Duke

Your question intrigues me. Where did you hear there's a minimum 1250 SAT requirement?

I was never aware of a hard and fast SAT minimum. We were told that the program had some leeway with getting players accepted, but there was never a number put on it.

I would not be surprised if the coaching staff had 1250 as a guideline. They have to be able to reasonably defend that a recruit can succeed at Duke, and 1250 is on the low range of what Duke accepts, I would guess.

This would seem to be a good opportunity for your son to communicate with Coach Pollard. It would be perfectly natural for a player who was told one thing by the preceding coach to ask if that is a hard-and-fast minimum. In the process, your son can profess his interest in Duke and raise his visibility there.

If Coach Pollard comes back with an SAT level that's unrealistic for your son (not to suggest that it is), that's something he needs to know so that he can concentrate more on other schools. If not, your son's established a line of communication that could help him greatly vis-a-vis Duke's recruiting process.

Best of luck to your son!

New coach does not mean academic changes, at least for non revenue sports such as baseball.



First, let's start with the facts: For the Class of 2007, 768 male non-athletes were admitted to Duke with an average SAT score of 1,438, while 42 recruited athletes averaged 1,172. For females, 786 non-athletes averaged 1,403, versus 37 athletes' 1,258.

That's a 266-point gap for males and a 145-point gap for females.

http://www.dukechronicle.com/a...ht-blue-devils-fight
And in case you're interested in a team-by-team breakdown, the eight men's baseball team recruits averaged 1,206 that year, while 22 football players averaged 1,063 and the five men's basketball players came in last at 997. All 14 other recruited male athletes averaged 1,258.

Considering the national average for the 2002 SAT was 1,026, it's a safe bet that few (if any) non-athletes could even get their foot in the door with stats like the ones above.

Yet the most elite recruits (read: prospective basketball players) can be tentatively admitted before they've finished their junior year of high school; all that's needed is a PSAT score and freshman and sophomore grades.

This must have been how our beloved Sean Dockery got admitted with a 2.3 GPA and an ACT score of 15; at the time, his credentials didn't even meet NCAA minimums of a 2.5 GPA and 17 on the ACT.

Son is right at 1250 and both the players and parents heard Coach Thompson speak at the summer camp and state that 1250 (math/english) was a minimum for them to look at a player. Since he is just a rising junior obviously, he will take again at least once and we will see how he does. Obviously, I would assume if a kid is throwing 90+ and a stud there would be no minimum, but that being said I am sure the other recruits that season should be close to 1250 for admissions. Will take your advice Prepster after his next scores come back and reach out to Pollard. Yes to Old Timer that 1250 is low for the rest of the population at Duke according to college board...you are correct.
This is such a great website. Thank you to all of you for providing insight/suggestions....it really does help!

Good stuff showme...and about what I expected.

As some know, my older son went to Stanford and the most common question I get both in the community and with PMs here on the hsabaseballweb is, "What are the magic numbers for SAT/ACT and GPA (for Stanford)?"

To my knowledge, there is no magic number(s) and I suspect thats true for Duke as well. 'Guideline numbers?' Probably and perhaps 1250 is just that.

But its really the whole picture. The more elite player you are (e.g. USA team member, All American, etc...) and perhaps legacy issues and other extra-curriculars...the more 'bend' in the academic requirements. Still, there are limits...but I have never heard what those numbers would be and 1250 seems higher than what I woulda expected. showme's stats seem to indicate that 1250 is not a hard line.

My attitude would be...take Prepster's great advice...and keep moving forward with Duke until the coaches signal that its not an option. In other words, don't take yourself out of the running just because you perceive you're below some magic line.

baseballnc,

You've been given great, rock solid advice by the usual suspects. ;-)

I know your question was about one program. You've recorded 4 posts to date, you presumably live in NC, and your son is a rising junior.

I want to make a quick point and then I'll climb back into my hole. Think of Duke as the prom queen. It is a s-e-x-y program in a s-e-x-y conference. Great academic school. Lots of teen brand recognition from Duke's basketball team. It is fairly typical for these up and coming recruits to latch onto a brand name program. I hope your son is thinking about diversifying his college baseball interests and researching many, many programs & situations including Duke. He can keep Duke at the top of the list, but please cast a wide recruiting net at this stage in the process. With his first round of SAT scores he will have many options if he keeps up the hard work. Thanks for humoring me, as sometimes the obvious needs to be re-stated.

quote:

Originally posted by fenwaysouth:
baseballnc,

You've been given great, rock solid advice by the usual suspects. ;-)

I know your question was about one program. You've recorded 4 posts to date, you presumably live in NC, and your son is a rising junior.

I want to make a quick point and then I'll climb back into my hole. Think of Duke as the prom queen. It is a s-e-x-y program in a s-e-x-y conference. Great academic school. Lots of teen brand recognition from Duke's basketball team. It is fairly typical for these up and coming recruits to latch onto a brand name program. I hope your son is thinking about diversifying his college baseball interests and researching many, many programs & situations including Duke. He can keep Duke at the top of the list, but please cast a wide recruiting net at this stage in the process. With his first round of SAT scores he will have many options if he keeps up the hard work. Thanks for humoring me, as sometimes the obvious needs to be re-stated.

Awesome advice!

I think the issue of going back to the same camp hinges around whether or not Duke is interested in your son....no matter who the coach is. If your son went to the camp last year and McNally didn't followup with him I think you might be wasting your time attending the camp a second time unless there's been a noticable improvement in your son's play or the new coach asked him to attend. Admittly, I have not seen your son play so I can't say for sure, just conjecture based upon the info you have presented in this thread.

If there's no other camp he can attend that weekend and it doesn't matter financially it couldn't hurt.

imho if playing baseball in college is really important to your son I would focus on coaches that have expressed an interest and not worry too much about SAT scores or the name of the school as your son's SAT score is probebely good enough to get into some pretty good schools.