Big, IMHO, it's almost certainly too late for your son to get noticed by the type of schools you're talking about. So the question comes down to baseball vs. academics. If academics are number one, and he apparently has a good chance of getting into schools like Cal and Notre Dame, then he's a really fortunate kid and he should go to the school that is the best academic fit, and also financially feasible, and then look into walking on when he gets there. But Cabbage is correct -- It does happen, but successfully walking on at a D1 is a pretty rare occurrence, and getting significant playing time is even more rare. Club ball might be a better and is certainly a more realistic option, and my sons have known kids at UCSB and at Cal who've enjoyed it. If baseball is #1 then his best bet at this point is probably to go to as high a profile JC as he can find and work hard to try to evolve into the kind of player that those schools are going to want to add in 2 years.