how to Get Financial Aid
It would take three chapters to explain the convoluted and
tortured reasons why some students, especially the “shouldn’t-
have-to-pay” category of students, are provided relief from
paying full tuition and fees. Generally though, discounts are
provided because of: merit (pretend and real), academic poten-
tial or achievement, athletic ability, special circumstances (to
be determined by the financial aid director’s “professional
judgment”), ethnicity, family and legacy relationships, and
need. The concept of “need” is virtually impossible to define.
When discussing need as it pertains to financial aid, it can
mean virtually anything the college administration wants it to
mean. Fortunately for you, the athletic prospect, it can mean
you need financial assistance. Or just as conveniently—in the
professional judgment of the financial aid director for the
recruiting institution—it can mean “we need rebounds.” Or
“we need pass completions or sacks or pole-vaulters or base
hits.” You get the picture: the recruiting institution is solely
responsible for defining what its needs are and can therefore
decide what it can do to accommodate its needs.
Each college can, and normally does, create a financial aid
awarding formula which uses its own unique mix of available
federal, state, as well as its own institutional funds. This for-
mula is calculated to meet the dual and concurrent needs and
requirements of delivering the institution’s intended level of
educational services to its students while maintaining finan-
cial solvency.
A very important component in receiving sufficient funds
necessary to accomplish the two interwoven service and sol-
vency goals is financial aid provided by government programs,
both state and federal, to students with proven financial need
Recruiting and Financial Aid 19