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Reply to "D1 Baseball + STEM Degree"

My son initially signed his NLI with a Power 5 school. He wanted to pursue Biology and then apply to Physician Assistant grad programs upon graduation. He was told it would be difficult before he committed but felt he could handle it. Once there in the fall,  the mandatory 6 am workouts along with an average of 25- 30 hours each week at the field made it really difficult. Every extra minute was spent studying with very little sleep. In the spring it got worse. There were 4 weeks where the team left campus on a wed or thurs and he was forced to miss labs and a number of classes. He didn't want to give up his dream of being a PA and ended up transferring to a D3 school with a top notch BB program.

We thought the balance would be better. It was in the off season however, during the season the league instituted mid week DH's which started at noon in addition to the regularly scheduled 2 DH's on the weekends. So, he was still missing important classes at a very rigorous school.  Coaches still like to win at this level and they may say that academics come first but that's not always the case. 

My son's attitude when he signed was that BB was a way to get his education paid for. The majority of his teammate's goals at the D1 were to get drafted. Nothing wrong with either avenue. 

My son is now a senior and has decided to forego his last season of BB and focus on what he wants to do for the rest of his life. It's been a hard pill to swallow for his parents but he is at peace with his decision. 

It's just really hard to be fully committed to both STEM and BB at any level. 

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