Financial Aid Package
A financial aid package is the combined total of athletic, academic, need-based, and merit aid an athlete receives from a college. Evaluating an offer means looking at the full package, not just the athletic scholarship portion, since stacking aid can make a partial athletic award affordable.
A school offering a 40% athletic scholarship plus strong academic aid may cost less than a school offering a 60% athletic scholarship with no other aid. The net cost — after all aid — is the number that matters, not the headline athletic percentage.
The FAFSA and merit scholarships are key components of the total package. Families should file the FAFSA even if they expect to qualify for little need-based aid, because some schools require it for institutional aid.
When comparing offers from multiple schools, build a side-by-side net-cost worksheet: tuition, room, board, and fees minus athletic, academic, and need-based aid. The school with the smaller athletic offer is often the more affordable one once the full package is counted.