Yes, to all of the above. UCLA is definitely HA, and so is Cal, UCSD, UCSB, and arguably, UCD and UCI.  Same for other top publics, IE North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia Tech, etc.

No-one outside of athletic recruiting uses this term!  I had never heard of it until my son was doing baseball recruiting.  It means whatever you want it to mean.  Sometimes people use it to refer to percent acceptance (below 20%?  or whatever), or to USNews rankings.

Sometimes in practice it refers to schools where the average academic metrics are higher than those of the athletes, who get in because the coaches are allowed to bring them in.  Although technically that could apply to any school and any player.

@JCG posted:

Yes, to all of the above. UCLA is definitely HA, and so is Cal, UCSD, UCSB, and arguably, UCD and UCI.  Same for other top publics, IE North Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia Tech, etc.

While those schools for the general population may be "HA", I know several players who go to UCLA & UCI  and play on Baseball/Football team who are definitely not HA.  Having a high GPA/test scores to go to UCLA helps but it is definitely not a requirement like other schools.  That goes for almost all of the UC's.  2.5GPA and stud player = no problem.  So I guess as I re-read this I would not classify those as HA schools.  In my mind a HA school is a school that it is mandatory/required to have a high GPA and high test scores.  

Understood and agreed.  Athletes  committed to UCLA aren't at the mercy of an admissions dept. that only admits 12% of its applicants.

But D3 kids get help too. My kid's school has a 10% admit rate.  He would have never, ever, ever gotten in without coach help. But that doesn't mean he's not capable of thriving there academically.  He has.

One misconception I’ve seen on the board is D3’s are mostly high academic. There are a lot of state university D3’s that are not high academic. They’re the sub campuses of the state university system. There are also private D3 that are not high academic. It will be interesting to see how non elite, low endowment D3 privates survive Covid.

Here are the 2019 rankings. I hope I’m not insulting anyone’s kid. My impression of New England College admissions is fogging a mirror and writing a check.

High academic is in the eye of the beholder.  I see it two ways...

1) Low admission rate.   Colleges that are very difficult to get into by the general public, unless you are an athlete.   The academic standards for athletes at these schools is significantly less than the incoming student body.   The Coach gets everybody he wants.

2) Low admission rate.  Recruited athletes that are academically extremely close to the incoming student body.   The Coach doesn't get everybody he wants.

The most important thing about choosing a college, IMO, is which one (that you can get into) gives you the greatest opportunity for success in life.   The challenge with that sentence is that everyone has different goals and will define success differently.   High Academic schools tend to lead to better initial job opportunities and have strong alumni networks.  However, I know a LOT of highly successful people who didn't go high academic (or go to college) and an equal amount of HA graduates who failed to fire.....I would define HA as similar to others though.   I consider my son's school as HA school but admission rates are 25% (not below 20% as some noted) but the scores needed for admission are very high, the curriculum is very challenging and the alumni network is fantastic.   As an added bonus they are top 5 on the rankings list that RJM provided for 2019 D3.   There are a lot of HA D3's that are not top 25 (in 2019) that are absurdly great landing spots (Emory, Tufts, Amherst, MIT etc).   To the OP  if you are D1 there are plenty of great universities that are HA from which to choose.  Best of luck to you.

I have a 2022 (daughter does not play sports) and 2024 (son plays baseball) and we as a family have this subject in a near daily conversation. In general, a school's perceived HA status can be relatively and quickly quantified by comparing: Admission Rate, median SAT score for accepted students, and/or the US News (& World Report) College Rankings.  These three indicators tend to correlate. 

@mjd-dad posted:

I have a 2022 (daughter does not play sports) and 2024 (son plays baseball) and we as a family have this subject in a near daily conversation. In general, a school's perceived HA status can be relatively and quickly quantified by comparing: Admission Rate, median SAT score for accepted students, and/or the US News (& World Report) College Rankings.  These three indicators tend to correlate.

You would get a very different answer if you looked at a top basketball prospect at Duke (for example) vs a non-athlete.  Same holds for many schools that are highly selective for a non-athlete.

Sure!  I guess I'd say, when someone says, about a baseball player, that he's a "high-academic type kid," that means Ivy, Patriot League, Richmond/William and Mary-type schools, and D3s.  And that's pretty much all it means.  When you have the skills to play at Vanderbilt or Stanford or Duke, or any other P5 school, they don't call you a "high-academic type".

I was recently reading an article on high IQ (130+) people. 130 is not genius. But it’s intellectually bright. You will see debate on genius from 140 to 160.

One third (130+) become leaders with names you would recognize. One third become very successful people in anonymity (typically people in your town). One third become underachievers or criminals.

Attending a prestigious college opens doors. But you have to pass through them. Some people have the motivation to kick down the doors.

@fenwaysouth posted:

High academic is in the eye of the beholder.  I see it two ways...

1) Low admission rate.   Colleges that are very difficult to get into by the general public, unless you are an athlete.   The academic standards for athletes at these schools is significantly less than the incoming student body.   The Coach gets everybody he wants.

2) Low admission rate.  Recruited athletes that are academically extremely close to the incoming student body.   The Coach doesn't get everybody he wants.

FYI - many HAs (Ivies, NESCAC, etc) are required to have a team GPA and ACT/SAT that mirrors the overall incoming student population. So the 3.5/27 ACT 90mph stud is balanced by the 4.3/35 ACT aspiring left fielder who likely won't ever stand over the plate or on the grass.

@DD 2024 posted:

FYI - many HAs (Ivies, NESCAC, etc) are required to have a team GPA and ACT/SAT that mirrors the overall incoming student population. So the 3.5/27 ACT 90mph stud is balanced by the 4.3/35 ACT aspiring left fielder who likely won't ever stand over the plate or on the grass.

I’ve always joked the three non scholarship guys on the end of the basketball bench (MBB gets 12 rides) hustle in practice and enhance the team gpa. They might play ten minutes all season in forty point blow outs.

@DD 2024 posted:

FYI - many HAs (Ivies, NESCAC, etc) are required to have a team GPA and ACT/SAT that mirrors the overall incoming student population. So the 3.5/27 ACT 90mph stud is balanced by the 4.3/35 ACT aspiring left fielder who likely won't ever stand over the plate or on the grass.

Correct.  Those 3.5/27 (never known a 27 ACT to play in the Ivy but I'll take your word for it) 90mph stud folks are still one standard deviation (Ivy standard) from the incoming class versus other athletes that meet the NCAA minimum.   The difference between the two HA definitions I posted above is where is the academic low water mark.

@fenwaysouth posted:

Correct.  Those 3.5/27 (never known a 27 ACT to play in the Ivy but I'll take your word for it) 90mph stud folks are still one standard deviation (Ivy standard) from the incoming class versus other athletes that meet the NCAA minimum.   The difference between the two HA definitions I posted above is where is the academic low water mark.

I was told by an Ivy HC he needed a minimum 30 ACT to get a kid through admissions

@fenwaysouth posted:

Correct.  Those 3.5/27 (never known a 27 ACT to play in the Ivy but I'll take your word for it) 90mph stud folks are still one standard deviation (Ivy standard) from the incoming class versus other athletes that meet the NCAA minimum.   The difference between the two HA definitions I posted above is where is the academic low water mark.

There's a pitcher in the Ivy League right now who had a 3.6 GPA and 27 ACT. Friend of ours. Great kid.

@RJM posted:

I’ve always joked the three non scholarship guys on the end of the basketball bench (MBB gets 12 rides) hustle in practice and enhance the team gpa. They might play ten minutes all season in forty point blow outs.

That's so TRUE.  A very good LHP on my son's travel team couldn't get a D1 look for pitching and didn't want to go HA D3 because he was a preferred walk-on for Syracuse basketball.  I now turn on the games (as an alum) and see him sitting with the team, spaced out of course.  I know he will bring up the team GPA, hustle in practices and get a few minutes in his career.   If that were me at Syracuse I would have been hanging with Pearl, Sherman Douglas, Ronny Seikaly, Derrick Coleman and the rest of the team.  I did get to play pick up games against some of them in the offseason.  Good times......   

@Gunner Mack Jr. posted:

That's so TRUE.  A very good LHP on my son's travel team couldn't get a D1 look for pitching and didn't want to go HA D3 because he was a preferred walk-on for Syracuse basketball.  I now turn on the games (as an alum) and see him sitting with the team, spaced out of course.  I know he will bring up the team GPA, hustle in practices and get a few minutes in his career.   If that were me at Syracuse I would have been hanging with Pearl, Sherman Douglas, Ronny Seikaly, Derrick Coleman and the rest of the team.  I did get to play pick up games against some of them in the offseason.  Good times......   

I know of someone who scored seven points in twenty-six minutes over four years at a NCAA champion. He wanted to learn how to coach from one of the best. He had the potential to be a D2 or D3 starter.

This topic has come up here before.  My $0.02 is that precisely defining the term "high academic" isn't possible, and isn't all that important.  If I hear that a baseball player is targeting HA D3s, then I assume: a) he's somewhere between the 50th and 70th percentile among HS baseball players--good, but not someone who is getting interest from big D1 schools. And b) he's focused on using baseball to help him get into a good college (often one he might not get into otherwise).  When someone tells me their kid has a 27 ACT and 3.7 and is looking at HA schools, I know he's not going to make the academic minimums at some schools, but can potentially play at a number of very good academic institutions.  I'm not going to say "nope, that's not HA" (but if asked, I'm going to advise that Amherst and Swarthmore are probably out of reach).  And when someone tells me their kid has a 97 mph fastball and a 30 ACT, I assume he's probably not looking at NESCAC schools (although maybe Vanderbilt or Stanford are in the mix), and that his test scores probably aren't the most important thing about his college application.   

The percentage of applicants a school accepts gives you some useful information, but it's a very blunt instrument.  Some schools try to play with those numbers (e.g., by not charging an application fee so they gets lots of applicants), and some places are great schools but not so well known or attract fewer applicants for other reasons. Colorado School of Mines, for example, is a terrific school that has an ACT mean of 31 and accepts over 50% of its applicants. (They are D2, I believe, but the point stands.)

I take the same position on D1s.  There are some schools just about everyone would think of as HA, others that might cause disagreement.  Some of those "obvious HAs" do hold athletes to very different standards than other students.  (And those athletes may be smart kids who can thrive at the school.  A non-athlete with a 27 ACT generally isn't getting a serious sniff from the Ivies unless his parents are major donors or he has some other hook, but he may do just fine once he enrolls.)

One other thing I'll add (that many of you on the board already know, but some may not):  At top-tier schools, having a 99th percentile test score, a 4.0 GPA and ten AP courses doesn't  guarantee anything--schools like Williams, UChicago, etc. could fill their classes several times over with those kids, and a lot of them get rejected.  The process is a weird "black box"--a student who applies to 10 schools with similar admissions profiles may get into 10, or 5, or 1 (or none) of them, and it's almost impossible to predict ahead of time.  That is the value of baseball at HA schools.  If you get a coach's tip, then your odds go from 5% or 10% (or whatever) to essentially a sure thing.  (And--if you make the team after you get to campus--you get to play baseball for a few more years, which is great,)  

Sweet post, Chico.

@DD 2024 posted:

There's a pitcher in the Ivy League right now who had a 3.6 GPA and 27 ACT. Friend of ours. Great kid.

There are other Ivy commits with that standard. Again these are players who also had been recruited to other quality D1 baseball programs. In regards to HA D3s, I agree there is a higher academic threshold. I can't see MIT taking fringy academic prospect even with a 90+ heater 

@2022NYC posted:

There are other Ivy commits with that standard. Again these are players who also had been recruited to other quality D1 baseball programs. In regards to HA D3s, I agree there is a higher academic threshold. I can't see MIT taking fringy academic prospect even with a 90+ heater

Agree. The Ivies seem way more flexible on athletic admission than the NESCAC, MIT, U Chicago, etc.

@2022NYC posted:

There are other Ivy commits with that standard. Again these are players who also had been recruited to other quality D1 baseball programs. In regards to HA D3s, I agree there is a higher academic threshold. I can't see MIT taking fringy academic prospect even with a 90+ heater

MIT might want to study his mechanics though.

@Chico Escuela posted:

This topic has come up here before.  My $0.02 is that precisely defining the term "high academic" isn't possible, and isn't all that important.  If I hear that a baseball player is targeting HA D3s, then I assume: a) he's somewhere between the 50th and 70th percentile among HS baseball players--good, but not someone who is getting interest from big D1 schools. And b) he's focused on using baseball to help him get into a good college (often one he might not get into otherwise).  When someone tells me their kid has a 27 ACT and 3.7 and is looking at HA schools, I know he's not going to make the academic minimums at some schools, but can potentially play at a number of very good academic institutions.  I'm not going to say "nope, that's not HA" (but if asked, I'm going to advise that Amherst and Swarthmore are probably out of reach).  And when someone tells me their kid has a 97 mph fastball and a 30 ACT, I assume he's probably not looking at NESCAC schools (although maybe Vanderbilt or Stanford are in the mix), and that his test scores probably aren't the most important thing about his college application.   

The percentage of applicants a school accepts gives you some useful information, but it's a very blunt instrument.  Some schools try to play with those numbers (e.g., by not charging an application fee so they gets lots of applicants), and some places are great schools but not so well known or attract fewer applicants for other reasons. Colorado School of Mines, for example, is a terrific school that has an ACT mean of 31 and accepts over 50% of its applicants. (They are D2, I believe, but the point stands.)

I take the same position on D1s.  There are some schools just about everyone would think of as HA, others that might cause disagreement.  Some of those "obvious HAs" do hold athletes to very different standards than other students.  (And those athletes may be smart kids who can thrive at the school.  A non-athlete with a 27 ACT generally isn't getting a serious sniff from the Ivies unless his parents are major donors or he has some other hook, but he may do just fine once he enrolls.)

One other thing I'll add (that many of you on the board already know, but some may not):  At top-tier schools, having a 99th percentile test score, a 4.0 GPA and ten AP courses doesn't  guarantee anything--schools like Williams, UChicago, etc. could fill their classes several times over with those kids, and a lot of them get rejected.  The process is a weird "black box"--a student who applies to 10 schools with similar admissions profiles may get into 10, or 5, or 1 (or none) of them, and it's almost impossible to predict ahead of time.  That is the value of baseball at HA schools.  If you get a coach's tip, then your odds go from 5% or 10% (or whatever) to essentially a sure thing.  (And--if you make the team after you get to campus--you get to play baseball for a few more years, which is great,)  

What Chico said. 100%

@DD 2024 posted:

Agree. The Ivies seem way more flexible on athletic admission than the NESCAC, MIT, U Chicago, etc.

Depends HYP generally have higher admission standards than the other 5. The Ivies still use some versions of the Academic Index (AI) so that teams have a threshold for each recruiting class and the team as a whole. You are right about MIT- saw this with my niece who was recruited to play softball there- high board scores, 4.00 or near 4.00 GPA and solid player. She wasn't selected.

To me a HA school has higher admission standards (for the aggregate student applicant pool); Higher GPAs and board scores on transcripts from students and lower acceptance rate from the school.  I guess you can say there are different levels of HA. I would probably look again at acceptance rate and US News & World Report rankings.

I think there are quite a few top-tier HS players that would like to play in the Ivy League. The simple reason they don't is because "early-recruiting" prevents this from happening. When a top-tier school comes calling during your freshman or sophomore year, it's very tough to turn them down. It's very risky to to think a particular Ivy school will offer you sometime in the future. So you just take the best offer from your initial set of suitors.

Getting a top-tier recruit onto an Ivy squad is a bit of luck. Perhaps that recruit developed a little later than his peers and didn't get those initial offers.

If given a choice, how many players would turn down an Ivy-offer for big state U (P5) if both offered at the same time? Take a chance on your baseball dreams and perhaps sit on the bench your freshman year? Or play everyday as a freshman on an Ivy team while getting a great-education. If you are destined to play pro ball, which scenario provides the best chance of future success? And by future success I don't necessarily mean playing in the MLB!

As far as answering the original post, I think @Chico Escuela provides the best answer. Use baseball to get into the best academic school you can--one where you would not have a real shot without baseball.

The reality is the most talented players will not have an opportunity to make that choice.

@ABSORBER posted:

I think there are quite a few top-tier HS players that would like to play in the Ivy League. The simple reason they don't is because "early-recruiting" prevents this from happening. When a top-tier school comes calling during your freshman or sophomore year, it's very tough to turn them down. It's very risky to to think a particular Ivy school will offer you sometime in the future. So you just take the best offer from your initial set of suitors.

Getting a top-tier recruit onto an Ivy squad is a bit of luck. Perhaps that recruit developed a little later than his peers and didn't get those initial offers.

If given a choice, how many players would turn down an Ivy-offer for big state U (P5) if both offered at the same time? Take a chance on your baseball dreams and perhaps sit on the bench your freshman year? Or play everyday as a freshman on an Ivy team while getting a great-education. If you are destined to play pro ball, which scenario provides the best chance of future success? And by future success I don't necessarily mean playing in the MLB!

As far as answering the original post, I think @Chico Escuela provides the best answer. Use baseball to get into the best academic school you can--one where you would not have a real shot without baseball.

The reality is the most talented players will not have an opportunity to make that choice.

This was very true in my son's case.  Early on in HS we thought that Ivy might be in his range of outcomes, but he was on the fringe academically.  When he got offered by a mid major ranked in the top 50 academically it was a no-brainer.

My son was being looked at by couple schools in the Patriot, he was borderline getting in and he wasn't high enough on the board to get help. He is now a SR at D3, doing well made the deans list and going to be going to Grad school in the fall. That being said he had struggles settling in, it was very difficult at times. Would he have made at the Patriot schools? I have my doubts, I am actually pretty certain no he wouldn't.

You need to find a level you can thrive academically as well baseball. Being overmatched in the classroom isn't any better then being overmatched on the ballfield. Sure a degree from XYZ HA may be better on paper but it won't determine the outcome of life or success in the your career.

@Chico Escuela posted:

This topic has come up here before.  My $0.02 is that precisely defining the term "high academic" isn't possible, and isn't all that important.  If I hear that a baseball player is targeting HA D3s, then I assume: a) he's somewhere between the 50th and 70th percentile among HS baseball players--good, but not someone who is getting interest from big D1 schools. And b) he's focused on using baseball to help him get into a good college (often one he might not get into otherwise).  When someone tells me their kid has a 27 ACT and 3.7 and is looking at HA schools, I know he's not going to make the academic minimums at some schools, but can potentially play at a number of very good academic institutions.  I'm not going to say "nope, that's not HA" (but if asked, I'm going to advise that Amherst and Swarthmore are probably out of reach).  And when someone tells me their kid has a 97 mph fastball and a 30 ACT, I assume he's probably not looking at NESCAC schools (although maybe Vanderbilt or Stanford are in the mix), and that his test scores probably aren't the most important thing about his college application.   

The percentage of applicants a school accepts gives you some useful information, but it's a very blunt instrument.  Some schools try to play with those numbers (e.g., by not charging an application fee so they gets lots of applicants), and some places are great schools but not so well known or attract fewer applicants for other reasons. Colorado School of Mines, for example, is a terrific school that has an ACT mean of 31 and accepts over 50% of its applicants. (They are D2, I believe, but the point stands.)

I take the same position on D1s.  There are some schools just about everyone would think of as HA, others that might cause disagreement.  Some of those "obvious HAs" do hold athletes to very different standards than other students.  (And those athletes may be smart kids who can thrive at the school.  A non-athlete with a 27 ACT generally isn't getting a serious sniff from the Ivies unless his parents are major donors or he has some other hook, but he may do just fine once he enrolls.)

One other thing I'll add (that many of you on the board already know, but some may not):  At top-tier schools, having a 99th percentile test score, a 4.0 GPA and ten AP courses doesn't  guarantee anything--schools like Williams, UChicago, etc. could fill their classes several times over with those kids, and a lot of them get rejected.  The process is a weird "black box"--a student who applies to 10 schools with similar admissions profiles may get into 10, or 5, or 1 (or none) of them, and it's almost impossible to predict ahead of time.  That is the value of baseball at HA schools.  If you get a coach's tip, then your odds go from 5% or 10% (or whatever) to essentially a sure thing.  (And--if you make the team after you get to campus--you get to play baseball for a few more years, which is great,)  

This last paragraph nails it. These schools are SO difficult to get into, that if baseball, a sport our kids love, is the tipping point to a golden ticket...take that ticket and run with it. It's literally a once in a lifetime opportunity to get into the level of school we are talking about here. And no, it won't result in a better life for *every* student athlete, but it sure is giving them a leg up at 18 years old that I, for one, could only dream about.  

Golden thread here. It all speaks to being truly honest about where your kid can thrive both academically and academically, recognizing that where he goes doesn’t determine the rest of his life. College really is about what you put into it and what you get out of it. While some students might party and stumble their way through, you can also have  an exceptional college experience, make amazing connections and have a spectacular career going to local state U. And while a degree from a HA opens a lot of doors, you can also have a miserable 4 years of college where you make no worthwhile connections and go on to become a hermit with no discernible career path graduating from an Ivy/HA.

I really encourage parents to listen as carefully as they can to their son about what he really wants, what he’s willing to work for...and pay attention to how he’s handling stressful academic and athletic situations in HS. It only gets more complicated in college.

Similar to @anotherparent, I have not heard the term HA used outside of the recruitment of college athletes. Since the term has no formal definition, we get to define it.
For me, we’re talking about schools with highly selective admissions, who also expect their athletes to take the same rigorous academic load as the general student population. Generally, HA coaches do not discourage their athletes from majors which require some scheduling flexibility with regard to baseball. By my definition, schools like UVA, UCLA, Wake and Vandy are not HA because while they have highly selective admissions for non-athletes, their student athletes are not held to the same high academic standard. (While there is no hard and fast definition of “highly selective”, it means pretty much the same thing when used by the many different college rating systems.)

Years ago at a Boston airport a newspaper interview ask a "millionaire" how did you make your $$$$.

He said "I buy for 1$ and sell for 2$.

Bob

like hitting, business is simple it just ain't easy.

@PTWood posted:

...............................................................

I really encourage parents to listen as carefully as they can to their son about what he really wants, what he’s willing to work for...and pay attention to how he’s handling stressful academic and athletic situations in HS. It only gets more complicated in college.

Bingo PTWood!  Some kids know what they want to be when they grow up and welcome an academic challenge.  Others discover that they are really good at academics when properly motivated by their coaches through study halls, tutors, etc....  Others, struggle to stay athletically eligible, and figure it out later or don't figure it out later.   Parents have to listen and know their kid, because it does get significantly more complicated as you said.

The difference between my son's HA college athletic experience and my non-HA college athletic experience was significant.   I needed motivation in the form of mandatory study halls, and tutors to get me pointed in the right direction..it took 6 months.  My son was self-motivating.  Freshman year my coach was on my *ss every couple weeks all year about attendance, grades, etc...  My son's HA baseball coach looked over my son's attendance, and grades every Friday for the first month of his freshmen year (customary practice) and was never called back, ever.    The apple fell very far from the tree.

I really encourage parents to listen as carefully as they can to their son about what he really wants, what he’s willing to work for...and pay attention to how he’s handling stressful academic and athletic situations in HS. It only gets more complicated in college.

A friend’s younger brother had no desire to attend college. He was undersized. He wasn’t interested in playing D3 football. He wasn’t very bright. He struggled through high school. His parents made him attend a prep after senior year to up his academic abilities.

The father didn’t have the opportunity to attend college. Dammit! Both his kids were going. The older brother was in college and playing baseball. The kid attended a “can you fog a mirror” acceptance state D3. He played football. Practice wore him down. He stopped going to class. He came home for the holidays freshman year and refused to go back.

The kid was incredible with his hands. He could make furniture that looked straight out of a furniture store. His father made him pass on a furniture and antiques restoring apprenticeship to attend college. The apprenticeship wasn’t available six months later.

I can blame the younger brother for lack of motivation over the years. But he was forced to pass on an incredibly lucrative career working with his hands. At 63 he’s still dragging a hose through snow banks delivering oil.

My son was a smart kid....but unfortunately not the "study hound" that his sister was....4.0 gpa/33 ACT, nice scholly to her top B1G school. 

He was 3.4-ish...but on his third try got a 31 on the ACT.  Guess what...schools that we aren't sure ever saw him play in person (as far as we know) started contacting his travel coach.  Dartmouth & Bucknell were a couple.  He had no desire to go that far....and we had no desire to pay big $$$$ for him to play baseball knowing all too well that he wouldn't need that level of education to move on with life after baseball.   We were more than happy with the 25% baseball scholly & another 25% in academic money that he got at an in-state D1 and it worked out great.   A couple of really good D3's  (both baseball & academically) had contacted him...but again, the $$$ that would have come out of pocket was just absurd compared to what he/we ended up paying

What is considered “high academic”?*

Simple:

* Any school** that a baseball player would not otherwise get into without coaches support.

** Could be State U or an Ivy.

A school doesn’t become a high academic because a coach gets a kid with a 95+ fastball accepted despite his 2.0 and 900 SAT.

@fenwaysouth posted:

Bingo PTWood!  Some kids know what they want to be when they grow up and welcome an academic challenge.  Others discover that they are really good at academics when properly motivated by their coaches through study halls, tutors, etc....  Others, struggle to stay athletically eligible, and figure it out later or don't figure it out later.   Parents have to listen and know their kid, because it does get significantly more complicated as you said.

The difference between my son's HA college athletic experience and my non-HA college athletic experience was significant.   I needed motivation in the form of mandatory study halls, and tutors to get me pointed in the right direction..it took 6 months.  My son was self-motivating.  Freshman year my coach was on my *ss every couple weeks all year about attendance, grades, etc...  My son's HA baseball coach looked over my son's attendance, and grades every Friday for the first month of his freshmen year (customary practice) and was never called back, ever.    The apple fell very far from the tree.

It's a wonderful thing, isn't it?