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More than 100,000 college freshmen will play on NCAA teams next year, and about 30% of those kids will receive athletic scholarships. Does your child hope to be among them? And do you hope to see an athletic scholarship? Or are you just hoping that your kid’s athletic prowess will make a difference in the admissions process?

As a former college coach and admissions director – at both Division I and Division III schools – I’m often asked about athletic recruiting and the admissions process. Rumors abound. Half-truths take on the power of gospel. And dreams of glory are as often made real as they are shattered. And although the process differs a bit from college to college, and Division to Division, there are some “truths” that are important to understand.

The Lay of the Land

The NCAA, (the National Collegiate Athletic Association), is the major governing body of intercollegiate athletics. It divides schools into three divisions. Division I includes all those big-time athletic programs you hear about: – the schools in the conferences you see playing football on television every Saturday; the colleges in the bowl games; and those pounding the floorboards during the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. Division I schools range from the Ivy league to the Big Ten to the Pac 10 to the Southeast Conference and so on. There are about 350 schools classified as Division I. Division I used to be known as the University Division, while smaller schools were in the College Division or Division II.

Division II schools are normally somewhat smaller universities and not willing or unable to make that financial commitment to intercollegiate sports – but which still offer athletic scholarships. The distinction is really scale. A Division II school might give up to 36 football scholarships per year, while a Division I university would typically have about 85. There are several hundred schools classified as Division II ranging from perennial lacrosse champions like Lemoyne and C.W. Post in the east to the perennial multi-sport powerhouses of the California state college system. Division II schools often play Division I colleges in basketball, typically early in the season. Although they rarely win these match-ups, they are essentially warm-up games for the Division I schools and “money games” for the Division II colleges.

There are more than 500 Division III schools, and they range from smaller universities to some of the most selective private colleges in the country. Here’s the key take-away: there are no Division III athletic scholarships! Forget what you heard – your neighbor’s kid did not receive an athletic scholarship to a Division III school. A few Division III schools have one or two particular sports which compete at the Division I level. Colorado College’s hockey team is a good example, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

There are also a group of 287 smaller colleges that belong to a group called the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) — rather than the NCAA – and 90% of these schools do offer athletic scholarships. Similarly, junior colleges have their own governing body and set of rules.

I’ll focus my remarks on Division I and III schools for two reasons. First, they are what I am most familiar with. And second, the rules of the game for Division II schools are pretty much the same as for Division I.

Basic Eligibility

The NCAA serves as a clearinghouse for athletic eligibility for Divisions I and II. The NCAA sets a sliding scale of GPA versus standardized testing (SAT or ACT) that establishes eligibility. For example, a student with a high school grade point average of 3.0 needs a combines SAT score of 620 (on a 1600 point scale!) A student with a 2.5 GPA, needs an 820 SAT score. Division II schools don’t use a sliding scale. Students simply have to have a minimum GPA of 2.0 and an SAT combined score of 820.

The easiest way to make sense of the formula is to remember that for Division I schools, the higher a student’s GPA, the lower their standardized testing can be – and vice versa. The NCAA also sets up a series of core courses a student must also pass for eligibility, including four full years of English. Since most college coaches begin looking at prospective recruits way before the student’s senior year in high school, they are very concerned about a prospect’s ability to successfully pass their core courses and achieve the minimum testing scores. Many schools will not recruit a prospective student-athlete they fear ultimately won’t be eligible to play because of their high school grades or SAT/ACT scores.

Division III schools utilize their own individual standards for eligibility, which most coaches will share with you. In most cases, if a student has the grades and SAT scores to be admitted to a Division III school, he or she has met the sports-eligibility standards.

The Recruiting Process

Unfortunately, many coaches lie. I say that not out of disrespect, but because the system pretty much forces them to. If your kid is the national class, blue chip athletic prospect, you probably won’t be lied to. Every coach would love to have your child, and they’ll try to offer you the world. That world, however, is only an athletic scholarship, and anything more would be an NCAA violation. Most high school athletes, however, are not blue chip prospects. Rather, they are student-athletes with the ability to play at the college level. And that prospect may – or may not – be worthy of an athletic scholarship at that particular school in that particular year! In short, individual kids are part of the food chain of college sports; and the coaches are trying to figure out whether and where that prospect might best fit in. And for that reason, coaches must lie.

Let me explain. Division I coaches have a certain number of scholarships they can award in a given year. Division III coaches have “admissions slots.” (Yes, they negotiate with the admission office over how many places in the next freshman class they’ll be allowed to fill.) And most coaches will be “pretty honest” about how many slots they have and where a prospect stands on the list.

That’s “pretty honest.” Ok, it’s lying. The baseball coach with five scholarships in Division I — or six admission slots at a Division III school — must recruit many more prospects early in the process, before making their final decisions. They might need a pitcher more than a catcher or outfielder. But they need to keep all three prospective recruits interested; because the pitcher (or one of the others) is being recruited by multiple schools. The coach is also recruiting a backup for each of those three positions. In fact, the coach probably has a list of five prospects for each position, even though the pitcher is the priority. And the coach has to convince each of the 15 that he wants that particular kid. Or more accurately, the coach has to do that early in the process. As the recruiting/admissions process grinds on, the funnel – and the prospect pool — gets smaller. Some students commit to other schools and others fail to meet admission standards. The list gets smaller – and your kid may still be on it — but she may still not be the prospect of choice.

I suspect it’s a bit easier for schools with scholarships than those without. I remember a year at Auburn where I looked at the national rankings for high school mile times. I went after three of the best, offering each a scholarship. I also encouraged each of them to get in touch with each other, hoping that might encourage them to come together. The strategy worked, and they all committed to Auburn. But I had no money left for the other students I had kept on hold, since I hadn’t expected to land all three. My next group prospects were cut loose, and then picked up by other schools.

Think of it in terms of casting a wide net. When I was coaching track in the Ivy League (with no athletic scholarships), I would write to many student-athletes. They would be identified by their athletic performances – state meet or league results, performance lists etc. From those who replied, I would then narrow the group for academic reasons. I would then prioritize them based on our program needs.

Each year we’d start with a list of the track team’s needs. Did we need distance runners more than sprinters? Sprinters more than field event people? Then we’d establish a priority list of the prospects we’d been talking to, and turn it over to the admission office. In most cases, the admission office would respect our wishes. Sometimes they would balk over a particular kid, fearing that a student wouldn’t be able to survive the academic rigor of an Ivy League institution. Sometimes I’d be given the chance to make the case on behalf of the kid. But the ultimate up-down decision remained with the admission office.

Our initial prospect group of 500 good high school athletes might drop to 100 who had the grades and SAT scores to have a realistic hope of admission. From there, we would narrow it further to a group of 40 whom we’d submit on a priority list to the admissions office. And from that priority list, maybe 20 might be admitted.

But we’d still have to keep those 100 interested until we narrowed the list to the 40. And we’d have to keep those 40 interested until we learned which of the 20 might make it. And even then, we had to see how many of the 20 chose to commit.

So unfortunately, it’s hard to be completely honest.

One important note about the Ivy League: the Ivies have a formula called the academic index (AI) that throws another set of rules into the process. It combines class rank or GPA (many schools no longer rank) with standardized test scores. Not surprisingly, the AI standards are much tougher than the NCAA eligibility requirements. If your child is being recruited by an Ivy League school, the coach will explain it to you. The coach may also suggest that your child take the SAT again, not only to raise your child’s AI score – and improve his chances of admission — to raise that AI score, but to help the “team score” as well.

The highest possible individual AI score is a 240 total. That would reflect an A+ student/valedictorian with straight 800 scores on both the SAT1 and required subject tests, The Ivy League rules require that a school’s average AI team scores be within one standard deviation of that school’s overall entering class score. Which means that the Ivy League really is looking for smart student-athletes.

Consequently, an Ivy League coach might balance a great athletic prospect who has a slightly lower AI with a lesser prospect who has a higher score. Each school has the flexibility to approach this mix differently. Thus some teams may have higher cumulative AI scores than others. And to further complicate matters, football, basketball and hockey are limited in numbers and use bands that group the number of athletes in each category. So listen to what the coach tells you and respect what he might ask of you.

Division III schools typically utilize a process pretty similar to the one described above. But their process is often further complicated by having to wait to see who is left after financial aid packages (not athletic scholarships!) are offered by the admissions/financial aid office. Or whether athletic prospects make the admissions cut at highly selective schools.

The good, but perhaps not great, Division III prospect might be wise to follow a coach’s encouragement and apply early decision (ED) to that school, rather than keep waiting or hoping on a “higher-level” school. (Students can apply to only one school “early decision.” If admitted, they are legally bound to attend that school.) The ED approach is the Division III’s “letter of intent.” It significantly improves the student-athlete’s chance of admission, and then obligates the student to that school. The NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) schools are best known for this practice, and it is little surprise that great academic schools like Amherst, Williams and Middlebury contend for national titles through the use of this process.

The Student’s “Play”

A savvy prospect should not be afraid of letting a college know they are interested in that school. The student (or parent) should produce a CD/DVD highlight reel. (Many college coaches are very interested in seeing an entire game in addition to the highlight reel. They want to see what and how the prospect does when not being the star.) The student-athlete should also have their high school or club coach get in touch with the college coach. In addition to conveying the student’s interest in that particular school, it is also very useful to alert a college coach that the athlete is participating in a particular showcase or tournament. Finally, it is can be useful to find out which summer camps, tournament, or showcases the college coach plans to attend; and then have the student try to participate in those events.

The level of the coach’s response might also help the prospect realize what level of interest there may be in that student. Or in some cases, the high school coach can find out what skills the prospect may need to work on. And remember NCAA rules prevent direct contact between a college coach and most prospects until July 1 prior to senior year. (There some exceptions to this rule that apply to football, basketball and ice hockey). If the phone doesn’t start ringing then, it may be time to re-access whether athletics will play a significant role in the admission process, regardless of level. Click here for NCAA recruiting schedule.

Should Student Lie Too?

One of the most significant dilemmas of this process is whether students should “lie” as well. Should students “inflate” their level of interest in a particular school until they can determine the coach’s real level of interest in them? And while there are both ethical and practical problems here, the answer is yes. The student-athlete is well advised to play it “close to the vest,” telling several schools they are really interested in that school — until they get the green light from the college. One word of caution, however. In many sports, coaches talk among themselves; and a student-athlete would be wise not to cast the net in too many places.

Both Ivy League and Division III schools utilize financial aid to assist families with the cost of attending their schools. These financial aid packages really are based on the financial need of the family – not how badly the school “needs” that athlete. In the old days, the Ivy League actually compared aid packages to make sure they were consistent from school to school. While that process is now forbidden by Federal rules, few schools will risk the wrath of their fellow members – or Justice Department or NCAA probes — by offering a financial aid package way out of line with the family’s “demonstrated need.”

A family’s demonstrated need is the flip side of the family’s “expected family contribution.” The federal government calculates these numbers based on financial information provided by the family when they file the FAFSA or Profile forms. The formula is at once arcane, predictable, and unrealistic about actual cost-of-living expenses. For example, a family with a $100,000 income and $20,000 in assets would be expected to contribute about $9,000 a year to a child’s college costs But virtually all families can receive some form of financial aid – but it might be in the form of student loans.

So, a prospect can certainly share a financial aid award with another school to see if the second school might match it. But colleges are very unlikely to go way outside the aid package prescribed by the FAFSA and expected family contribution, and thus risk NCAA investigations. In short, Division III are very unlikely to award additional financial aid if it appears that athletic ability might have been factored into those awards

NCAA Division I schools have more flexibility in their aid awards – because they do award athletic scholarships — and can decide how to spend their dollars. Most likely, a non-scholarship athlete will receive a financial aid award consistent with students with similar need. Or in the case of students eligible for merit (academic) scholarships, they will get awards like non-athletes with similar grades.

The recruiting process is nuanced. Never be afraid to involve your high school coach or college counselor in this process. College coaches are much more likely to be truthful with high school coaches and counselors because they’ll probably want to “do business” with that high school again in the future. But realize too, that the coach or counselor – while the student’s advocate — may need to be honest with the college as well; they don’t want to lose credibility with that college coach that might affect future recruits. So be sure to keep the high school coach and counselor in the loop as the student-athlete’s priorities and interests change.

About the Author

Mike Muska is a former NCAA Division 1 coach of 20 All-American track and cross-country athlete; and was twice named Coach of the Year in the Southeast Conference. He is also a former Division III Athletic Director and Admissions Director, and spent ten years as a senior athletic and admissions person at Brown and Oberlin. He is currently Dean of College Relations at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, and the Chief Professional Officer at iCollegeCounselor.

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Attention senior parents: This is must-know information for you!

Admission decisions have arrived, along with often-confusing (or disappointing) financial packages. What do they mean? What do you do now? And can you appeal the awards?

There are three things you should do right now:

1. Make a decision about a particular school and send in a deposit – or get an extension – by May 1st.

2. Pick up the telephone and make a personal connection with someone in the college’s financial aid office.

3. Start the appeals process.

OK, that leaves everyone a bit breathless. Take a step back; take a deep breath; and realize it will all be fine.
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Along with those letters of acceptance and rejection comes that dreaded letter, known as the waitlist.  But in this crazy year of college admissions that letter may indeed be good news.  Here’s why. 

Colleges manage their enrollment through something known as “yield management.”   Using a  combination of mathematic predictions and guesswork, they admit a certain number of high school seniors knowing that only a certain percentage will actually show up on campus in the fall.  Generally, college admissions offices get pretty good at predicting what that “yield” will be.  And then, every once in a while – like this year – the economy goes kappooey, and all those predictions are up for grabs. 

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