College Volleyball Walk On and Scholarships

My daughter has been offered a DS/Libero position at a D1 college, they have 12 scholarships available and they assign one to the Libero position.  There are two Juniors this year (fall 2012) the coach has told us they would red shirt our daughter for 2013 (she is a senior in HS this year) the first year and she would be in line for the scholarship the following year. 

My question is before she commits is there anything we should be asking in lieu of the athletic scholarship the first year.  Example room/board, books, ect?  She has maintained a 4.0 through her schooling and is 1 of 129 in her class.  Can the school help her with any academic to relieve the cost of the college.  Your help is much appreciated.   

D.G.

The coach can only offer and commit athletic scholarships, but since your daughter is not going to on an athletic scholarship her first year, you should be in contact with the Admissions department.  

Once your daughter applies to the school, contact the Admission's-Financial Aid department to inquire about what academic, merit and need based scholarships are available.  With her academic standing, I would be surprised if she did not receive a healthy chunk of change her first year.  They should be able to tell you what she academically would qualify for, and what forms would need be completed to secure potential scholarships.

I would be very aggressive with this admissions department avenue.  What you want to do is set up your safety net in case your daughter does not go on scholarship her second year.  I know you feel she will, and the coach said she is 'in line' but things change.  The most common change is the coach leaves and a new coach comes in; when this happens, all promises are null and void.  The second common change, is the program needs to use that scholarship on another hitter because of such and such.  "I know I told you that you would be on scholarship this year, but since Mary got hurt, we have no right side attacker, so we have to use this scholarship for the position or we won't be very good this year".

Remember that as soon as she goes on a Volleyball scholarship, ALL of the other scholarships (excepting a partial Pell Grant), will end per NCAA Division I rules.  Student-Athletes are not allowed per NCAA, to exceed a full athletic scholarship - Since Volleyball is a Head Count sport, the scholarship athletes are on Full scholarships.  SA's are not allowed to double dip, or accept institutional aid which would put them over this pre-set limit.