Let’s talk about Scholarships

I’m a Vandy fan and as a Vandy fan I see all sorts of misinformation about our “unlimited” scholarships. This is a widely read SEC baseball message board so I figured I could talk about this here and maybe begin to correct some of the misunderstandings.
First of all, we’ll talk about Opportunity Vanderbilt. What the program does is take a student’s estimated family contribution (EFC) from their federal financial aid application and adjusts the amount of tuition that they have to pay to that number. Vanderbilt has 11.7 scholarships just like everyone else. What they do different is they adjust their tuition to the level of the student’s family’s income. They do this for every single student that is accepted to Vanderbilt. So, every single student’s tuition varies according to their families income. The tuition at Vanderbilt is 52k per year which is nearly twice that of every other SEC school. So, if a family is upper middle class or wealthy, their EFC is going to be rather large and thus they will pay a higher price for tuition, more than they would pay at any other SEC school. So, students like Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker are paying more to go to Vandy than they would to go to other schools in the SEC.
The average EFC in the US for 4 year colleges is 14 k per year. When you take into account the socioeconomic status of most college baseball players families who tend to be middle class to wealthy, the EFC goes up. So, the price to attend Vanderbilt for baseball is essentially the same or more at Vanderbilt as it is at any other school in the SEC.
The program that they have isn’t a loophole. Lots of other schools do it and if a school isn’t doing it then it’s because they choose not to. Take Alabama for instance. They choose to spend their money on elaborate stadiums and amenities for the athletes. Millions upon millions are spent on having the latest and greatest facilities. Even a portion of that money would go a long way towards finding a program like opportunity Vanderbilt. It’s all about priorities. Once again, it’s perfectly legal and within the rules. It isn’t a loophole and any school can do it if they want to. If they don’t do it then it means that they choose not to and that they spend the money in other areas and solicit donations for other things besides tuition assistance. I know it may suck and it seems unfair. I would encourage you to write your school and urge them to begin a program like opportunity Vanderbilt if you think they should do it, but then again, your tuition prices wouldn’t change that much because it’s already below the average EFC for in state students.
Thanks for listening and hopefully this sheds some light on things.