Athletic Scholarships

• Check for your selected School’s Deadlines and speak with the Coach, but be prepared to immediately forward your player profile; video and other requested academic and financial information.
• All students, by or at the end of their sophomore year, should be prepared to forward such information before and should actually forward their information before or as they are in the process of speaking with their new prospective coach.
• Coaches despise chasing down players for information. Player procrastination and inaction and indecisiveness collectively are the largest waste or drains on the financial resources and time of the College Coaching Staff. This literally does hurt the team and in the end the entire program and university could be impacted.
• Other players are at times could be making their selection decisions based upon your decision and the Coach is even impacted in their ability to recruit if they can’t trust you to take action then how do they know their true team needs by position. Be respectful and honest and in the end you just may be well rewarded.
• In fact, we do teach and recommend that our clients forward all of their recruiting and admissions information then make the calls to the Recruiting Staff and Coaches. Such efforts are even at times the reason why an offer is made fast; early on or with max funding and financial consideration.

Take Stock in Children Scholarship Program

• Take Stock in Children and your State Investment Plans are great ways to supplement the funding of or to fund your child’s education
• Take Stock in Children is a comprehensive program that helps low-income children succeed by providing college and vocational scholarships, volunteer mentors; student advocates/case managers, tutoring, early intervention and long-term support, high standards, parental involvement, and community support.
• Each child selected for the TSIC program receives a four-year college tuition or vocational scholarship purchased by the Florida Prepaid Tuition Program.
• This scholarship is in the form of a 2+2 scholarship, which entitles the student to two years of tuition at a community college and two years at a university.
• The student will receive his/her scholarship if he/she has fulfilled the terms of the contract he/she signed when enrolling in the program and when he/she has graduated from high school.
• Program information is available on the Take Stock in Children (TSIC) website. To be eligible for participation in the TSIC program, students must be in the sixth through ninth grades and demonstrate financial need … sign up for full scholarship deadline information.

Step Up For Students empowers parents to pursue and engage in the most appropriate learning options for their children, with an emphasis on families who lack the financial resources to access these options. By pursuing this mission, Step Up For Students helps public education to fulfill the promise of equal opportunity.Step Up For Students is a state-approved nonprofit scholarship funding organization which helps administer four (4) scholarships for Florida schoolchildren:

• The Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program (FTC) for lower-income families
• The Gardiner Scholarship for children with certain special needs
• The Hope Scholarship for public school students who are bullied or victims of violence
• The Reading Scholarship Accounts for public school students in third through fifth grade who struggle with reading.

Public education is rooted in the promise of equal educational opportunity, and nowhere is that covenant more relevant than in the lives of struggling or disadvantaged children.These scholarships strengthen public education by offering options to struggling schoolchildren. We consider Step Up For Students a partner of public schools in giving all students the tools toward success. We do this by empowering parents through the scholarship programs so that they might have an equal opportunity to discover educational options that work best for their children.

Pell Grants (FAFSA)

Open your FAFSA account online at the beginning of your Senior Year or just before/after your graduation and wait until the Federal Grant Application Open Period is announced that Fall.

The bottom line is that no matter when you open your FAFSA Account or attempt to apply, you still cannot finalize the application process until your (If you are legally living on your own) or your parent’s Federal Income Taxes are filed as you will need information from your or their Federal Income Taxes. Specifically Line #32

Pell Grants in general are Grants and are not considered to be loans so in that case you don’t have to pay them back and Pell Grants are now available year round including Summer Terms, thus allows you to graduate from college much faster

Pell Grants can be used to pay for Tuition and Fees; Books; Supplies; Transportation and Living Expenses and 5^th year teacher certification programs

Not all schools participate in the Pell Grant Program and Eligibility is determined by family income of $50k or less and the max awards are given to students with family incomes of $20k and less, so check with your school

Student Loans – Let’s not even talk about loans, because if you do the work, every student can go to a college and not be House Poor or graduate in debt and in tears or even bankrupt.

We will guide you through the process and make sure to the best of our abilities that you receive as close to a full ride as possible as long as you do your part.

Here is our official position, if you are our client and you have to take a student loan, we will feel like we have absolutely filed you, unless you decided to go against our recommendations, which happens every once and a while.

College Work Study Program

We usually recommend such programs as a last resort to cover remaining college costs. We take this approach simply because we want our student athletes to enjoy the total college experience while focusing on Academics and Sports Training and Preparation. In fact, we even counsel parents and students to not even drive during their first 2-3 years of college. Ride with your friends and contribute to the cause!

Additional Points (Links) of Interest

U.S. Department of Education Grants Homepage

University Grants: This site is provided for content/informational purposes only

Endowment Funds – Be sure the check out the amount of your University’s Endowment Fund as the absence of one could be a sign of looming or potential financial issues or trouble