High Academic mid majors

Son played at William & Mary.  Hopes to graduate this summer on MLB's dime.  

Others that come to mind:  Tufts (D3), Davidson, University of Richmond, George Washington University.

Northwestern.

Kidding.  Sort of.  I realize it’s a Power 5 school.  Great academics though

Valparaiso is a pretty strong school academically.  

Out West: UCSB, UCSD, UCDavis, Cal Poly. Santa Clara.

Others: Villanova, Bucknell, ?

I would like to give a shoutout to Fordham and NJIT

@RJM posted:

Everyone knows who the high academic major conference schools are. The board talks a lot about high academic D3s. What are the top academic mid majors?

Maybe first it needs to be established what “high academic” means. To me it’s a school in the top 20-25% of academic ranking by the publications. But some are ranked under liberal arts colleges rather than universities. Then there are situations where certain programs within an otherwise mediocre university are highly regarded.

The first ones that come to mind are William and Mary, Holy Cross, Northeastern, Lehigh, Bucknell, and Lafayette, Ironically, when I was a kid Northeastern was considered the local safety school along with UMass. It’s come a long way. So has UMass.

I didn’t include Army and Navy since it’s an entirely different world.

My aunt graduated from Northeastern. She is certainly not a high academic individual. The first time I heard someone reference NE as a high academic I had to clarify that it was the same school. I was amazed at how far they’ve come. 

@TerribleBPthrower posted:

My aunt graduated from Northeastern. She is certainly not a high academic individual. The first time I heard someone reference NE as a high academic I had to clarify that it was the same school. I was amazed at how far they’ve come. 

It’s currently #40 of about 350 in the US News university rankings. One of the benefits of Northeastern is the five year co-op program. A kid graduates with work experience. However, at this point in time I’m not sure paying for five years of a private university is a great deal.

Rice and Tulane.

A quick look at what colleges/universities attend Head First camps helps sort out the high academics:  D3, D1, power conferences, Ivy, and mid-majors.

@RJM posted:

It’s currently #40 of about 350 in the US News university rankings. One of the benefits of Northeastern is the five year co-op program. A kid graduates with work experience. However, at this point in time I’m not sure paying for five years of a private university is a great deal.

Maybe in pre-med or some of the sciences it is... but I agree in general.

@RJM posted:

It’s currently #40 of about 350 in the US News university rankings. One of the benefits of Northeastern is the five year co-op program. A kid graduates with work experience. However, at this point in time I’m not sure paying for five years of a private university is a great deal.

You pay for 4 years... you don't pay for the semesters you are on the co-op work assignment.

@TerribleBPthrower posted:

My aunt graduated from Northeastern. She is certainly not a high academic individual. The first time I heard someone reference NE as a high academic I had to clarify that it was the same school. I was amazed at how far they’ve come. 

The president did a masterful job at understanding how the rankings are done.  He decreased acceptance rate dramatically by increasing the number of applicants through massive marketing; he increased the test scores of incoming students by throwing large academic scholarships at kids who otherwise would have viewed NE as a safety school.

Go44dad.   Plus one on Rice and Tulane.  Rice is a top 15 academic school w mid major sports.

Guess I was wrong about Valparaiso.  Thought they were ranked higher.  #76 in teaching degrees which is what my kid was looking at when we visited.

Cal Irvine is ranked pretty high.

I'm going to throw The Citadel in there.  yes it is a military school but not required to join military afterwards. 

I'd also add Stony Brook, and not just because my son will start there in the fall. Okay, mostly because of that. The trick with these rankings is that there's so much variation in metrics. Stony Brook doesn't rank high nationally, but as a public university it does. And it also has several schools in the hard sciences that are highly ranked. So, it kinda depends.

Y'all missed an easy one....Georgetown.  Nobody mentioned the Hoyas.  

@fenwaysouth posted:

Y'all missed an easy one....Georgetown.  Nobody mentioned the Hoyas.  

 

When I started the thread I overlooked the former Big East. When my daughter played softball in the conference if was one of the P6. When my son’s travel team/teammates went through recruiting and started college the conference was still a P6.

Thoughts on St John's, Fairfield, Seton Hall?  

1. @wildcat posted:

Thoughts on St John's, Fairfield, Seton Hall?  

Fairfield is a decent academic school. But I know and know of kids from the local Catholic high schools who get in there with less than top academic grades. Keep in mind the average unweighted high school graduation gpa is 3.0. Having a B average is an average student.

I told my kids in high school and college if they didn’t graduate with a 3.5 or better they will not have separated themselves from the pack.

Flashback: My son and I joke about this now that he’s a few years into his professional career. The first semester he got a 2.7. He was in danger of losing a 50% academic ride. He said when I looked up from the printout I had fire shooting from my eyes. He wanted me to stop glaring at him and yell instead. I calmly told him unless he gets a 3.3 or better the second semester (needed 3.0 for the year to keep the academic ride) he would be living at home and playing at the local JuCo (that sucked). He got a 3.5 the second semester. I explained it was now the expectation. 

At one point my son had his sights set on Stanford.  We took a tour of campus first, did not contact the coach or do any of the camps.  Beautiful campus and community.  Son loved the campus but he said combining both baseball and academics would be too demanding and stressful for him.  He was confident that baseball would be no problem, just the academics would be tough.  I'm glad he had the wisdom and realistic viewpoint at that age!  Son eventually played at a high academic mid-major and loved the experience.

@D2020 posted:

I'd also add Stony Brook, and not just because my son will start there in the fall. Okay, mostly because of that. The trick with these rankings is that there's so much variation in metrics. Stony Brook doesn't rank high nationally, but as a public university it does. And it also has several schools in the hard sciences that are highly ranked. So, it kinda depends.

Would add Binghamton, which is about to have a major transformation with its 60M baseball donation. 

@Trust In Him posted:

At one point my son had his sights set on Stanford.  We took a tour of campus first, did not contact the coach or do any of the camps.  Beautiful campus and community.  Son loved the campus but he said combining both baseball and academics would be too demanding and stressful for him.  He was confident that baseball would be no problem, just the academics would be tough.  I'm glad he had the wisdom and realistic viewpoint at that age!  Son eventually played at a high academic mid-major and loved the experience.

It’s a real blessing when our kids can accurately see their future path.  Far too many kids just blindly go into college and suffer the consequences of a poor fit. 

One of the mantras I frequently remind my kid of, whether it is in choosing the right travel team or the right college is: you cannot get scouted from the bench!

Throw in an overwhelming academic schedule, or even a culture that isn’t a right fit, and it’s a recipe for disaster.

By the way: when I say “you cannot get scouted from the bench”, I’m talking about the academic path too

My older son didn’t play Baseball in college.  He attended a mid Major for undergraduate work that a lot of high academics would scoff at.  He stood out.  Dean’s list.  High honors.  Got into Georgetown for graduate school on a partial scholarship with huge references from his professors at his undergraduate college.  And he has a fantastic job now after getting a Graduate Degree from Georgetown.

It ain’t where you start it’s where you finish.

I guess Big East baseball is not a power conference

@Wechson posted:

Would add Binghamton, which is about to have a major transformation with its 60M baseball donation. 

Definitely the best of the SUNY schools, with Stony Brook right behind IMO.

Fairfield probably highest in the MAAC, but wouldn't say high academic.

Seton Hall better than St. John's, but St. John's is probably the weakest school mentioned so far (academically).

@wildcat posted:

Thoughts on St John's, Fairfield, Seton Hall?  

I guess it matters how you define HA and Mid-Major.

In terms of baseball mid-majors, it is like catching lightening in a bottle.   They don't have the funding year after year that a P5 has, and so they take some chances on people.   Every few years it pays off.   Eight years ago, St Johns had a monster team.  They lost to eventual NCAA champion Arizona in the 2012 Tuscon Super Regional.   They hit a walkoff against UNC @ UNC as just about everybody's jaw dropped except a little & loud section of tailgaiting St Johns fans.  This St Johns team was definite threat to beat any P5 team.   When I think mid-major this is what I'm thinking of.  Possibly the poster child for mid-majors is Coastal Carolina who won it all in 2016.    Same thing with Davidson 2017 as well as William & Mary 2018? a few years ago who made a run to the Super Regionals

In my mind there is very clear academic difference between Davidson, W&M and the 3 schools mentioned above.  

JMO.

@fenwaysouth posted:

I guess it matters how you define HA and Mid-Major.

In terms of baseball mid-majors, it is like catching lightening in a bottle.   They don't have the funding year after year that a P5 has, and so they take some chances on people.   Every few years it pays off.   Eight years ago, St Johns had a monster team.  They lost to eventual NCAA champion Arizona in the 2012 Tuscon Super Regional.   They hit a walkoff against UNC @ UNC as just about everybody's jaw dropped except a little & loud section of tailgaiting St Johns fans.  This St Johns team was definite threat to beat any P5 team.   When I think mid-major this is what I'm thinking of.  Possibly the poster child for mid-majors is Coastal Carolina who won it all in 2016.    Same thing with Davidson 2017 as well as William & Mary 2018? a few years ago who made a run to the Super Regionals

In my mind there is very clear academic difference between Davidson, W&M and the 3 schools mentioned above.  

JMO.

From my Northeastern perspective, totally agree.  St. Johns (at 68% acceptance rate) is certainly not what one would consider HA, nor is Seton Hall (73%).  Fairfield is the closest at 60%, and I'd only consider that for business as they have a strong alumni tie being so close to Greenwich and NYC.  

Davidson, W&M and Richmond all in a different class.  Davidson is an elite institution, Richmond (certainly for business) close behind and W&M also qualifies as HA.  And all 3 strong baseball schools as well.