December Graduation

When we think about high school graduations, we generally associate that as something that happens in the months of May or June. However, there are an increasing number of students who desire to graduate in December or at the conclusion of their seventh semester. This can be a great option for some students but there are some important advantages and disadvantages to consider.


To begin, I should say that school policy on December graduation can vary from one high school to the next, so families should familiarize themselves with those policies before they spend too much time considering this option. It’s also a decision that should be well thought out and made in concert with good and timely communication with the school. It’s not a decision you can make at Thanksgiving dinner and then show up at school and announce, “I think I want to graduate in a couple of weeks.” It takes some planning and strategizing.


The biggest advantage for a senior grad is that it frees them up for the spring semester to either go ahead and enroll in college in January or simply work in preparation of perhaps starting college later. In the case of the former, students should apply as would any other student. They just need to indicate they plan to start in the upcoming January. Be careful, this might be a separate application than what other seniors are filling out during the fall. December grads might need to use last year’s application. Just make sure you’re paying close attention to dates and years. December grads are eligible for financial aid but they will fill out a different application than their fellow seniors as the FAFSA calendar begins in fall in ends in the summer. For both of these processes, it is once again crucial that students make a decision about a December graduation early on.


The cons of graduating early lie mostly in the fact that it just runs counter to the calendar of everything else that happens at a school. So, a student who is starting college for the first time in January might not have as robust of an initial college experience as a student starting in the fall or summer. The other students are in the swing of things by January, new relationships have already formed, December grads might be choosing housing from among the leftovers, orientation programs might not exist or be scaled back, it’s just not quite the same. There are also some fun goings on at the high school that a student might miss out on during the last semester depending on the school. Maybe those things wouldn’t be of interest to the student and none of these might be deal breakers, but they are worth taking into account.


Graduating in December is the right fit for many students. However, it doesn’t work for everyone and wrapping things on the early side is not a decision that should be made on the spur of the moment. It takes a lot of research, planning, and communication to get it right.

Teens and Careers

 I have people in the community approach me all the time and say “Hey, my industry has a huge need for people who do this niche thing. They can make a zillion dollars. So, tell your students.” The problem here is that that niche thing probably isn’t very exciting and if it’s not very exciting, it’s really hard to get a 17-year-old to buy into that for a career. However the truth is that few of us adults end up in the “glory” careers so many teens covet. Instead we end up as school counselors, or airport gate agents, or vinyl window salesmen, or claims adjusters, or whatever. Most of us end up in some job that’s probably not all that exciting but it pays the bills.


It's really hard for an adult with a little wisdom and who might not work a lot with teens to accept that a young person doesn’t want to follow the jobs in demand and just make a lot of money. But, It’s really hard for a young person to toss away their dreams and accept the reality that most of our jobs kinda aren’t all that cool.


Therefore, I think it might be a little futile to ask a young person “what do you want to be when you grow up. Likewise, It is my belief that trying to convince a 16-year-old that some inane (aren’t they all), but well paying job is the way to go is a waste of time. That 16-year-old probably needs to get out in the real world and realize that we can’t all be doctors and screenwriters, and that bussing tables might pay your high school bills, but it doesn’t pay your grown up bills.


I think we need to think differently about how we talk to young people about careers. In this sense, a high school student is still a kid. They don’t know what they want to do (most of them). So, we just need to tell them that they need more education and skills training in something that interests them. The job they land can vary greatly in its daily tasks and it doesn’t have to be the same job forever. For example, a person with a business degree can do so many jobs and a person who trains in plumbing might just sell pipes and toilets at a home improvement store or work to support a municipal water supply.



Ultimately, I think we’re often missing the mark when we push careers too hard on teens. Instead, as a society I believe we need to do a better job of counseling 20-year-olds. Don’t just tell your local school counselor about good career leads. Grab someone a little way out of high school and tell them. Write it on the back of a receipt at a restaurant. Tell your nephew, the girl at the car wash, the neighbor’s kid who still lives at home, someone who has had a chance to get out into the real world and get a little hungry, because honestly, most teens just aren’t there yet.

Moms and Sons in The Afternoon

In my line of work as a school counselor, I spend a fair amount of time meeting with students and their parents and working to help them see the other’s perspective. One of the greatest schisms I see is mothers and their sons who are reluctant to do homework or additional school work outside of the regular hours allotted for a student who might participate in online school. Over time and with some personal experience, I’ve developed a theory about this problem that has lead me to a very simple solution.


Much of the problem is rooted in the difference between men and women. I should say also that as I man, I think women are more efficient workers and just might have a better work ethic than man. I believe women do a better job weaving their home life and their work life in and out of each other, while these tend to be two distinct areas for men.


These differences are critical and they are seen in the following scenario where problems arise. A young man is done with school for the day. He heads to his bedroom, looking to unwind and switch into “home mode.” Before he can even get his shoes off, mom comes in and starts asking about homework. “What do you have to do for math? Does your club have a meeting on Thursday? Don’t you need to study for science?, etc.”


To mom, she hasn’t seen her son all day. She wants the scoop on what needs to be done and it only makes sense to her to get those obligations out of the way and then her son can relax. To the son, these questions make his head feel like it's going to explode. He is trying to change gears and forcing him back to school mode now isn’t going to end well. Since he is a young male teenager, he’s probably not awesome at responding maturely. He says something he shouldn’t. Mom and son frustrate each other and this happens every single afternoon.


Sound familiar? If it does, keep reading. Here is what is happening. Think of the son’s mind as a computer. After the school day, it has to reboot and enter into home mode. He needs a little time to relax and switch out of school before he can get into homework. You know how when your computer is updating it says “Installing updates. Do not turn off your computer.”? Well, all those questions at the wrong time about school are the equivalent of interrupting the updates and it’s going to make the son’’s central processor lag for the rest of the day.


However, the questions mom has are important and they need to be asked. That’s mom’s job and I’m not at all suggesting she step away from that responsibility. What’s critical here is the timing. Here’s the fix. Mothers should lay out ground rules for their sons and their afternoons. “Son, studying for tests and homework are things that have to be done. But, I know you are tired right when you are done with school for the day. So, I’m going to give you 30 or 45 minutes to wind down and switch gears then I’m going to need to ask you some questions so I know what we have to do before tomorrow and I’m going to expect you to get those things done.”



From there, it’s just a matter of doing exactly what you said you were going to do. Moms, I know you are so curious about your son’s day but just wait 30 minutes before you play 20 questions. Let his computer reset and I promise you’ll see a huge difference in his productivity and in your relationship.

Calculating the EOC

When it comes to considering financial aid for college, one of the most important numbers a family will need to know is their EFC. This is the Expected Family Contribution, which is further defined as the amount of money a family is expected to contribute out of pocket to their student’s educational expenses. The EFC is generated by the information a family puts into FAFSA and has a direct impact on the amount of financial aid that is offered to a student. This part is simple, schools calculate their annual cost of attendance (which includes living expenses, not just tuition) then they subtract the EFC for individual students and what’s left is the financial need the college will need to package together in the form of aid and award to the student so they can pay to go to college. What is far from simple is the formula used to calculate the EFC so that’s what we’ll be looking at here.

However, I can’t possibly explain the complex formula so I’m just going to try to look at some highlights and present them in layman’s terms. First, you’re going to be using what FAFSA calls the prior prior year’s tax return (that’s not a typo). Just subtract two years for the graduation year. So, a 2020 graduate is going to use the 2018 tax return. The most critical number here is the AGI or adjusted gross income. This is the starting point for the EFC calculation—how much money do the parents make. Other financial factors that are included in the EFC are real estate holdings other than the primary residence, investments, bank and savings accounts, and educational savings such as 529 plans. Things that are not included are retirement plans like IRAs, home equity, small business values, and the cash value of life insurance policies. A tricky piece here is debt. Consumer debt like credit cards or car loans are not factored in the EFC. Nor is your mortgage. This is a really important fact because a family that has a high debt payment in whatever form is having that monthly expense ignored when they are evaluated on how much money they can contribute to a child’s education.

A student’s income and assets are also assessed as part of the EFC. So, if your child worked in the prior prior year, their information will be reflected on FAFSA as well. If fact, it is weighted more than the parents’. So, a student who is doing particularly well in their earnings is going to increase the amount a family is expected to contribute towards education faster or at a higher rate than a parent.

This is a very simplistic view of what goes into the EFC. You can go pretty far down this rabbit hole if you really want. That descent might lead you to a tax advisor who can help you plan ahead as you enter what will become your prior prior year. There may well be some things you can do financially that year or in the years that surround it to reduce your EFC, though keep in mind you’ll need to complete a new FAFSA for each year your child is in college. Therefore, any financial changes you make could just be kicking the can down the road. The good news is that for families who have a younger child who will enter college while an older child is still in college, subsequent college-enrolled children significantly impact the EFC to the advantage of parents and families.

Remembering to Get Organized

Time and again, I see one of the biggest issues teens have in the classroom is a lack of organization. This is especially true for boys who often seem reluctant to recognize that organization is a critical component of success in the classroom and in developing into an effective adult.


Here, when I say organization I’m really referring to the physical organization of things as well as the scheduling of time. A lack of organization in a student’s physical belongings leaves them unable to locate something and when they don’t keep track of the time of their commitments, they forget they are happening as well. So, in both cases the reliance on memory is kind of the crux of the problem.


I think where many teens fall down on organization is that they just don’t believe it’s necessary. After all, in the moment as I’m shoving this loose but important paper into my book bag, surely I’ll remember it’s between my gym shirt and that other blue piece of paper that’s been in my bag for three months. And, you’re telling me right now that the meeting for parents is Monday the 23rd at 6, how can I possibly forget that in the next three weeks. Well, it’s because a lot can come and go in a young person’s mind to erase those pieces of information within our short term memory. It’s difficult for young people to accept that life is getting so complicated that they must have a better way than memory alone to track what is going on. There is too much for any effective person to remember on their own and young people must track things another way.


When a lack of organization starts to impact things like a student’s grades or their involvement in extracurricular activities, it’s time for a parent to intervene. Teachers usually create systems in their class that are meant to instill good habits of organization (notebook checks, use of planners, etc.) but there is not often direct instruction in organization and when students are not forming the habits the teachers present to them, it’s critical that parents pick up the slack.


If that means requiring your child to clean out their book bag or folder every single night and sorting out what's important from what’s not, and figuring out what information goes where, then so be it. If it means, requiring your student to use a planner that better have something written for every class at the end of the day (even if it’s just “no homework”), then so be it. If teens don’t like you rooting through their book bag or if they don't like whatever consequence you impose when they don’t plan and schedule their time, then there is a really quick way to avoid those things--become organized on their own.


Consequences are crucial in the parents’ efforts to teach organization. Ultimately, the goal is to create an environment where it is more convenient for the child to develop good habits of organization than not. If you’re able to do that, your teen will slowly become an organized person, which hopefully will lead to more positive outcomes, which will reinforce the organized behaviors, and the whole effort can snowball. Make an effort to get your teen organized. It can make a big difference in their success.

Optional College Application Information

As seniors begin to apply to college this fall, they might find tremendous disparity from the approach one college takes to their application process to the next. One of the biggest differences they might find is the kind of information that is required on an application. Indeed, one school might require a piece of information while another lists that as optional. So, this concept of optional information usually taunts seniors with the question, do I send it or not?

These applications can ask for any one of a number of things. It’s probably safe to say that if it’s optional, it’s pretty far down the list of criteria the college will use to accept you, but how can it not make at least a little impression on the person that is reviewing the application?

      AP scores are a great example of this. I’ve never heard a college representative tell me they intentionally use AP scores for admission purposes and I’ve asked them about this directly before. However, I have heard representatives reference AP scores in the context of ancillary information that could provide additional information about a student who is right on the line for admission. So, yeah, they don’t seek them out for the purposes of admission but if you have two students who are otherwise equal and one has an average AP score of 1.5 and one has an average of 4.5, that better score could be a real edge. 

        For the record, I think AP scores and other optional information are far more likely to be meaningful to highly selective schools (think Ivy League) than others. For most schools, optional information is just something a little extra to look at. It only makes sense that the colleges are going to be most interested in the information they require. Think about it, if you loved to cook, and you had to buy a house without seeing it in-person and could only look at five pictures from the inside, one of those pictures has to be of the kitchen, right? You might be able to live without seeing the inside of the garage though. 

      
  So, do you send optional informational or not? I generally believe that unless something is glaringly bad for you, go ahead and send it. I’m talking really bad. If your writing score is a little lower than your reading and math, but still in league with them, go ahead and send it. If your AP scores are kind of mixed, go ahead and send them. On the other hand, if something optional for you is just truly awful, then maybe don’t send it. I think we are who we are and the colleges appreciate transparency. If the realtor of that house wouldn’t even let you look in the garage, don’t you think you’d suddenly be a little curious about what was going on in there, even if it wasn’t a room you felt like you’d use a lot?

        There is a thin line to walk here. You are who you are and if you’re meant to get into a college, you will. If you don’t have a perfect score or whatever, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad score or whatever. Be realistic about where your optional information truly lies statistically and unless it really is at the bottom of the barrel, maybe it’s better to send it.

What Happens After Graduation

High school graduation is a weird thing. It’s like society drives young people up to this jungle and then just opens the car door and says, “Good luck in there!” Or, if the expression is “It takes a village to raise a child,” high school graduation is the first step out of the village and into the wild. Yes, graduation is kind of crazy when you think of it as the arbitrary spring date we choose to kick our children out of the village. Maybe it shouldn’t be that harsh,

I really worry about what happens to my students in the years that follow graduation. For their whole lives, they’ve enjoyed the safety, comfort, and security of their childhood which has often been headlined but their school experience and the guidance they’ve received from their guardians and teachers. So much of that falls away on graduation day though. Sure, good parents are going to stick around but are probably taking at least a little step back and certainly the routine of grade school is gone.

That means there is a lot left for a young person to figure out on their own and I believe the years that follow graduation are every bit as crucial in a young person’s transition to effective adulthood as their teen years. So, I think it’s really important for the “village” to stay vigilant and keep a careful watch over the people they’ve supported at this time. Actually, they probably need to be more vigilant now. Gone are the support networks offered by schools and the web of support they might have received from friends is likely smaller too. In spite of this, they’re facing some of the biggest decisions of their lives involving career and relationships when they need support the most. There’s a lot of significant things going on and there’s a lot that can go wrong.

Providing support to this demographic is complicated. These people need a balance between letting them be the adults that they and this continued support. Playing the role of the overbearing, I-still-know-what’s-best-parent likely isn’t going to work. Young people in this situation need to fall down sometimes, they need to be a little hungry, they need to discover what they like and don’t like about being an adult because those opinions will drive them down the path they choose. The supporters of young adults need to accept that mistakes will be made. They can’t and shouldn’t prevent the inevitable lessons that will be taught by those mistakes. However, supporters can be ready to extend a hand to pick up their young people, to bring them in from the jungle with the storm grows too fierce, and be willing to offer advice, when solicited, which the right amount of touch. In other words, your job as a parent isn’t done at graduation. Except when it is.

Traditional Skills for The Next Generation

              As another group of young people are heading off into the workforce, there are a few traditional skills I’m afraid they’ve never acquired. These are skills that might seem archaic to young people who are quite adept at navigating a digital world. However, the types of tasks that are to follow are ones that are extraordinarily commonplace to the parents of these graduates and are likely to be needed long into the future.
              Unfortunately, I have come to understand young people’s attitudes towards these skills the hard way. So, for example, I once had an extended debate with a student as to whether there was ever a scenario in which one needed to supply their own phone number in a voicemail wherein they requested a return call. To this student, cell phones or caller ID were so ubiquitous that anyone who retrieved the voicemail would be able to see the numbers of the people who called the phone. Apparently, this student assumed that anyone who might work at doctor’s office or any company would naturally use their personal cell phone for all communications related to their work and
that the main number of these businesses was simply that of an employee who worked there. In my work, the majority of my calls are from parents who do almost always identify themselves in their message and leave me with their preferred method to return contact. However, I would estimate that more than 90% of the occasional voicemails I receive from students do neither of these things. They are usually something simply along the lines of “Hi, I have a question for you. Please give me a call back.”
             A parent once shared with me an anecdote that she had tasked her son with addressing a number of envelopes for an event she was having. The teenager in turned placed the stamp in the dead center of the envelopes and wrote the return and recipient addresses in incorrect places as well. At first, the parent thought this was the act of a careless young man until she realized he really didn’t know any better. I’ve also seen students who seem unaware of how to write a check or how to properly use a phone that is not cell phone (or what “dial 9 to get out” means). They prefer to text and don’t do a good job of monitoring their email and their business etiquette can be somewhat lacking in
situations like interviews or formal meals. In other words, there are some skills young graduates will be expected to know in the adult world, because adults use these skills, but the schools are not doing much to teach these skills and young people are too connected to the alternative digital versions of these skills to have ever needed to acquire them.
            If schools are teaching these things, it’s probably a quick lesson on one day, perhaps in elementary or middle school. If that lesson covers a skill the student doesn’t use again for a long time, it’s easy to forget. So, I think the onus of really teaching these types of    things ultimately falls on parents. Consider teaching your child how to do some things that are second nature to you that might not be to them. You never know when
they are going to need it.

Getting the Feel of College Campuses

Summer is upon us and many people have vacations planned. Maybe you’re lucky enough to have the opportunity to go somewhere unforgettable, like Paris. However, what would be the point in that? Surely you’ve seen pictures of the Eiffel Tower before, right? What else could you possibly gain from going all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Well, probably a whole lot. Seeing the sights and sounds, eating at the cafes, being immersed in the French culture--that’s a very different experience than just looking at a picture of the Eiffel Tower. So it goes with touring college campuses.


Unfortunately, not touring campuses is one of the biggest mistakes I see families make as they make their decisions about college. They assume that because they’ve been to the city the college is in, or been to the college the day of a big football game, or your friend who
graduated last year goes there, or they looked at a brochure, that they know what the on-campus experience is all about. Those things can’t replicate what it feels like on a college campus on a day-to-day basis though any more than eating a baguette from your local grocery store while listening to Claude Debussy and looking at pictures of the Arc de Triomphe on your phone can replicate a trip to Paris.


My operative word here is vibe, or you might say feel. Being on a college campus, on a more or less regular day is going to present a vibe that students need to inhale before they make the biggest decision of their young lives. You have to be there in person.


Actually, what I get most from students is this; “I’m going to such and such university. Well, I’m going to tour it next weekend, but then I’m going to go there.” So, I think most students do take tours but really only after they’ve fully made the decision to go to a given school. Hey, I’ve bought a shirt before, taken it home, and then tried it on. The difference is that it’s a whole lot easier to return a shirt than it is to transfer colleges.


TAKE COLLEGE TOURS, and do it before senior year. I think sophomore and junior year might be the best years for this, but if you’re driving past a school that might be on the radar in the 6th grade that you’re not going to drive past frequently, take the exit and go see it. That’s not too early.


All colleges and universities offer tours. Usually, you can find this information on the school’s website. Tours conducted by a trained individual (often a student) are best, but if the availability of those don’t fit with your plans, spending 20 minutes walking around campus and eating a meal at the student union is better than nothing. Whatever the case, make the effort to give your student the feel and vibe of the college they want to attend before they make this massive decision. And have fun on your trip this summer. Bon voyage!

A Tough Schedule For Senior Year

As one school years begins to wind down, it is time to look ahead to the next. For some students, this means selecting classes for their last year of high school, and if that’s the case the strategy might be a little different than what was done during the other years.


This is especially true for students who intend to go to college. The appearance of a strong and rigorous senior schedule is extremely important and is something colleges look for. They want to see that a student is continuing their pursuit of knowledge and is continuing to challenge themselves. Many seniors will have met their most strenuous graduation requirements and might not be required to take courses in some core subject areas However, that doesn’t mean they should not. A college-bound senior would do well to take challenging classes in language arts, math, science, and social studies.


Here is the bigger secret; who cares how you do in the classes? Well, to a point. I tell my college-bound students that as long as meet the minimum GPA required to graduate I don’t have much interest in their GPA at graduation. I am most interested in the GPA they have at the end of their junior year because that is the one they will present to colleges on their applications in the fall of their senior year.


To put this point another way, a student applies to college before their senior grades have a chance to take hold. What this means is that the courses listed on a senior schedule are magnified. The colleges are going to be forced to recognize the strength of your senior schedule before they might have the opportunity to see a result. This means a senior can and should be less conservative in the courses they select their senior year. They can take a class that might be a slight a reach for them because that is going to look good to the colleges and if they don’t do as well as they would like, the consequences are not as severe.


Now, the disclaimer paragraph. Colleges can do send what is a called a letter of rescission. This is when you get accepted, the college gets a final transcript which is terrible, and they send a letter rescinding your acceptance. Some times, this can even come after you’ve spent a semester at a college. Letters of rescission are an awful thing to receive. In my point above, I think seniors can afford to do a little worse than they are used to. They can’t afford to bottom out and I’m not suggesting it’s okay for a student to fail or make Ds in their classes. I just mean you don’t have to necessarily maintain your GPA exactly where it is through senior year. Students can take in a larger mouthful than what they are used to it, but they should not bite off more than they can chew. Senioritis is also a real thing too, so my greater point above is working with the assumption that a senior is a good student and has the will to continue to try to be that for the duration of their senior year.

SAT and ACT Test Prep

One of the most common questions I am asked as a school counselor is, “what can I do to prepare for the SAT and ACT?” The answer is, there’s a lot. A ton of exam prep materials exist that can help students squeeze a few more points out of these important assessments.

However, to begin this conversation it’s important to temper expectations. The purpose of the SAT and ACT is to compare the aptitude of students who are applying to college from a national and sometimes international pool. These tests separate the elite from the average in an unbiased way that a GPA might struggle to do. And, the tests do a pretty good job of this. In a sense, they represent your body of intellectual work for the entirety of your schooling so a little time spent preparing for these tests is only going to elevate a student so much. Test prep can improve scores but no one should expect that can turn an average score into a perfect one.

So, how does a student prepare for a test? My belief is that it is possible to overdo it. I wouldn’t want a student to ignore their classroom studies for the sake of preparing for an exam. Plus, it just seems like a good way to burn a young person out. However, some dedicated time spent preparing for an exam in the six to eight weeks leading up to the administration can be beneficial.

The College Board has partnered with the Khan Academy for their test prep and the ACT has partnered with Kaplan for theirs. I think these are the best places to start. It makes sense to me that the people who publish the exams are going to have the best insight into how to prepare, so I think any test prep should include these services at least in part. Both services allow a user to look at previous test attempts, explore weaknesses, and target those weaknesses within the test prep. This is an extremely valuable tool and one that any student will be wise to take advantage of.

These are not the only means for SAT or ACT test prep though. A multitude of third-party resources exists that are aimed at SAT or ACT preparation. They can carry different approaches or different methods of delivery and I won’t suggest that any one of them is better than the other here. You can find these at places like Amazon.com or in the big box book stores like Barnes and Nobles, so it’s probably a good idea to do a little shopping and find one that looks like it’s a good fit for you.

Those products will often be self-directed which means they’ll require a level of self-discipline that not every high school student has. In that case, many high schools offer some after-school or weekend workshops in the days or weeks leading up to test. Colleges and private tutoring services sometimes also offer test preparation classes. These can be the most expensive options for test preps but they occasionally come with money back guarantees to improve your score a certain number of points. I have had good feedback from these sorts of classes in the past and I imagine they wouldn’t offer the guarantee if they weren’t confident they could meet it more often than not.

Athletic Scholarships in College

For many students, athletic activities rival the work done in the classroom. Flexible educational opportunities such as virtual schooling exists now that allow students more time to focus on their training. Many students see their athletic ability as a way to potentially pay for college and therefore the time and costs associated with a sport can be considered an investment with the return being reduced tuition bills. While this is true, it’s important to note these scholarships are very competitive and limited. There are also some important differences in the different tiers of college athletics. Students and parents should be familiar with these as they make decisions about high school and their athletic opportunities.

Most people are familiar with Division 1 college athletics.
These are the schools that play college football on TV on Saturdays or
basketball in March. There are around 8 million students who play high school athletics
but only around 175,000 play Division 1 sports at any given time. So, these are
the most competitive scholarships. However, if you’re able to land one they can
be quite lucrative and cover tuition, housing, and meals. Nevertheless, if you
are talented enough to have the opportunity to play Division 1 sports, there is
still no guarantee you’ll receive scholarship money. This is particularly true
if you play a “non-revenue” sport which is often everything except football and
men’s basketball.

Division 2 schools give some athletic scholarships
as well. However, these schools are often smaller, and the demands of the
athletic program might be less intense than what is found at Division 1
schools. Student athletes might have more of an opportunity to be a bigger fish
in a smaller pond.

Division 3 schools do not offer athletic
scholarships. This is a very important line that is drawn at this tier and one
that many students and parents are unaware of it. Most Division 3 athletes will
qualify for some financial aid but that will be in the form of academic or
need-based scholarships. It won’t come from the athletic department. As a
result, the demands of the athletic programs might be less intense still than
Division 2 programs.

The same is true for colleges that compete in the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics or NAIA. These colleges are
generally on par with Division 3 schools and also do not offer athletic
scholarships. However, they will also give most of their athletes some
financial aid through other avenues.



Any high school athlete who aspires to play at the
next level should register with the NCAA Clearinghouse. There are strict
academic standards a student-athlete must meet in order to qualify for college
athletics. These qualifications vary by the tier of the athletic program but
registering with the NCAA can get your foot in the door for each division.
Students and parents should be aware of financial implications of being a
student athlete and how different colleges and individual sports at individual
schools treat financial aid. There is no one-size-fits-all answer for anything
related to college athletic scholarships so it’s crucial to ask lots of
questions to recruiters and do your own research.