NCAA DIII Schools Often Make Excellent Financial “Package” Offers

So-called smaller schools will aggressively compete for your kid. Many of these schools may not be able to offer athletic scholarships. However, they can typically put together excellent financial packages for their athletes.

For example, NCAA Division III colleges are an excellent option for high school student-athletes. The NCAA mandates that these schools not offer athletic scholarships, but they may “package” scholarship offers to students. Frequently, these packages are as financially attractive, if not more so, than those offered by DI and DII programs. Exaggeration? Not really. The following is a statement we hear every year from parents, “yes, but DIII’s don’t offer scholarships, do they?” Not so fast. They may not offer athletic scholarships, but they do provide various other scholarships. Although not explicitly marked as athletic money, they are scholarships, and after all, money is money.

How DIII Financial Packages Work

Here’s the thing to remember, DIII schools are competing against other colleges for students, regardless of their competitors’ athletic affiliations. They want and need bodies to fill their rosters and grow their institutions. So, they try to be as financially competitive as possible when putting together admission “packages” for potential students. And, for a lot of students, the scholarship amounts are enough to make you consider their school or program.

Think of it this way, every college in America has various avenues they can extract money for incoming students. Nearly all schools have the typical academic merit scholarship, President’s scholarship, Founder’s Scholarship, etc.  There are a ton of options for colleges and universities to pull scholarship funds from to help applicants and their parents pay for college. The only real difference is that DIII schools can’t offer athletic scholarships, funded by the NCAA.

Even so, an athletic scholarship usually doesn’t have nearly as much money in it as you might assume.  Except for a few Division I sports, most athletic scholarship are partial scholarships, not full. Because of this schools have to pull money from other avenues, just like DIII schools.

However, DIII schools, tend to dig a little deeper to make up for the lost athletic funds offered by DI and DII schools.  Consequently, we often see DIII financial packages just as generous as those which come from the DI- and DII-affiliated institutions.  Once prospects and parents get beyond the unfair stigma of not receiving some athletic scholarship money, they are usually thrilled with the packages DIII’s can provide them.

You Should Seriously Consider DIII Schools If

What does all this mean to you?  It’s simple, don’t shy away from DIII opportunities.  They may be very financially rewarding to you and your family. If you are academically focused, a DIII school may be a better fit for you than a DI or DII.  DIII colleges tend to have fewer time constraints than DI or DII student-athletes. So, you can still be involved in competitive college athletics, but you can have the time you may need to focus on your studies and degree.