Son committed to a D3 in September and was accepted on 11/9 with a boatload of academic $$. Will likely graduate with very little debt. We're all very happy for him! This past month he's been communicating with current players and other 2024 commits and really having a good time getting to know them a bit.
Son's recruiting was pretty straightforward and enjoyable for him and Mom & Dad. His high school is known to be "very strong" academically and while he isn't at the top of the heap with his GPA, he is very disciplined and takes a lot of pride in his schoolwork. Academic rigor certainly opened doors.
Son was looking to attend a smaller school, so we largely scratched larger schools from the list. His high school has an outstanding academic advising department, and they worked with the boys for several years in identifying schools to consider, putting them in touch with current students and recent graduates. This narrowed the list pretty quickly.
Being a RHP on the smaller side, he reviewed the rosters of those schools's incoming freshmen over several years to look at the size of the players. He quickly realized that some schools simply weren't recruiting RHPs anywhere near his size at all, so those schools were scratched (he also looked at the tenure of the coaches recruiting those kids). For those schools where he was a potential "fit," he checked out their numbers, innings pitched, and, when available, video. He now had a list of under 20 schools.
Emails, texts, phone calls, and the video he put together garnered a lot of interest, and we made visits to those bubbling up to the top. Most of the interest he received was from D3's, but there was one D2 in particular that was very interested in him. Son's list quickly narrowed to 5, then 3 schools where he really "felt the love."
Visited schools this fall to meet coaches again, meet the players, watch practices, and hang out with the guys to get a sense of the vibe of the team. Spent a lot of time visiting pitchers and catchers (had been communicating with several before the visits, too). Called us on the way home from a visit and said that was his pick and that he committed during the visit. Happy day!
There was no need for a recruiting service. We did subscribe to College Baseball Insights, and had a subscription to Sports Recruits. Several coaches spoke with his club/HS coaches and his academic advisor.
Best wishes to all of your boys!