Baseball Dad working with son on deciding among these schools. 4.38 weighted GPA with 1520 SAT, successful 6’2” HS Left handed pitcher. He’s gotten strong interest from the baseball coaches and clearance from admissions folks at these schools. Currently in the process of meeting with coaches and touring campuses. Would love perspective insight in helping to decide. Tku, Baseball Dad
Has he been offered a slot (full support thru the admissions process) at any of these schools? Has he visited them?
Stevens is a bit of an outlier (although it’s a fine school and baseball program) in this set of schools…my S didn’t like the M:F ratio of 70:30, and the tech focus.
The three NESCAC liberal arts schools have more similarities than differences. I would choose based on his major, fit with the school, team, and coach.
You also may have an issue of timing, with an offer or two coming before others, and even having decision deadlines before another coach is ready to offer. Understand the timing of each coach’s decision making process, and go from there.
Your S should absolutely tell his first choice coach that if offered a spot he will immediately accept. I don’t recommend saying that to all four coaches…because, well, coaches talk.
If you are applying for financial aid, also ask for a financial aid pre-read as long as the academic pre-read is a green light.
Good luck.
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When I see Stevens in the mix, I am wondering what he wants to study. Not just major, but overall.
Agree that the other 3 are more similar than different.
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I was wondering the same thing. To state the obvious, Stevens is STEM focused whereas the others don’t offer engineering at all. Yes, he could study CS, Math, or a science at any of the four, but the college culture would be very different between Stevens and the others. Stevens would be more pre-professional whereas the others would be more intellectual.
FYI, if your son is interested in STEM, he would also be in contention for MIT, but note that the coaches have much less sway there.
Tks for the feedback. My son is interested in Comp Sci/ Math. Agreed Stevens is a bit of the outlier academically and status wise to the other NESCAC LACs. He’s been positively vetted by the admissions folks already at all 4 schools hence making the coaches even more interestedly. Just trying to see what the best prospects are once he graduates. Stevens lists a much higher avg. starting salary compared to the LACs. Will have a better sense in the next 2 weeks.
Also, MIT pitching coach was ready to offer but said the 4.38 / 1520 wasn’t strong enough for the admissions folks.
Yes, but that’s because engineers and CS majors in general start out much higher than liberal arts graduates. But see if you can compare the salaries of the CS/Math students coming out of say Williams with that of Stevens. I suspect they are very comparable.
While all three LACs are strong, Williams is the strongest among the three. Coming from there with a CS/Math degree he will have a number of options to choose from. A CS job is the obvious path, but Williams is also a target for consulting and finance jobs in a way that Stevens never will be.
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What is his unweighted gpa? A 1520 puts him just above the 25% mark for MIT, which I would think is above fine.
from williams he has a much higher change to go to a top grad school, making a lot more money then what he would come out of with stevens/williams
He should consider the following:
- Offerings of upper level (and graduate if interested) math courses at each school.
- Offerings of upper level CS courses and how difficult access to lower and upper level CS courses is at each school (i.e. are they always full with many students unable to get into them).
Our S19 is a math and physics double major at Bowdoin. Has a lot of friends who are majoring in math/CS. Do you have specific questions? All of them seem to be gainfully employed in relevant internships this summer before junior year. If your son likes everything else about Bowdoin best, I would not hesitate at all about those majors.
At best, full MIT coach support might give the recruit with median for MIT stat’s a 50/50 chance based on personal experience. A 4.38 WGPA could be low if that equates to a less than top 5% ranking, especially if STEM rigor not the highest. The coaches know the hurdles.
Definitely try to do some overnights if available. Chemistry with the team and coaches is important. The team will likely be your S’s core social group at the LACs.
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Through visits, your son will get a feel for fit. A few other things to think about. 1 D3 rules allow for 40 games, barring a post season, you’ll probably get around 35 in the NESCAC. 2. In the NESCAC, they split the league in two. So at Williams/Middlebury, you only play Amherst, Wesleyan and Hamilton. Bowdoin plays Colby, Bates, Trinity and Tufts.
Historically, athletically, I would rank the teams under consideration as Williams, Bowdoin, and Middlebury. Again, historically, the best in the league (without ranking) would be Williams, Tufts, Wesleyan and Amherst. Of course, the strength of teams change. At one time, Trinity may have been the strongest team.
A couple of years ago, Middlebury got a new baseball coach. I believe the team has been more competitive since then. Also FWIW, Middlebury’s team is pretty young.
I find it difficult to believe that your son’s numbers are not sufficient for a recruited athlete at MIT. Might be that the coach is not that interested & placed blame on admissions as a “graceful” exit.
Otherwise, your son has 4 great options.
P.S. I have dealt with this school before & if I repeated what the regional admissions person told me, I would be laughed off of this site.
Do tell!
Have you considered Tufts? It is a NESCAC school though a bit different than most of the other NESCAC in what it offers including being a larger school and a University.
Tufts also has an excellent reputation overall and is very strong in STEM.
Side note, with your son’s grades and being a LHP, I would think that he should get interest from most baseball coaches at the higher academic schools. College baseball teams typically need a fair amount of pitchers/arms (long season, double headers, etc.) and there are not as many LHP as RHP.
I’m not so easily going to cede better outcomes to any of the three NESCACs over Stevens in finance. Steven’s CS and business majors are definitely getting jobs in finance and consulting.
-42% of CS/cybersecurity 2020 grads went into the finance industry, see pg 11 of the linked report. Average starting salary of all CS/cyber 2020 grads was $88K.
-Page 12 shows 75% of business/finance undergrads went into finance, 8% in to consulting. Average salary for these grads was $78K.
Many companies, including many of the big banks are recruiting at Stevens and offer soph/junior internships as well…see page 19/20 for company lists. Stevens has an advantage due to NYC proximity, and alumni offer strong hiring/networking support as well.
I am sure the career center can give more detailed specifics.
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Very informative outcomes report for Stevens institute of Technology.
A bit surprised at the high percentages of STEM students who go directly to graduate school and that most of the master’s degree programs are programs at Stevens Institute of Technology. Leads me to wonder if Stevens Institute offers some form of special consideration to its own graduates for its master’s programs.
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Please share. I’m being recruited at MIT myself.
Unfortunately, I cannot share as it was a confidential conversation. Your takeaway should be to apply to MIT even without the coach’s blessing & support if you want to attend MIT.
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