Grade minimum for D1 recruits?

I am interested in the answer as well.

What is considered "good"? Does "good grades" mean straight A's?? A's and B's? A's, B's and a C here or there?

My son does great in school, but having no experience with this process, I wonder what coaches are looking for as far as grades.

Go to NCAA Eligibility on the web. Pull up your high school and validate all CORE classes. There are worksheets to help. Do not rely on your high school counselor.
You also have to check with each individual school, obviously some will want higher than others.
The NCAA has a sliding scale for GPA and SAT scores.

Do your homework now so you are not in for a surprise senior year.

NCAA rules A's = 4 points, B's = 3, C's =2, D's = 1, add up CORE classes(approved by NCAA for your school) 16 Core Classes are needed. Add them up divide by 16 = CORE GPA.DI needs 16 CORE Classes, DII needs 14 CORE classes, starting in 2013 both will be using 16 CORE Classes, I believe.

There are two parts to the academic question

First are the grades good enough to gaion admission to the university/college--this will vary from school to school

Second are the grades good enough to gain Clearinghouse approval--you can be Clearinghouse eligible and still not gain admission to tyhe college/university.

Depends on how hard you throw.

95+ not very good
90-95 borderline
88-90 B's
below 88 Real good.

BOF

We are talking grades here---the admissions office could care less how hard you throw--and btw there are eight other positions on the field

Agree with BOF.... coach can and does have influence with admissions at some schools. My kids grades would not have gotten him accepted(D1) if it had not been for BBall.
Mom gives a good 'heads up' with checking clearinghouse for your schools list of core courses and then calculating where the student stands. The earlier you start this the better. Mine was under the gun senior year. He made out fine with that... and has done very well with his studies, as we knew he could. Of course what the parents think is another matter with respect to admissions. But those first 3 years of HS and all the "talks" about effort in the classroom did not take hold until almost too late.

Maybe too many of dad's genes....

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My older son had an incredible gpa,honor society,national scholar and currently plays college baseball.

It's worth mentioning IMO, be careful with any comparisons between younger and older son. Each have unique characteristics. Rivalry may not be seen on the surface but simmers sometimes before it boils.

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Will this gpa be his downfall for a D1 program?

There's nothing wrong with a DII, DIII, JUCO, or NAIA for that matter. Some DI's are perennial losers and some other divisions have perennial winners. The coaches and campus will make the bigger difference. No matter what the academic potential is, there is a college that will fit nicely with the younger son's baseball skills. Don't put any emphasis on any one division as being particularly more attractive.

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My older son had the same heavily structured schedule and it has prepared him well for college life as an athlete.I understand every child is different.Any thoughts?

Make sure you allow your other son to be different. That's my thought. Everything else will work out.

There is nothing wrong with a 3.0 gpa if that is the best your son is capable of.There are plenty of very good schools out there at all division levels where a 3.0 for an athlete is very good.

I know TR I was being facetious, but there is some truth to it for schools with lower academic requirements like Cal State Fullerton out here.

Nearly every coach my son has sat down with asked him about his grades first. For many schools a 3.0 is just fine, for others however you won’t be considered. In California it is fine for the Cal State schools, for the UC’s it is borderline, so you will open up many more doors with good grades. For some of the schools you and I have talked about you won’t even get a meeting with the head coach.

Better player you are = more opportunities, better grades you have = more opportunities

The 'minimum' varies widely depending on which school you're talking about. For many schools, use 3.0 GPA and 1000 Math and Verbal as a good guideline for a minimum to get in. However, there are many schools for whom those grades are not good enough, so it really does depend on which school, or university system you're talking about.

If the prospect is a good enough player and not a good student, some coaches will use a waiver to gain admission for him, though I'm sure not all schools can do that. One of my former players is now at a very good university that plays in the WCC, and he got in on a waiver. His grades were only mediocre, but as a 6'4" lefthander with 90+ velo and great secondary stuff, they were willing to do whatever they could to gain admission for him.

Don't forget rigor of curriculum. I believe that the high school (or prep school) you attend can have an impact on acceptable grades and I believe the rigor of the course load counts, as well. For instance, a student that has pushed himself at a very academically focused high school / prep school but has lower grades than a student who took lower level classes at a lesser ranked academic institution may be better off. I'm not passing judgement or suggesting it's fair or not, I'm just passing along my experience with my older kid.

Admission requirements vary widely among schools, and there are a number of tools available to see how a prospective student stacks up. At the following link, you can see how the middle half of the students at Southeatern Conference schools measure up on test scores:

http://collegeapps.about.com/o...rence-sat-scores.htm

From that page you can click to other tables for other conferences, as well as tables arranged by state and category of school.

Even if a coach could sneak you through the admissions office, I'd be reluctant to attend any school where you're not at least in the middle half of the student body.

I also think it is extremely important to really understand your child and his academic abilities and aspirations. For a variety of legitimate reasons a kid may have sufficient grades to be accepted at a specific school (and, of course, obtain clearinghouse approval). Being admitted, however, is simply the start of a 4 year process (sometimes longer). If the kid is not equipped to effectively handle the academic commitments at a specific school he may find himself in a very unsettling situation. This can be true despite the fact one may work hard at academic success. There are any number of reasons this could transpire. Large classes vs small classes; the school's specific core requirements for all students to graduate; professors more attuned to research development than actual teaching; the kid's specific learning style. All of these topics should be researched and considered so any kid finds the best college for him - not simply the most "prestigous" baseball program or academic environment.

I know our program is going through this with a number of our players. You really need to find the correct match for each individual. It is hard work, but there is a tremendous amount of information out there if one looks for it (starting on this website). By doing the correct research up front you maximize the chances of having a rewarding college academic and baseball experience.

So it's always interesting to hear of players who get into school with baseball when there's no way their grades would have qualified them for admission.

How do they do once they get there? Especially in an academically advanced DIII, for example, where there is less academic support for athletes?

Son is in this position now: Mid sized solid D1 offered, but DIII that has offered is off the charts academically.

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3.0 GPA and 1000 Math and Verbal as a good guideline for a minimum to get in.

Actually a 2.0 and an 800 score was typically minimum in most D1 schools. A 3.0 in my son's conference put you in the academic award group. There were only 10-12 who made that on most conference teams.
Lots of players became academically ineligible also a few suspended for plagiarism. Better to aim higher than minimums. It could affect the coaches decision.

A 3.0 will get him in any D1 program determined by his BB skill.
Coaches have a huge influence on admissions in most schools.
Had a coach TR probably knows well who scolded me for not applying through him. I was told no contact with admissions unless he did it. Son had a high GPA.

A 2.0 and 800 a typical minimum?? Having just gone through the process, I know for a fact that this is not true for most D1 schools. I don't know when or what schools BBHD dealt with but you will be very hard pressed to find a reputable, even halfway decent school that will take a student with those numbers.

3.0 sounds pretty darn good to me. Lots over very successful people have done amazingly well with far lower GPAs.

For many, many baseball players that is a great GPA and will gain entry into the vast majority of schools -- if the talent level is high enough, which differs from school-to-school.

The reality is that the better the player the more of an academic risk the Coach is willing to take on you....if you're a walk-on part of the job is to raise the team GPA....if you are a stud, they'll baby-sit you a little bit.

That's life.

I will second what jemaz said in his post. Look if you have to have a 4.0 to get into D1 baseball programs they wouldnt have all the talent they do. Yes some schools require higher grades than others. But by and large a 3.0 is more than adequate.

IMO GPA's are like running the sixty.

The further you hit the ball the higher your 60 time can be.

The better player you are, the lower your GPA can be.