D1 Baseball+Science+Engineering=?

Depending on the engineering specialty, two strong baseball schools that come to mind are Wichita State and Cal State Fullerton. I have no ideas if the labs can work with baseball schedules.

I'm not sure why you suggest Fullerton. Fullerton is a powerhouse baseball school with some of the lowest academic standards in California. These schools have their pick of the very best players that don't get great grades. A lot more competition than most schools. Then if you look at the majors, more than 50% are majoring in kinesiology. My bet is that this is the easy major that Fullerton baseball pushes these Athlete/Students into.

I think Fullerton would be at the bottom of the list for schools in which the baseball staff would support a tough major.

I can think of several schools in North Carolina....

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West Point, Annapolis, Colorado Springs.....

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55Mom
Several schools in North Carolina... That's great, do you have any names.

The University of Kansas has a school of Engineering that they like to showcase, and Texas A & M would also be an excellent choice for a combination of engineering and baseball. For petroleum engineering, either OU or OSU in Stillwater would be good options.

How about Georgia Tech? Great baseball program and from what I have heard has a very good engineering program.

quote:

Originally posted by dswann:
55Mom
Several schools in North Carolina... That's great, do you have any names.

all of the major D1 (for the most part)

State
Duke
Wake Forest
UNC CH
ECU
ASU

Davidson
UNCC
NC A&T

(I think the last three are D1 and have baseball teams)

quote:

Originally posted by dswann:
Where can you go and play D1 baseball and pursue either a degree in engineering or a science? Are there D1 bb programs that will support academics by making concessions and allowing a player to attend labs and still play. If so, who might they be? After reviewing dozens of rosters and player profiles it's apparent, a player pursuing a degree in engineering or science are pretty scarce even at the Ivy's.

Yes you will find players who are engineering majors.
It's often discouraged at the top D1 level. I knew of one engineering major at son's program, a walk on, he didn't get in much playing time. And many who start out in the engineering programs, often find they have to change their major if they want to stay more involved in baseball.
I often find that engineering majors have to be exceptional students and exceptional ball players to find the balance they are looking for.
Just from my observation, more support and concessions may be encouraged at the D3 level rather than at the D1 level.

Find the school your son is interested and ask the engineering department chairman. You can also check rosters for majors, however with the compacted schedule you might not find as many science majors as you would have two years ago.

I think there are a lot of schools that will try make a science major happen. You just need to ask the school and coach.

quote:

Originally posted by TPM:
I often find that engineering majors have to be exceptional students and exceptional ball players to find the balance they are looking for.
Just from my observation, more support and concessions may be encouraged at the D3 level rather than at the D1 level.

Lots of D1 schools with engineering and science programs. Yes there are freshman and sophmores pursuing these degrees very few junior and senior ball players. TPM I believe your right, lots of attrition to continue playing BB. A D3 school would probably be more likely to make concessions for academics.

How prudent would it be during the recruiting process to inquire about potential academic concessions,with either a D1 or D3 school? I understand a top BB program will not care unless your a #1 overall pick. Trust me I am not talking about a #1 overall. Not even an every day player.He's a LHP which may or may not make a difference in how flexible a coach might be.

When I started the thread. Frankly. It was more out of desperation. Lots of dead ends to the original question. Really the priorities are the stronger the academics the better. I am not trying to pound a square peg into a round hole here. My hope was I would get a few " Hey coach Stetson at Blue River U. has 5 pre med seniors and 4 engineering juniors".

I can only go by our experience. When we went on a visit to where son attended (top D1), the academic advisor (not the coach) more or less told us, that because of the expectation of son's role on the team, it wasn't going to work. Reason being, many engineering labs can be late afternoon or evenings, and they played 2 games per week (as now most on compressed schedule) that definetly was not going to work.
That doesn't mean it's not attainable. One just has to find the right program both for academics and baseball for it to work.

I was a civil engineering student who played D1 baseball. I scheduled most of my labs during the fall, sometimes carrying 19-21 hours to make the spring work. It can be done.

Georgia Tech is an excellent engineering school. Top 5 in most engineering categories and rated #1 in 2, maybe 3 disciplines.

Most baseball players major in business management. A review of their roster indicates that only 4 list engineering as their major, 2 are freshmen, 1 sophomore, and 1 junior.

Many of the suggestions on this web are certainly fine engineering schools - but clicking on Juniors on these rosters for the last 30 minutes, I am not finding any engineering majors (as in zero thus far).

My assumption is that Freshman and even sophomores may be headed down an engineering path - but change by the time they are Juniors.

I have heard the same as the original poster - that it is really hard to be a D1 baseball player and a engineering major - and that few manage to graduate. The last 30 minutes of clicking certainly supports that theory.

dswann,

I didn't have time to elaborate last night, only to let you know that Fullerton was not the answer.

My son and I have looked for a similar fit and it isn't easy. First off, AcademyDad is correct about the military academies. That is the best option that I have seen. The problem is getting in "IF" your boy is even willing to make that commitment.

Some of the college rosters that we have found some ballplayers with engineering majors include UCSD, Stanford, MIT, and some of the Ivies. It seems like the true engineering schools that have a baseball team are the best bets. You are on the right track to look at the rosters for those with engineering majors. I may do some more looking and post some results in this thread.

Some top engineering schools with baseball programs

Stanford
California-Berkeley
University of Illinois
Georgia Tech
University of Michigan
Cornell
University of Texas
Purdue
San Diego
UCLA
Texas A&M
Princeton
Penn State
University of Maryland
Harvard
California-Santa Barbara
Southern California
University of Minnesota
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins
Ohio State
University of Virginia
Columbia
Penn
Duke
North Carolina State
Rice
University of Washington
University of Florida
Yale
University of Massachusetts
Michigan State
University of Arizona
California-Irvine
Rutgers
University of Notre Dame
Lehigh
Northeastern
University of Iowa
Brown
Arizona State

Heard yesterday that one of our Seniors wanted to play ball and major in pharmacy. He was told by the school he could only do that for the first two years - that he would have to drop baseball after his sophomore season.

This is a private school and he would be accepting scollys for academics as well. He has not made a decision.

Here's a DIII school: http://www.rose-hulman.edu/sports/baseball.htm

Brian

All wonderful schools that have been listed. And would certainly meet the academic requirements. However, as I have experienced in the past once you dig a little deeper and start reading the roster profiles of the schools, virtually no science or engineering majors listed as juniors or seniors.

I did receive a pm on Pepperdine that suggested the coach, has and will support these types of majors,recently a couple of players have been admitted to med school. He'll support these majors with the understanding that most players will not be playing beyond college and that sacracfices will be made by players with playing time and travel... Surely there's a few more out there.

Whether or not this is true I am not certain. AcdemyDad is probably right. The service academies are probably the only programs that will sacrafice BB for academics. No shortage of stories of profs who will not make any concessions for players. My son experiences it now in HS.

A traditional approach may not be the answer. Maybe you pursue a major that would support an engineering or science degree and once you graduate, run out of eligibility or become injured pursue one of these fields. It's taking five years for a BB player to graduate with any type of degree. Whats another year or-

One of the guys that worked for me did exactly as you suggest - took a degree in general studies while playing baseball - and then did a second degree in Electrical Engineering in a follow-on 18 months (3 semesters). He took what classes he could towards the EE degree as a part of his general studies degree and then made a quick sprint to the finish on the EE degree. Total time in college 5.5 years.

Dswann,
JMO but going to college is about going to college, baseball is just an added bonus, for some it helps pay for their education. Most do not go to the next level.
I think that many parents here will tell you that their players truely did not know what they wanted to major in when they stepped foot on campus. Having a goal towards a degree early is wonderful, if one is sure that is what he/she really wants to do.
Your son's academic ability and his baseball ability will, in the end, determine his choice.
I think that you need to go with the flow, pursue schools that match his desire to major in engineering with his baseball ability and academics, with the understanding that not all baseball programs have the same philosophy or tolerance towards pursuing more difficult majors.

Good luck, I think you've made a good start in doing homework early.

quote:

How prudent would it be during the recruiting process to inquire about potential academic concessions,with either a D1 or D3 school? I understand a top BB program will not care unless your a #1 overall pick. Trust me I am not talking about a #1 overall. Not even an every day player.He's a LHP which may or may not make a difference in how flexible a coach might be.

Would you consider D3 schools? There are certainly many D3 engineering programs to choose from where they have good BB programs. My son is a probable physics major, but we also looked at some polytechnic schools that were strong in engineering such as RPI in NY and WPI in MA. As far as discussing academic concessions, that is normal at D3's. We talked with all the coaches we met with about science labs, and all of them were able to give us examples of physics, bio or chem majors who dealt with labs and baseball and the coaches had no problems with that. My son thought that for him, he could have the best of both worlds...a great academic experience and play baseball as well. He will be a freshman next year so we'll see how it goes, but he has talked with some of his future teammates who have had no problems. A year or two ago the baseball team actually had a higher cumulative GPA than the student body as a whole.

As far as D1, I am not sure where you are located, but you could check out a couple of schools such as Lafayette, Lehigh and Bucknell that are known for their engineering programs and play D1 but not in the most competitive conference. I'm not saying their programs don't require the same time commitment, but you might at least check out their rosters to see if there are any upperclass engineering students.

Update on my prior post - looking at just juniors and seniors on Bucknell's roster, I found five engineering majors and a biology major.

I'm glad this discussion is taking place. My son is a sophmore in high school who wants to study engineering. He would like to play baseball in college. For the time being he has two schools in mind, one a mid major D1 with a decent baseball program and pretty good engineering, the other a good engineering school that does a lot of projects with NASA and has a club baseball team. Both are about an hour from home. Unless he gets some kind of baseball offer that changes his mind he is leaning toward the school that works with NASA. Of course he is still young and lots can change but I am glad at least he is giving some thought past tomorrow.

bkekcs - As far as the club baseball, if you haven't already you might want to check out how many games they play, how competitive they are, etc. When my son was looking at colleges in the northeast, out of curiousity I checked out a couple of the club baseball programs at a couple of schools. It turned out that in the New England Club Baseball league, they only play 12 games, in the fall. If there are multiple players per position, that does not offer much playing time, especially for someone such as your son whom you believe may have the talent to play at a mid-major D1...just a thought.

quote:

Originally posted by casey75:
Update on my prior post - looking at just juniors and seniors on Bucknell's roster, I found five engineering majors and a biology major.

WINNER! WINNER! WINNER! Casey 75 you done good.I been at this quite awhile and thats been the best to date.

If you check out the other schools I mentioned, you may find similar results. I'm not sure what part of the country you are looking at for schools, but you may be able to find similar situations in other parts of the country. I'm just familiar with the northeast.

quote:

Originally posted by dswann:
Where can you go and play D1 baseball and pursue either a degree in engineering or a science? Are there D1 bb programs that will support academics by making concessions and allowing a player to attend labs and still play. If so, who might they be? After reviewing dozens of rosters and player profiles it's apparent, a player pursuing a degree in engineering or science are pretty scarce even at the Ivy's.

Many have attended U. of Louisiana and majored in Engineerng and played baseball. My son played with several engineering students. They usually excelled at both. I know two who were drafted on the first day and now are successful engineers in the oil business.

Ragin Cajun Baseball

http://engineering.louisiana.edu/

Best to go to a school that is narrowly devoted to science and engineering, where the baseball program is continually forced to make concessions to the rigorous academic demands--that is, larger no. of players in that situation.

My post serves no contribution to this particular topic.

i just want to say this post is what makes Hsbaseballweb what it is. I think these type posts should have there on section. I had one kid last year that could of played baseball in college, but the engineering degree won out. No one could make it work. (Rose Holman was the only option and he did not seem to be interested in the campus there)This post would of helped me out a ton. Thanks for asking the question DSwann

Very good topic. Son thinking about engineering degree also and wants to play baseball. In the end though college degree will be most important. Did not realize it was that difficult to combine the two. Thanks for all the posts/info.

I just wanted to give some insight from recent experience with my son. My son chose a top D3 program (versus a mid major D1 who offered him $$) because of concerns with juggling a computer engineering major(electrical engineering/computer science) and the number of games at a D1(with the exception of Ivy league which play a similar number of games as D3).
It was VERY difficult to say the least. Not just because of afternoon labs- but also the sheer number of hours that were required to complete his projects. He felt that he couldn't give either baseball or school 100%- and he sometimes was very frustrated. He is extremely bright and talented in what he does. However, when I asked him if he wanted to give up baseball- or change to an easier major he adamantly declined. After all of the sacrifice- he graduated with honors- had an awesome baseball run- and is employed at a top engineering firm. The friendships that he has developed with some of his teammates are amazing-and he wouldn't have traded his baseball experience for anything!. However- very few can juggle the workload- you really have to sacrifice alot- and even more at the D1 level. Also- you need to keep in mind that engineering is one of the few fields that they DO look at your GPA when you apply for your first job (so a mediocre GPA may prevent you from qualifying for a job that you could easily perform)

Best West Coast School for Engineering/Baseball is Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I was able to play baseball and pickup an engineering degree. It is a public state school and is usually rated best value for the money. Located on the Central Coast in California, a true college town with avg temperatures in the 70's. The only downsize is that most road games involve a 4-5 hr bus ride to SoCal or NoCal.

quote:

Originally posted by bnbsmom:
I just wanted to give some insight from recent experience with my son. My son chose a top D3 program (versus a mid major D1 who offered him $$) because of concerns with juggling a computer engineering major(electrical engineering/computer science) and the number of games at a D1(with the exception of Ivy league which play a similar number of games as D3).
It was VERY difficult to say the least. Not just because of afternoon labs- but also the sheer number of hours that were required to complete his projects. He felt that he couldn't give either baseball or school 100%- and he sometimes was very frustrated. He is extremely bright and talented in what he does. However, when I asked him if he wanted to give up baseball- or change to an easier major he adamantly declined. After all of the sacrifice- he graduated with honors- had an awesome baseball run- and is employed at a top engineering firm. The friendships that he has developed with some of his teammates are amazing-and he wouldn't have traded his baseball experience for anything!. However- very few can juggle the workload- you really have to sacrifice alot- and even more at the D1 level. Also- you need to keep in mind that engineering is one of the few fields that they DO look at your GPA when you apply for your first job (so a mediocre GPA may prevent you from qualifying for a job that you could easily perform)

Excellent post!! Welcome to the hsbbweb!

All the contributions in this thread have been excellent btw!

Since I am an Engineer, and my son plays D1 baseball which makes me aware of the enormous committment there, I feel qualified to comment on this subject.

I think 08Dad hit the nail on the head. One way to attack the desire to do both is to spread the degree out over more years. Yes, there probably are a handful of kids who might be able to handle a full load of Engineering and D1 baseball but those are the exception imho. One or the other will suffer imho. I agree that GPA is vitally important in this field. Do you want your next bridge or elevator designer or computer aircraft control designer to be a C- or D+ student?

Engineering is a challenge all by itself for even the brightest students. I challenge people to look at the classes they take - physics, calculus, chemistry, labs, differential equations, vector calculus, thermodynamics, etc., etc., and those are the preliminary courses and not even the upper level courses. I remember spending whole weekends (12-18 hours per day) working on one or two problems sometimes if the problem solutions were not apparent.

I wanted my son to take Engineering in college but his college did not offer it. I coaxed him into Computer Science and I'll be honest, that has been a challenge for him as there have been labs involved as well. He has maintained over a 3.0 but it will require him to take two semesters past his senior year. In other words, 5 years to graduate. I don't see how he could have done it in any other way. His baseball is a full time job with overtime involved.

I believe for the dedicated student-athlete anything is possible with proper planning. I also believe employers will cut the student-athlete some slack for not having a perfect 4.0 GPA. I wouldn't go much below 3.0 in this field however. Finally, if your son is considering this field, I would encourage him to go into Electrical or Computer Engineering. These are and have been the fastest growing fields. Obviously, if he loves chemistry or something like that then he needs to follow his heart.

One final note, I laughed out loud when I saw the Fullerton and Wichita State suggestion. Those are baseball factories and I mean no disrespect by saying that. I think it would be next to impossible to pursue baseball and engineering at a school like Fullerton. For starters, you better be one of the best baserball players in America and that is indeed a challenge even before considering the enormous time committments of Engineering.

quote:

Originally posted by ClevelandDad:
Engineering is a challenge all by itself for even the brightest students. I challenge people to look at the classes they take - physics, calculus, chemistry, labs, differential equations, vector calculus, thermodynamics, etc., etc., and those are the preliminary courses and not even the upper level courses. I remember spending whole weekends (12-18 hours per day) working on one or two problems sometimes if the problem solutions were not apparent.

You bring back nightmares... Diffy Q was enough to make me an economics major

Seriously, my dad was a computer engineering professor and his students never lacked for employment opportunities. Another field to look at is Mechatronics which is a combination of mechanical, electronic and computer engineering. Very cool and emerging stuff...

I do think that for most students it would require a 5 or even 6 year plan to graduate with a degree in either of these while playing D1 baseball - heck it takes 5 years for most students in these fields to graduate anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by craftylefty:
Best West Coast School for Engineering/Baseball is Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I was able to play baseball and pickup an engineering degree. It is a public state school and is usually rated best value for the money. Located on the Central Coast in California, a true college town with avg temperatures in the 70's. The only downsize is that most road games involve a 4-5 hr bus ride to SoCal or NoCal.

Remember that this original post was about fitting engineering and baseball together. What is relevent is what is happening at Cal Poly today. I'm not sure how long ago you got your degree, but the Poly roster is nearly void of engineers. The last 5-10 years have really changed in the baseball program.

I'm not downplaying your accomplishment at all, as I took 5+ years to get an engineering degree at CalPoly, and I didn't play baseball.

dswann,

Tennessee Tech is a DI that lists a number of players in engineering and science disciplines.

I would also second Rose-Hulman as a very good DIII for baseball.

I pursued an Electrical Engineering degree as a junior college transfer student and did not play on any of Bradley's athletic teams, although I was married with a child and working odd jobs on the side to make ends meet.

Officially, I transferred in as a sophomore and like many others, it took me a total of 5 years to get my BSEE. I had no problems with the intro level engineering courses but the structure of the EE program for Junior year was designed to separate the "men from the boys or girls from the women".

As I recall, I was taking at least four or five EE classes with two labs, atomic physics and engineering economics and I was swamped! I dropped the atomic physics class but it was still one heck of a stressful, mind numbing, semester! I saw many, many people change their majors after that first junior semester and I debated about doing it too but I stuck it out.

My point is, I had other obligations competing for my time other than my EE major and I made it. Yes it was tough and adjustments were required but it was just a bump in the road of this thing we call "life". And with hard work and dedication your son can too! Good luck to you and yours.....

The roads traveled are exactly what I was hoping to hear about. A 35-40+ hour comittment to BB each week coupled with a mind numbing course load, suggest, that a 80-20 M/F student body at Rose-Hulman, porbably not something to worry about.

The academic performance in HS may or may not translate to the next level. You can compile as much data on a school as you want, addmission standards,grad rates, etc.. But until your living your dream (hopefully not your nightmare) you just don't no. The posts of those who have walked the walk are invaluable.