Spending It - Loans in the Time of Facebook - NYTimes.com

Spending It - Loans in the Time of Facebook - NYTimes.com

Spending It
Loans in the Time of Facebook


By LAURA PAPPANO
Published: October 30, 2008

If ever there was a time to ask friends and family — and strangers — for a college loan, this is it. You don’t have to be an economics major to see that turmoil in the financial markets has made loan money scarce and expensive.
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image

Education Life
Go to Special Section »

My Rich Uncle, Campus Door (owned by Lehman Brothers), the College Loan Corporation and Education Finance Partners have eliminated or cut back on private loans. Tim Ranzetta, founder of Student Lending Analytics, which evaluates student loans for financial aid offices, estimates that lending capacity for private student loans has shrunk 20 to 27 percent since last year. That means up to $5 billion that students could borrow in 2007 is no longer available.

With this bleak backdrop, “social lending” or “peer-to-peer lending” (P2P if you’re hip) might be the Facebook generation’s answer to the crisis. Peer-to-peer lending has been around for several years for buying cars and starting businesses. In recent months, a half-dozen companies have applied the approach to student loans, aiming to help fill the gap between government financial aid and the cost of college.

The idea is to connect students who need cash with people who will lend it to them. The sites deal with the paperwork and servicing (no confusion about when that payment is really due). And a student might be able to get a lower interest rate than those available through traditional loans, because lenders are willing to look beyond conventional criteria for a chance to earn better returns on their money. The lender may also be swayed by a connection with the student. Think alumni, fellow bass guitar enthusiasts or computer science majors.

Because peer-to-peer student lending is so new and so little data is available, it’s impossible to know how many students are getting loans or to predict whether this option will ever be a major source of money for college. That’s certainly not likely for many years, says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org.

The companies take different approaches. Virgin Money (virginmoneyus.com), Richard Branson’s foray into lending, focuses on formalizing and servicing loans among friends and family members. On Fynanz.com, strangers are the target lenders, and student profiles — brief and jazzy personal statements and photos — the lure. (Tip from the C.E.O.’s: sob stories don’t work.)

Lenders can spread their money around, offering as little as $50. Click around and weigh the merits of lending to Keith, the Occidental College student seeking $17,000 for a semester in Chile; or the 42-year-old single mother who needs $7,000 to go back to college to become a nurse; or the Columbia freshman Dominique, who has plans for medical school but right now needs $5,500 for books and expenses.

Of course, the loans are unsecured and few students have credit track records, so lenders must judge the likelihood of a default. GreenNote.com, whose interest rate is fixed at 6.8 percent, does not do credit checks but disburses money only to the college.

As does Fynanz. But Fynanz has developed its own rating system for borrowers: students must have a credit score of 640, and are graded — and their interest rates set by a calculation that includes year in college (the closer to finishing, the better), G.P.A. and college attended. Fynanz guarantees 50 to 100 percent of the loan depending on a student’s grades. (Less risky students give investors more peace of mind but lower returns.) The average interest rate, says Chirag Chaman, who runs Fynanz, is 8 to 9 percent.

Prosper.com, the nation’s largest peer-to-peer site, is currently tweaking its model. Because peer-to-peer sites will undoubtedly attract more would-be borrowers than lenders, Prosper is hoping to grow by creating a market in which lenders can sell the loans they make rather than having to hold them to maturity, following the lead of a rival, the Lending Club. Until Prosper receives regulatory approval, it announced last month, it is not processing any new loans.

Most companies won’t disclose the dollar amounts committed; the exception, Virgin Money, reports assisting with $12 million in student loans since June, when it began offering them.

Robert Shireman, president of the Institute for College Access and Success, calls the whole idea “potentially interesting” but says that because of the high risk of lending to a student, “the peer-to-peer approach only really works if there is some level of charity.” As for borrowers, he urges students to look carefully at fees. There’s generally no listing charge, but often a flat fee, or a fee based on a percentage of the loan, or a transaction fee with each payment.

Perusing the lending sites also makes clear how many students needing support are not finding it. At GreenNote, for example, page after page shows students with zero progress — in early fall, the tail end of the loan season, the sites featured as many as 1,000 profiles.

The ability to find a lender may also reflect a student’s connections. Akash Agarwal, GreenNote’s founder, says on his site, “A lot depends on the person’s social network.”

For some that’s a problem. Bakari Pace, a sophomore at Morehouse College who plans to go to law school, would seem a good bet for success. He gets federal and institutional aid and worked last summer at both a law firm and at a Costco, where he gave out samples of a new energy drink. One of five children in a family that survives on donated food, Mr. Pace was short of money. In August, he put his profile on GreenNote, seeking a $10,000 loan, but received no offers: none of his contacts have any money, either.

Mr. Pace went to school this fall with $4,000 on his bill and no money for books or a meal plan. Financial aid officers eventually found scholarships to cover his costs — for this semester.

For students like Mr. Pace, peer-to-peer lending may not be the best answer.

“I hope this takes off and works well,” says Richard Toomey, head of financial aid at Santa Clara University in California. With some students paying 10 to 20 percent interest for private loans, he sees GreenNote as a cheaper option; its rate is the same as a federal Stafford loan. Mr. Toomey says 26 Santa Clara students have profiles on GreenNote, and four have received loans. He personally “invested” $100 in a student whose story he found compelling.

The peer-to-peer C.E.O.’s say students are more likely to get money if they ask for less. “If you write that I am only looking for $4,000 to pay for X, Y and Z, it sits a lot better than if you try to get $15,000,” Mr. Chaman says. Three New York University alumni, he says, have committed to making $500,000 in loans to N.Y.U. students through Fynanz, which started up in June.

Crystal Gnemi, a University of Kansas senior majoring in arts and architecture, credits her snappy profile for helping her get a $7,000 loan in 48 hours on Prosper, which uses an eBay-like bidding system for interest rates.

Lenders offer amounts at particular interest rates; those with the lowest rates get in on the deal. Ms. Gnemi wrote that she planned to get a master’s in architectural engineering and that she had a 3.6 G.P.A. “while working 30-hour work weeks while taking 18 credit-hour semesters.”

Ms. Gnemi, whose father is an architect and mother a substitute teacher, does not qualify for need-based aid. Though she works as a lifeguard and interior designer, she needed a loan to cover tuition and costs. While she was willing to pay up to 10.92 percent for the loan, so many lenders — 221 — bid in amounts from $50 to $480 that the rate dropped to 8.95 percent (in the end, 123 lenders participated). A bonus: e-mail notes from 17 Kansas alumni. “I have zero friends and zero family investing,” she says. “It is fully funded by people I do not know, but have become friends with since.”

Fuel Academy - Fuel Economy Specialists

Fuel Academy - Fuel Economy Specialists

30 tips to improve fuel economy.

Obama withdrawal

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Obama: 'Change has come to America'

Thank you America! and Thank You Barack Obama! It was an electoral walk-off grand slam!

Barack Obama makes U.S. history


BY BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
Barack Obama will stride into the White House and the history books as the nation's first black president, riding a surge in Democratic voter registration, a tide of discontent with the Republican Party and a hard-fought triumph in Florida.

''If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,'' declared the 47-year-old Illinois senator to an emotional crowd estimated at 150,000 in Grant Park in Chicago. ``Tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.''

Republican John McCain offered a gracious concession speech that recognized Obama's barrier-breaking achievement for African-Americans. He urged the country to unite.

''We both realize that we have come a long way from the injustices that once stained our nation's reputation,'' McCain, 72, an Arizona senator and Vietnam War hero, told a disappointed throng outside a Phoenix hotel. ``We fought as hard as we could. And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours.''

Obama sealed his victory with a daunting, 182-vote lead in the Electoral College, with five states still outstanding. The popular vote was less one-sided, with Obama winning 51 to 47 percent.

He reshaped American politics, burning through more money and shoe leather than any other presidential candidate in history.

By racking up victories Tuesday in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, Obama could have won the presidency without Florida's treasure trove of 27 electoral votes. But Democrats nationwide savored his victory in a state that has tormented them since the contested 2000 election.

VOTERS WERE FED UP

At a time of war and economic crisis, voters across the country fed up with the Republican administration gravitated toward the younger, more charismatic candidate who rooted his campaign in themes of hope and change. McCain, who had crossed his own party on some major issues, also tried to position himself as an agent of change.

But Obama and running mate Joe Biden relentlessly yoked McCain to the widely unpopular President Bush and the past eight years. In one television spot that ran in Florida and other states, the Democratic campaign portrayed both Republicans in a car's rearview mirror.

In the end, an increasingly diverse and Democratic electorate helped Obama persevere in a state that has chosen the Democratic nominee only three times since 1952. The so-called southern strategy that buttressed Republican candidates by exploiting racial divisions fell apart, as Obama carried Florida and Virginia, which last voted Democratic in 1964.

''I've always contended the so-called red states are not as red as people think,'' said Matt Towery, a pollster with Atlanta-based InsiderAdvantage. ``You cannot have such a shift in demography and not see it show up at the polls.''

Obama captured several states with large Hispanic populations, including Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida. The number of Hispanic Democrats in Florida recently surpassed Hispanic Republicans, as waves of Latin American immigrants and younger generations of Cuban-Americans have diluted the influence of the staunchly Republican Cuban exile community.

Obama started a movement as much as he launched a campaign, inspiring hundreds of thousands of young people and blacks to vote, volunteer and give money for the first time. State Sen. Frederica Wilson, who campaigned on Obama's behalf in Miami-Dade's black community, said she knew he would be president back in early January when he won the overwhelmingly white Iowa primary.

''I just marvel at America and how it has evolved and changed,'' said Wilson, who grew up during the civil rights movement. ``He went much further than they could have ever predicted that a black man would travel in America, and the world is watching.''

For Florida Democrats, who have tolerated a Republican-controlled state government since the late 1990s and relished few statewide victories since then, Obama's victory signaled a new day. The Democratic nominee didn't just invest in a rusty political infrastructure; he built a new one from the ground up.

''It's pretty clear that Obama's efforts to connect with infrequent voters and new voters is going to pay real dividends for the Democratic Party,'' said Robin Rorapaugh, a Democratic strategist based in Hollywood. ``Even local candidates who win today have to tip their hats to the amount of resources Obama put on the ground and on the air.''

Obama will take office at a time of dire economic circumstances and unfinished wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He pledged to cut taxes on the middle class and bring troops home.

The Democrat weathered attacks for his ties to a violent Vietnam War protester and the racially inflammatory pastor he later broke from. He also was assailed for his willingness to meet with hostile government leaders in Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

FLORIDA STAYED CLOSE

Nationwide polls had braced McCain supporters for defeat, but in Florida, the race was too close to call until the last day. The state's Jan. 29 primary had figured prominently in McCain's comeback during the primaries.

''What's impressed me the most is that even when he [McCain] was short on money, he kept on going, kept on campaigning,'' said Miami developer Armando Gutierrez Jr., a McCain fundraiser who started a voter registration web site. ''That earned him a lot of loyalty.'' The first sign that Obama was headed for victory came around 8 p.m., when one of the networks declared him the winner in Pennsylvania, the one state that voted Democratic in 2004 that McCain thought he had a chance of flipping. Virginia and Ohio followed as Obama built a commanding lead. Florida helped push him over the top.

The first campaign since 1952 without an incumbent president or vice president was filled with historic moments, many of them in Florida.

The state held its earliest presidential primary, triggering a firestorm in the Democratic Party that cost Florida Democrats their say and -- nearly -- their convention seats. Univisión held the first Democratic and Republican primary debates conducted by a Spanish-language television network. McCain won his first Republican-only primary in Florida, proving that he could be the GOP's standard bearer and paving his path to the nomination.

America's best-known Democratic power couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton, helped Obama win in Florida and nationwide after some initial tension between the ex-rivals. President Clinton appeared on stage with Obama just once, in Orlando.

A frenzy of Florida visits from high-level supporters like the Clintons and the nominees themselves capped the last few weeks of the longest campaign in American history.

The race was also the most expensive; Obama, the first candidate to forgo public financing, set aside $39 million for Florida, more than any other state.

The candidates drew the biggest crowds the nation and Florida have ever seen in a presidential campaign. Obama's appearances with the Clintons and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's debut at a Central Florida retirement community each drew tens of thousands of people.

Waiting for Nov. 4th

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Barack and Michelle at Bicentennial Park in Miami

Barack and Michelle were in downtown Miami at Bicentennial Park for an Early Vote Rally. The enthusiastic crowd was electrifying at times and well behaved. Unfortunately it was a logistical fiasco. There were 4 or 5 security booths for a crowd of maybe 40,000 so there was an hour delay in entering the park. The stage was too low so it was barely visible for those less than 6 feet tall as there were no screens. The press was mounted on a higher platform, sad! Additionally, the sound was poor so Barack was barely heard in the far parts of the park. Hopefully the Miami officials will get it right next time.

More Palin Doublespeak

In the fantasy land that Sarah Palin calls home, up is down, right is left and abuse of power means exonerated.

4 Ways a Food Diary Can Help You Lose Weight

4 Ways a Food Diary Can Help You Lose Weight
Writing down what you eat makes it tough to fool yourself
By Katherine Hobson
Posted July 8, 2008

There's a reason so many doctors and nutritionists recommend keeping a food diary when you're trying to lose weight: It actually appears to work. The case for food diaries (or food records or journals) got a little stronger today, when weight-loss researchers reported that a large, multicenter study suggests that tracking what goes in your mouth can double the amount of weight lost. The findings were part of a weight-loss maintenance trial whose initial results were reported in March. After analyzing the data on weight loss to see which factors made a difference, researchers concluded that the more days a person kept a careful record, the more weight he or she lost. (Attending more weekly support group sessions also helped). Here's why keeping a diary is so powerful:

Video: Healthful Eating Recipes


It's simple. No fancy machines required; just record what you eat on paper or using an online record. "The trick is to write down everything you eat or drink that has calories," says Victor Stevens, a researcher at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research and coauthor of the study released today, which appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. That's easy enough with labeled foods but gets harder when you're dining out or are eating an unfamiliar food. Try online calorie databases like CalorieKing.com, and watch the serving sizes—here's a good source of info on estimating what, say, an ounce of bread looks like. You'll probably still underestimate your daily intake, says Thomas Wadden, director of the Center for Weight Loss and Eating Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, but you'll very likely come closer than someone who isn't keeping a food record.

It's eye opening. In fact, some people will be so shocked at how many calories are in their thrice-daily Coke that the "aha" moment will make going on an actual diet unnecessary. Being forced to be aware of what you're eating can often be enough to help people drop weight, says Wadden.

It helps you track your progress. Use the diary as a way to make adjustments throughout the day and to gauge how much exercise you need to hit a certain calorie count, advises Holly Wyatt, a physician and researcher at the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. "If I eat three cups of fries, I know that I ate a lot and can cut back at the next meal," says Francis Tacotaco, a 38-year-old skilled nursing assistant from Richmond, Calif., who used a food diary as part of a weight-loss program at Kaiser. He's lost 21 pounds so far and wants to drop more.

You're accountable to someone. Supervised weight-loss programs often require participants to turn in their food diaries to nutritionists or doctors, which may make you think twice before giving in to temptation. "I've seen it all," says Stevens. "One gallon of vanilla ice cream, three pizzas, and a gallon of milk. My experience is that the people who have the courage to write it down tend to do pretty well," even if what they're writing down amounts to a lot of food, he says. If you're not part of a program, you can team up with a friend and swap food diaries once a week to keep each other in line. And many people find it's enough to be accountable to themselves. "You won't put that second cookie in your mouth because you don't want to see it in your food record," says Stevens.

After the extra poundage is gone, many people continue to use a diary to keep themselves honest. About 50 percent of participants in the National Weight Control Registry (which tracks the habits and practices of weight-loss maintainers) report they use some kind of self-monitoring, such as a food diary, says Wyatt. Some people may keep a diary on the weekend only, when they tend to eat more; others just record dinner, which usually varies more than breakfast and lunch, says Wadden. It's a habit you can benefit from for a lifetime.

Soca Junkie - The unofficial theme song of Sweet Soca Euphoria

This video is hilarious and makes me want to dance in an "unselfconscious" kinda way whenever I hear it. "I'm a Soca Junkie, Yeah, Yeah!"

Watch Free Movies Online

Now you can watch first run and vintage movies as well as network and cable TV shows for free online at 66Stage.com and Joox . (Click on the titles in the box on the right hand side of the page). Also try Hulu.com the Official site for NBC and FOX shows & movies if you want to satisfy your Stewie crush.

Turn Me On @ Pan-Tastik 4/09/08 Mast Academy

Mast Academy Music Department held their Spring Showcase on April 9, 2009. Here's Andrew Meade (left)& Special Guest Leon "Foster" Thomas on Tenor steel pans playing Turn Me On by Kevin Lyttle. They are accompanied by Gabriela Condarco-Quesada, Helena Matamoros, Alain Pierre-Louis, and Music Teacher Vincent Hamilton on drums.

Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships - New York Times

Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships - New York Times
The Scholarship Divide
Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships

The myth of the athletic scholarship is finally exposed. For years parents have been slavishly ferrying their kids to countless youth sports games and competititions with hopes that their child will land a full athletic scholarship to a Division I school. The reality is that the actual scholarship dollars are so little that they only pay a fraction of the cost of tuition. Clearly, parents need to devote more of their efforts to helping their child build a strong academic portfolio, a process that should begin in pre-K. Sweetness

By BILL PENNINGTON
Published: March 10, 2008
Correction Appended

At youth sporting events, the sidelines have become the ritual community meeting place, where families sit in rows of folding chairs aligned like church pews. These congregations are diverse in spirit but unified by one gospel: heaven is your child receiving a college athletic scholarship.

Skip to next paragraph

Tim Shaffer for The New York Times
Villanova sprinter Elvis Lewis. All N.C.A.A. athletic scholarships must be renewed and are not guaranteed year to year.

The Scholarship Divide
These articles are exploring the chase for N.C.A.A. scholarships, the scarcity of athletic aid, and the challenges facing coaches and scholarship athletes.
Monday

Expectations Lose to Reality of Sports Scholarships
N.A.I.A.Reports Aid Differently
Average Scholarship Amounts by Sport
Tuesday

Recruits Clamor for More From Coaches With Less.
New Rules Threaten Sport's Tryout Process.
Number of Scholarships by Sport
Wednesday

It’s Not an Adventure, It’s a Job
Divvying Scholarship Dollars Can Divide a Team

Back Story: Adaora Udoji Talks to The Times's Bill Pennington (mp3)


Tim Shaffer for The New York Times
Joanie Milhous, the field hockey coach at Villanova, said she recruited “good, ethical parents as much as good, talented kids.”
Parents sacrifice weekends and vacations to tournaments and specialty camps, spending thousands each year in this quest for the holy grail.

But the expectations of parents and athletes can differ sharply from the financial and cultural realities of college athletics, according to an analysis by The New York Times of previously undisclosed data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and interviews with dozens of college officials.

Excluding the glamour sports of football and basketball, the average N.C.A.A. athletic scholarship is nowhere near a full ride, amounting to $8,707. In sports like baseball or track and field, the number is routinely as low as $2,000. Even when football and basketball are included, the average is $10,409. Tuition and room and board for N.C.A.A. institutions often cost between $20,000 and $50,000 a year.

“People run themselves ragged to play on three teams at once so they could always reach the next level,” said Margaret Barry of Laurel, Md., whose daughter is a scholarship swimmer at the University of Delaware. “They’re going to be disappointed when they learn that if they’re very lucky, they will get a scholarship worth 15 percent of the $40,000 college bill. What’s that? $6,000?”

Within the N.C.A.A. data, last collected in 2003-4 and based on N.C.A.A. calculations from an internal study, are other statistical insights about the distribution of money for the 138,216 athletes who received athletic aid in Division I and Division II.

¶Men received 57 percent of all scholarship money, but in 11 of the 14 sports with men’s and women’s teams, the women’s teams averaged higher amounts per athlete.

¶On average, the best-paying sport was neither football nor men’s or women’s basketball. It was men’s ice hockey, at $21,755. Next was women’s ice hockey ($20,540).

¶The lowest overall average scholarship total was in men’s riflery ($3,608), and the lowest for women was in bowling ($4,899). Baseball was the second-lowest men’s sport ($5,806).

Many students and their parents think of playing a sport not because of scholarship money, but because it is stimulating and might even give them a leg up in the increasingly competitive process of applying to college. But coaches and administrators, the gatekeepers of the recruiting system, said in interviews that parents and athletes who hoped for such money were much too optimistic and that they were unprepared to effectively navigate the system. The athletes, they added, were the ones who ultimately suffered.

Coaches surveyed at two representative N.C.A.A. Division I institutions — Villanova University outside Philadelphia and the University of Delaware — told tales of rejecting top prospects because their parents were obstinate in scholarship negotiations.

“I dropped a good player because her dad was a jerk — all he ever talked to me about was scholarship money,” said Joanie Milhous, the field hockey coach at Villanova. “I don’t need that in my program. I recruit good, ethical parents as much as good, talented kids because, in the end, there’s a connection between the two.”

The best-laid plans of coaches do not always bring harmony on teams, however, and scholarships can be at the heart of the unrest. Who is getting how much tends to get around like the salaries in a workplace. The result — scholarship envy — can divide teams.

The chase for a scholarship has another side that is rarely discussed. Although those athletes who receive athletic aid are viewed as the ultimate winners, they typically find the demands on their time, minds and bodies in college even more taxing than the long journey to get there.

There are 6 a.m. weight-lifting sessions, exhausting practices, team meetings, study halls and long trips to games. Their varsity commitments often limit the courses they can take. Athletes also share a frustrating feeling of estrangement from the rest of the student body, which views them as the privileged ones. In this setting, it is not uncommon for first- and second-year athletes to relinquish their scholarships.

“Kids who have worked their whole life trying to get a scholarship think the hard part is over when they get the college money,” said Tim Poydenis, a senior at Villanova receiving $3,000 a year to play baseball. “They don’t know that it’s a whole new monster when you get here. Yes, all the hard work paid off. And now you have to work harder.”

Lack of Knowledge

Parents often look back on the many years spent shuttling sons and daughters to practices, camps and games with a changed eye. Swept up in the dizzying pursuit of sports achievement, they realize how little they knew of the process.

Mrs. Barry remembers how her daughter Cortney rose at 4 a.m. for years so she could attend a private swim practice before school. A second practice followed in the afternoon. Weekends were for competitions. Cortney is now a standout freshman at Delaware after receiving a $10,000 annual athletic scholarship.

“I’m very proud of her and it was worth it on many levels, but not necessarily the ones everybody talks about,” Mrs. Barry said. “It can take over your life. Getting up at 4 a.m. was like having another baby again. And the expenses are significant; I know I didn’t buy new clothes for a while.

“But the hardest part is that nobody educates the parents on what’s really going on or what’s going to happen.”

When they received the letter from Delaware informing them of Cortney’s scholarship, she and her husband, Bob, were thrilled. Later, they shared a quiet laugh, noting that the scholarship might just defray the cost of the last couple of years of Cortney’s youth sports swim career.

The paradox has caught the attention of Myles Brand, the president of the N.C.A.A.

“The youth sports culture is overly aggressive, and while the opportunity for an athletic scholarship is not trivial, it’s easy for the opportunity to be overexaggerated by parents and advisers,” Mr. Brand said in a telephone interview. “That can skew behavior and, based on the numbers, lead to unrealistic expectations.”

Instead, Mr. Brand said, families should focus on academics.

“The real opportunity is taking advantage of how eager institutions are to reward good students,” he said. “In America’s colleges, there is a system of discounting for academic achievement. Most people with good academic records aren’t paying full sticker price. We don’t want people to stop playing sports; it’s good for them. But the best opportunity available is to try to improve one’s academic qualifications.” The math of athletic scholarships is complicated and widely misunderstood.

Despite common references in news media reports, there is no such thing as a four-year scholarship. All N.C.A.A. athletic scholarships must be renewed and are not guaranteed year to year, something stated in bold letters on the organization’s Web site for student-athletes. Nearly every scholarship can be canceled for almost any reason in any year, although it is unclear how often that happens.

In 2003-4, N.C.A.A. institutions gave athletic scholarships amounting to about 2 percent of the 6.4 million athletes playing those sports in high school four years earlier. Despite the considerable attention paid to sports, the select group of athletes barely registers statistically among the 5.3 million students at N.C.A.A. colleges and universities.

Scholarships are typically split and distributed to a handful, or even, say, 20, athletes because most institutions do not fully finance the so-called nonrevenue sports like soccer, baseball, golf, lacrosse, volleyball, softball, swimming, and track and field. Colleges offering these sports often pay for only five or six full scholarships, which are often sliced up to cover an entire team. Some sports have one or two full scholarships, or none at all.

The N.C.A.A. also restricts by sport the number of scholarships a college is allowed to distribute, and the numbers for most teams are tiny when compared with Division I football and its 85-scholarship limit.

A fully financed men’s Division I soccer team is restricted to 9.9 full scholarships, for freshmen to seniors. These are typically divvied up among as many as 25 or 30 players. A majority of N.C.A.A. members do not reach those limits and are not fully financed in most of their sports.

Ms. Milhous, whose Villanova field hockey team plays in the competitive Big East Conference, must make tough choices in recruiting. The N.C.A.A. permits Division I field hockey teams to have 12 full scholarships, but her team has fewer.

“I tell parents of recruits I have eight scholarships, and they say: ‘Wow, eight a year? That’s great,’ ” she said. “And I say: ‘No, eight over four or five years of recruits. And I’ve got 22 girls on our team.’ ”

That can mean a $2,000 scholarship, which surprises parents.

“They might argue with me,” Ms. Milhous said. “But the fact is I’ve got girls getting from $2,000 to $20,000, and it all has to add up to eight scholarships. It’s very subjective, and remember, what I get to give out is also determined by how many seniors I’ve got leaving.”

Two Brothers, Two Stories

Joe Taylor, a soccer player at Villanova, received a scholarship worth half his roughly $40,000 in college costs when he graduated from a suburban Philadelphia high school three years ago. He had spent years on one of the top travel soccer teams in the country, F.C. Delco, and had several college aid offers.

“It was still a huge dogfight to get whatever you can get,” Mr. Taylor said. “Everyone is scrambling. There are so many good players, and nobody understands how few get to keep playing after high school.”

In 2003-4, there was the equivalent of one full N.C.A.A. men’s soccer scholarship available for about every 145 boys who were playing high school soccer four years earlier.

“There’s a lot of luck involved really,” Mr. Taylor said. “I can pinpoint a time when I was suddenly heavily recruited. It was after a tournament in Long Island the summer after my junior year. I scored a few goals. The Villanova coach was there, and so were some other college coaches. Within a couple of days, my in-box was full of e-mails. I’ve wondered, What would have happened if didn’t play well that day?”

Mr. Taylor has a younger brother, Pat, who followed in his footsteps, playing on the same national-level travel team and for the same Olympic developmental program.

“He did everything I did, and in some ways I think he’s a better player than me,” Joe said. “But you know, I think he didn’t have the big game when the right college coaches were there. He didn’t get the money offers I did.”

Pat Taylor is a freshman at Loyola College in Baltimore. Though recruited, he did not make the soccer team during tryouts last fall.

“I feel terrible for him — he worked as hard as I did for all those years,” Joe Taylor said.

Their father, Chris Taylor, said he once calculated what he spent on the boys’ soccer careers.

“Ten thousand per kid per year is not an unreasonable estimate,” he said. “But we never looked at it as a financial transaction. You are misguided if you do it for that reason. You cannot recoup what you put in if you think of it that way. It was their passion — still is — and we wanted to indulge that.

“So what if we didn’t take vacations for a few years.”

Pat Taylor, who started playing soccer at 4, said it took him about a month to accept that his dream of playing varsity soccer on scholarship in college would not happen. He looks back fondly on his youth career but also wishes he knew at the start what he knows now about the process.

“The whole thing really is a crapshoot, but no one ever says that out loud,” he said. “On every team I played on, every single person there thought for sure that they would play in college. I thought so, too. Just by the numbers, it’s completely unrealistic.

“And if I had it to do over, I would have skipped a practice every now and then to go to a concert or a movie with my friends. I missed out on a lot of things for soccer. I wish I could have some of that time back.”


Griffin Palmer contributed reporting to this article.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: March 11, 2008
A front-page article on Monday about the unrealistic expectations of families in the pursuit of college athletic scholarships omitted a reporting credit. Griffin Palmer analyzed college and high school statistics for the article.

Trinidad & Tobago Wins by 5 runs, advance to Finals of Stanford 2020

Trinidad & Tobago advances to the cricket finals of the Stanford 2020 on Sunday February 24, 2008. They beat Barbados by 5 runs in an exciting semi-final match in Antigua. Trinidad will face the winner of the second semi-final match of Jamaica versus Guyana on Saturday February 23rd.

3Canal - Talk Yuh Talk Putting Rapso on the map.

I love to hear 3Canal. Great dance tunes and their lyrics have sweet cadence in addition to the serious message. Deep.

Machel Montano with Special Guest DJ GB God Bless Concert Tickets - The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater Miami Beach, FL | A Live Na

Machel Montano with Special Guest DJ GB God Bless Concert Tickets - The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theater Miami Beach, FL | A Live Nation Event

Cancelled!!!!???? Why??? Man I was in this for sure!

Rollin' and Blaze de Trail - Machel Montano ft. Patrice

This video is on FIRE!!!! Love Machel, he is just phenomenal!

Stanford 20/20 - Tournament The hottest thing in the Caribbean!

Stanford 20/20 - Tournament

The games are exciting, the venue is cool and the prices are reasonable. Sounds like a win-win. You can watch live games and previous matches for free online if you have A T & T DSL or Verizon at WWW.ESPN360.COM The picture is incredibly clear and the sound is amazing. Stanford 2020 - reviving West Indies cricket.