Honesty with coaches at events

I believe that you should be honest, and why not, when you have a particular dream destination anyhow?  By the way, has he considered Air Force?  They have a great Aerospace Program, and he could still play ball.  

If they are going to pay his way towards a degree, he has to be honest. Many will ask what he plans to major in.

Keep in mind a lot depends on the level (D1,2,3) he will target for his major as to how they feel about it.

Seems like a pretty focused kid.  Are you familiar with Embry-Riddle in Florida?  This is a school that specializes in his major and has a strong NAIA baseball program.  Surely, they would welcome him on both fronts if the talent is there.

Regarding the upcoming events, there is nothing wrong with stating something like "this is the direction I'm thinking currently but I'm only 15 and still learning about all the options out there".  This is honest but leaves doors open.

+1

If your son can get into Cal Tech (guessing the dream school is MIT) and doesn't mind losing he can play baseball there. A kid from our high school almost never got on the field. But he started as a freshman for them.

KauaiDad - Gotta be honest and upfront.  Some coaches will love it…some won't.  But your son's ultimate happiness is at stake and ending up with a coach who is miserable with it won't be in your son's best interest.

BTW, I am an Aerospace engineer…would be happy to chat with you via PM or email about school choices if you're interested.  

Thank you all for the advice, very helpful in confirming what I felt

KauaiDad,

Both my and FenwaySouth's son are in college, playing baseball, and taking engineering. His is playing at an Ivy and mine at one of the top DIII programs in the country. I found that there are only a handful of D1 programs that an engineering/science major could be accomplished; the Ivy's, Stanford, UC Davis, were the ones we uncovered. Obviously there are others, Bucknell comes to mind. Always be up front when discussing this with coaches. Most well be straight with you and some will "hymn and haw" about it, be careful with those.  Regardless at the level he plays he has to know that it is a very tough road, it can be done, but it is not easy and compromises have to be made to accomplish it.

Welcome and best of luck! 

KauaiDad,

I agree with justbaseball and BOF.  We found a number of coaches who were straight with us, a few that didn't know what to think or do, and a few programs that welcomed him with open arms.   Be honest, be direct, and know your audience.   You don't want to waste your time, and the coaches don't want to waste their time.   Truthfully, it is something that you should be aware of but probably not something to be terribly concerned with at this time.   Set the right expectations with everybody concerned and this has a much better chance of working out well for everyone.

In our experience, there are a number of D1 & D3 programs out there that know how to deal with the type of academically focused athlete you've described.  It is going to take some work to find the baseball and academic fit, but you have a lot of time.   I'd start with College Navigator to get an initial list together based on the major or majors your son has interest in.  .http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/.   BTW - Kids change intended majors, so factor in some flexibility.     

Good luck.  This place is a fantastic resource.

Again thanks. We are not looking for scholarship opportunities(although something would be nice) rather we (as a family) are simply looking for a little help in moving up a list for acceptance, we fully expect our son to have the grades needed to be accepted but also fully understand that there are literally thousands of other kids that have perfect test scores as well competing for the same spot.

What is difficult of course is that we are so far out in the timeline right now and I would be shocked if his goals and ambitions do not change over the next 2 years completely starting off us from scratch.

What brought this question on in the first place was a comment from another parent that we know who was in a similar situation with their son who was being looked at by some colleges for football, apparently a recruiter / coach told the kid that the football requirements at the school were too demanding for the classes he wanted to take. the kid subsequently told his parents maybe he should look at studying something else which of course set off all kinds of alarms in their household.

So rather than wait for the above scenario to happen to my son I asked for some opinions here and as I suspected received some fantastic responses.

I defer to those who've been through it ... for advice to your question, Kauai ... but I do want to offer one thing -- which I suspect you already know:

Our nation desperately needs young people with science, technology, engineering and math skills, and we are graduating way too few.

While we're sending kids into the world with Communications, Women's Studies and Sociology degrees, China, India and others are teaching them science and math.

Not everyone has the aptitude. My daughter, for example, will major in journalism. But her path will be challenging after college.

So whatever happens, I hope your son uses the gifts he obviously has, and pursues something in the hard sciences. If he does, the demand for his skills, right out of college, will be extremely high. And his starting salary will almost certainly dwarf his peers.

Kauai ... Baseball can tip the acceptance scales in favor of your son. In fact it could get him accepted over a more academically qualified candidate who doesn't play sports. Even in the top academic universities the athletic coaches get some minor leeway for a determined number of athletes.

KauaiDad,

Totally 100% understand where you are coming from.  In the future, your son may have many options which sometimes can make it more difficult to choose the best path for him.  It can be incredibly confusing.   As you research this in greater detail, and begin to fully understand the available college options your son will begin to gravitate in a certain direction.   My wife and I took it upon ourselves to understand pros and cons of each school in detail, and let my son choose that direction based upon his goals.  He never waivered from those goals despite looking at many, many schools.  For us, it became most important to use baseball to help him get into a school that would have been more difficult to get into without baseball.  In other words, for us it was all about the academics first and baseball second.  

We've lived through the above scenario your friend went through.  It may happen to you.   Yes, it can be agonizing.  I realize it can be very difficult for a young man to say "no" to a large sports university with world class facilities and coaching, but sometimes that is what it takes if the school can't meet your son's academic goals and needs.  Research the heck out of everything, and look at many situations.  Hopefully your son will get some offers from the type of school he is most interested in, but he should never be afraid to say "no" to anyone if it doesn't meet his goals.

Best of luck!