full athletic ones. In truth, those are rare.

Except for NCAA Division I requirements that coaches in FBS football, men’s and women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball must award full scholarships, coaches in all other sports in Division I and II, along with NAIA, must work within a budget.

That formula means the more athletes a coach can recruit with very good grades and test scores, the more athletic money he or she can divide among other recruits. That puts under-performing prospects  in the classroom at a huge disadvantage.

On the other hand, the higher an athlete’s core-course GPA, the more college doors will open. That’s because while the NCAA and NAIA have basic academic requirements for freshman eligibility, many colleges have much higher baseline admission standards.

When athletes enter ninth grade, their highest priority should be to establish a high core-course GPA. With that accomplished, they have a better chance of attracting the attention of college coaches.

Good grades and athletic scholarship money go hand in hand. When parents and prospects grasp that concept early, their opportunities should be far greater than those of other prospects and families who ignore that basic recruiting premise.