Picking A School As A Baseball Player

Sometimes it's really as simple as these are the schools I'm interested in, here are the schools that are interested in me. You weigh the pros and cons of the overlapping schools and make a decision. 

If none of them overlap you make a decision based entirely on cost and academics that may exclude baseball. 

Everyone's path is different.  Those are all great pieces of advice but each or all may not apply.  Yes, of course, if baseball can help get you into a school that you wouldn't be able to attend, fantastic.  But what if it isn't a good fit otherwise?  Yeah, for sure, it is best to follow the trail of heavy recruiting love but many aspiring college players never get that.  The best interest they get is luke warm and they have to figure out where they'll take their best shot without clear indicators.  As far as picking school for the school, you have some young men who are more driven to go to college because of baseball than because of academics so sometimes the best baseball fit gives them the best chance of actually completing a college degree.

My suggestion would be to continue taking the wise advice of those who have been down the path (from here and elsewhere) and then pick and choose which applies to your son most.  And then, still, your son will most likely have some of his own ideas that won't necessarily align with all points of that direction.  So, you may also have the challenge of weighing things like "it's his life" vs. "am I gonna let a 16 y.o. kid make such an important decision when he is more interested in what the girls look like on campus".

One big beautiful puzzle.  Enjoy each moment along the way.  Remember, with your kids, in so many ways, it's the trip more than the destination.  

Everyone's path is different.  Those are all great pieces of advice but each or all may not apply.

That was our experience.

My son violated a number of those rules. We toured the school he's now at with some non baseball friends. He didn't like it. Too big, not enough individual attention, very impersonal. The school wasn't heavily recruiting him, so we just went for fun with friends.

Later, when they made him an offer, it wasn't the best financial offer. He easily qualified for every school he applied for, and decided on his own not to stretch to some schools where he could have played, but might have struggled academically. Other coaches said he would have a good chance to start immediately. This one said he would get some midweek time and reminded him that going there didn't mean he had achieved his dream — it was the beginning of getting even better.

That's what he wanted.

He wanted to battle the best and win. So he went in and worked his fanny off and earned playing time. He'll do it again next year, and the year after that and all through his life.

It wasn't the easy route, but it made him better than a school where he was guaranteed playing time, or would have a top prospect immediately, would have.

It doesn't mean those guidelines are wrong, it just reinforces that every kid's journey is different. This was the right journey for him.

@Francis7 posted:

Advice once given to me regarding choosing a school:

1. Use baseball as a tool to get into a school that you might not be able to attend otherwise (because of admission requirements or tuition cost).

2. Go where you're WANTED - meaning go to the school were they are heavily recruiting you as opposed to you trying to convince the school to look at you.

3. Pick a school for the school... NOTHING ELSE!

Would you agree with all of the above? Anything you would change or add?

#1 YES

#2 Just remember that recruiting is the courting period, things might seem a little different when you get there. I hope that a relationship has been established before an offer. And remember, the best offer isn't always the best.  Sons experience was a while ago,  but some things havent changed, he did not chose the best  $$ offer from a state school. At 40k student population, he felt like it was a small city, he liked the much smaller school out of state school, with smaller classes.  But if you ask him now, he thinks that being closer to home should be important.

#3 Pick a school where you will get a useful degree, not just a piece of paper, because statistics prove that you WILL not play MLB.

I'l add a big consideration that many overlook or at least don't mention often...

"What companies recruit my major on campus and what types of jobs are those kids getting?"  Do I want that kind of job in the geographic area of that college?

Another consideration is .... Will the coaching staff have any objection to my chosen major? This can be an issue for engineering majors, other hard majors and other majors with afternoon labs.

I think 2 needs to be defined more...in addition to supporting the major, what opportunities will your kid have on making the team/starter as a freshman, summer ball connections, what is their player development program? I.e., do they have a tech driven pitching lab like Wake/vandy etc? 

Now that the kid's baseball is over until 2021 (unless a camp comes into play), we starting making day trips to the schools he is interested in. Luckily we live within 150 miles of the schools and most offer self guided tours which I prefer.   

Francis7

Everybody’s path is different and each of your 3 points can have different weightings.    Your 3 points are how my son approached it with some minor “tweeks” but my son was clearly giving more weight to a potential engineering program than baseball.   Because after 4 years, he wanted to be a profesional engineer not a professional baseball player…pretty simple stuff if you ask me.   I’ve learned there are many things that are important to different people such as location, access to internships, financial markets, religious affiliation, cost, etc….   Cabbagedad gave you some excellent examples of recruits picking a college purely for its baseball because that gives the recruit the best chance at college and eventually life.  Totally understand and respect that.

Here are my thoughts on your 3 points:

1. Use baseball as a tool to get into a school that you might not be able to attend otherwise (because of admission requirements or tuition cost). – Baseball definitely helped my son’s get into an a very competitive academic University.   The engineering college had a 7% acceptance rate.  I'd be lying if I didn't say baseball had a tremendous impact for his admission chances.
2. Go where you're WANTED - meaning go to the school were they are heavily recruiting you as opposed to you trying to convince the school to look at you. – My son had choices, and they definitely wanted him. Ultimately, he selected his Universtity based on their engineering program not baseball.
3. Pick a school for the school... NOTHING ELSE! – My son loves baseball, so there is an emotional attachment at some level in the decision no matter what the data told him.   We looked at everything the school had to offer, but academics was 80-90% of the decision for sure. Baseball played a minor role in the decision mostly in terms of the baseball program demands for labs, practice, travel, # of games....it had to be a fit for his academics.   It was a large university which provided additional academic opportunities should he want to pursue something new….which he did as a part-time job in their research particle accelerator lab.  So, I think it is important to look at the big picture.   My son was fortunate in that he didn’t change majors and didn’t transfer.   These are extremely rare things for a college athlete.

Francis - use and tweak your son's situation with these advice principles as you've laid them out.  Don't overthink it.  There is always some risk of the unknown. Try to get past the risk to find him the best situation. 

Good luck, and JMO.