Overview
This section details the life and experiences by real clients of College Prospects. The writings and stories are from the athletes themselves and it provides an in-depth look into the athlete's life.
Section 1
Stories and quotes
Section 2
June 5, 2007
[Cited from the Cincinnati Enquirer - please find full story in the News Stories section]
Sam Coffey, for instance, cast a wide net, applying to 29 colleges in the Midwest and on the East Coast. He was offered $711,000 in scholarships, including full rides at a number of schools. Coffey chose Case Western Reserve University near Cleveland, where he'll study economics and play football.
Tuition there is $42,000, and the school offered him $18,000, he said. He plans to make up the difference with loans and work.
The Lakota East High grad's advice for underclassmen: Get involved now in high school activities, clubs and sports. Coffey played football and soccer for East, was a member of the National Honor Society, played in the school jazz band and symphonic winds while also doing community service.
"I realized I had a lot of cards to play when I was trying to get money out of colleges," Coffey said.
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Little Miami High School graduate Alicia Kees racked up almost $400,000 in offers after spending the fall and early winter applying to 15 colleges. Kees said she learned some valuable lessons about using one school's offer of scholarship monies to leverage a higher offer from another school.
"If more schools know that other schools want you, then they will want you even more," said Kees, who will be freshman this fall at Earlham College in Indiana.
"A key thing I learned is that if you diplomatically turn down a school's offer, sometimes they'll re-evaluate your application and might come back with an offer of more money. It was all really exciting."
She advised students to also employ the power of personal persuasion during campus visits and overnight stays. Face-to-face interviews with college admission officials, constant contact via phone calls and e-mails are all key to convincing colleges to invest thousands of dollars in your educational future.
"Earlham has offered me $32,000 of the school's $38,000 annual tuition and that is OK, because even though I was offered full scholarships at some other schools, Earlham is where I wanted to go," said Kees, who plans to study psychology.