Who to contact for a college visit?

Welcome as a poster!

Your son should direct his correspondence to the lead recruiter. As he does so, he can express his interest in meeting as many of the coaches and players as are available the weekend he visits.

Coaches want to know why their program is of sufficient interest to warrant a visit; so, a few succinct comments explaining why they rise above the rest would be appropriate. Meanwhile, he shouldn't forget to give them an idea of which weekends are convenient (or inconvenient); along with some easy way for them to access a fact sheet (and video, if available) on him. Make certain that the fact sheet spells out his academic credentials.

Best of luck to him!

If you have interest in the school, not just the baseball program, make an appointement with the admissions office. They are prepared to talk to you about the school and financial aid (outside of athletics).

If you do this it will make the job of the recruiting director (and or head coach depending on the school) easier. As to getting on their radar; the best way is to call and ask for a time to meet. Most (not all) will accomodate your schedule.

When I did this with my son; it led to a scholly offer from a school that my son wanted to attended that never saw him play.

If they aren't recruting you and you want to get on their radar having an interest in the school and finding out if you qualify academically and from a finanical aid prospective will make you more attractive to many a coach.

Coaches want players that can play; but they need players that can get in academically and financially.

quote:

ILVV said...If you have interest in the school, not just the baseball program, make an appointement with the admissions office. They are prepared to talk to you about the school and financial aid (outside of athletics).

Great advice by Prepster and ILVBB! In addition, your son may want to ask the Admissions office to sit in on a class if it is convenient to your travel schedule. I would also request to meet the Dean of the College your son wants to apply to. Some of these highly selective D3 LACs are extremley competitive with Admissions. It can't hurt to meet the Dean to hear from him how he runs his program. After all, he will be spending many hours in the classroom too!

Thanks for the helpful advice.

To give some more information in case you have additional advice on other admissions/athletics topics:

1. We have already done an extensive investigation of the highly selective colleges (our 2013 son's brother is a freshman at in Ivy [is it impolite to say which school on this Board?]. We've developed a college list that will work for our son academically and athletically. Per the advice on this Board, we've made the list long at this point so we're not cutting out potential opportunities.
2. Our 2013 will likely meet the admissions criteria of most highly selective colleges. We understand that meeting the criteria and getting in are two different things given the acceptance rates of these colleges.
3. From all we've heard from his high school and travel coaches, he might be able to play D1 but needs to get stronger, increase bat speed and add velocity to his FB. (Don't 90% of the 2013 class need to do this?). Based on his play on the varsity last season, I believe that he has some statistics that will interest some of the coaches at schools here's targetting.
4. Our family will make our final decision based on academics first and baseball second.
5. We are currently quite confused as to the recruiting timelime. Seems very different for D1 and D3 and he might travel both paths. He's played in Georgia, but otherwise has not been in front of any college coaches. Will play a good travel schedule this summer on a scout team. But we're thinking we're late to the party based on what other players locally have done with camps at colleges and at Headfirst.

Thanks again. I apologize for any typos.

If you're touching the right points along the way (and it sounds like you are), the timeline will take care of itself. What I mean by this is that the "right" coaches will get to know your son as he visits schools and travels with his team next summer; and, their level of interest will dictate how rapidly or slowly things happen for him. In the same way, the DI or DIII question will sort itself out, as well.

In my opinion, you're ahead of many others in the sense that he has a well-formed opinion about the quality of school, academically, that he wants to attend. With the right combination of unofficial visits and tournaments/showcases next summer (meaning that he gets in front of the coaches who are on his list of desired schools), he's got plenty of time left to work through the recruiting process thoroughly. With that and his evident high academic standing, the chances are good that he'll end up in the right academic and athletic environment!

Again, all the best to him!

redsoxchicago,

You have a PM (Private Message).

Up-date:

Thanks again for the very helpful guidance. Our 2013 has written to a number of colleges and universities after together we prepared a very focused college list (thanks FenwaySouth). Got nice preliminary responses from a number of school (not all of which included a camp invitation ). No real interest yet, but I believe that we've started the process that will likely result in a good academic and athletic fit. Attended a few camps and showcases that might lead somewhere. We'll see.

I very much enjoy reading these boards and always enjoy when up-dates are provided so a fuller picture is presented. So, that's our up-date.

Thanks again to all contributers to this site. The insights and guidance, in my opinion, are invaluable.

redsoxchicago - Your son sounds very similar to our son who is now a sophomore player at Swarthmore. He had interest from Ivy, Patriot and top LAC's. In the end he had to decide between an Ivy and Swat and he chose Swat for a number of reasons that include: weather, travel, city, playing time, and time commitment. He wanted to be involved in some non-baseball leadership activities (ie. fraternity, summer internship, semester abroad, etc). The LAC environment allows for this primarily because there are 10 fewer games and a lot less overnight travel. In fact, when some Ivy's were reporting to practice, my Swarthmore son was still finishing a winter internship at the Department of Energy in DC.

His academic numbers were high and he was going to get into most schools without baseball. In some ways this made the baseball process more difficult especially with regard to the Ivy league and the Ivy index. Coaches have only so much "horsepower" so they have to use it wisely. Your son's grades and test scores may get caught in the middle. For instance, is that Ivy coach recruiting your pitcher's arm or his Ivy Index? You may not know. That Patriot league school won't carry your application to admissions because you are going to get admitted anyway. However, they may still be very interested in you as a ballplayer and it may be a great fit. It can be hard to tell.

Please email me with specific questions. Has your son been to HeadFirst? What kind of interest did he generate? If you PM me with some of his numbers I can try and point you in the right direction. We made a lot of baseball visits

BEST ADVICE we got- Cast a wide net! When Swarthmore coach first offered a visit, my son initially wanted to say no. In his mind his list was short, there was a lot of interest at other places, and the Ivy was close to done. I was heading to Philly on business and I said "just take a ride with me, I'll drop you off on campus and then pick you up at the end of the day". Before you know it he had changed his mind about where he wanted to go and the kind of college experience he wanted.

To answer your question - We think you are best off writing the head coach. Our son had two instances where he was speaking to the recruiting coordinator and not getting accurate information. In one case the recruiting coordinator thought they were interested in our son, when in fact, the HC was committed to someone else. In another case the HC thought our son wasn't interested in the school because the assistant had forgotten to tell the HC that our son had written back and did want to visit the campus. These guys are communicating with a lot of kids and some things are bound to get screwed up. Its up to you and your son to keep things organized as best you can. Towards the end (fall of senior year) it gets kind of crazy with the academic schools.

Leftyshortstop:

I tried to send you a PM, but not sure it transmitted properly. If you don't get it, please let me know and I'll try again.

I agree that our sons seem very similar. I'd appreciate hearing about your son's experience privately.

Thanks, in advance.

Didn't get your message. Please try again.

OK, how do I send a PM? I can't figure that out. Sorry.

just click on my name, then "Invite LeftyShortstop to a private topic"