College Visit = Scholarship offer?

You shouldn't assume that you will get an offer. Your chances are probably good.

Just ask them. You want to know that before you visit. They might not give you specifics, but honestly they should give you a range of what they are considering. If they don't do that, then be cautious, lots of programs like to play games.

They will bring athletes in for visits and not make offers or wait until they go after their top choices then come back and try to get athletes after they strike out with others.

You should never hesitate to ask what the possibilities are in terms of scholarship. The honest programs will be up front with you. If they aren't, you should consider if that is the place you really want to be.

Getting information on scholarship possibilities may be pre-mature. There could be lots of prospective athletes invited for a campus visit compared with the number of scholarships limited by the NCAA (and divide that by ~4 for what's available each year). Talk to your HS coach about where you are with your running (times for standard track races, places at a state championship meet, etc.), and see how this compares to other athletes that your coach knows of (may be at another school even) who received athletic scholarships. When you meet with the coach on the recruiting visit, express interest in being considered for a scholarship and ask when you would hear of an award decision, then follow up when that time comes. Think ahead about what you want to do if you don't get a scholarship offer: would you still want to enroll and walk on the team, or would you want to enroll at another school?

Bad advice.

Simple answer? No. No a visit offer does not mean a scholarship offer. The name of this game is to get as much talent for as cheap as possible. And then win. That's it. Unless you're at a non P5/lower profile program or different division.

But yes, I would just ask the coach. Don't assume. The answer may very well be "we'll have to see..." But then you at least know not to count on anything. It's not uncommon for coaches to want to wait to see how well a prospect fits before making an offer. And that's not an unreasonable thing to do.

Ask the coach, not the letsrun message board. One has the real answer, others can only speculate.

A visit = a visit

a scholarship offer= a scholarship offer

there are visits without offers, and there are even offers without visits.

Schools have plenty of money to bring people to campus, but limited scholarship dollars.

If the scholarship is important, you should know BEFORE you commit to a visit. No need to waste a visit on a place you can't afford. No need to fall in love with a place you can't afford.

you only get 5 visits, why "waste" one on a place you can't afford to attend?

If the scholarship is an issue, ASK. Explain politely that cost will be a major factor in the final decision, and that you don't want to waste the school's resources in paying for a official visit for a place you can't ultimately afford. explain that a scholarship offer, or a NARROW range of an estimate (meaning you have best and worst case scenario financially) is one of your criteria for your visits.

If you anticipate many schools showing an interest in you don't waste an Official Visit on a school that has not made an offer.

You could end up getting an offer that is no more than books and you wasted a visit for nothing.

say to them, "Thank you very much for the invitation however I think it's premature to use an official visit when I have not received an offer. I would appreciate receiving an offer before I consider visiting your school."

Mixed advice here, not sure I'd rely on it except the advice to "ask the coaches". From D going through it and getting multiple offers I'd say they have already determined that you can run for them when they offered you an official visit, because they also have a limited number of OVs they can host.

They may hold off making an offer until you visit (or after) because they want to make the fit is good with coaches and teammates. Had more than one coach tell D in a wrap up meeting that they would be in touch within a few days with a formal offer, and each did as they said. All wanted to talk to coaches and hosts that were part of the visit and get input before offering.

An approach if you are not sure about wanting to visit, or the finances involved, that worked for us - Ask the coach if they were to make an offer, what is the range you could expect based on your times. D did this with several long distance schools that she was talking to and it made it easier to eliminate them from consideration.

Be careful as others have said.

Also if the school you are visiting is an out of state school, your offer will likely only be applied to their in-state tuition. Ask questions about merit rewards like placement in conference or Nationals.

Good advice above. Some coaches may say something unofficial early before any visit. Some may say they only make offers after official visits. They may hint at partial or substantial before any fixed percentage is offered. That was my daughters experience. All should be willing to list track times for walk-ons and times for consideration for scholarship. The more the athlete beats the consideration time, the higher percentage they may be offered if the team has the scholarship available and really wants the athlete. If the athlete makes a really bad impression during the visit with the coaches or team members they may be dropped from consideration. The coach may be willing to list the other athletes they are attempting to recruit. We knew one other top athlete had already verbally committed. We also knew that most of the other recruits would not be scholarship athletes based on their track times. You can also compare track times to the high school track times of the athletes recruited prior years. I think many XC coaches will have about 8 athletes on a list starting their junior year. Of those, only two or three at most are likely to be top athletes up for consideration for scholarship money. You can ask who is the coach's top athletes being recruited. Being a state champion can help. NXN or Foot Locker finalist can help a lot for distance runners. Distance runners may be offered more at a school that directs more scholarship money to XC and distance runners on track team and spends less on being competitive in track than other teams.

El Hefe wrote:

If you anticipate many schools showing an interest in you don't waste an Official Visit on a school that has not made an offer.

You could end up getting an offer that is no more than books and you wasted a visit for nothing.

say to them, "Thank you very much for the invitation however I think it's premature to use an official visit when I have not received an offer. I would appreciate receiving an offer before I consider visiting your school."

Coming from someone who's job it is to do this very thing at a Power 5 school (and has been very successful at this) the above is VERY bad advice unless you are one of the top 10 prospects in the country (or likely should be a TOP priority given the level of school that is recruiting you) or one of your top criteria for a school is the ultimate cost out of necessity. You tell this to the vast majority of coaches out there without being a VERY hot commodity, they're not going to waste an official visit on you.

OP,

YOu need to understand the coach is trying to get you as cheaply as possible. He or she is trying to also balance you against other kids he or she has in the pipeline.

Any offer would likely be based on some combination of

1) How good you are.

2) How good their other recruits are.

3) How much they think you can pay.

4) How much you are being offered by others.

5) How much money they have to offer you.

Thankfully, when I coached for 10 years, I was at an Ivy so money wasn't part of the recruiting process. It's slimy. I would tell you that plenty of coaches lie / exaggerate.

But the thing that drove me nuts about recruiting is how so many people keep it a mystery. I think the coach is acting very inefficiently.

Money is a big part of almost all college choices. So I'd talk to him or her an say, "Hey how much aid (academic or athletic) do you think I'll be getting? Hell have your parents do it."

Now some coaches are turned off if they think you are "only in about the money" so have your parents do it in a smooth way.

The college I coached at did not allow me to make an offer until a student athlete was officially accepted.

Also, since athletic money is limited, I always wanted to know how much academic and needs-based cash was available before offering any of my sparse athletic scholarships.

I could and did speak in generalities. And after a while you'd have a pretty good "feel" of how much a kid would get based on grades/test scores and family income.

Parents often knew if needs-based money would be available.

Being completely honest was easy for me. And I'd tell a kid, "I have $X for you now, if you take it, but all these other kids visiting will get offers, too. If you wait, it will likely be gone or greatly reduced."

P5 recruiter, what school are you at?

Honestly, that is some bullshit advice. That is advice so you and your program can continue to play games and jerk around kids. You think it is unreasonable for a kid to ask if there would be any scholarship offer? They are trying to figure out if they can afford school in a time that many college graduates are struggling in absurd amounts of debt from school. They get 5 official visits. Knowing where they stand financially before they visit is CRITICAL.

Tell me why you would not let an athlete know if scholarship was a possibility at all?

I would add that visits help to determine if a potential athlete would be a good fit on the team. Our coach always asked what we thought of recruits. Bad fits make everyone miserable and recruiting a "team killer" is the worst thing that can happen.

You need to read the 2 posts more carefully.

El Hefe doesn't suggest a coach should let a kid know whether a "scholarship was a possibility at all." He is saying a kid should base his or her visit decision on whether an actual offer was already on the table. As P5 notes, that would be a very rare circumstance and may cause a coach to eliminate the kid from further consideration. Team fit, especially with XC, is an important component and most coaches rightly won't make any commitments until they have some sense of whether the kid will fit in with the team. My kid had 4 offers from major programs, none of which came before the visit.

gnome de plume wrote:

You need to read the 2 posts more carefully.

El Hefe doesn't suggest a coach should let a kid know whether a "scholarship was a possibility at all." He is saying a kid should base his or her visit decision on whether an actual offer was already on the table. As P5 notes, that would be a very rare circumstance and may cause a coach to eliminate the kid from further consideration. Team fit, especially with XC, is an important component and most coaches rightly won't make any commitments until they have some sense of whether the kid will fit in with the team. My kid had 4 offers from major programs, none of which came before the visit.

Exactly. I actually usually ask/find some way to roughly gauge what their financial circumstances are before I invite them on a visit. Not always in a direct way (I'm very polite), but I don't want to waste our time & money either. If the kid makes it clear that it's full ride or nothing & isn't one of the top 5 - 10 kids in the country, I politely tell them to go find a mid-major who pours big $ into their event group (no, I don't really tell them that, but that's exactly what needs to be happening if they aren't already :-) & thank them for their time. I usually always bring up money somehow before the visit (basically to say "don't visit if you need a majority of the cost of attendance covered")...and if they ask for more specifics, I give them a very rough but honest range & say the lowest end is most likely. That they won't receive an offer until the end of the visit at soonest - & likely after (for all the reasons already mentioned by other posters). And that I guarantee nothing. If they don't like that, it's perfectly fine by me...there are another 5-10 kids just as good who will be fine with that. Trust me. And who knows, if the coaches & team feel like they'll fit great, they may very well get more than the range I offered. It happens.

I completely understand if a kid is in a tough spot financially & won't receive big need-based aid for some reason & needs big $$$ to make it work...our school just won't be for them. I've lost very good kids I've really liked because of this but at least we didn't waste anyone's time.

Show me a coach who puts an official final offer on the table before a visit, and I'll show you a coach who will likely be fine pulling a bait & switch.

P5 Recruiter.

Do you even coach or are you just a recruiting gopher?

P5 Recruiter,

Can you list some of the mid majors you were talking about?

What is the expectation from a full vs partial scholarship athlete? For example, is a partial track athlete (outside the top 10 national) expected to do what in fall?