Tagged With "Minimum Velocity"
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High Academic minimum requirements
I'm guessing this could vary quite a bit depending on the school, but for general purposes, what are the minimum (and average) requirements for a baseball player to be considered as a "high academic" recruit or even to attend a "high academic" showcase. Thanks in advance.
Topic
Minimum Velocity to pitch in college
I understand that there are huge velocity ranges, but is there speed that would be a deal breaker no matter how good you are at other things?
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Basically there are 3 tiers for a coach: Tier A/1: You get in on your academic merits Tier B/2: Admissions requires "coach support" Tier C/3: Just not good enough I believe there's quite a bit of latitude with Tier B/2, but there are only so many a coach can use in that Tier. The number of "test optional" schools are growing each year, which can help with the SAT/ACT scores. School profile and class rigor are very important factors. You will need a good number of honors/AP classes, if your...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
High Academic can mean a range of schools. For most of us that means a school that is very hard to get into and is ranked highly by US News, Princeton Review, etc. For example, Tufts comes up here often. The admit rate is 14.6 - very low, though there are some that are lower. If you search their website or Google for the term "student profile", there is usually a page for any school that will show you, at the very least, mean SAT and ACT scores. It would be instructive to look up the numbers...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
I think you'll find the term "high academic" gets thrown around a lot. People's definition varies. For HA, I look at what is required to get admitted in as a student (not baseball player as you phrased your question) through the general admissions process...lets call that the "Admissions front door". In my son's experience, the part that varied the most is how the Admissions process worked for the recruited athlete...lets call that the "Admissions back door". Again, my son's recruiting...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Others with more experience can add their opinions, but I wouldn't attend an HA showcase with less than 1,250 SAT or 27 ACT. Of course those numbers won't impress the most selective schools, but I think there will be some schools that can at least start a dialogue at that level. GPA is much more subjective, but if you're on the borderline with standardized testing you should probably be better than borderline with grades and AP classes.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
A D3 HA coach told my son and me that GPA is the most important qualifier for him, because by at or near the end of Jr year (when D3 HAs get serious about recruiting), GPA is essentially set and can't change significantly; but a student can always re-take the ACT or SAT. (This was at a school with very high grade and test score averages, and one that does not bend those much at all for athletes, so take that into consideration.)
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
When my son attended HF, there were plenty of schools like Fenway listed, but also a lot that were more like Skidmore: 29% admit rate. Mean ACT: 29. BTW the Skidmore coach is a great guy and that's a beautiful campus.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
I agree that at Headfirst there are definitely some schools whose admissions rates are around 30% (and higher), SAT average around 1250, GPA 3.7. There's a reasonably wide range. An easy way to check is to look at the list of schools that will be at Headfirst (they are listed on their website). Google the name of the school + prepscholar, you will get listings of the school's average GPA, SAT/ACT, and admissions rate.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Son's school was one of the HAs that Fenwaysouth listed in his post, but the acceptance rate is MUCH higher than 15%, mostly because it is a known backup school to the Ivys. Keep that in mind. Many of it's baseball players got in to an Ivy, or applied. In my son's case, baseball may have gotten him in to a school that he may not have gotten in to on his own. We will never know. But, once you get in, even with the coach's help, YOU NEED TO MAKE THE GRADES TO STAY THERE. (Son did, thank...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
There are some good parameters here to give you a general range of what gets a kid in the discussion of being admissible to HA schools. As others indicated, admission rates vary widely even among schools that are considered HA, but test scores and GPA are the criteria that the coaches will consider as the first factors in deciding if a kid should be recruited at a HA school. One HA D3 coach told us he went through a showcase roster that listed the kids academic scores they reported on their...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
"Finally, if your son is on the margin with the test scores, have him retake it and see if he can get an improvement. Going up even 2 points on the ACT can make a huge difference, especially in terms of any academic money he can get. " For the vast majority of HS players, this advice is more valuable in dollar terms than any baseball advice on this site! We paid for an SAT/ACT tutor that helped my son increase his scores considerably. The additional academic scholarship money received as a...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
In a social situation I crossed paths with the coach of a ranked HA D3. My son was already playing college ball. But I’m always curious to become aware of different situations. The school is considered very challenging academically. The coach told me has grease with admissions for baseball. But only for six players per admissions year. He asks his six prime recruits to apply ED so he knows who’s serious. He doesn’t want to waste a slot sliding a kid through to have him decide to go somewhere...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Other than SB and HF, I've been wondering if "academic showcase" is just another hook to separate us parents from our money. The only qualifier for some local and PG "academic showcases" is "3.0 GPA and above." lol
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Showcasing, travel ball and instruction has become such an industry I question how much of it is trying to separate parents from their money. I’m guessing there are a lot of former baseball players now selling baseball rather than insurance. Even Al Bundy would be connected to the sports industry now.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Good information shared above. Since RJM mentioned Duke, HC Pollard told me directly he is quite adamant of needing a min 26 ACT to play for his program. He's found good smart players which led them to the super regionals this year. Power Conference high level skills and talent obviously required. Friend's kid was offered by Northwestern and the RC/HC seem to be dialed in on at least a 28. Another friends kid is being recruited by Penn, RC said his 27 ACT will suffice. Two years ago son...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
For those who may not realize: There is a big benefit at many of these schools to being a baseball player, even if no athletic scholarship money is in the mix. To take the two examples above, the Prepscholar web site says the Duke ACT mean is 33 and the 25th percentile score is 31. At Penn the corresponding scores are 33 and 32. A non-athlete applying to those schools with a 26 or 27 ACT has essentially zero chance of admission unless he has something else extraordinary going for him (a...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
If you are interested in college outside of your local region, you have to participate in nationwide recruiting events. That goes for top-level D1 schools, and for top-level High Academic schools. These high-academic showcases are worth it if you are interested in colleges outside of your local area, they are the best way to get in front of a lot of schools at once, cheaper than travelling around the country to a lot of individual camps. If you want to stay closer to home, then local...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Ivy's do not give academic money. I didn't think any truly HA school did (since most all applicants are top-shelf anyway). I have seen instances where middle-of-the-pack schools offered substantial academic money to lure top students.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Smitty28 is correct that the elite of the elite, like the Ivy's and Stanford do not give academic money (just need based). But there are plenty of other higher academic schools that have various ways of providing academic-related money to high scoring students. Curiously, there may be some athletes at these schools who found such benefits pointed out to them through their recruiting discussions. So be sure to ask the coach and financial office if you think you might qualify.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
To answer the OP's very general question with a very general answer, a 3.3 GPA and a 28 ACT or SAT equivalent. If you have outstanding baseball talent some HA D1's will go lower. If you are an average baseball talent I would like to go to HF with a min 30 ACT and 3.5 GPA. HS course rigor is a whole different question, but HC's and RC's usually leave that up to admissions.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Do those kids that get in with the lower scores get enough tutoring help to be able to keep their grades up since they’re in classes geared towards the more academically gifted students or is it a constant struggle to remain eligible and obtain a degree?
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
In our experience, the sooner you can secure a solid SAT or ACT score the better. For the Junior Fall Classic, a premier recruiting event, the minimum to qualify for Academic Game Try-Outs is 3.7 GPA or 27 ACT or 1200 SAT. So I think those are good gauges. Most of the HA coaches whom my son interacted with were primarily interested in weighted GPA because they want to see a level of rigor (honors/AP/IB).
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
There are some truly test-optional HA schools including at least 2 in the NESCAC, so I would not let a low ACT preclude a kid from attending HF or Showball as long as the GPA is good. As for the schools requiring scores, my son was told 26 was the cutoff for some schools, 28 for others, and 30 for some.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
A good question, but I think every student has to address his situation individually. You need to talk with coaches and schools about graduation rates, resources, expectations... Some schools provide tutoring and other academic support specifically for athletes. So far as I know, the schools I would consider true HAs do not--but most of those schools make quite a lot of tutoring and other kinds of support freely available to all students. (It's also true that there is no one definition of...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
There aren't any classes geared towards more academically gifted students unless you're in an honors program at the college. The acceptance rates are kept low to keep the schools full of elite students and does not have as much to do with how hard it is once you're there. The difference between a student with a 27 and a 31 or a 32 and a 34 isn't that much of a difference, if at all. I'm sure there are plenty of students with a 24/25 that can manage perfectly fine at plenty of these schools,...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Good input on responses to this question so far but I thought I'd add my two cents. My 2019 had 3.6 GPA (with a rigorous schedule), a 31 ACT and, after touring Kenyon, Case, Middlebury, Trinity, Wesleyan, and Tufts, made a comment to me that he didn't want to be the "dumbest" one on campus. I thought that was interesting and a pretty good point, though he likely could have gotten in the door to most of these. I was in that boat at his age, having barely gotten into my #1 school of choice,...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Agreed -- good responses, my two cents is that my kid had a roughly the same HS academics and scores as yours, but did go to a school in the same tier you mentioned. After two years, he's not an academic all american or on the deans list, but he's taking very difficult courses with intense work loads, and he's doing fine with a respectable GPA. As for being the dumbest kid on campus, he'd probably say that's the LAX team. JK - they don't have LAX. If a kid is willing to work hard and can...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
I’ve sat on selection committees for all the Service Academies and we look for the min ACT combined with the absolute strongest weighted GPA reflecting a strong curriculum w AP/H classes. That tells us the classroom work ethic and discipline of the student. Ive seen plenty of 28-30 ACT kids who have a stronger weighted GPA than a 32-33 ACT kid. We’ll take the 30 ACT kid over the 33 ACT kid in this case. Doing well and staying in a Service Academy is difficult. Limited sleep, limited free...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
I think this raises an important issue (and is another factor that will vary for different individuals). I see elite college admissions as having so many back and side doors that no one should feel they don't belong if their test scores or grades are a little low; but I get it. Choosing a school where you don't feel comfortable just because that school is "better" according to some ranking or other isn't necessarily a good idea. (I also have seen kids who were the biggest academic fish in...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
For the OP, since your son is a RHP, this post may be helpful: https://community.hsbaseballwe...47#44234158300777747
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Hi, great thread. My son is a 2020 RHP/OF and just starting to go thru the HA showcase process. Common sense would suggest that the higher the academic profile (GPA/SAT/ACT/rigor) the better, assuming kid has real baseball skills. But wondering if anyone has experience with a paradoxical situation where if the academic profile is really high (e.g., perfect test scores and grades with lots of APs and other academic awards), a HA coach might be reluctant to give up an official slot under the...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
My understanding is that D3 baseball teams don't have roster size limits so there aren't really "official slots" to speak of. The coaches have a recruiting board of course, and I'm sure they have a number at each position that they're shooting for, but admission at HA D3 schools is completely at the discretion of the admissions office.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Of course each school's admission criteria and HC's clout with the admission office varies. My son did encounter a situation with a HA engineering school in the Midwest where the school got in trouble with the NCAA for having "too much" coach influence in admissions. In that case, that coach was really looking for kids who were so strong academically that he would not have to worry about them getting through admissions. So for that HA, a kid with really strong credentials is going to be a...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
IMO, telling a kid to just apply and trust he will be admitted would be a pretty clear signal that a coach wasn't very interested. Even for a recruit with perfect academic credentials, if a coach wants the player, I'd expect an offer for an admissions pre-read for ED admission. There must be some limit on the number of recruits a coach can use this process for (I think D3 HA schools vary widely on this). But if a coach wants a player, I don't think he'd say "you can just apply on your own."...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Thanks for all the responses, agree that pre-read is essential. But if pre-read is positive, does that guarantee eventual admission without coach using a "slot"? In Ivy League, at least the "likely letter" is essentially a guarantee of admissions, but D3s don't give likely letters to my knowledge.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
I haven’t heard of D3s actually issuing likely letters (although some may). But likely letters aren’t binding in any event. I’d feel just as confident relying on an email from a baseball coach telling me my pre-read was positive and assuring me that I’d be accepted if I apply ED (and keep my grades up, don’t get arrested, etc.). That’s essentially a likely letter in email form. But maybe I’m naive.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
A few D3s do give likely letters, but, as noted, it's not a guarantee. This is why the whole thing is so complicated to understand. D3 schools have no roster limits. And "high academic," even if you start with an average SAT score of, say, 1250, covers a very wide range in terms of admissions percentages; anywhere from 7% to 50+%. (Chapman, who just won the D3 World Series, goes to Headfirst). Some D3 coaches (at all levels of selectivity) keep their rosters at 30-35; some (again at all...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Hijacking the thread a bit (but this doesn't seem worth a separate post): Did anyone encounter what we used to call "exploding offers" from HA D3s? That is, did a coach say "you have to get back to me in X weeks or I'm going to move on to a different candidate"? My son is just starting to visit schools and has one offer so far (D3, very good school and solid baseball program). He's very happy about that, but says he wants to see more before he makes any decisions. That coach did not mention...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Re: if S gets in will he be ok academically. The highest of HAs graduate something like 92+% of their class IN FOUR YEARS and 96+% in six years. Those numbers tell the story; compare those numbers to lower academic tier colleges. If a kid is good enough to have the academics and scores while developing his baseball skills to the highest level, he has earned his slot in an incoming class - by proving his devotion to an EC AND succeeding in academics. (As virtually every other kid.) The Ivies...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Re Chico's question about the deadlines, yes my 2017 got a few of those exploding offers from D3s when he was being considered as a catcher (he was a two-way and wound up as a PO in college). One coach was pretty honest about it and did not do the really hard sell--just said he only had room to add one catcher so if one of them goes Early Decision, they would have the slot. Then my son could be considered among the pitchers. I get that--a team can only have so many catchers. But another...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
My 2019 had pre-reads at 2 NESCAC schools and was not pressured by either coach. He decided by September of senior year.
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
Goosegg is spot on! Let face it just like the commercial says " most athletes will become professional is something other than their sport". My son's goal was to leverage his baseball skills into an education that he may not have qualified with just his academic merit. Yes test scores and GPA are the most important but don't underestimate the BA or ERA! When Son went through recruiting he had opportunities at "state U", D1 and D3 HA. He chose D1 academic and all four years he witnessed the...
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Re: High Academic minimum requirements
My older son college 2019 went HA D3. He was an OF player started looking summer/fall of Sr year. The D3's and NAIA are getting into their serious recruiting of Sr's shortly . He had multiple requests for pre reads from multple HA schools across the country but did not go ED for the simple fact we needed to know how much $ we were going to have to pay above and beyond our college fund before he commited to any school and that info comes out later. We dont qualify for need based aid but live...
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Re: Velocity Loss
Thanks for the help. My son says he feels fine and his arm feels stronger then ever. He insists that he was throwing upper 70's -80 when radared (it was a try out camp this past weekend) and the gun has to be wrong. He says the readings were a hot topic among the other pitchers. He seemed to be popping the catchers mit. I did see two senior boys throwing 74-78 which seems slow for their age and the ability levels at this try out. I thought maybe the club coach set the veloc. low (possible?)...
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Re: Minimum Velocity to pitch in college
"How good you are at other things"... What do you mean, specifically? Are you talking about being a two way player? Pitching and playing another position as well? Or being a Pitcher/DH? That kind of thing There are pitchers at the low level D3's that throw high 70's to low 80's
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Re: Minimum Velocity to pitch in college
By "other things i mostly meant control and off speed.
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Re: Minimum Velocity to pitch in college
We'll see what others I have to say. I've personally seen plenty of D3 pitchers throw fastballs in the high 70's in games. Generally most will say you need to throw 80 to get college interest at the lowest levels 85+ as a lefty pitcher will get you D1 interest. High 80's as a right hand pitcher for D1
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Re: Minimum Velocity to pitch in college
No. There is not one speed or situation where a coach is going to say I'm not interested. There is more to pitching than velocity and I could rattle off a dozen or so things a college recruiter is going to look at holistically to make a determination if they are initially interested in a recruit. If you want an answer, I think you are going to have to ask the coach themselves and I really don't think that is a good question to ask. I think a better question would be to ask "what are the...