D1 baseball scholarship and good majors

Once you are in, you are in.   A player can use baseball to get in to a school that he may not have gotten into otherwise.  That is why we hear so much on this site to "go where you would go if you didn't play baseball".   For all players, there is the chance of a career ending injury.  Of course, if he doesn't play baseball, the baseball scholarship goes away.   Academic scholarships will remain as long as the player meets the requirements each year.

A baseball player CAN do STEM majors, but you need to be careful of which school.  Check current rosters at schools to see what other players are majoring in.  FenwaySouth's (on this site) son played baseball 4 years at an Ivy and majored in engineering.  Not easy to do on many counts, but he did it in 4 years.  There are others.

STEM is very hard to do at the D1 level, and many choose the D3 level for the shorter baseball season.   Shoot, keeping up with your coursework in any major is hard to do when you are traveling half the time February-May/June.   

Keewart's advice is good, I agree.  I think everyone would like to see their son play high level D1, but at some point in the process I would recommend he ask himself if the college decision he is making is about the next 4 years or about the next 40 years.  If he is already contemplating leaving the team to pursue a desired major, sounds like he is at least as much about the next 40 as he is about the next 4.  If so, I would say he is more wise than most.  If he can find an opportunity to pursue  his desired major and play, then it may be the best of both worlds. 

^^^THIS    Best advice one of my boys ever received!

Tao,

Excellent question.  To piggyback off the excellent advice of others, I think it is a wise thing to consider all angles and all possibilities as a 2018 recruit considering STEM.    If your son is being closely followed & considered by elite D1 programs, he'll mostly likely have many baseball options.  If he has outstanding academics, he'll have many academic options.  Finding the intersection of those two things is not easy...trust me.  It took us about 18-20 months to find the right fit.   Understanding ALL of those options relative to his life goals will become the challenge.  It was a tremendous challenge for my son.  Some of the older HSBBWeb folks provided me a lot of help, guidance, and timely advice.  I've been trying to pay it forward.

There are other folks on this site who's son played D1 baseball and majored in a STEM degree.   MTH comes to mind.  Also, BOF's son majored in engineering at a top national D3 baseball program.  I'm not going to put too many words in their mouths, but I think they will tell you that their son's were extremely time challenged.  My son was as well.  I think the student has to be as passionate about their STEM major just as they are about baseball.  Because both STEM and college baseball (any level) is an absolute grind. 

Good luck and let me know if I can help in any way.

Is FenwaySouth's son in Ivy the position player? I  heard the PO can probably work around the schedule to make both the classes and practices, but position player is just tough. I personally majored in the computer science, it was already tough for me to take on the classes, graduate, without sports. Now seeing my son could have a chance to play baseball at the high D1 level, I don't know how do they have time to do the lab/projects and make the practices. If you look at the most D1 school rosters' majors, to be honest, most of them take on "light" majors, very few of them take on real demanding majors. This seems to be more apparent for the public schools. Private schools seem to be more lenient. D3/high academic school is another option, but pretty much you lose the competition and therefore less pro scout attention, but you get the degree you like. So I kick around the idea maybe he can stop playing in college if he doesn't do well, and just focus on the school like most other kids do. if he does do well, then keeps on playing! I still think it's tough to do both at the same time, unless your son is very very smart, which I don't think my son is in that category..

fenwaysouth posted:

Tao,

... baseball options.  If he has outstanding academics, he'll have many academic options.  Finding the intersection of those two things is not easy...trust me. 

I echo what Fenway said above. Son had goal to play D1 baseball. He had some of the tools some programs looked for, but was also a high academic achiever. He focused his recruitment plan primarily on Ivy and Patriot League schools. He is a position player and a STEM (chemical engineering) major. Last year a teammate of his (also a chemical engineering major) was drafted. It's tough to juggle demands of school and baseball but the school (and coaches) support the academic/athletic balance. Monday (the "off day") is when most of the STEM major athletes have their labs. During the season, it was challenging for him getting the notes (from people he trusted) for classes missed during midweek games. If son committed to one other (Big STATE U) school that recruited him, things would have have been more difficult, due to the large geography of their conference.  That was one consideration son took into account along with team G.P.A  and other factors (team, position, openings, etc.). This board always talks about "FINDING A FIT."  Many different factors go into finding a "fit." The more factors your son considers, the better of he will be.  

This summer son took a course at the school (around his summer league baseball) which will allow a "lighter spring load" next year. He took one class more in the fall last year. Time management is key --that's for sure. In summary, a STEM degree is tough, but doable. If those subjects are of interest to the player and a strength- go for it. It should pay dividends down the road. As 9AND7 Dad said above, son was looking long term 4-0, not just 4 years. The coaches preached that mantra as well.

Tao, Fenway's son was a PO.

Keewartson started college wanting to be a dentist.  His roommate a doctor.  Neither are pursuing those degrees.  To be fare, that could have happened at any school, with or without baseball, but at a high academic school....it was going to be a very very hard road.  Both are position players.

Son will start his junior year @ D1 baseball college as an Engineering Major, PO. The degree @his school is a 5 year program as all in the major are required to Intern every other semester starting spring of Sophomore year.  This can be a good/bad thing depending how you look @ it.  He was fortunate enough to get an Internship thru the Facilities Maintenance & Planning Dept. @ his University so he did not have to commute in a large city & his boss was very agreeable to accommodate his spring travel to away games & midweek games with early starts. Spring was fun, being "In Season" and working ~ no homework.  His scholarship stopped during this time as he was earning $, and rebooted this summer as he took a full class load from May 9th- Aug 5th.  Bad part was, early May, the Road to Omaha amps up, schools are heavily competing for their League titles and then their League Championships .  He attended the first 7 days of class, then was on the road the next 11 days !   (This does not happen in the Spring Semester. Classes usually begin the second week of January and travel usually does not start till 4 weeks later, 2nd week of February .  Took him half the semester to dig out from this & believe Fenwaysouth it is a true grind!  And he also pitched 42 innings this summer playing for a team in The Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League while taking a full 15 credits.  He was limited for Summer Ball placement because he had to be near campus. So, with a few compromises my Son is living out his dream. Like Fenwaysouth, Son took 18 - 20 months to find his fit once the recruitment puzzle began.  After touring, official & unofficial visits, tests scores coming in,  Son stated , " I want the Midwest, D1, Engineering, and Baseball and in that order".   In the end, there were only two schools that met his criteria & made an offer.  So, take the time to allow your Son to Find His Fit because HE has to live it.

As a side note; Freshman year, the Junior Engineering PO bailed on baseball, and the other 2 Freshman Engineers did not make grades.  There are only 12 Juniors on my Sons' team of the original 22 who started freshman year.  They came from a mix of majors. I will also add that only 1 of the 10 not on the baseball team from Freshman year is still on campus.  The others left and are playing baseball @ other schools.  

Best wishes to find that Fit, and I always say, "a lot can happen in 2 years,  or not......., with grades, genetics & athletic projection or injury"  It happened to my Son

One thing I meant to mention as a great strategy is one Keewart suggested in his first response - if your son is talking with a school that he is giving consideration to, please do take the time to look at the roster to see what players are majoring in.  It's possible for a coach to tell a recruit that they can major in something that turns out to not be realistic.  It happens.  Check not only the current season, but also check past seasons.  Old rosters are almost always on the team website.  Just be aware that sometimes they are not updated if a kid chooses to change majors part way through his time at the school.  If you see multiple players in the chosen field, you're likely OK.  If there is only one, or maybe two, ask coach to put your son in touch with that player so he can get a better understanding of the challenges.

I echo all of the other comments. We found late in the process that D1 baseball and STEM majors could realistically be done at just a few schools: Ivy's, Stanford, Cal Poly, and a couple of others. It is also much easier as a PO. My son was a two-way for his Frosh year and then switched to position only Soph and Jr year. He broke his hand early in his Jr year and switched to PO for the rest of Jr and Sr season and said it was MUCH easier as a PO. 

Regarding acceptance, once you are in, you are in. I know some kids who were swimmers and got into Stanford and gave up swimming after the second year. Many parents don't think about this during recruiting, but in reality 50% of kids who start playing baseball drop by the time they are Sr's for a whole bunch of reasons. Just look at roster attrition. You can use baseball as a way in and if he can't keep up he can just focus on academics. It is also not unusual for STEM majors to take 5 years so I have seen some kids plan it this way from the beginning when doing baseball and STEM. You also do not have to play summer baseball. My son played on a Collegiate team between his Frosh/Soph year and then ended up doing internships, during two of those years he found summer teams that played only on weekends and ended up working and getting in some quality baseball. 

Good luck and you are starting out thinking the right way.