starting over

Has your son been in contact with any other schools in the past few months? If so, have him contact those schools and explain that he has changed his mind about verbaling to another program and is very interested in playing for them instead (if he is).

Other suggestions:

* Ask your son's high school and summer coaches (and any pro scouts who have seen your son play) to "market" your son to programs that they deem a good fit. Mention which schools your son is especially interested in so they'll know which programs to target.
* Your son should initiate contact with other schools as well via email or phone. When doing so, he should include vital information (position, 60 speed, pitching velocity if pitcher, IF or OF velocity, batting statistics, height, weight, reference names and numbers, and academic info -- GPA, class rank, and test scores).

Don't fret -- it'll all work out in the end. Best wishes!

Fire Away:

https://secure02.scoutwareforms.net/uiuc/base_q/cgi/questionnaire.pl

mcclain1@illinois.edu

http://interact.cstv.com/prospects/index.cfm?school_code=ilsu

mkingst@ilstu.edu

Go ahead and send to ALL programs of interest. Make sure you attach Bio and references as stated by I08

Catchermom, My older son wound up in the same position, only it didn't happen until February! We started an email campaign as Infield suggested, and were successful at finding him a spot on a higher level DII. Good Luck!

How did it work out as far as academic scholarships, housing, etc. It seems like all this needs to be wrapped up SO early these days.

Most academic scholarships provided by the institution are automatically applied for in the application for admissions.......

Housing applications are filed in conjunction, or just after admissions----

Other academic scholarships applied for individually are normally filled out the winter before the freshman year------

If you get after it and send all the programs the Bio to the coaches first, it may work. You can also go to the Clearinghouse and add programs to the automatic submission of records.

It was so late that housing and scholarships were problems; however, the school went out of its way to help him. He wound up with a presidential academic scholarship that was substatial; only problem is, if he had applied a few weeks earlier, he would have had a full ride on tuition (4 years), based on his academics (only available to incoming freshmen before a certain date). It worked out well, but the best lesson we learned in the process was "don't put all your eggs in one basket"!

Rocket I have never heard of a college having limited academic scholarship money. After all it is merely a paper transaction not like BB money. They do usually set a limit on the amount given based on marks.

That is my concern. I know that some academic money is given automatically. However, some are competitions and some are deadlines. We have signed him up for a couple of camps. A lot of the schools that had previously expressed interest will be there. Both his coaches are going to start a phone and email campaign. Hopefully it will work out for the best.

I can't tell you how many times we told him not to put all his eggs in 1 basket. Now he just has an empty broken basket.

catcher25mom,
Is junior going to do anything about it or is he waiting on everyone else to do the contacting for him?

Actually, after the shock wore off, he is the one who asked his coaches for help. He knows that they both have a lot of contacts and they are both willing to help him. Right now, he is sorting through all the letters that he got over last spring and summer, trying to figure out which ones he should contact. He has set up 2 visits to D3s that he has kept in contact with. I figure my job is to help him gather as much information as possible, since he apparantly doesn't know everything,. (even though he thought he did) With that information he will do what he can. Hopefully he has learned several things from this. I hope he learned to always have a back up plan and that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, and that parents, teachers and coaches can be a good resource. That said, it is his life, his responsibility and his decision. But if affects everyone in the family in the end.

There have been threads on this before where at the last minute a college pulled or didn't make an offer.
In our case our 1st choice at the last minute took a JC transfer over my son. We had to scramble a bit but I had backup plans . We got a great offer from our second choice. Because it was so late in the process things went into high gear and everything worked out well. I always keep doors open although there were fewer that we were interested in at that point.
The coordinator from the 1st college was very helpfull and was agreat source of info about the process. We remained in touch for a couple years after by email. He ended up coaching at a different college and one of my friends was on his new team. Most coaches are very willing to do what they can for you in that situation.

The coach that pulled the offer was helpful in getting your son into another program?

My son told us that the coach told him he was passing his name around to some other schools but with the understanding that in the spring if he still wanted him, they would back off. This comes from a pretty p***** off 17 year old young man, so he may have said nothing of the sort. So should son (after he cools down) ask this coach for help?
He seems to be on a lot of showcase lists, so he may be able to be of some assistance.

We never actually had an offer. He kept stringing us along with phone calls etc. I finally pressed him for a commitment and he would keep stringing us along. I had several irons in the fire including sn open ended offer fro a JC. I told this coordinator that we were scheduling a trip to FLA for JC tryouts and he would get all aggreessive again about signing my son . We got an offer and the coordinator signed a transfer guy. We negotiated the offer and after a couple changes , we accepted it.
I wpuld defintly look at the help he could give you. It educated me but was not istumental in our choice. H eoffered us a spot on a D1 JC in Nevada and a recruited walk on. There was no way we could afford the walk on nor would we take the risk. The JC offer was very good but we pretty much had ruled out JCs and were even prepared to take a year off if the righy offer didn't come.

Bobble, there was a cutoff for application in the spring, and that was the cutoff date for the academic full ride for freshmen. If I remember correctly, my son didn't apply until late April.

some merit aid awards (scholarships) are awarded on a first come basis, so applying earlier rather than later is a plus. some scholarships have definite deadlines and others do not. he may be notified of scholarship opportunities once he has at least submitted an application. search the colleges websites for more information on merit aid awards.

plan b is that he would have some applications in to at least a few colleges or more ...asap...... where he more than likely would receive merit aid and may or may not play baseball (safeties). this allows him to keep moving forward while still checking out opportunities with additional colleges.

if need based financial aid being awarded is a real possibility (know your efc), be sure to include some applications to need based colleges. you might be surprised to learn that his need based aid package is better than some of the merit aid awards.

......is there really anything stopping him from applying now to some of the other colleges (same conference) that compete against the mentioned college? and what about applying to some top academic schools too ? something to think about !

i think he needs to just keep moving forward and forget about the first school. i don't think he should wait around hoping to hear from them in the spring.

check out the common application website.....and get him going on some applications. also check the school websites, sometimes the online applications are free. he may also be receiving email fast-track applications.......that are very easy to complete and free. he'll feel a lot better when he starts to see some acceptances coming in......and financial aid packages arriving. what you want is for him to have many options from which to choose by the end of April.

it's not unusual for some students to apply to 8 to 10 colleges or more.

good luck !

yes -btball-

son applied to about 8 schools and had received many apps online that were free if completed online.

The apps were easy to complete and it seemed that the hardest part of the whole process was making sure the HS guidance department sent the transcript/references etc. package out to each school on time.

also- some schools waive the application fee if you attend an open house there. make sure to ask if there is such a waiver or voucher for attending the open house.

good luck cathermom!

sps, good job !
be sure that once he starts receiving the acceptances, that you send the completed FAFSA to the financial aid office........and also complete the css profile (if required) and/or any additional financial aid forms. let us know how things turn out
it will be uplifting when he sees the acceptances and can compare the financial aid packages.
good suggestion about the open houses.

quote:

Originally posted by catcher25mom:

When he called the coach to tell him, the coach said congratulations, I'll call you in the spring if I still need you. Needless to say, he does not want to wait around.

Catchermom, allow me if you will to give you a perspective from a parent who went through this last year and certainly understands your sense of urgency.

You have received a great bit of excellent advise from some great folks here as you already know. The one thing I would like for you to consider is this - don't be in a hurry to sign. Why? Because there stands a greater risk of him signing with a school out of emotion rather than what is the best fit for him overall. And in the end he will be miserable (not to mention his parents) due to various reasons, i.e. bad location, coaching, teammates, academics, playing time, etc. etc.

How do I know this? My son just went through this during the fall and has transferred to a JUCO for next semester. He wanted to sign early last fall which he did and he should have waited. During the summer his body and play grew exponentially and opened the eyes of a lot more schools who wanted him but left him alone because of his prior commitment. It's hard for me to even write this because it has been really hard to go through in so many ways but I thought it might be of some help to you and your son to learn to slow down and see how things can and will happen from spring on.

With that being said, there is nothing wrong with sending out information packets to schools he would be interested in playing at. I would encourage him to find a local 18U team to play on in the summer, i.e. Legion team, etc. because college scouts DO still come to these to watch.

Congratulations are in order to your son for improving his ACT score. That is awesome and please let him know that he should be very proud of his achievement.

Good luck to your son during this process!

I second YougGun's caution about rushing to make a decision. Make sure your son has a great chance at being happy about where he attends college. My son is 1 semester away from graduating. I asked him how he felt about it and he said very sad. I said that is great. We made the right choice. Making the wrong choice is really sad because the college experience is a once in a lifetime deal. For most sons it's eventually not even about BB. When your son looks back at his college life it would be nice if he looks back with happy memories.

I second YoungGunDad's advice. Dont rush. dont make signing about keeping up with the jones's . Make sure its a good fit all the way around. YoungGunDad, my son is at a JC, I know its hard esp. when they had good grades, but baseball wise unless your kid is just a stud, its a good fit. academically not as challenging as a 4 year I guess, but they are still working towards a degree. Not the end of the world trully.
We are older and wiser than them, we can impart are knowledge and wisdom, but they have to live though their own experiences and we have to step bak and ley them and that is hard for a lot of us parents.

Thank you all for the great advice.
son came back from a school visit yesterday. He really liked the school. This as least shows him that there are other schools that are a good fit for him. I think at this point, he is just going to apply to several schools so at least the scholarship and aid packages can be started on. That way, once Spring rolls around he will be more objective and have options. Thanks again, and I'll keep you posted.