Applying early to colleges

Others with better answers will chime in, but I'm just guessing that if your son is a pitcher, the late-admission possibility will be much stronger than if he's a position player.

What you have outlined happened to my son. He applied to his first choice of schools. When admittance letters came out he was not accepted.

Three weeks latter the coach called and offered him a small scholly. We told the coach that he had not been accepted and the next day the admissions department called saying that a mistake was made. Viola, he was in!

It does happen. Good Luck!

PS He ended up going to his second choice of schools (he felt that he was wanted more and as such changed his perception of "best fit.")

That's a good story IL VBB, but I think the best way is to contact the coach, hope he shows interest in your son, and then coordinate the efforts.

I assume this is a private school with a high tuition and that your son has excellent grades with a chance to get in even without baseball

For instance, some coaches will take your application, gpa and test scores and run it through the admissions office to see if it's acceptable. Of course, he will only do this for recruits he wants. Coaches love players with high gpa's who can play baseball. Get him interested.

If son is interested in playing at a particular school but wouldn't attend unless he played ball there, in this situation should he call coach to gage Coaches interest to either apply or eliminate from his list?

Go ahead and apply.

Agree with Texan, 100%.

Some coaches have no clout with their Admissions offices or academic counsellors anyway.

If you mean by "apply early" you mean early decision, that means you must go to that school if accepted. (I have heard you can still get out of it, but that's a separate question). Applying early decision is a major decision.

Here's a link to an article about the differences between early decision (binding acceptance) and early action (not binding):

http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/000041.htm