Anyone heading to the Stanford camp this summer? I have a rising junior and thinking if he should do it.
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My son didn't go to Stanford, so hopefully others who did will reply, but I can say this. Going to Stanford (or Headfirst, or Showball, or any High Academic camp) during summer before junior year is if you have a HA D1 (Ivy/Stanford/etc.) player. If your son is aiming for D3s, there's no reason to go now to such an expensive showcase; HA D3s recruit in 17U/before senior summer.
Thank you..clueless about the process.I appreciate your response,not sure if I should invest the money someplace else not sure he is going to qualify for a HA school.
Should have said, welcome!
There is this thread going on, which might be relevant to you:
@anotherparent posted:My son didn't go to Stanford, so hopefully others who did will reply, but I can say this. Going to Stanford (or Headfirst, or Showball, or any High Academic camp) during summer before junior year is if you have a HA D1 (Ivy/Stanford/etc.) player. If your son is aiming for D3s, there's no reason to go now to such an expensive showcase; HA D3s recruit in 17U/before senior summer.
is stanford camp more along the lines of HA or P5? academically, it's obivously HA but they do play in (and do very well in) P5. They don't sacrifice quality for grades in their commits so i'd think they're a hybrid tending towards P5, overall.
@ale29 posted:Anyone heading to the Stanford camp this summer? I have a rising junior and thinking if he should do it.
Any idea or indication which other schools/coaches might be in attendance in addition to Stanford? I started another thread for summer showcases/camps (all) that kids might consider in a typical year if college baseball is a goal for the kid. Please post any details on the Stanford camp that you have there so we can have a thread with all sorts of options for kids all across the country.
They haven’t release what other school will be there, as soon as I get any information,I will post it.
If you're asking, does Stanford recruit out of their own camp, I have no idea, but PG lists 9 commits already for the 2023 class (and four 2024s). Either those kids went to the camp as freshmen, or Stanford recruits the same way any other P5 recruits, i.e. not from their camp, which is a huge moneymaker for them.
Their camp is aimed at the same HA market as Headfirst, with a similar high price ($900). This recent thread was useful:
https://community.hsbaseballwe...ic/stanford-baseball
Smokeminside's classic post from 2018:
Never been to a Stanford baseball camp, but I've seen lots and lots of them over the years...one of my kids participates in a club sport that uses the Stanford facilities. I'm usually looking over at the Sunken Diamond 4-5 days a week (pre-pandemic, the campus has been closed to outside groups since last March).
So here's an outsiders view:
- the camps are crowded, especially the youth camps. I'm sure they cap admission, but I've seen sessions with it seems like 70-80 kids. Maybe more. (Soccer is even worse.)
- it's hot. Some of the time, the campers are in the cages, which are in a nice, shady area. The cages are very large and can hold prob 20-30 kids at a time. But most of the time, they are on the field, which is uncovered and hot. While not turf, it can get to 100 degrees in Palo Alto during the summer. They have Gatorade and water stations around the cages and field. But sometimes the kids look pretty wrung out, esp at the end of the day.
- the Stanford coaches are in attendance, as are many players. They all work with the kids and talk to them. I've heard that there are 40-50 other schools that participates in the ID camps for older kids, and I believe the mix skews to the West Coast. So like the WCC, WAC, Cal State, smaller D2 and D3s. Some schools travel from the East Coast to make the camp.
- I've heard coaches tell campers that you pretty much need straight A's to get in to Stanford...they can tolerate a couple B+s here and there, but not more than that. I've also heard that a 3.6 HS GPA is the absolute cutoff, even with full support of the coaches.
The italicized, far below, is from Coach Stotz (Stanford Camp Director and retired Stanford Associate Head Coach) who sent it to me last week. I asked him. 
The rest is mine.
In my experience with the camp (2 older boys went twice each, the youngest, a '22, is going this summer. All D3 level kids.)
Before jr. year is helpful for a few D1s if someone objective and knowledgeable has said your kid has legit D1 talent and you want to get on the radar of a few HA D1 schools (and a few non-academic ones). Before senior year is fine for D3 kids, but I'd recommend June dates rather than late July/August.
You may get more bang for your buck at Headfirst or Showball; a greater number of D3s attend those.
However, if you're looking DI HA, then I think it's important that those coaches see your kid before they start Junior year (or during their first semester). They're gonna want to see jr. grades as soon as you get them, but they'll still look before that.
So from the list below, HA= Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, Holy Cross, Princeton, Stanford, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara (though the latter two get almost exclusively players from California.)
I've asterisked what many people think (not necessarily me) are the most academically competitive D3 HAs below. Their admissions standards will likely be tougher than the D1 HA's.
I've double asterisked schools that are often described as second tier HA D3s. Not my opinion, just passing on info I've read elsewhere.
I'm not an expert, but I know a bit about a couple of the D3 schools on this list (bolded) and a few of D3 conferences (Northwest, NESCAC, Centennial, Liberty, and Midwest).
Other folks on this site know a WHOLE lot more than I do. Maybe they'll chime in.
FROM STOTZ:
Obviously this situation is very fluid--here is tentative list of who works session 1
Session 1 June 26-29
AMHERST*
BARD**
BIOLA
BROWN
CHAPMAN**
CONCORDIA
DARTMOUTH
EMBREY-WIDDLE
GEORGE FOX
GRINNELL*
HARVARD
HOLY CROSS
KANSAS
LEWIS AND CLARK**
LINFIELD COLLEGE
MIT*
NORTHERN COLORADO
OCCIDENTAL**
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
PARADIGM SPORTS
POMONA PITZER*
PRINCETON
SACRAMENTO STATE
STANFORD
STEVENS**
TRINITY (Texas)*
TUFTS*
UC SAN DIEGO
UCSB
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO*
VASSAR*
VASSAR
WESTMONT
WHEATON**
WHITMAN**
WILLIAMETTE**
DD2024's post is accurate as far as I know from my four Stanford camps. expect upwards of 200 kids. That said, sign ups seem to be slower this year. In years past, middle infield spots would have been all taken by the second or third day of the registration period. I just checked and EVERY position still has openings for every camp. That's weird. Thank COVID.
FYI: One major difference at Stanford Camp this year: NO DORMS, so campers will be staying with their parents or guardians off campus.
Gentle suggestion: Let your kid initiate the conversation about how he feels his day went. This can be painful, especially if this is your first rodeo. The boy will definitely be tired, likely be distracted, and feeling either sky high because he did some great stuff, or Death Valley low because he thinks he didn't do even adequate stuff.
It's a good time for an ice cream cone for him, and tequila shots for you.
Also a good time to trot out that reassuring stuff like: "They're looking at more than just contact; they're checking your swing and athleticism!" I have used that sentence myself many, many times and highly recommend it even though I still have no idea if there is any truth to it.
It's a lot better, though, than saying "What do you think you did wrong out there?"
@smokeminside posted:Also a good time to trot out that reassuring stuff like: "They're looking at more than just contact; they're checking your swing and athleticism!" I have used that sentence myself many, many times and highly recommend it even though I still have no idea if there is any truth to it.
Clearly, you ARE an expert.
@ale29 I think the first decision point is likely whether or not your kid is going to be a good fit for higher academic D1 schools.
If he is, Stanford Camp, Showball, and Headfirst all offer pretty similar exposure benefits (~40-80 higher academic schools) at a similar price point (~$900-1,000).
The benefit of one over the others will likely be a combination of his current summer schedule, and where you guys are located (obviously very different to be going to Stanford Camp in CA vs. a Headfirst Camp in LI).
If he's not, then I'm not sure how beneficial from a recruiting standpoint it would be for him to attend a Stanford Camp.
Stanford will recruit kids from the camp, but in order for the camp to be a success for them, they don't necessarily need to recruit anyone from the camp itself.
$900/kid * 80 kids/camp * 4 camps across the summer = $290k in their pockets.
They could easily fill their recruiting class without holding any of those camps, but if they get 1-2 kids from them, that's icing on the cake.
I think the primary benefit for your son would be to get in front of 30-40 higher academic schools all at once there.