2020Hopeful posted:He has checked out all of the schools that have given him an offer and agree they have different vibes (most are D2/NAIA in SoCal, but also has opportunities in NW, which we are more familiar with). He has no problem with the religious aspect. Gathering information on academics to see how that fits into his analysis for picking the right fit. With HA schools now out of the picture, if one school has significantly superior academics or, conversely, is known for very poor academics, that might outweigh the baseball strength and/or vibe. He is interested in the sciences and likely will go to graduate school, so we are trying to be smart about picking a school that has strong academics so that he is prepared for graduate school, but also want to save some money knowing college is likely not the end of the road for him (hence HA D3s are out of the picture).
Sounds like he's in a great spot!
Just to expand on my comment regarding religious slant and the varying degrees... some schools have a good Christian vibe but loose requirements while others have a very heavy emphasis, strict rules, daily service requirements, etc. Just something else to check out and try to match with whatever your son's preferences and upbringing are as best as possible.
Lastly, pay attention to the JC transfer factor. Multiple schools fit into this category in both the Calif. D2 pool and the NAIA pool you are looking at, although the better JC players more typically land on those D2 schools in the CCAA while many of the "decent" JC players land in the other conferences in question. A decent freshman can find himself buried for a long time or released due to the steady influx of JC players who have already proven they can perform at the college level. Oh, and those schools that lean heavily on JC transfers tend to also be the schools that more aggressively go after drop-downs. That said, if you are getting offers of 50-100%, this is far less likely to apply.