D3 - what is commiting

I know you are asking people whose kids are already playing or have played D3, but I thought I would post our experience.  Believe me, my eyes are wide open. 

In my son's case (2016), the coach has been in touch via hand written letter, telephone and email over the past 9 months.  He has seen my son in action on three different occasions during that time.  My son and I visited the school, took the admissions tour and met with the coach.  The admissions process for athletes was explained to us in detail as well as senior year expectations.  We understand very clearly that admissions has the final say, and the coach has told us that my son's grades, test scores, and class rigor look as good or better than other baseball players who have gotten in. His SAT scores are on the high end of the middle 50% range as posted on this school's general population admissions statistics.  This is my son's dream school, and he has made it clear to the coach that he wants to play there and plans to apply early.  We know that this is not a typical baseball "commitment," but this is not a typical school.  

He has had low to mid-level D1 "interest," but hasn't spent any time pursuing those because, as much as he loves and wants to play baseball, school is most important to him.  He has two "back up" baseball schools that are D3 which have low acceptance rates and will apply there regular decision if his first school doesn't work out.  Also, he is an auto-admit to our state flagship which is a very good school with quality club baseball.

I am very concerned that he will place all his eggs in a basket that won't accept them, but during our many conversations about this, he is certain of his choice.  It's always hard to let your child suffer the consequences of his decisions, but I'm having an especially hard time with such a big decision.

I'm anxious to read about others' journeys.     

D3's do not have likely letters or the equivalent.

"how is a player assured that he will be accepted if he "commits."" - The safest approach is to assume your son is not admitted until he is. While it is unlikely the Coach's assurance is wrong, admissions admits students, not coaches. I know of instance where the Coach was wrong.  His feeling terrible about it did not make it any easier for the family that was then left scrambling for a college.The more academically oriented the school the more I would rely on word from admissions. Look at the admissions data for the school to give you a read on whether your son should expect to get in.

do you hedge in any way? If so, how? - Yes. Have a list of several schools and keep in contact with each of them. Do not cut off communications with any of the other schools unless your son is truly not interested or has been admitted to the school he wants to attend. 

Remember, the Coach is pursuing more players than your son for the same spot.  He has to. You do not know what he is telling others.  Even if you think you do - you do not! Also, you are likely paying the freight so do not be afraid to act cautiously before writing that check.

A lot depends on the school, its selectivity and the grades/scores of the applicant. I think for borderline admits it is a good idea to assume he is not accepted until he is. Students can apply for early decision if they are not sure, which will speed up the process and clear up any uncertainty early. 

As far as the process went for my son, it was a call to the recruiting coach to let him know he was "committing" to them, and then signing the school's letter of acceptance and his academic scholarship paperwork and sending in the deposit. He was very late in the process and had already been accepted at a number of schools and was weighing his options, so acceptance was not in his equation. I understand that the NCAA now allows for a some sort of non binding acceptance letter for athletes who want to promote the fact that they will be attending XYZ school. 

It is dawning on me that since there are no scholarships and no NLI,  D3 recruiting, while  not exactly recruiting in name only, is a lot different from recruiting tied to scholarships.

My son was definitely recruited by his D3.  We visited last summer during a tournament.  The coaches later saw him play at a showcase,  followed up afterwards with him, invited him for a  visit, treated him very well on said visit, and made it clear they wanted him to come to the school, and kept tabs on his admissions progress. On the basis of a couple of conversations, we think, though we aren't completely sure, that coaches may have gone to bat for him with admissions.   So they were and are obviously interested in him.  Coach wrote a very nice email once the kid informed him that he had decided to come there over 4 other places he was considering in the end. 

BUT  from what I can gather from an email he just received about how the fall will proceed, there are some 20  incoming frosh and JC transfers coming in, all with hopes making the team. Some will play JV so there is room for many, but that still seems  like a huge number of incoming, especially given the number of returning players.  

Not sure how many of those incoming got the same treatment as my son, not sure how many of those are "walk-ons"    I do assume that they will all compete on an equal footing, though.  Highly competitive team, out to win a world series, after all.    But who knows, really?   It's not like the "recruited"  ones are on athletic scholarship and the "walk-ons" are not.  In a sense, they are all walk-ons.   Interesting in seeing how this all shakes out.  Not at all complaining.  Just strikes me that one has to have one has to have one's eyes open about what goes on at different levels. 

Although, I have to admit that I don't know enough to know whether this is par for the course.

My Son went through the process with an email to the Coach, the Coach was interested, he was invited to the Campus in the Fall, met with the Coach, got to see a football game and then watched a Fall Ball practice.  At that point he was hooked and applied to early action and was accepted.  You really don't know what your tuition will be in a Private School until the Spring, which is pretty worrysome so you do need to keep other options open in case the expense is to too high.  Keep trying to get any other scholorships in line to offset these potential costs.  Once you figure out that the cost is in line, then the shock of what you will see in the Fall!  Remember that Fall Ball is a full on tryout!  There were 80 kids trying out for roughly 45 spots on Varsity and JV.  There were many times that my Son didn't think he was going to even make JV!  We felt that he was pretty highly recruited, but the kids were really good!  In the end he made the team and played in Varsity his Freshman year.  A totally successful season and school year for him, but in D3 there are no guarantees!  He's heading to school in a week to start all over again and knows that there will be incoming Freshman with talent so he needs to be ready to defend his spot on Varsity!