Small College experiences

Dave, a lot of it has to do with the make up of your son, the team itself and the community where the school is in.  I had one baseball player go to a very small D-III in a community where the college was greatly supported by the small farm community.  This player had a great career and great time.  However, he was "small town" all the way.  He met his wife there and they were/are like a John Mellencamp song.  I had another who went to a very competitive NAIA school in central Missouri and he loved it as well.  Still, another who also went to this NAIA school thought that there was noting to do.  He finished his career there but didn't have a good time.  So, there you have it.  There is not a standard answer.

As CoachB25 pointed out it is highly dependent on the student as well as the school itself. My son had friends who wanted the big school environment with big football weekends etc, and others who did not.

My son is at a school with ~2,500 kids and it has been a great experience for him, I think by the time he will be a Sr it may seem a bit small, however, in the first three years it has been great.His school does make student live on campus for at least three years to foster a "community". He gets one-on-one teaching from PHD professors and most of his classes are less than 20-30 students, some as few as 10.. He personally knows every professor in his department. The resources and services available to him dwarf what his friends have at the larger schools.His school has a huge endowment for its size and has built one of the top engineering and science facilities that would be found at any size university, so again it might depend on where he is looking and the school itself. 

My son mentioned to me about a recently played away series at a smaller school ~1,500 and he came back so jealous of the attendance and spirit. He said all of the sports teams go to other teams events. The student population was "tailgating" out behind the OF and cheering on the other team, and he heard that it was an amazing place to be as a student talking with some of the kids on the other team. Again this was a highly rated small school with a long history of this.

I am not sure if this helps but at least one perspective. 

What do the girls look like?  

Went to a small college (1200 students).  Was an editor on the newspaper (although not a journalism major), acted in a play (even though I stutter) and played on the club volleyball team (even though I am 5'10" in heels).  Small schools stretch you a bit.

Loved the experience and hope my kids can have something similar.

(I'm curious what the highly-rated 1,500 small school described above was).

Does the small school serve his academic interests?  Would he go there if he blew his ACL or MCL and couldn't play anymore?  If the answer to either question is no then he should probably look elsewhere.

When my son was evaluating colleges we spoke to the admissions director at one school that asked a very important and insightful question.

He asked my a simple question "what is your favorite class and why and what is your least favorite class and why."

My son talked about his English class, how the teacher engaged the class with discussions, ideas were shared and how it allowed him to think beyond the answer. He then mentioned how much he did not like his calculus class. He said the teacher assigned problems and would only answer questions after he had consulted a classmate on how to do the problems. My son had historically been good at math and weaker in his English classes.

The Admissions director then asked the really important question. Where did these teachers go to college? The English teacher had gone to small Carlton College while the math teacher was a graduate of the University of California. He then pointed out that it was likely that these teachers and their teaching style was a product of their education.

LIGHT BULB WENT ON! My son opted for a smaller school where he was engaged by his professors.

To me this was instrumental in making a good choice for my son.

They are 18-22 they all look pretty good!  At least at my age. All good thoughts so far.  I tried to tell him that at any place he goes he's only going to know about 100 people on a named basis anyway.  

College completly what you make it no matter where you go. His goal is to become a college baseball coach and I think this school's coaches would make great contact's for him in the future as well.

My son is going to a small school, less than 2000. In High School he took mostly AP and honors classes. Most of those had smaller class size and a lot of individual attention. 

He received a lot of attention early from smaller schools. A few larger schools came in late and wanted to see him pitch. By that time he had decided he wanted a small school, so he declined.

On his visits to the schools and sitting in classes, all the classes were small, the professors knew their students. My son wanted to major in Chemistry or Math. He felt that he would not get the same attention at the bigger schools. He has taken organic and physical chemistry in classes, with 15 to 20 other students in a class. 

He is an active member in his Fraternity and in the off season, and compete in intramural sports. 

My son is a junior now. Over the last three seasons we have seen kids come in and struggle to get playing time. I am talking about All-Conference, and even player All-State. Just because a school is smaller does not guaranteed playing time, even for the hardest worker. My son and I were talking about this. He was in the rotation as freshman against conference opponents. He earned the spot, but realizes he was very lucky. A senior his freshman year, hurt his elbow, and could not pitch. My son earned that spot. If that senior was not hurt, my son probably would have gotten some week day starts. I consider my son a very good ball player and hard worker. But so are most the players on many college teams. even at small schools.

This is just one story from my sons and my perspective. A smaller school was a good fit for my son, from an academic and personal stand point. what does your son want out of his college experience. 

Here's another angle that may be appealing to some and not to others...

Son loves major college sports and had a level of interest in experiencing "big school" life.  But he knew he wouldn't play any time soon if at all if he went big D1.  So, he is at a good JC program but he and his roomies picked an apartment a block away from a major D1.  He sorta gets the best of both worlds.

Baseball and getting on the field ASAP was top priority for my son.  Our family and extended family are alumnus from a large institution with 45K students.  However, it did not even factor into his decision on where to play.  Big school, little school, it didn't matter--baseball was at the top of his list.

Decide what is important to you and your son.   "Why" is he going to school? For us the answer was to get a job in a career that interests him.  Small or big college wasn't that important to us.  Colleges within some large Universities can still have a small college feel.  Some small colleges are taught by the real professors (Phd's).   Some large university classes are taught by professors (Phds) and teaching assts (grad students).  Some college classes are online  where size doesn't matter.   Some classes can be taught by professors who can't speak a lick of English...that can be interesting and something you need to be aware of.

At least for us, the size of the school really didn't matter much.  It was about academics, baseball, and all the other stuff.   It is very difficult not to have trade-offs in this process.   My son traded his top requirements for weather.  If it is one thing he's learned in 4 years, weather is a much bigger factor in people's lives than he gave it credit for.   

PS...He has job offers near his school and near his home (warmer climate).   It looks like he's coming home, and he didn't think twice about it.

Kind of an answer: I played D I football and thoroughly enjoyed getting to see some big places and getting to play in some fancy stadiums (Texas Stadium, Astrodome, The Orange Bowl). One son played D II and D III, the other played D III baseball. When I was recruited, I didn't even consider small schools. 

Having seen my sons' experience, I think I would have loved a smaller school .Someone wrote a book about the football games at my alma mater over a period of 40 years and I got one mention, a fumble against SMU.   Non-sports wise, I had a lot of non-athlete friends but most of my teammates did not.  The closeness of a smaller school is hard to top and the personal attention of the faculty is unreal. My older son had a tough first semester in college.(0.750 GPA...really) A professor that liked baseball noticed and sent me an  e-mail asking if he could be my son's advisor and asking of he could put his foot on my son's head until his grades went upward. He was a wonderful blessing, he took hold of things, and sons grades bounced back. he even cooked dinner for my son and I during a visit. That just wouldn't happen at the big schools.   

Hokie ... At a large school his TA would be hoping you're going to save him from a night of Raman noodles.

 I like it when someone reaches out to a kid that needs it, great story!

My children each chose very different schools. The first chose a huge D1 and tried out twice to make her team, the other chose a D3 lifelong fraternity with no more students than his high school. The common thread we heard from every coach was pick your school, not your team. Coaches come and go, you can get hurt, you can get replaced by the class coming behind you, so be happy with where you will live for the next 4 years.

A huge help to each of them was the opportunity to visit schools separated from their parents. They both found older students from their high school attending those colleges and got the answers to questions they posed, not the kind parents were asking. You might be surprised how a bicycle 10 ft up in a tree can spark interest during a tour.

Best of Luck to your son!! 

Go Engineers(never a hawk), Go Hokies, Go Tigers, Go Mountaineers!!