The following is an excerpt from Play2Pay: How to Market Your College Bound Student-Athlete for Scholarship Money, by Beth Walker, Founder of College Funding Coaching, and Honoree Corder,
Personal Transformation Expert.
This guide is designed for families who
want to send their student’s to college without going broke and view
partial athletic scholarship money as part of their overall funding
strategy.
Chapter 1: The Playing Field
College today is expensive, expected, and
misunderstood. Other than that it’s the
single biggest source of stress between parents and teenagers in most U.S.
households today.
Let us explain…
In terms of cost, nothing we pay for in terms of products or
services has risen as sharply as the cost of college. College costs have risen 539% over the last
20 years as compared to the 251% increase in medical care over the same time
frame (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, NCPPE, US Census Bureau, Wall Street
Journal).
And the rate of inflation related to the cost of college
isn’t the only financial burden faced by families today – most families have
not saved or planned for the expenses related to college and find themselves
amassing debt in their efforts to finance post secondary education…
· 61.6%
of undergraduate students borrowed money for funding their education in the
form of student loans and their average cumulative debt amounted to $17,878;
13.5% of parents borrowed to fund their children’s education, amassing an
average PLUS loan debt of $23,298. (Note: These figures were calculated using the data
analysis system for the 2007-2008 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) conducted by the National
Center for Education Statistics at the US Department of Education.)
Despite the costs, most kids today will tell you they plan
to go to college. Press them as to why
and they’ll tell you they know they need to go to get a good job and that’s
what their parents expect.
Beyond that, most students can’t tell you what or where they
want to study … which leads us to yet another incredible statistic regarding
college today – most kids are taking 6 years to get a four year degree.
In fact, according to the most recent Dept. of Education
report, about half of
students who started college in 2003 had managed to graduate within six
years. Another 15% were still attending college and more than a third had
dropped out.
But don’t despair…
But, you also have to be realistic about the role an
athletic scholarship will play in your overall college funding strategy.
In fact, the typical N.C.A.A. athletic scholarship awarded,
excluding football and men’s basketball, is only $ 8,707 (Source: Expectations
Lost to Reality of Sports Scholarships, NY Times, by Bill Pennington
(3/10/2008). With the average
public university costing $19,640 per year and private colleges requiring
$40,493 per year (Source: College Board), an athletic
scholarship that must be renewed each year is not insignificant but will
not solve the funding challenge in and of itself.
Most families wait too long to market their student-athletes,
believing that getting in front of college coaches in the junior and senior
year of high school will result in meaningful scholarship offers. The fact is, 75% of college coaches are
tracking athletes for recruiting purposes by their sophomore year. (Source: How
To Market Your Student Athlete for Athletic Scholarships by Chuck Moore.)
