Many schools will try to supplement partial scholarship with a combination of aid,academic etc monies(money btw the student would be entitled to regardless of being an athlete) There is money out there and for the top recruits quite plentiful-for the vast majority that is not the case. A great example for this are the Ivy League schools- there is NO academic money(or athletic money either) only needs based. There are however many private merit based scholarships.
Suffice to say, making a full-ride scholarship a student's primary college finance plan in generally a poor plan. That's not to say a student/athlete should not strive for one. As mentioned there are many benefits in the pursuit and frankly their are many benefits from being a student athlete. The numbers just show that as a primary plan,it is just not sound.
You hear the term Academic money get thrown around a lot. The ugly truth is that most "academic" money is "needs-based" As those of us that have kids that are either in or have graduated from college- you fill out the federal forms to see what money you qualify for and its usually not that much if any. If you are middle class or above and/or own a home there is probably not that much money there. Its a hard truth that most parents do not realize until it is too late
College finance planning really needs to start at birth- a systematic, dollar cost averaging plan is a tried and true method to accumulate the money needed for a college education(which can range from $80,00-$250,000) Invest the money given at birth, first communion, Bar Mizvah< confirmation, birthdays etc) Putting away money every pay period no matter how small is the way to go-time is the friend(and enemy) of goal oriented investment. There are 529 plans and several state plans that are ideal vehicles to saving for college
I have been in the financial services industry for thirty years. Many people simply do not have the money or the means to save for college-fortunately there are programs to help those people. However, far too often I have seen people that have the means, but simply do not put the money aside that is needed(for retirement too!) My wife and I were fortunate too have gotten good advice early on and we implemented a long term plan. This allowed us to save enough to have 2 kids go to very good(and expensive
) schools with money left over.
If you have a finance plan in place and a athletic scholarship becomes available even better. It gives you freedom of choice and the ability to free up money for other children and/or graduate school.
An athletic scholarship can be a wonderful thing, the pursuit is great, but it has been my experience that many more aspiring softball athletes fall to the wayside than actually reach the prize.