The Old Way vs The New Way

[FeralFelidae]

In 2016 NU basically made the decision (following a trend of other "elite" schools) to meet the full extent of a student's "demonstrated financial need."

Basically...if a student's Expected Family Contribution (now "Student Aid Index" or SAI) - the figure the federal government generates after completing the FAFSA - is less than Northwestern's official Cost of Attendance (COA) - Northwestern now meets 100% of the difference in aid, significantly reducing or completely eliminating the need for loans and educational debt.

There will always be people who argue the SAI unfairly calculates a family's non-liquid assets, and that it accounts too strongly for student income (i.e. they may be working 30 hours per week to support their family, so the income is not available to put towards tuition or video games), but in general it's a pretty significant financial lift that most universities AREN'T doing.

But...to the original point, while I think our current state of NIL will ultimately kill college athletics as we know it, asserting a football scholarship is worth the actual sticker price of a year at Northwestern is an absolute misnomer.

I will say that the cost of attendance has doubled even from when I attended, so maybe my family would qualify for some grants now because costs have just risen that damned much. I still suspect that the burden falls hardest on the middle class. Try to set aside a bit for a retirement nest egg and you get punished for it. My father was never able to retire and he died last year.

 

[its_the_sauce]

Why not apply for aid, out of curiosity? Paying sticker price out of the kindness of your heart? I'm certainly not well enough off for that.

You're thinking law school, med school, Kellogg tuitions. Tuition for standard grad school is actually not that bad. I'll end up paying slightly over $20K for her masters. Some "classes" were actually teaching stints in other schools (she did a lot of her clinical at Roycemore of all places). Part of it was "others need need more" mentality and I wanted to respect my daughter's wishes (not applying). She wants to give back and plans on working for Chicago Public Schools.

 

[CMcCat]

It is true that NIL provide more proper compensation for players than was made in the past. In doing so, it fundamentally transforms the relationship between the player and the school in ways that ultimately will result in the demise of the endeavor.

At present we are seeing the free agenting of college athletes which tarnishes the status of athletes as alums. While by definition graduation is not a requirement for alumni status, will we accord the many NU athletes who spend two or three years at NU developing their skills before transferring to a higher paying university true alumni status? Will they feel any loyalty to NU?

In time, will athletes value the NU degree knowing there is a reasonable likelihood that they will depart before obtaining one?

I don’t think so. I believe we will see a trend in football and men’s and women’s basketball until the expectation of athletes gaining an academic benefit from their being NU players will no longer exist. They will become minor league professionals and mere employees of NU.

That is unless NU is unable to keep up its end of the deal and is forced to adopt a student-athlete model apart from the mega conference that has delegated it to outsider status.