@PitchingFan
Again, only sharing what I heard directly from Coach Forbes when another parent in the group was asking about coaching tenure, and verbals, etc when we were onsite for a prospect camp for 2 days and had some great quality time with Coach Forbes. You'll have to take your disagreement on stats up with him.
Again, for us, GT campus was way more "campusy" then we had expected or imagined with facilities that were quite nice for students and athletes. Yes is it Hotatlanta the the surrounding areas to campus are known with limitations, but they took us to where the students live on and off campus and showed us around. We also got to see architecture drawings of the new pitching lab and facility that is going in as part of Phase 2 at Russ Chandler. To be one of the top notch pitching lab facilities in the country, so that was a nice sale and HUGE draw there too. DBo got to design it and walked us through use of and plans for development and how it will be used for both hitters and pitchers. He was also direct and honest when pressed on our concerns he may not be there in 2 years or for the tenure while Christian is at college. (He was new the program and still being courted by MLB teams). But he answered honestly and it made complete sense as a husband and father and I genuinely really liked him. So did Christian. He was very very good with him and in courting him to come visit and scheduling and timing such visit and answering questions he had about the program, coaches, team make up, etc. The Data Science team and lab of GT students, etc. Great school and area. Super easy in/out. 6 direct flights on Delta and 3 from SW to/from Austin.
The GT program and staff also focused on Christian, moreso than any other, and how they saw him coming in and contributing and how they could develop him as a player and why. Less bragging on how many pro guys they have or Hall of Fame or whatever, like some other programs (that shall remain nameless, but you can ask me privately. See I learn). Their offer was also the best of the bunch and made it an even easier decision.
Christian really liked another school that was in the running, but being out of state and paying that tuition in a program on their last arm, appreciate the candor and honesty from the coach, was going to be cost prohibitive to the tune of $132,000 for 4 years.
Another program that was in the running was HA and extremely intimidating academically to him after talking a former teammate at said school, who was valedictorian and a genius and thought he "thought I was smart before coming to....". "I thought they sent the acceptance letter to the wrong school." The dude is a legit genius and that really put Christian off as the stresses of being a college baseball player and student were enough but to add in the HA rigor of that school, was just too much. GT is no slouch and is going to be Nerd Ball too, but to a lesser extent.
Other programs didn't offer the degree or field in which he was looking to pursue. So made it easy for them to drop down the list.
GT as a whole, with DBo (knowing why he'd still be around for at least a few years), the program, pitching lab, Atlanta (we've got tons of friends there and host families from East Cobb at the ready and on call), Ramsey also is gluten intolerant (Christian has Celiac, so is gluten free) so having familiarity of the places to eat and what they feed the players was a nice peace of mind. Other programs didn't get it as much or take into consideration at camps or comments from tours we heard from students and players. The lack of missed school due to location and schedule and ease of travel compared to other programs, really stack piled the reasons why and it was a no-brainer for my son and the easiest decision he ever had to make, he said.
Yes, downtown is downtown and have your wits about you and head on a swivel, like in most big cities. Dually noted and discussed.
Again it isn't for everyone. My impression of ATL was only that coming through on business or trips and getting stuck in traffic, but if you're on campus, you don't deal with the traffic. When you're on campus and right off campus, it's all good. Super close to downtown for other pro games and events. When we stayed in ATL for 3 weeks this summer/fall and other weeks with other tournaments and teams in previous years - it really grew more on me and he liked it even more.
Couldn't be happier and he really likes his classmates that he got to play with all summer on East Cobb and he already knows 8-12 guys going to be on the team or already is or will be after he gets there.
All important experiences, observations and insights I would want to hear from if I were considering same similar schools.
How'd I do? Over share again or stay with the lanes this time?
FYI, I also don't work for @CollegebaseballInsights but I work in Business Intelligence and Data analytics and see the value and time savings it would have saved us in the process of researching schools and programs. Hence why I brag on it as well as this website with the varied viewpoints and information you get from multiple sources. Again wished we would have known about both. Life and learning curve would have definitely been easier.