Not looking at Ivy League. He is wanting to be an orthopedic surgeon. But we all know that can be subject to change. He is a late bloomer because he just in the last year and a half started pitching again after not pitching for over 5 years. So in our opinion, he has more of a "fresh arm" that can be developed more. We have a 6 hour drive time window for school options and without going into further detail as to why, that is not going to change. We are aware of the cost of D2 schools and with his grades, he should qualify for "some" academic awards. We are hoping to try and fund his education for 4 years and then he will offset the rest with student loans while he completes his pre-med degree if that remains.
I think he wants to play as a starter but he is very much aware of that not being a possibility upfront. Unfortunately we live in a small town and athletic play time is often based on who you know and not how well you perform. He has faced much adversity over the course of his years in sports and no matter what sport it was, he has always had to "earn" that play time. So I think that is another reason why D2. He would love D1, but I think he is smart enough to realize that is a harder target and D2 is more of a fit for him athletically.
We have mentioned D3 to him because of the academics, but financially that would be harder on us as parents since they don't offer any money athletically and typical teenager, he wants to feel "validated" by getting some type of athletic monetary award.