How many schools to target in later stages of recruiting

IMO, don't give any school the impression that they are out of the chase.  My child brought it down to four schools she really wanted to attend but had two others that she continued to correspond with.  She made unofficial visits to each school but then, on her official visits, impressed those coaching staffs with her size so we might have been in a different position than most.  

Hey Chico, great topic, my 2020 son is in similar boat about wondering when to start narrowing down interest. Is your son a PO or does he also play another position?

Others on board have much more experience with process, but my read of your son’s case is that school 1 seems solid but schools 2-4 are not offers if they say that he is on short list but they still need/want to see him play again at Fall camp. This might be because they like his velocity so far but want to see better control and/or because his grades/test scores are good but not strong enough to be a shoo in with admissions without using one of their slots so they want to see him perform again to determine whether to give him one of their slots. Is your son’s test scores solidly in the middle or upper end of the freshman class or closer to the bottom 25% of the 25-75% range?

I think it is also fine to let the coaches know who else he is talking to because this may help them make up their minds one way or the other and it’s possible they talk to each other about mutual recruits anyway, but maybe someone else can chime in on this issue.

Good luck!

Someone told us why would you tell someone no until you are committed somewhere else? My son (a 2018) kept chatting with about 10 schools — six seriously — until the night he called them all to tell them he had committed.

I would not narrow the list just yet.  A coach saying he wants son to play for him is not an offer.  An offer is more like "I want your son to play for me.  I've gotten a pre-read from admissions and he's been green lighted.  If he agrees to apply ED I will guarantee admission (via likely letter, blue-chip status, or other firm assurance).

Smitty28 posted:

I would not narrow the list just yet.  A coach saying he wants son to play for him is not an offer.  An offer is more like "I want your son to play for me.  I've gotten a pre-read from admissions and he's been green lighted.  If he agrees to apply ED I will guarantee admission (via likely letter, blue-chip status, or other firm assurance).

This is an offer. Everything else is interest. It’s like buying a car. Have you ever shopped for a car, loved it and purchased a different car you ended up loving more or it just made more sense? 

I will second...my son talked to everyone until the day he committed and he talked to 2-3 that day before he committed. Unless you know there is no chance you’d play there, why close a door?

Thanks much to all (as always).  

Sounds like I should be even more worried about this process than I thought...  

Zoom2020, my son's grades are at least at or near the average GPA at all the schools he is looking at, and his test scores are 75th percentile.  So I think his pitching likely is the key hurdle--and most of these schools will have to make a decision based on a couple of "innings" at Showball.  We will get him to some schools' camps, but can't manage more than a few.  Which is yet another decision point: recruits need to choose camps where coaches are seriously interested, so they don't waste a plane ticket and a weekend on a school that has them too far down its list. 

It will all work out.  But I'm not looking forward to a couple of additional months of the process. 

Chico Escuela posted:

Thanks much to all (as always).  

Sounds like I should be even more worried about this process than I thought...  

Zoom2020, my son's grades are at least at or near the average GPA at all the schools he is looking at, and his test scores are 75th percentile.  So I think his pitching likely is the key hurdle--and most of these schools will have to make a decision based on a couple of "innings" at Showball.  We will get him to some schools' camps, but can't manage more than a few.  Which is yet another decision point: recruits need to choose camps where coaches are seriously interested, so they don't waste a plane ticket and a weekend on a school that has them too far down its list. 

It will all work out.  But I'm not looking forward to a couple of additional months of the process. 

Relax. Enjoy. I let it stress me out as well, but now I so miss the chances to travel with my son — even when our 5 a.m. flight got delayed until noon (when we were already sitting on it) and we got home five hours later than expected. We became good friends through it all and I treasure that more than I can say.

I think your son is absolutely right to want to see the schools "in action" — the students are the heart and soul of a college, and I think it's very hard to judge without seeing that. So go where you can afford to go, maybe stretch for one or two that he really wants to visit, and savor the time with your son, and the joy of seeing him blossom as he knows he is "wanted." 

Remember — he's a senior and soon will be leaving home. Don't wish this time away.

Iowamom23 posted:

Remember — he's a senior and soon will be leaving home. Don't wish this time away.

Very good advice.  The boy is my youngest, so the nest is empty once he goes to college.  (Unless I can find a reasonably athletic 8-year old to adopt, so I can do the Little League through HS baseball thing again.  If I could just convince my wife...)

I think that many decisions get made in mid-August, so hang in there. HA D3 coaches spend much of July and early August at the big HA camps - Headfirst, Showball, etc. If a coach has 6-8 slots for admissions, he is spending July and August selecting players whom he wants to pursue, and doing pre-reads. If he saw them in July, he's trying to keep them active, and your son should do the same - is he still playing?  Send more pitching video. By the middle of August, the coach has seen most of them, he can make a list in order of priority, and he knows that many of those players are being recruited by other schools (yes, they definitely talk to each other, and most asked my son where else he was considering, so he told them). My son got most of his actual "I will put you on my list/give you a slot" in the second-fourth weeks of August, one in early September. September is for visits and/or camps; one by one, players will "commit" to applying ED somewhere, and everyone's lists will shuffle.

They did appreciate being told son was not interested, but early on he only did that when there was clearly no fit with the school (tech schools, but he is not a science guy, for example). After he had a couple of offers, then he told some others that he was looking elsewhere; a few said, "if anything changes, let us know."

Chico Escuela posted:

Iowamom23 posted:

Remember — he's a senior and soon will be leaving home. Don't wish this time away.

Very good advice.  The boy is my youngest, so the nest is empty once he goes to college.  (Unless I can find a reasonably athletic 8-year old to adopt, so I can do the Little League through HS baseball thing again.  If I could just convince my wife...)

Do you think the adoption agency would mind if you asked to hold a baseball tryout before deciding on which kid to adopt? ;-)

My 2017 was in the same situation at this point going into his senior year.  He was a C/RHP, so that made it even more complicated since some schools saw him more as a C and others wanted him to pitch.  Only 1 or 2 would consider letting him do both.  And he was also searching in the HA D2/D3 field but wanted to major in engineering, so that was difficult to match at the liberal arts schools.  In that situation, he kept all of his options open all the way through March of his senior year until he had all of his acceptance/decline letters from admissions and merit money offers and could make a fully informed decision.

Looking back, we spent a lot of time and money traveling to visit schools and meet coaches Fall of Senior year.  It was exhausting but was integral to him winding up happy and in the right place.  We used Sept and Oct to visit as many D3's as possible to observe the teams in Fall practice/scrimmages.  The coach will usually set up a lunch with the players, attend a class, a stay in dorms some nights with the players, and attend another sporting event on campus, etc.  These visits gave him a great opportunity to evaluate the team talent/competition and get a feel for what life on campus would be like.  We traveled out of state twice and then spent other weekends in Oct/Nov visiting the local area HAs (the weather is no worry in SoCal so we deferred those visits).  In all, he probably visited 10 schools, met the coaches, and experienced some form of college life.  The fact that the coaches knew he was looking at other similar schools worked in his favor, as they knew he was serious, and other schools interest confirmed they were on the right track.

I agree with the sentiment that your son should keep all of his options open until he gets much closer to a decision.  I held my son to the standard that if he was sure he could not see himself at a school, then tell the coach in his thank you note after the visit.  No sense in stringing some coach along if a kid does not see himself there.  So he did eliminate about 4-5 schools after the visits. 

Be patient--nobody said this process was quick and easy!

Chico,

Lot of D3 HA decisions go on up and until the ED1 deadline, so you may want to tighten your seatbelt.  Some schools offer ED1 and ED2.  Others just on an ED deadline typically in November.   But this actually may work to your advantage.  It gives you and your son an opportunity to visit campus,  meet players and watch a practice, etc...  A lot of these activities don't happen in D1 because the recruiting timeline has been accelerated or they've used up their allotment for Official Visits.   My son was one of the last to commit to his D1 and we were neck deep in D3 HAs with engineering recruitment.   D3s were coming out of the woodwork.  You are going to be real busy in the coming months.

BTW....Never, ever take your foot off the gas until you have veraballed and received official word from Admissions.  If the coach is telling your son he is a "slotted athlete" then you can ease up on the gas a little bit...just a little bit.   The more schools interested the better.   As always, JMO.

Backstop22, by keeping options open until March of senior year, did your son elect to forego formal coach support with admissions and try to get admitted on his own without baseball support?

Can baseball still help a kid with very high grades and test scores get admitted at HA schools if coach tells admissions the kid would be on his team even if he doesn’t apply early? What kind of baseball and academic profile would it take to roll the dice on this kind of approach? 

So my 2017 used the coach "early read" process, which of course is not binding, but is a pretty strong indication if he could get in.  My son had 95 percentile test scores for both SAT and ACT but more mediocre grades, so it was important to get those pre-reads before we committed a visit.  He also had excellent extracurricular activities with leadership and community service.  Not all schools weigh all of those factors the same, so the pre-reads were really helpful.

He did get a fair amount of pressure by the coach to apply ED at several of the higher HA schools, but my son was consistent in saying he was not going to go ED to any school given the uncertainty of the engineering 3-2 programs at many of them.  So at least each coach knew he was going to be fair game to recruit into the Spring.  In the end, he did get admitted to his school of choice with an engineering major without coach support.

Each kid is different and each coach has different sway with admissions, so I'm not sure our way was the best way to approach it.  If your son has one definite preferred school and the coach is willing to go to bat for him with admissions, then by all means take it.  My son gambled that he could get in on his own, and some pre-reads came back negative, so he used that info to move on to other candidates. 

The HAs are definitely a challenge to navigate through (especially considering financial costs) so it is not for the faint of heart for a kid who also wants to play baseball.

My older son went to a HA D3.  He did not have a particular school in mind just HA. He wanted to play and was not picky beyond HA. He had the grades and test scores to get into everyschool where there was any coach interest. We never turned down any school but did not commit ED either. With ED you are commiting to the school before knowing what your final cost would be.  We let admission and financial aid determine that for us . Yes it likely cost some admissions but son wasnt in love with nor loved by anyone well enough to risk it. (Story for another post) Ultimately commited on last day  with a very good merit package. Baseball worked out well until an injury in Sr year. 

Zoom 2020 posted:

I think it is also fine to let the coaches know who else he is talking to because this may help them make up their minds one way or the other and it’s possible they talk to each other about mutual recruits anyway, but maybe someone else can chime in on this issue.

We learned that coaches do talk and there is really no good reason to hide who you're talking to, who has shown interest, and who has offered. 

This thread has been very helpful; thank you all for your wisdom.

BBMomAZ posted:

Zoom 2020 posted:

I think it is also fine to let the coaches know who else he is talking to because this may help them make up their minds one way or the other and it’s possible they talk to each other about mutual recruits anyway, but maybe someone else can chime in on this issue.

We learned that coaches do talk and there is really no good reason to hide who you're talking to, who has shown interest, and who has offered. 

Most every coach my son talked to, asked who else he was talking to.  I think it’s a pretty common thing to discuss.

I am catching up on my reading, and just saw the thread on HA D3 Timing.  2020s seem to be getting to the point of “how is all of this really going to work when all the puzzle pieces are moving”. I’ll just fasten my seat belt and hang on!

To answer DCMOM's question and address the late decision my son made Spring of his Senior year, there was definitely some risk that by then some coaches will have settled on their main "recruited" list.  That was a risk in terms of him considering continuing as a Catcher in college, as a few coaches told him once they reach their limit on catchers, he would be a Pitcher Only.  But he was leaning that direction anyway, so that did not worry him to much.  Teams at all levels seem to have a need for POs, and they are often the last kids added to rosters.  If your kid is a LHP, even better as there is always a need for LHPs.

Remember that the D3's rosters vary in size, sometimes dramatically.  Whereas 35 is the common limit for D1 and D2, there are a fair number of D3s that go into the 40s and even 50+, so there is a lot of room to add late decisions.  You definitely want to research the roster size and roster history of every D3 you are strongly considering.  Big rosters adds some flexibility but can also be a red flag about turnover and playing time.

In any event, if a D3 coach is actively recruiting a kid, they want him and are usually willing to wait for a decision until Spring.  These schools cannot offer athletic money, and many of the HAs are very expensive to attend.  So many kids cannot make any commitment until they get the acceptance letter with any merit/scholarship money offer to consider.  I was very transparent with the coaches that as much as my son liked them and their school, it was always going to depend on the final cost.  We could not afford $250K over 4 years. They almost always understood that reasoning.

I will echo Backstop22's comments as my son had much the same experience with delayed D3 decision/commitment (early March of this year), though much of this was due to an injury that took him out of all baseball activities from the beginning of last summer through the spring of this year. The coach at the school he ended up choosing liked him and essentially said we think you have what it takes to play here and we can always use more catchers. Read that how you will but my son will be going in with eyes wide open to the fact that he'll be competing for what is expected to amount to a backup catcher position. However, he wants to go to this school and all the pieces fit, even without baseball. Also, as Backstop22 mentioned,  some of these schools are very expensive so we were one of the ones that needed to get the various merit/aid packages back, and haggling done, before making a decision. Best of luck!

I agree with above. We were up front and let coaches know we needed to know the fin aid before any final descision, Thus ED not an option. Most understood although it likely cost a school or two as EA and RD can be more competative in getting in

The FA package can be pre-read at the same time as the academics.  Many schools will simultaneously  get the financial information along with grades and transcripts to make the decision process quicker.  Typically this is done for their high priority recruits.

We did a pre-read, and my 2017 son did apply ED. The pre-read paperwork was pretty much the same as the paperwork for the CSS app, and the aid was pretty much what the pre-read said.  If it had not been in the neighborhood, or the coach's promise of admission did not come though, it would have been off to the local Juco.  It made us a bit nervous but in the end it was all good.