Selecting the good college

Start with asking yourself alot of questions like...How far away do I want to go? What do I want to major in? How important is playing baseball? Are you more comfortable in large or small settings? Is anyone interested in you? Begin to narrow it down by the preference for a particular climate or setting. And visit, visit, visit. You can get a great feel for a school when you salk across campus, go into the student center, attend an athletic event. Just a few thoughts to get you started.

FX7

You have a PM

If you really have no idea I would suggest taking out a map - pick out a few colleges that you could visit by driving (and perhaps spending a night en route).

Make a big loop around your home. Try to hit a major university, a mid sized college, a small private college, and throw in a JUCO.

Plan it enough ahead that you can call the school and the coach and set up time to visit with folks at the school. It's all unofficial so there are no NCAA rules to worry about.

Remember, the purpose of the trip is not to see if you want to go to any of these particular schools. The goal is just to get a feel for what each of these types of schools are like.

After that you may have a much better idea how to answer the pertinant questions like how far, how big etc so you can begin the real search.

Good Luck.

Try the Princton Review questionaire @ http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/advsearch/match.asp

Good advice so far....here is some more

Get a copy of the Princeton Reviews guide to America's 351 best colleges. Costs about $30. Well worth the cost, it was invalable to us. Lists prices, entrance requirements, impressions, size, and on, and on, and on. You'll get a good picture of the best 4 year schools that you might want to end up at.

Choose perhaps 20 four year schools that seem to make sense to YOU for one reason or another. Then you can start researching the schools and baseball programs on line. Researching whether they might be a good fit or not. Academics, geography, level of play, intended major, character of coaches, players and team, cost, needs.... As you research you'll find that the schools will begin to pare themselves down. Call and ask for catalogs, and baseball media guides.

If your going the JC route you would want to see how seemless the transition from a JC to your intended 4 year choice might be. Often schools have a few "pipeline" JC's that feed them. Both academically and baseball wise. If you choose and intended 4 year often the coaching staff can suggest a good list of JC's whose coaches and programs and players they respect.

look for a college you have a chance of being able to play at, a college that you would like to be at even if you didnt make the team, academics, and look at your chances of being able to get it

There is also the US News Report on the best colleges. They rank the top 249 colleges in many different categories( overall, by majors, by size etc...)

There is also a publication which I saw at a Perfect Game event which is a book about college baseball programs. It's updated every year and talks about each program, what they have, who's grauating, what they will need for the following year etc.. I don't recall the name but if you call Perfect Game I'm sure they will give you the info.