Need advice, should son forget his favorite?

RRM57, neither my son nor I have experienced this type of situation, but I would encourage your son to contact the coach in the hope that he can help. If this is your son's #1 choice, what do you have to lose?

Meanwhile, he should certainly look at and pursue other opportunities in case the first one doesn't work out.

Are the schools he is interested in by chance D3's? If so, time is on his side, since he won't have to sign an NLI.

08,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, this school is D3. He has been accepted to 4 other schools (1 D1,3 D3's) and has possibilities of also playing for some them . With his academic record, he has received offers of merit based $ from the D3's and has received, this week, an application for merit $ from the D1. If he chooses to go to the D1, he would attempt to walk-on.

I will have him contact the coach as we also have to make sure that we don't miss opportunities at the schools due to missing committment deadlines.

Thanks again.

To me, your son is in a win-win situation, with no pressure to sign any binding documents. The only deadlines are for merit aid applications, etc. Have him proceed with applications at all of his top choices and then sort out his options in the spring. Best wishes -- it sounds like he has a great future!

I agree with 08 . I would also advise that you submit all apps to the college through the coach if possibel. We had an academic D2 that wouldn't even let us talk to admissions nor would he give us an offer until son had a student #. It was the highest offer we received in both BB and academic money. Unfortunately the cost were also the highest and it was a cold weather college. They contacted us but I was impressed with the academic side of the college. They had direct links to all the big Ivies for post grad school.

When you are dealing with D3s, there is far less reason to commit prior to May 1 when you have to pick a school. I certainly wouldn't commit without an acceptance letter and a financial aid package that you can afford.

If school #1 is his first choice, then by all means work with the coach to try to get in. At the same time, line up other options. The other variable to keep in mind is that your son may find that his Senior year spring catches someone's eye and new opportunities emerge. I am aware of at least one case in this area where the offer was made in July after a team was hit hard by the draft. The player dropped his enrollment at a D3 and was on campus 2 weeks later for the first day of classes at the D1. Weird things do happen!!!

I don't know if this will help much but ....9 years ago my son was recruited by a few D1 with a nice package. He then was accepted at Notre Dame which was his dream school for architecture(he also got a 3/4 ride academically). No guarantee of baseball. He walked on and made the team but would have to give up the architecture program since they spend a full year in Italy. He knew his future wasn't playing baseball and my heart and dreams were broken but thank God he was smarter than me ..he ended up playing club ball and is on his way to becoming a success in a field he loves. He still plays in an adult league.

Thanks again to everyone for words of wisdom.

O8Dad,
You bring up a good point about catching someone's eye. My son plays for a very small school, although the league is very competitive, so there is a change that he would get noticed during the season.

On the plus side, the head coach of our league champion (our main rival) is a part time scout and has offered to make some calls for my son. We will probably take up his offer and ask that he contact the coaches of the schools that my son is interested in.

As for the acceptance letters and $ offered, he has received acceptance letters from the D1 (and within the last couple of days received an application to apply for merit $, at this school he has a possibility of walking on without athletic $) and has received acceptance letters from the other 3 D3's plus commitments to provide merit money ranging from 1/3 to approx 3/5 the cost of attending the schools involved. (My son and wife have been told by the college counselor at my son's school that we need to request additional merit $ from at least one of these schools if that particular school is in the running.) As has been suggested, we have to weight the pluses/minuses of each school and son has to decide if he wants to apply at any other schools if time permits (we are getting real close to the deadlines of some of the better academic possibilities in our area).

Ozone,
I understand completely. My son is looking at the academic side of things first and that relationship between the athletics and academics is one of the things that we have to investigate. He has to visit a couple of the D3's and that will be one of the first questions that the coach is asked.
My son loves baseball and would love to have the opportunity to play in college but he also knows what his future goals are.
Thanks for the advice.

RRM57,

This situation may or may not apply to your son, but I'll just toss it out there as an additional idea.

The University of Minnesota is a large DI near us which has grown increasingly selective in acceptance criteria. My younger son (2006 HS grad, music not baseball) was accepted in the early period (Dec. of his senior year), but a friend who applied a year later (2007 HS grad) had his application deferred from the December acceptance period to the Spring. (The friend had very high grades including Honors classes along with many volunteer, sports, and leadership activities, but did not test well and scored merely "above average" on the ACT.)

This was a problem for the 2007 grad, because it was his top choice school but mostly because he was a finalist for a full-ride golf CADDY scholarship. He had caddied at a local country club in the summers, and some of the wealthy members there sponsor several full-rides for top student-caddies who must attend this university. If he could not get accepted at this U, he would drop out of the running for the scholarship.

The student talked to his HS principal, and the principal and several teachers contacted the U's admissions by phone and letter, advocating for this young man's academic hard work, leadership, and ability to shine in college. A few weeks later he was accepted...and he became one of the winners of the full ride caddy scholarship. (Darn, my son should have caddied in the summers!)

So maybe if your son is very serious about this favorite school, he could consider asking teachers or the principal at his HS to advocate on his behalf.

Best wishes,

Julie

MN-Mom,
Thanks, we will consider doing this. Hey what could it hurt.
Thanks again.

The Guidance Counselor at our school had this to say

"The things to remember about deferrals are:

1) Your application was good enough not to be rejected

2) Your application was NOT good enough to be accepted.

So what are you going to do to fix #2? Grades, test scores, recommendations, awards are all things that you can improve"

I always thought it was a very matter of fact way of putting things...

What is the old saying, "its not over till its over."

I would stongly suggest that your son continue to write the admissions office. He should tell them any kind of positive news that may change their minds. If he had a great semester, tell them. If he wins an award, tell them.

You can always ask for reconsideration. They may reconsider, they may not. But it is worth an effort.

I suspect (don't know) that with many private schools, that with the economy the way it is, the hit that most have taken to endowments, that students that can pay will be needed. They won't know until deposits start coming in, but it may be worth continuing to stay in touch with the school. The world has changed and if you want it bad enough, it may be worth the extra effort.

You never know! Good Luck!

RRM57 -- Is baseball an option at any of the DIII's where he's been accepted. It helps a coach know that a potential player is already admitted. I don't know to what degree he explored those schools for academic and baseball potential, but while not giving up on his 1st choice, but it is possible that exploring in depth the places he has been accepted might turn something up.

08Dad,
About the only thing that he could improve would be the test scores, but he has already taken them several times with the last test scores not going up any higher than the one before. I think he has hit a wall in that area.
I think the earlier suggestion of having teachers, etc advocating on his behalf may be the best approach.

ILVBB,
I will also pass on your suggestion to my son. He was selected by the teachers at his school as Student of the Month for November, which was after he submitted his application for early decision. He needs to forward this information to his admission office contact. And also forward his 1st semester grades.

Double Eagle,
Baseball is a possibility at a couple of the D3's (actually the head coach at one emailed my son after getting a lead from someone in the admissions office. When we visit, this coach wanted to meet with my son, so that may be an option if everything else is fine.) We also have to visit the D3 that has already offered more than 50% merit money. If he chooses the last remaining D3, it will be for academic reasons, as he doesn't plan on playing baseball there (son didn't care for the attitude of the baseball coaches or program when he attended a camp last year) but that is subject to change.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions/advice.

Ozone,

I am impressed with the maturity of your son to see his education first and be able to play club ball.And the fact that he got in to Notre Dame and made the team as a walk on.Thats very impressive.

fanofgame,
Thank God he got his brains from his mother. I barley got out of HS. It's nice to be taught lessons from your children. My advice to him was to stick with baseball, of course that was a unfulfilled dream of mine. I'm glad he was strong enough to be his own man and not try to please Daddy. I'm a lucky guy.

Ozone,

I think its great that you didnt push him to do something he didnt want to.Thats the thing I think as parents is we need to repsect their decisions as they begin to mature into men. They dont always want what we want. And sometimes they make mistakes in their decisions, but yours was allowed the respect to make his decision and look how it turned out, maybe not as you at first wanted but he will do well in life. Best of luck

Let the admissons office know that the school is his first choice, and have your son stay in touch with his regional counselor (in addition to the other good advice you rec'd.) Good luck.

This is one instance where the student/athlete needs to be pro active with the school---many D-3 schools will not even allow the coaches to talk to admissions about prospects---that is fact

Being deferred does not mean rejected and keep that in mind


Just keep working hard and staying in touch and do not throw other alternatives away

There's an interesting thread on something along these lines on college confidential. Worth looking at for all the different experiences

coach lied

CaBB,
Having read that thread, wouldn't you say that many of those parents are naive? Coaches often talk in eupemisms and are expected to err on the rosy side.

I agree they do seem very naive. It's interesting to compare that message board to the posters here. It is really geared toward academics and college admissions. They need to read this board more!

Son will be pro-active on this and ask teachers and school adminstration to write letters and place phone calls on his behalf. 3 of his teachers have written letters that were mailed with his ED application, so he may want to ask them to call the admission office contact.

I will state that the coaching staff never promised him admission, they told us that son had a spot on team if admitted. Son needs to contact coaches and ask them to write to the admission office in his support. Don't know if this helps, but it can't hurt.

In addition, Son will be scheduling visits to the other schools to meet with the admission office contact and coach at each. Son has been admitted at these schools and we have been getting multiple calls from their admission offices in regard to setting up visits.

Thanks again for your imput. If anyone thinks of something that I have left out please let me know.

Good luck RRM57. Let us know how it all ends up.

Sometimes things happen for a reason and things turn out for the best. Hope this will be true in your son's case.

Thanks CaBB,
I will update when something breaks loose. Hopefully whatever happens will be good news.

Yes, please do. It sounds like the school in question may be the same one near the top of my son`s (2010) list.

Hi folks,
I want to update this thread to let those that were interested know what the outcome was/is.

Some background, Son applied to 11 schools and was accepted by 9 (either early action or regular decision) and waitlisted by 2.

One of the waitlisted schools was his #1 choice where he would receive a fantastic education and be able to play ball; he decided that he was no longer interested in waitlist school #2. Leading up to getting waitlisted to #1, letters were written on Son's behalf by several prominent graduates of this school, but it appears that this effort when for naught.

The schools from which he had received acceptance letter were located in Virginia, NC, SC, and Tenn. He quickly eliminated the one school in NC and the 2 Virginia schools closest to home (both ODAC schools, but also schools where he didn't get the right feeling when he visited), so he is down to 1 waitlist and 6 acceptances.

He had one other ODAC school to consider where he would have a good chance to see the field in year 2 and they offered him a 50% academic scholarship, plus Virginia offers approx $3200 to students attending a Virginia private school which made this an affordable school.

The school in Tenn seemed a good fit except for the distance. The baseball coach emailed or wrote several letter, plus called Son's high school coach. Other drawback beside distance was no financial assistance offered, so that eliminated it.

The 2 schools in SC were very much in the running especially the school with the initials FU. This school actually offered Son close to $22K in scholarship money. This made it a viable choice along with the last ODAC school. The other SC school was axed when they did not offer very much in academic aid.

So at this point in time we were considering one SC school and one Virginia ODAC school and we were still waiting on word from one of the best public universities in the United States, and the highest ranked school in Virginia.

Son received word from this University of his acceptance the day before he found out that he was waitlisted by his #1 choice. As a family we talked over his choices and decided to visit the Nationally ranked public University and make a decision after that; knowing that son's chances of playing varsity baseball would be a longshot. Anyway, we visited and son was very happy with this option despite the baseball odds stacked against him.

In the end, the opportunity to get a GREAT education at a very reasonable cost was the deciding factors. Son will enroll at UVA this fall, hoping for opportunity to tryout for the baseball team. But should that fall though he will explore playing for the club team.

Thanks to those who hung with this drawn out story and good luck to those searching for the right fit in the future.
Thank goodness we have many great choices in Virginia.
Before I forget, thanks to all who offered great advice.

RRM57, it sounds like your family has looked carefully at all the variables and arrived at the best choice. Congratulations! UVA was high up on my list when I was in high school and I know that your son will get an excellent education there. Beautiful campus, town, and countryside too!

Best wishes to your son as he tries to walk on with the team. Hopefully, it'll work out, but if not, it's great that he has a wonderful back-up plan with club baseball. No matter what, it sounds as if he will be at the school that is the best fit for him.

Again, congratulations!

My neighbor, whom we watched grow up, graduated from UVA last year and absolutely loved it, got a great education and a great job afterwords. Best wishes for similar success for you son!

Infield08 and Casey75,
Thanks.
We spend alot of time worrying about how to get Son in his original #1 choice by using various contacts to that school but it just wasn't meant to be.
While he got into UVA on his own merit which makes us the most proud.

It's great to see young people weighing their options and using some critical judgment to help them make the decisions that are right for them.

Congrats to your son and best of luck.