Re: Full Cost of Attendance Scholarships
The estimate is that this could raise the value of each scholarship by $2,000-$5,000 per year. There are a number of things affecting where in the range each scholarship would fall, including the cost of living on a given campus, where the student would be traveling to and from between semesters, and several school specific factors. The federal definition of "full cost of attendance" is not entirely clear cut and exactly what gets covered does vary from school to school. My understanding is that a university will need to use the same definition for its athletes that it uses for the general student body.
Despite the clarity of your post, I'm still stumbling over the details. I was hoping an example might help.
My favorite team is the Winona Frackettes, who have only one D1 program, the women’s hockey team. There are 24 women on the team. All 24 are on scholarship, 12 with full rides and 12 with partials. The value of a scholarship is $32,000: $12,000 tuition and fees and $20,000 other campus expenses (room and board, books, tutors, etc.). Half the partial scholarships are for $12,000, the other half are $20,000.
Eight of the women (four full scholarships and four partials) are from MN, and they all drive to and from campus at the start of the school year, for the holiday break, and at the end of the academic year. Their average travel cost is $100 one way. Two of these players (one full and one partial) have food allergies and cannot always partake at team meals. They each spend $1,800 out-of-pocket to purchase allergen-free food items per school year.
Eight of the women (four full and four partial) are from Canada, six from Ontario and 2 from Quebec. They all fly into Detroit and take a regional flight to the Rochester airport, from which they take the hourly van to campus. Their average travel cost is $1,000 one way.
Six players (three full and three partial) are from other parts of the US, two from California, two from Illinois, and one each from Michigan and New York. They all fly into Detroit and take the regional flight and van, same as the Canadians. Their average travel cost is $900 one way.
Two players are from Sweden (one full and one partial). They also fly into Detroit and take the regional flight and van. Their average travel cost is $2,500 one way, but they do not go home for the break. They need language translation services for classes that cost $1,600 total.
The student body is consistently around 8,000, of which 80% are from MN, 12% are from other states and Canada, and 8% are from overseas, primarily Pacific Rim countries. We can assume that non-scholarship costs of the hockey team members are reflective of the whole student body, with the exception that the students from the Pacific Rim have an average travel cost of $3,000 one way.
The school has committed to FCOA scholarships. How is the FCOA amount calculated and how often does the school need to recalculate it?
Thanks in advance for any help!
