@Target posted:Some of y'all seem too caught up on two things in my post and you shouldn't be. Let me try to clear that up: "along for the ride" and whatever area of study a 17 year currently thinks he wants.
"Along for the ride" means it is his future, not ours, he may be driving the train but we making sure he doesn't derail. It isn't our dream, so he takes charge and he has, but we support and offer guidance. We talk to coaches, but not often as Son is more than capable and is very comfortable doing that. Most coaches he talks to tell him to reach out when he is ready to play again. Some he is in regular contact with and he provides updates.
Whatever school he is at, he will be taking core classes for the first year or two. Any plans he has for field of study does not mean taking Differential Equations as a freshman. He has time to decide if business, engineering or whatever is correct for him. We have always encouraged all our kids to use school, whether it be college or trade school, as a set up for a career not just to get some degree you will never use. No offense to those you have the funky useless degrees as I have one as well. There are some good trade schools with juco baseball programs, FYI.
We have time and he has time. It isn't a race so if he can still play ball without breaking the bank, I am in. But playing baseball is under a limited time frame while going back to school never is limited. If it takes him an extra year of two, so be it. He has applied to and been accepted at quite a few schools, baseball and non-baseball schools.
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You are a very financially generous parent. My wife and I weren't nearly as generous or nice putting our 3 kids through college. We required our kids have a roadmap to an outcome..."what do you want to be when you grow up, how are you going to get there, and what level of financial support do you need from Mom & Dad". This was discussed in detail with each kid because the backyard money tree had reached maturity. If my kid had no planned outcome, there simply was no college financial support from my wife and I. At 17 and 18 years old they were more than capable of coming up with that answer, and they did.
I don't understand the emphasis on baseball as a means to get his education unless he is going to become a professional baseball player. Why match baseball to the education when you can match the education to baseball if he has other professional plans (doctor, lawyer, tinker, tailor, soldier, spy)? It just seems to me that there is extraordinary effort (PG Year, JUCO) to pursue baseball with his history of injuries when he has already been accepted to some colleges. Does he feel he has unfinished business on the baseball field, and he is willing to pay for that experience?
None of my kids wanted to be professional baseball player, yet one of them loved the game enough to play D1 baseball knowing that he would walk away from it in 4 years to be a professional engineer. Unless your son wants to be a professional baseball player (even with all his injuries), it seems like you are putting the cart before the horse, and paying for both.
I hope it works out for your son. Good luck!
JMO.