All too often, I sit down with families and ask, “What’s the plan for paying for college?” only to hear the answer, “We’re hoping for a lot of scholarships.” That family might as well say, “We’re hoping to win the lottery.”
Placing all of your paying-for-college eggs in the basket of scholarships is a bad idea. The truth is, only the most elite students earn full rides and even then that “full ride” might not cover every last expense for a student like housing, food, transportation, and entertainment.
Most families hope to obtain these full rides in one of two ways. One of those is athletics. Many parents of athletes rely on their child earning an athletic scholarship to pay for college. These families need to remember that typically only revenue sports (football, basketball, and sometimes baseball) offer full rides, and even then only at Division I programs. This means only the best athletes in the country are getting these scholarships. I’m sorry, but if you’re not getting calls from head coaches from these big time programs by sophomore year, you’re probably not one of the best athletes in the country. Your next best bet is to get a partial scholarship from a Division II or Division III, but here again that’s a partial scholarship so you better have a supplemental strategy to pay for college.
The other way families hope to earn a full ride is through academics. This is usually in spite of a less than perfect GPA and test scores that might be good but not outstanding. There is a sea of very good high school students in the United States and I’m sorry to say that colleges are only going to roll out the red carpet for those who are truly at the very top. Others might be able to get a little money that recognizes their academic achievements but that is very unlikely to offset the full expenses of college for four years.
My point here is that if a family works with tunnel vision that scholarships should be the only mechanism to pay for college, they are doing it wrong. Scholarships are best case, windfall scenarios and relying solely on those is foolish. Families would be better off preparing to pay college entirely through other means, and then enjoying the boon of scholarships if they materialize.
When families do inevitably have to pay for college without scholarships the alternatives are most often loans or out of pocket savings. If there is nothing in pockets to speak off, a family might be eligible for grants (which still are not likely to cover full college expenses) or they’ll just have to borrow more. And, student loans don’t have to be the scourge they’ve been made out to be. If student loans are taken wisely and a student is diligent as they make their way through college, they’ll be in a better position with a college education and a student loan payment than without.
