Receiving an athletic scholarship can feel like the end of your college recruiting process, however, there is still more work to be done!
This can be an exciting but stressful time as you try to navigate through different offers and leverage those offers with different schools. Asking for more scholarship money can be a tricky process. Here we will break down how to leverage offers with college coaches, the importance of considering all of your options, and how to know what is the right choice financially for your family.
How Can I Leverage a Scholarship Offer?
After all of your hard work, you have been offered an athletic scholarship! However, you should never feel pressured to accept an offer right away. College coaches will understand that families need to take time to evaluate the offer to make sure it is what’s best for their family. They may even give you a timetable of when they would like an answer which could be extremely helpful.
If you receive an offer from a coach and are not ready to accept, below is an email template on how to respond:
It could also be beneficial to schedule a conference call with you, the coaching staff, and your parent/guardian to talk more about next steps and what the process will be like moving forward.
After receiving an offer it is important to be transparent to other college coaches you may have been having serious conversations with, or were also close to receiving an athletic scholarship from. This is when you can leverage offers to either receive a better financial aid package, or even to see if a coach sees you as a serious candidate for their recruiting class.
Below is an email template to let college coaches know you have received an offer, but are still very interested in attending their college or university.
Depending on your relationship with a coach, you can also let them know how serious things are with a particular school, and to see where you fit in their recruiting class. It is important to be transparent during this time because the college coaching world is very small. You want to make sure that you respect all parties while putting yourself in a situation to receive the best offer possible.
How Do I Negotiate a Better Financial Aid Package?
Attending college is a very serious financial obligation. Therefore, it is important that as a family you are considering all of your offers and what your family's expected contribution is.
Prior to sending out an offer, sometimes coaches will ask you to send them your high school transcripts so they can give you what is known as an academic pre-read. This would give the admissions office the ability to let you know what type of academic scholarships you may be in line to receive. There are also financial aid calculators available on college websites that can help you understand further what type of need-based aid you may be in line to receive.
A family’s expected contribution is what a family will have to pay after a partial athletic scholarship or any sort of financial aid. Remember that you need to consider tuition, room and board, books, and other fees the school may have. The college coach will be able to provide you a breakdown of what this would be and you can also contact the school’s financial aid office to get a better idea of how much you will need to pay.
After receiving these financial breakdowns from the schools, your family will have a better idea of what they will be expected to pay for college themselves. Through this, you can use the breakdowns to ask for more money or see if there is any more financial aid available.
Although this part of the recruiting process can feel uncomfortable, it is very necessary! Before verbally committing anywhere it is important to know what you will be responsible for financially over the next four years. That is why it is important to be transparent and honest when negotiating athletic scholarships. This process may take some time, so be sure to communicate with coaches and remain patient!
You can learn more about the different types of athletic scholarships offered to athletes here.