College costs are skyrocketing
What does college cost today? What will it cost tomorrow? Brace yourself for a shock. The table below shows some very real cost of attendance estimates for the 2006-2007 academic year. The costs were obtained directly from the websites of 4 schools. Search on the websites of the colleges you are interested using key phrases like "cost of attendance," to find out costs. (One of the first things you will likely find is that these total cost estimates are often hidden from plain sight. That's an acknowledgement that they are scary numbers!)

Note: these costs are for one year. Costs for four years will almost certainly exceed four times the one-year costs. This is because each year college costs increase. These costs are breathtaking. At the current rate that costs are increasing the total cost of four years at these private schools will top $200,000. There may be less expensive and more expensive schools, but these are representative costs for colleges and universities in the categories listed.
Example college costs for 1 year and 4 years
School
                                                    

Current data from actual college/university websites.
*(Four-year estimate based on an average 6% annual increase in costs.)

But wait, it gets worse!
The cost picture gets worse because more than half of all college students today will take five or more years to graduate. With costs going up each year, the fifth year will cost 15-20% more that the first year and therefore that fifth year will add 25-30% to the total cost of college.

What's a sports scholarship worth?
These high college costs mean that nearly all students will get some kind of financial aid. Athletes can receive amounts varying from "book money" to a "full ride" covering almost the entire cost of college tuition, room, board and books. A full ride is quickly approaching $200,000 or more in the case of some private schools and over $100,000 for out of state students at some state universities. You may not receive a full ride, but these days a partial scholarship is still important money.

Even if you do not receive athletic scholarship aid, college athletes reap other significant benefits. Depending on the school, these benefits can include priority in scheduling classes, help with note taking, streamlined registration for courses, tutoring help and more. The flip side of the equation is that athletes put in a great deal of time and effort for their scholarship aid and the other perks they receive.

The college athletes that are receiving significant scholarship aid started out as high school athletes who displayed talent. They became visible to college coaches and they were recruited to play college sports. This site and The Sports Scholarship Handbook are about what you can do to help yourself in the college sports recruiting game. At every stage of the development of a high school athlete, from freshman year through senior year, there are specific things you can do to improve your chances of competing in college and of getting a college scholarship.