College Applications

Red,
How is it going? I hope that someone can give you advice. My son didn't have to apply to any school and did so after he signed. Every situation is different.

Fill out the applications and send them back. The admissions department and the coach work together. If you apply to the school, the coach realizes you are serious about attending and playing ball there.

Send the applications without the fee. The admissions department will process the app. and keep track of what you need to do next(specifically, fees due!).

arizonared ...

I am a little confused because even with the solid academics our son had in high school, I don't recall any school sending an unsolicited application for admission. But, presuming that is what is happening with your son, I am wondering about your comment:

quote:

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n all probablility, if he's not going to play ball, he won't be going....do we have to complete these applications?

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I presume that you mean if he isn't going to play baseball for some of those schools (that have sent the applications), then he wouldn't be going to those schools. If that is a correct presumption, I would have to respectfully disagree with RHSfan. Why bother wasting your son's time and the time of the admissions offices of any schools he is not interested in attending without baseball?

And as far as not including the application fee ... I would question how a school that your son wasn't going to attend without baseball is supposed to keep track of fees from applicants who never attend, and why they should be burdened with that responsibility. I would also wonder if the absence of an application fee might not hamper the application process at those schools. I believe that our son even sent a fee with his application to the school where he had already signed his NLI ... because I don't think the fee can be absorbed or "paid for" by scholarship money that doesn't actually exist until the student is enrolled. (If the school could "hold" the fee till enrollment, what would happen if the student/athlete became ineligible for acceptance because he didn't maintain his grades? Do you think they would send him a bill?)

My recommendation would be that your son complete applications ... including the submission of fees ... only for those schools which he would seriously consider attending with or without baseball. If something happens that your son is fortunate enough to have a serious offer from a school where he had not applied, and where he eventually decides to attend, then you can complete the application process with the assistance of the baseball coaches. This happens many times and we have found that some players ... in these circumstances ... are even accepted at the end of their senior years without having submitted an application earlier in their senior years. The coaches help "walk it through" for the student athlete.

BBMomma, we started receiving the unsolicited applications last summer. I work at a high school and asked the counselors why.....their response was that some of the "academic" schools are very pro-active in recruiting ....my son has had straight A's since 7th grade, with AP and honor courses in high school. In the state of Arizona students who rank in the top 2% of their class have a free ride to the UofA, and ASU. The UofA and ASU have been actively recruiting him since his junior year with "Honor" days, luncheons, school tours, etc. In an ideal world my son would be playing ball for Lopez or Murphy next year.....but....that's not likely to happen.....so....we are trying to find out if there are schools where he can play ball, and still have the "academics". Don't want to waste anyone's time....it's just that he already has a free ride here....but wants to play ball....is that wrong? In Arizona we only have two D1 schools, and one D2....so it almost forces us to look elsewhere....and if he can't play ball at a school outside the state....then he will attend here....with a full ride. Don't want to diminish his baseball skills either...he is not, however, a pitcher! Thank you for your advise.....you too RHSfan, and Tiger Paw Mom....we are doing well...starting to get some coaches calling...appreciate the advise on this site....it has definitely helped us.

arazonared and BabyBackMomma,
I should have been more precise in my reply; send the applications back for the schools that you might have a baseball interest in. Like BabyBackMomma says, there's no sense sending in applications to schools you have no intention of attending.

Just as athletic departments recruit good athletes, admission departments recruit good students. If your GPA and ACT or SAT are high enough for them to recruit you as a student, most admissions departments will gladly accept a delay in the receipt of an admissions fee. More than likely, they will not drop their interest, or stop recruiting you because you did not sent the fee in with the application.

Thanks, and I agree...we are only sending letters and stat sheets to schools that hold an interest. We check the college web sites out before we mail.....roster, academic offerings, geographic location, etc...but that said we don't want to pay fees if he won't be playing ball for them...just like summer camps/fall camps....he's not going to a $500.00 camp if he doesn't want to play ball for them. Does this make sense? I'm a little concerned that we might be "wasting" someone's time at a college....as has been stated twice now....but we really thought we were doing this correctly.

I don't think you are wasting anyone's time. Part of the job of the admissions dept. is to find good students and encourage them to attend their school. The admissions dept. is open for business and their employees are being paid whether you send in an application or not.
Later this year, after having contacted coaches, your mailbox will be filled with mass mailings from admissions directors and counselors, questionaires, and invitations to camps, etc; then you will wonder who is wasting who's time!!!

If you think your son may have an interest in certain schools, go ahead and apply. The coach that you are coresponding with may not think you are overly interested in his program if he asks the admissions department if you are elegible for entrance and they tell him that you haven't even applied for admission.

If your son is a top 10 round draft prospect, ignore everything I have said----the coaches will find him; otherwise apply.

Hope this has been of some help.....RHSfan

I am confused, are these schools that offer baseball scholarships?
Have you had any invitations for visits? Also remember that if an offer does not come through where does he want to go?

Folks

A lot gets lost in the interpretation of the posts on a forum such as this

If you want to chat one on one call me and then nothing gets lost

800-782-3672

Tom Rizzi
www.collegeselect.org

Tiger Paw, in my original post when I mentioned recruiting...it's based on his academics...he has received numerous mailings/applications from the "academic" schools....and the free ride to UofA and ASU is again, academic money.

He also received mailings from college coaches, but to date just a few personal contacts. He is a MIF, and an excellent, consistent hitter, with great instinct (per his HS & Legion coaches). His HS coach has said that in all his years of coaching he has never had a player who works as hard at his game. So how do we tell this boy that you have to take a free academic ride in AZ and forget playing ball? It may come to that, but not without a lot of effort on our part to get him out there, via letters, and all the other things we have learned to do on this site...we just started the "exposure" game a little late.

If an offer does not come through he will probably go to the UofA....the state is trying to keep their top kids in the state...and offer very attractive academic awards...it's also a good school!

RHS fan, thanks again...we will send the applications back to the schools that we know are not academically generated...but rather by the coaches....and keep on thinking positively!

TRhit, thank you, we are still kind of new to this site but one thing that is obvious, you offer very good advise, and you seem to care about the kids...Fungo too...and Grateful...and I probably should not have started naming names...there are others too....

One point you need to consider....several of the schools that contacted my son waived the application fee if the the application went via the coach...one even had a coupon included by the coach...so I would contact those schools that he may have only academic interest in and pay their fee but if interested in a school after contact by the coach see if the fee is waived....saves some $$$$$

First, if a student is in the National Merit Scholar band of applicants, he/she will get lots of applications in the mail, even from the top schools. This is what happened to my son, who got apps from Harvard, Georgetown, Tulane, to name a few, without his ever having contacted them. The schools buy the names of the top SAT and PSAT scorers from the College Board and they will send out not only brochures and letters but also applications.

Second, arizonared, I understand your starting premise that he would not apply to a school if he were not going to play baseball there (I think that is what you said). I don't know what schools he is hearing from, but if they are in a top academic range, many of them will start their recruiting later. This was true, for example, of several of the very top liberal arts colleges in the country where my son ended up being a baseball recruit. So if your son is interested in a school but so far has not heard from the coach, I wouldn't cross that school off the application list unless you know for sure that baseball is absolutely out of the question at that school. Just the fact that he has not yet heard from the coach at the particular school is not necessarily a definitive statement. TRHit can certainly tell you lots of stories of late signers at schools.

Also, if your son really likes one or two schools that he could not play baseball at, I would say apply anyway. You know, senior year things can change: a player can get injured (knock on wood it doesn't happen), or they may even find something else that interests them more. Then they may kick themselves for not having applied to a school they loved except for the baseball issue. I know several athletes (not necessarily baseball players) for whom that turned out to be true.

Red,
Definetly apply to the state schools, regardless of baseball or not.
Try to see if the coach at school can help you out with making some phone calls, his help or lack of may be an indication of how he truly feels about your son as a player at a bigger school.

Bordeaux, thank you for the advise, and encouragement....we did get academic mailings from the Ivies...as you say...they purchase lists...

Tiger Paw, We've already mailed the applications to the UofA and ASU! We will talk to Coach about making calls..he has not been pro active to our knowledge, but feedback from college coaches regarding questionnaires that he was sent for evaluation.....very favorable. Son also talked to him about where he saw him playing at the next level (we wanted an objective evaluation)....again...very favorable. You are right though...we need to ask him to make some calls....for some reason....we don't like "bothering" the coaches....and the few times we have made a request....we apologize first! .....gotta get over that.....thanks again Tiger Paw, good advise.

The applications that you are receiving are being sent based on the data that is culled from the SAT application. You will know if the application is related to a baseball contact because more than likely the coach has made some prior contact. Some schools even use a different color application for prospective student athletes. Often the coach will ask for the application to be sent directly to him. One way to determine the source of these unsolicited applications is to look at how your son registered his name on the SAT application. The applications will be addressed the same way the registration is completed on the SAT application. For those who have not had your son take the SAT, ACT, etc. - when registering, omit the word "street", "avenue", "court", etc. from your address. This way you will be able to determine the source of any applications you receive.

I think that you mean SAT "registration", not application.

The student can check a box when registering for the PSAT and I think also on the SAT, as to whether they will allow their data to be given out to colleges, by the way. (So someone can decline to make his or her data available beyond the college board itself).

Then, different colleges will purchase different types of data sets from the College Board. Some will specify all students (that is, those who have agreed to let the College Board give out their information) within a certain score range, or above a certain score, etc. Different colleges also do different things with the information. The students may be invited to special invitation-only events, or receive letters, or brochures, or applications, or be allowed to use special application procedures or all of the above, depending on the marketing used by the particular college.

Buddy Baseball

There is a better way than omitting an element of your address that may prove vital (you would be surprised how many times there is a Main St.and a Main Ave in the same town or - sometimes even a Main St.Ave.)

Simply have them use their middle name or initial on the application. You get the same results without the potential for delayed or misdirected mail.

Yes, you are correct - it is the SAT "registration" not "application. And "AParent"'s suggestion of using the middle name or initial on the registration is a better idea. Correspondence from the athletic department will not include one's full middle name and probably will not even include a middle initial.

Some of y'all may be interested in knowing that the National Merit Corporation has posted the PSAT state cut-off scores for NM semi-finalist qualification for those juniors who took the test in October, 2003.

...and to expand on my friend Thurber's post above, , those who are commended (top 2%) or semi-finalist (top 1/2 of 1%) have probably already received notification. Commended is a combined score above 200 (or maybe 200 and above). Semifinalist is determined by state, with different cutoffs in different states. California is 216.