Beginning the college search. Help asking the right questions?

First thing to do is have an honest assessment of where your son is from a quantifiable skills perspective, and an academic perspective.  There are a lot of great schools out there, so just being honest about those two huge items helps to narrow it down.  Then get a sense of other large factors.  Does your son mind being far away, or does he want to limit travel to a 3-4 hour car ride.  Weather a factor?  Size a factor?  Caught up on D1, or open to all Divisions? Winnow all of this stuff and then you'll get to the ball park of 30-50 schools to really start evaluating.  

Wechson posted:

First thing to do is have an honest assessment of where your son is from a quantifiable skills perspective, and an academic perspective.  There are a lot of great schools out there, so just being honest about those two huge items helps to narrow it down.  Then get a sense of other large factors.  Does your son mind being far away, or does he want to limit travel to a 3-4 hour car ride.  Weather a factor?  Size a factor?  Caught up on D1, or open to all Divisions? Winnow all of this stuff and then you'll get to the ball park of 30-50 schools to really start evaluating.  

Thanks!

I think, at this point, your questions need to be steered more toward your son and yourself.  The questions to the schools typically come later when he is getting specific recruiting interest from those schools (unless that is already happening).  And, BTW, there are tons of threads on this site that you can also search and browse for both.

As Wechson touched on, the initial self-questions are those things like distance, weather, culture, academic major of interest, size, learning resources required/preferred, competitive factor, tuition cost, facilities, in-state/neighboring state discounts, social environment, urban vs. rural, proximity and access to outside interests, etc.  You can check rosters to see how much schools lean on JC transfers and drop-downs vs. recruiting straight out of HS.  If you are looking at out-of-state schools, you can also see which ones are likely to bring those players in. 

One of the questions we didn't cover adequately was cost of living in a particular area (outside of school costs).  i.e. - cost to live in San Francisco is considerably different than small town Midwest.  Also, realize that, unless your son has a specific and unique major or is highly likely to seek out HA's, the majority of kids end up either in-state or adjacent.  You might want to check the charts that CollegeBaseballInsights provided in that regard.  If that is the likely scenario for your son, this can save quite a bit of time.

From there, you can start making a broad list of schools but I don't think you need to get too specific with things like position needs, where your son fits on their board, levels of program academic support, team culture, etc., until deeper in recruiting discussions.

cabbagedad posted:

I think, at this point, your questions need to be steered more toward your son and yourself.  The questions to the schools typically come later when he is getting specific recruiting interest from those schools (unless that is already happening).  And, BTW, there are tons of threads on this site that you can also search and browse for both.

 

Awesome advice, and 1000% agree with cabbagedad.   Figure out what your son wants to do after college then work towards that goal.   Once you've identified the goal there are a lot of people that can help or guide in that direction. 

If you've spent any time on HSBBWeb, you know there are all walks of life and plenty of wisdom to go around.

Good luck!

cabbagedad posted:

I think, at this point, your questions need to be steered more toward your son and yourself.  The questions to the schools typically come later when he is getting specific recruiting interest from those schools (unless that is already happening).  And, BTW, there are tons of threads on this site that you can also search and browse for both.

As Wechson touched on, the initial self-questions are those things like distance, weather, culture, academic major of interest, size, learning resources required/preferred, competitive factor, tuition cost, facilities, in-state/neighboring state discounts, social environment, urban vs. rural, proximity and access to outside interests, etc.  You can check rosters to see how much schools lean on JC transfers and drop-downs vs. recruiting straight out of HS.  If you are looking at out-of-state schools, you can also see which ones are likely to bring those players in. 

One of the questions we didn't cover adequately was cost of living in a particular area (outside of school costs).  i.e. - cost to live in San Francisco is considerably different than small town Midwest.  Also, realize that, unless your son has a specific and unique major or is highly likely to seek out HA's, the majority of kids end up either in-state or adjacent.  You might want to check the charts that CollegeBaseballInsights provided in that regard.  If that is the likely scenario for your son, this can save quite a bit of time.

From there, you can start making a broad list of schools but I don't think you need to get too specific with things like position needs, where your son fits on their board, levels of program academic support, team culture, etc., until deeper in recruiting discussions.

 

Thanks, CabbageDad. That really helps. I enjoy researching so this should be fun in addition to helping me find some relevant information for my son. I am taking a pretty laid back approach with this task. I am looking at it from a school (without baseball) perspective and then adding on anything baseball. I have no clue where my son will land. He has the potential to have a bat. We'll see. I am approaching it as if he might get some attention at some point so I am interested in any recruiting knowledge, as well. 

fenwaysouth posted:

cabbagedad posted:

I think, at this point, your questions need to be steered more toward your son and yourself.  The questions to the schools typically come later when he is getting specific recruiting interest from those schools (unless that is already happening).  And, BTW, there are tons of threads on this site that you can also search and browse for both.

 

Awesome advice, and 1000% agree with cabbagedad.   Figure out what your son wants to do after college then work towards that goal.   Once you've identified the goal there are a lot of people that can help or guide in that direction. 

If you've spent any time on HSBBWeb, you know there are all walks of life and plenty of wisdom to go around.

Good luck!

I have logged a few hours here, for sure. My son has no clue what he wants to do after high school. He is a sophomore and just planting his feet in a new high school. Of course, I know his personality so that helps me as I am looking around. I am taking a broad approach to this; just information gathering. It also affords me some time to go back through HSBBWeb and revisit some informational gems. Glad to have it as a resource.

Cabbage covered most of what I would have posted. From a baseball standpoint the best Avenue is having baseball people provide your son’s potential skill level. Some fathers see their kids through rose colored glasses. Some are tough evaluating their kids. The travel teams pursuing your son is a tip. Where have they been placing their players? 

Once you have a general idea of potential talent level decide what conferences the skill level fits. Then, decide what schools in that conference are the potential right fit. 

Elijah posted:

fenwaysouth posted:

cabbagedad posted:

I think, at this point, your questions need to be steered more toward your son and yourself.  The questions to the schools typically come later when he is getting specific recruiting interest from those schools (unless that is already happening).  And, BTW, there are tons of threads on this site that you can also search and browse for both.

 

Awesome advice, and 1000% agree with cabbagedad.   Figure out what your son wants to do after college then work towards that goal.   Once you've identified the goal there are a lot of people that can help or guide in that direction. 

If you've spent any time on HSBBWeb, you know there are all walks of life and plenty of wisdom to go around.

Good luck!

...My son has no clue what he wants to do after high school. He is a sophomore and just planting his feet in a new high school. Of course, I know his personality so that helps me as I am looking around. I am taking a broad approach to this; just information gathering....

This is one of the bigger challenges with the exercise, for sure.  I would say most kids that age either have similar  uncertainty or will change their perspective quite a bit over the next few years or both.  Many at that age will only look at very superficial things.  So, taking them on campus visits just to see what they react to is good.  Also, exploratory discussions about interests, both personal and from a career standpoint can provide good indicators.  Unfortunately, at this age, a long list of logical questions and check boxes may prove to be somewhat useless.

Still, I get it.  We did the same.  Nothing wrong with starting that process and keeping one hand on the "adjust" dial.  That was part of the fun.

RJM posted:

Cabbage covered most of what I would have posted. From a baseball standpoint the best Avenue is having baseball people provide your son’s potential skill level. Some fathers see their kids through rose colored glasses. Some are tough evaluating their kids. The travel teams pursuing your son is a tip. Where have they been placing their players? 

Once you have a general idea of potential talent level decide what conferences the skill level fits. Then, decide what schools in that conference are the potential right fit. 

Yes, I have quite a few notes already. Certainly enough to keep me busy for a while. My son plays on a top travel team that is competitive. I have developed a calm neutrality when assessing him. Lol. His bat will determine all this spring and summer. If he does well, I would expect some decent looks. He has some intangibles. He will face off against top pitching in the summer so we'll see. 

I am doing this project on my own at the moment while he concentrates on HS ball, his grades, friends and gf. I hope to have a decent grasp on things if he does get some looks. Otherwise, I have will the information he needs for school with or without baseball. Any info I can get to help, I am appreciative. Thanks!

cabbagedad posted:

Elijah posted:

fenwaysouth posted:

cabbagedad posted:

I think, at this point, your questions need to be steered more toward your son and yourself.  The questions to the schools typically come later when he is getting specific recruiting interest from those schools (unless that is already happening).  And, BTW, there are tons of threads on this site that you can also search and browse for both.

 

Awesome advice, and 1000% agree with cabbagedad.   Figure out what your son wants to do after college then work towards that goal.   Once you've identified the goal there are a lot of people that can help or guide in that direction. 

If you've spent any time on HSBBWeb, you know there are all walks of life and plenty of wisdom to go around.

Good luck!

...My son has no clue what he wants to do after high school. He is a sophomore and just planting his feet in a new high school. Of course, I know his personality so that helps me as I am looking around. I am taking a broad approach to this; just information gathering....

This is one of the bigger challenges with the exercise, for sure.  I would say most kids that age either have similar  uncertainty or will change their perspective quite a bit over the next few years or both.  Many at that age will only look at very superficial things.  So, taking them on campus visits just to see what they react to is good.  Also, exploratory discussions about interests, both personal and from a career standpoint can provide good indicators.  Unfortunately, at this age, a long list of logical questions and check boxes may prove to be somewhat useless.

Still, I get it.  We did the same.  Nothing wrong with starting that process and keeping one hand on the "adjust" dial.  That was part of the fun.

Great idea about campus visits. I would like to gauge his reactions to big vs smaller schools. 

Try to figure out an initial academic fit; have him take the SAT or ACT soon, so that you have a baseline.  Look at the test/grade averages from various schools.  If he doesn't know what he wants to do, aim at schools that offer many different types of major.

We didn't find it to be a linear path, but then, we didn't know what we were doing, we mostly just reacted to recruiting stuff as it happened.  If your son hits D1 numbers early then that narrows it down fast, but if not, you are stuck waiting to see how he develops.  I did a lot of research and planning, it was fun for me but I don't think it helped that much.  Very few of the schools who were interested in him for baseball were places he thought about early on; he had never heard of the school where he has ended up, until the coach contacted him. 

So my best advice is, figure out HOW to research schools, rather than doing a broad sweep.  Find out where and how to look for things like test score averages, majors, roster churn, size of roster, season rankings, current list of commitments, FB of current pitchers, etc.  Practice on a couple of schools, then be ready to research when the time comes.

Meet with his guidance counselor; get him/her to give a tutorial on the process, where he/she sees your son so far (hard in a large public school where they might not have even met, easy in a small private school), where kids from the HS have gone (we had a program called, I believe, Naviance, which -  through graphics -  painted a picture of what academics a kid needed to get into various schools).

This will create a box of schools based upon academics for non-athletes; most, if not all D1s have some latitude in lower standards for athletes (some more than others). Also, it will give you the knowledge of any adjustments in his HS curriculum which may be needed for certain schools (e.g., "most rigorous curriculum.")

Meet with his teachers to get a feel of what they believe is his academic potential as well as flushing out any academic/LD issues.

If money is a limiting factor, try to figure that out now so the family is on the same page; d3s without academic and athletic scholarships can run 65k+. Also, if you're self-employed, you may be able to do some serious financial planning which could favorably impact any financial aid offered - here, you need to hurry up and figure that out.

There used to be a website - both terrifying and intimidating  - on the pure non-athlete college selection process: college confidential; if it is still up there is lots of good (and bad) info.

Its alot of info to uncover and can appear daunting; one step up the mountain at a time.

Since all you have are academic pieces to the puzzle, here are some suggested research avenues:

1) Does he have PSAT scores? Check his PSAT range as you look into 2)

2) Does your school district use Naviance? If so you can ask for a meeting with his guidance councelor to review historical Naviance scores from his high school based on PSAT or project SAT scores.

3) My company offers a free benefit called College Coach.   https://www.getintocollege.com/about-college-coach  Check your benefits.   Many of my co-workers didn't even know about it.    You may have something similar.

4) Gather information, review and compare school details in https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

I understand many high school sophomores don't know what they want to do professionally.    The world is changing quicker than it ever has and there is a good chance they'll be doing a job that didn't exist a few years ago.  Its a great discussion for the dinner table.  I had it many times and I tried to do all the listening I could.

Good luck.

This might give you a starting point on the spreadsheet.

https://community.hsbaseballwe...ruitingplanv1-0-xlsx

anotherparent posted:

Try to figure out an initial academic fit; have him take the SAT or ACT soon, so that you have a baseline.  Look at the test/grade averages from various schools.  If he doesn't know what he wants to do, aim at schools that offer many different types of major.

We didn't find it to be a linear path, but then, we didn't know what we were doing, we mostly just reacted to recruiting stuff as it happened.  If your son hits D1 numbers early then that narrows it down fast, but if not, you are stuck waiting to see how he develops.  I did a lot of research and planning, it was fun for me but I don't think it helped that much.  Very few of the schools who were interested in him for baseball were places he thought about early on; he had never heard of the school where he has ended up, until the coach contacted him. 

So my best advice is, figure out HOW to research schools, rather than doing a broad sweep.  Find out where and how to look for things like test score averages, majors, roster churn, size of roster, season rankings, current list of commitments, FB of current pitchers, etc.  Practice on a couple of schools, then be ready to research when the time comes.

Great stuff!

MidAtlanticDad posted:

This might give you a starting point on the spreadsheet.

https://community.hsbaseballwe...ruitingplanv1-0-xlsx

I didn't look at that before... that is a GREAT spreadsheet!

Goosegg posted:

Meet with his guidance counselor; get him/her to give a tutorial on the process, where he/she sees your son so far (hard in a large public school where they might not have even met, easy in a small private school), where kids from the HS have gone (we had a program called, I believe, Naviance, which -  through graphics -  painted a picture of what academics a kid needed to get into various schools).

This will create a box of schools based upon academics for non-athletes; most, if not all D1s have some latitude in lower standards for athletes (some more than others). Also, it will give you the knowledge of any adjustments in his HS curriculum which may be needed for certain schools (e.g., "most rigorous curriculum.")

Meet with his teachers to get a feel of what they believe is his academic potential as well as flushing out any academic/LD issues.

If money is a limiting factor, try to figure that out now so the family is on the same page; d3s without academic and athletic scholarships can run 65k+. Also, if you're self-employed, you may be able to do some serious financial planning which could favorably impact any financial aid offered - here, you need to hurry up and figure that out.

There used to be a website - both terrifying and intimidating  - on the pure non-athlete college selection process: college confidential; if it is still up there is lots of good (and bad) info.

Its alot of info to uncover and can appear daunting; one step up the mountain at a time.

This is his first year at the school so I am not sure he has met a counselor. I was already planning on contacting teachers so I could be up to date on his progress as a student, so that works. Thanks! His personality is not a HA D3 so that will not be part of my search. I am giving him some time to see how he fit in this larger HS environment. So far, so good but it is a short sample.  Thanks for the advice. College Confidential is still there, btw. Bookmarked.

College Confidential can make you crazy; stick to HSBBW!

MidAtlanticDad posted:

This might give you a starting point on the spreadsheet.

https://community.hsbaseballwe...ruitingplanv1-0-xlsx

Thanks!!! Getting some 2020 dates is on my checklist. Thanks for the headstart on the spreadsheet!

anotherparent posted:

College Confidential can make you crazy; stick to HSBBW!

Lol. How so?

Get an honest, objective assessment from a trusted coach on his baseball ability and potential.

Start visiting a wide range of schools nearby (or while on vacation) to allow him to get a feel for different types of campuses. Take an admission tour if possible to explore the programs; check out the baseball facilities and maybe watch a game or practice.

Take the SAT and ACT early (my son took them the first time at the end of sophomore year). You don't have to send the scores anywhere but do it to get a baseline and insight into what he needs to work on. It will greatly help in narrowing your list and can definitely be an advantage to have if he gets serious interest from coaches.

Good luck!

Thread after thread after thread of people wondering whether they will get into xxx school based on their credentials.  And threads for every college around admissions time, of people waiting to find out, and posting after they do.  More for HA schools.  But, there's also plenty of good info about just about any school.

There's some decent stuff about athletic recruiting (even by some hsbbw contributors ), but you get better baseball-specific advice here.

BBMomAZ posted:

Get an honest, objective assessment from a trusted coach on his baseball ability and potential.

Start visiting a wide range of schools nearby (or while on vacation) to allow him to get a feel for different types of campuses. Take an admission tour if possible to explore the programs; check out the baseball facilities and maybe watch a game or practice.

Take the SAT and ACT early (my son took them the first time at the end of sophomore year). You don't have to send the scores anywhere but do it to get a baseline and insight into what he needs to work on. It will greatly help in narrowing your list and can definitely be an advantage to have if he gets serious interest from coaches.

Good luck!

 

College tours would be helpful. That would have to be very local because I think his next available gap of time might come up after the summer season is over. Crazy. I would love to see a couple of games but I don't see that happening unless Moses helps out with the schedule. I have noted the test advice. Thanks!

Fellow parent of a 2022 that has already committed. Great spreadsheet. One piece of advice I have is that you familiarize yourself with the NCAA core course requirements & research which courses qualify at his high school. I’d hate to see a kid get down to senior year & get an offer & not have taken the required classes. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligib...DI_ReqsFactSheet.pdf

https://web3.ncaa.org/hsportal...mit=searchHighSchool

KLL posted:

Fellow parent of a 2022 that has already committed. Great spreadsheet. One piece of advice I have is that you familiarize yourself with the NCAA core course requirements & research which courses qualify at his high school. I’d hate to see a kid get down to senior year & get an offer & not have taken the required classes. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligib...DI_ReqsFactSheet.pdf

https://web3.ncaa.org/hsportal...mit=searchHighSchool

Thanks! I have a nice resource list so far. 

KLL posted:

Fellow parent of a 2022 that has already committed. Great spreadsheet. One piece of advice I have is that you familiarize yourself with the NCAA core course requirements & research which courses qualify at his high school. I’d hate to see a kid get down to senior year & get an offer & not have taken the required classes. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligib...DI_ReqsFactSheet.pdf

https://web3.ncaa.org/hsportal...mit=searchHighSchool

We are mapping this out now, just had a "robust" conversation around the dining room table.  The question we have outstanding is the following:

2022 plans to take 2 of his 4 English requirements as dual credit.  These duel credit courses are listed on the NCAA list of certified courses for his school.  The question is, how do they treat these courses when calculating the NCAA required minimum GPA for the 16 core courses when these dual credit courses do not factor into his HS GPA. 

Also, the English courses he has already taken are listed with Reason Code RC8 (more information required).  How do we resolve that issue?

We can't find a resource for these type of nuanced questions.  Is there a help line at NCAA or some other resource?

Our HS does calculate the dual credit into the HS GPA; however, we’ve been told that 2 English courses will only count for 1 core credit because each course is only 1 semester. For instance will need to take  Comp 1 & 2 both to count for 1 year of English. Son attends a very small, rural high school, so they may not be correct though. 

22and25 posted:

KLL posted:

Fellow parent of a 2022 that has already committed. Great spreadsheet. One piece of advice I have is that you familiarize yourself with the NCAA core course requirements & research which courses qualify at his high school. I’d hate to see a kid get down to senior year & get an offer & not have taken the required classes. http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligib...DI_ReqsFactSheet.pdf

https://web3.ncaa.org/hsportal...mit=searchHighSchool

We are mapping this out now, just had a "robust" conversation around the dining room table.  The question we have outstanding is the following:

 

2022 plans to take 2 of his 4 English requirements as dual credit.  These duel credit courses are listed on the NCAA list of certified courses for his school.  The question is, how do they treat these courses when calculating the NCAA required minimum GPA for the 16 core courses when these dual credit courses do not factor into his HS GPA. 

Also, the English courses he has already taken are listed with Reason Code RC8 (more information required).  How do we resolve that issue?

We can't find a resource for these type of nuanced questions.  Is there a help line at NCAA or some other resource?

Our school does not factor the dual credit classes into the GPA either.  It was a deciding factor for some teammates who needed to raise their GPA, to choose not to do the dual credit.  I will say, my daughter attended the same school my son is committed to and she had done the dual credit at our hs.  She walked in the door with 24 hours that all counted towards core college classes and will graduate a year early this May.  Well worth it if you don't need the hours to help gpa.

Back to the original questions.  When you figure out what level your son is being recruited by will change your questions, IMO, a little.  The questions are not the same for all positions or all levels of college.  The questions also change according to the offers he begins to get.  We did not have that many questions because when I did the research on the coach's history and the program's history, I found the answers to my questions.  How many are recruited each year, how many will my son have to beat out to earn a starting role, (in our case) have they let kids play both ways, chances of the coach leaving, do they redshirt freshmen, how many get cut and when, do they get guys to the pros, etc.  We had very few to none to the coaches because I had done my research.  I just made them verbally put some things into the verbal contract which is useless but to hear it is a little more comforting.  The questions were dependent on the offers.  the P5 that offered 100% was evident they wanted him bad and they wanted him as a 2 way player.  The one who talked about preferred walk-on was not in love with him.  The ones in between were also answered as there was a mid level D1 that made a great offer and moved guys to the pros and made playoffs almost every year and most of the time to the Supers.  If you do your research, you will know what to ask and what you don't need to ask.

PitchingFan posted:

Back to the original questions.  When you figure out what level your son is being recruited by will change your questions, IMO, a little.  The questions are not the same for all positions or all levels of college.  The questions also change according to the offers he begins to get.  We did not have that many questions because when I did the research on the coach's history and the program's history, I found the answers to my questions.  How many are recruited each year, how many will my son have to beat out to earn a starting role, (in our case) have they let kids play both ways, chances of the coach leaving, do they redshirt freshmen, how many get cut and when, do they get guys to the pros, etc.  We had very few to none to the coaches because I had done my research.  I just made them verbally put some things into the verbal contract which is useless but to hear it is a little more comforting.  The questions were dependent on the offers.  the P5 that offered 100% was evident they wanted him bad and they wanted him as a 2 way player.  The one who talked about preferred walk-on was not in love with him.  The ones in between were also answered as there was a mid level D1 that made a great offer and moved guys to the pros and made playoffs almost every year and most of the time to the Supers.  If you do your research, you will know what to ask and what you don't need to ask.

Thanks @PitchingFan. I think I will take some earlier advice and research a couple of local schools starting with your research concerning team specifics. The man who coaches my son is top on my list so the starting point (for me) is the coach. Your answer helped me remember that. I know people say to not choose a school based on a coach for obvious reasons, but I think a combination of all points of view can be considered. Location, atmosphere, culture...all important. I think I can create some checks and balances into the system. 

BBMomAZ posted:

Start visiting a wide range of schools nearby (or while on vacation) to allow him to get a feel for different types of campuses. Take an admission tour if possible to explore the programs; check out the baseball facilities and maybe watch a game or practice.

 

 

We did the range of school thing for both my kids. Went to a small D3, medium size D2 and big D1. There is so much that you, or your kid, thinks you know, and then you get there and find out it all feels differently. I had my daughter pegged for a small D3 — she's quiet and I wanted a place where she would feel comfortable and come out of her shell. My thoughts were reinforced at one D1 when she refused to get out of the car.

Fast forward — she is in graduate school at the same large D1 where she got her undergraduate degree. She's been a leader in her major, an officer in her sorority, helped run the campus wide Greek week and we've learned she's a lot tougher than we knew.

So TAKE THE KIDS TO THE CAMPUS. Tour it, Go all sizes. Son was really interested in a southern school that he would have to fly to — we visited, he loved it, and then we got on the plane at 5 a.m. to come home and there was a mechanical problem. Got home 8 hours later than planned and that school was really off the list. The idea was great, the reality not so much.

Iowamom23 posted:

BBMomAZ posted:

Start visiting a wide range of schools nearby (or while on vacation) to allow him to get a feel for different types of campuses. Take an admission tour if possible to explore the programs; check out the baseball facilities and maybe watch a game or practice.

 

 

We did the range of school thing for both my kids. Went to a small D3, medium size D2 and big D1. There is so much that you, or your kid, thinks you know, and then you get there and find out it all feels differently. I had my daughter pegged for a small D3 — she's quiet and I wanted a place where she would feel comfortable and come out of her shell. My thoughts were reinforced at one D1 when she refused to get out of the car.

Fast forward — she is in graduate school at the same large D1 where she got her undergraduate degree. She's been a leader in her major, an officer in her sorority, helped run the campus wide Greek week and we've learned she's a lot tougher than we knew.

So TAKE THE KIDS TO THE CAMPUS. Tour it, Go all sizes. Son was really interested in a southern school that he would have to fly to — we visited, he loved it, and then we got on the plane at 5 a.m. to come home and there was a mechanical problem. Got home 8 hours later than planned and that school was really off the list. The idea was great, the reality not so much.

This is sage advice.  They're teenagers after all.  Initially my son wanted midsized and south.  Has gravitated towards smaller and North East (closer to home).  Not saying he'll end up there, but it's been interesting to see him react and evolve as he goes to the campuses.   

How discerning are kids about a college campus? They’re more likely to be turned on or off by the team facilities. I don’t recollect my daughter making a judgement other than the (cold) weather. My son wasn’t sure he wanted to attend a college in the city with a field several miles away. He was turned off by one school using its baseball field for football tailgating. He questioned the respect for the baseball program. 

RJM posted:

How discerning are kids about a college campus? They’re more likely to be turned on or off by the team facilities. I don’t recollect my daughter making a judgement other than the (cold) weather. My son wasn’t sure he wanted to attend a college in the city with a field several miles away. He was turned off by one school using its baseball field for football tailgating. He questioned the respect for the baseball program. 

I was inferring the campus visit included facilities visit.  Agreed that that can be more impactful than the actual campus.  

Can you ask to see the facilities if you are just visiting? 

Iowamom23 posted:

BBMomAZ posted:

Start visiting a wide range of schools nearby (or while on vacation) to allow him to get a feel for different types of campuses. Take an admission tour if possible to explore the programs; check out the baseball facilities and maybe watch a game or practice.

 

 

We did the range of school thing for both my kids. Went to a small D3, medium size D2 and big D1. There is so much that you, or your kid, thinks you know, and then you get there and find out it all feels differently. I had my daughter pegged for a small D3 — she's quiet and I wanted a place where she would feel comfortable and come out of her shell. My thoughts were reinforced at one D1 when she refused to get out of the car.

Fast forward — she is in graduate school at the same large D1 where she got her undergraduate degree. She's been a leader in her major, an officer in her sorority, helped run the campus wide Greek week and we've learned she's a lot tougher than we knew.

So TAKE THE KIDS TO THE CAMPUS. Tour it, Go all sizes. Son was really interested in a southern school that he would have to fly to — we visited, he loved it, and then we got on the plane at 5 a.m. to come home and there was a mechanical problem. Got home 8 hours later than planned and that school was really off the list. The idea was great, the reality not so much.

"My thoughts were reinforced at one D1 when she refused to get out of the car."

Hilarious. 

Elijah posted:

Can you ask to see the facilities if you are just visiting? 

Sure.  Worth asking ahead of time in case for some reason the facilities are shut down (eg holiday weekend).  But that is rarely the case, and I have yet to visit a college and have not visited the athletic facilities.