So I hear that colleges want the boys to be in the driver’s seat for recruiting and that I need to take a back seat soon. Trying to learn about options for my son. Plays for a good travel team as we are in Western Canada, so no school baseball team. Trying to juggle preparing him for college and baseball recruiting too with low income is tough. Not sure where to find help to build a reasonable college list. Many people say to get started around now but where to start? Educational goal is Environmental Lawyer some day! He’s a US citizen born abroad. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Ok, so spent some time reading different posts, found out about academic pre-reads and some timelines. Thinking maybe some Div 111 or Div 2 if he keeps up his grades and skills. Just started to do lifts and such for baseball training during this winter.SAT/PSAT this coming Summer/Fall So maybe strategy should be:
A) Create College list (How to sort these out?)
B) See if Aid packages include diversity packages/Scholarship/merit
C) Create School clinic lists/Combine visits (individual ones)
D) Leverage Diversity, Athletics and Academics for Pre-reads
E) Target Schools to send videos and emails
F) Son to Contact schools, coaches, admission officers,
G) Keep a spreadsheet full of information of each contact
H) Learn the Coach’s comms (Does anyone have a cheat sheet for this?)
I) What Questions do we ask? When do we ask?
J) Coaching turnover at college? Impact recruiting?
K) When are decisions made for which division level?
L) When is he allowed to talk to coaches?
M) Do diversity fly-ins impact eligibility? (NCAA rules)
I’m sure I have missed some stuff, please respond and let me know what else we need to be thinking or preparing for. Please advise
I’d visit the athletic recruits sub forum and dig in to past posts, then post in that forum. You’ll get plenty of helpful advice there.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/
Or perhaps a moderator could move this post.
How do I move my post?
Sounds like your son is a sophomore based on your saying that he will be taking the PSAT next fall. I assume you are asking about diversity because you are Black, Hispanic or Native American. You could qualify for diversity fly ins if you are Asian for some but not all schools. I assume your list is just a list and not a sequential timeline list. I think you have most major items covered. Here is the process beginning sophomore year for S who ended up getting recruited and offered to multiple D3 schools:
- Made list of academic and athletic fit schools.
- Filled in recruiting questionnaires
- Sent emails with academic (grades and test scores) and athletic resume (teams, positions, stats, recognition) along with link to video’s to YouTube page to coaches. Video’s include game and skills video (e.g., batting and defensive/pitching technique, metrics such as bat speed, batted ball exit velocity, throwing velocity). Coach contact rules are governed by NCAA rules by division. https://www.ncsasports.org/baseball/recruiting-rules-calendar.
- Attended 2 large camps for more academically inclined kids, Headfirst in Sacramento followed by Stanford the same week. These camps have a high concentration of coaches who are watching you in limited venues (literally 2 fields next to each other for Headfirst). To me these were clearly the best bang for the buck in terms of time, money and exposure to multiple relevant coaches. Prior to attending the camps, emailed the coaches of schools he was interested in who were listed as camp participants. We did not go to school specific camps.
- Follow up emails with coaches to include summer ball stats, updated video. A lot of camps will do a video package with analytics for you, either as part of the camp fee or a supplemental fee. At this point, you may have gotten the attention of certain coaches who will now email you or call you directly (see contact rules).
- Email updates after the first semester of junior year with grades and test scores.
- Email update after end of Spring semester with grades, test scores, HS season stat’s, video if good improvements. Also list summer schedule-- travel ball and camps.
- Did the Headfirst and Stanford camps again. Had a plan to do some school specific camps if a high priority school asked him to attend. He ended up getting official visit invites right after the camps so we did not do those. Chose to visit 5 schools during late August to early Oct. We had to pay transportation to and from the schools, but they covered local transportation and food. He stayed with a player on the team. They did prereads after he accepted the official visits. He got offered each one, but it was with an ED requirement. He chose to SCEA Yale and not play baseball at the end of the day.
Aid/Money. Baseball is an equivalency sport which means the coach has a limited number of scholarships to divide among his entire roster. D1 11.7; D2 9; D3 0. It is extremely rare for any kid to get a full scholarship. Ivies do not give athletic scholarships, but if you are middle class or lower, your need based financial aid will probably be better than a partial athletic. You will be eligible for need aid at D3’s and academic merit for all divisions. If your son is being recruited, this will be an important conversation to have to get a clear picture of what the cost of the school will be.
If your son qualifies for diversity fly-ins through the admissions process, I don’t believe it affects his athletic eligibility as long as the coach abides by the contact rules.
Once a coach shows interest, it is important to have a clear understanding of his process. They won’t be offended if you ask how high up on the list is your son? Will he be giving full support through an allocated slot if he has one or will he only be getting a tip? If your son is given a slot or a tip, and he requires your son to apply ED, it is fair to ask what the probabilities of admission are given your son’s academics and feedback from preread. It also fair to ask for help to work through with the financial aid office on the likely aid, again especially if the offer is conditioned on an ED application.
@BKSquared , Thank you for your comprehensive answer! This will help a lot to focus our efforts and make some concrete plans. He is an URM, Native American (50% card- carrying) to be exact. Do you think it is appropriate to put that on his recruiting video? We make less that 60K/yr. I have 2 boys behind this one, so it will be tough going forward. So if the coaches like what they see in the video, they will contact him directly? or are we not a part of that process? I would like to help him manage things earlier on until he gets the hang of it, even in the background. Trying not to helicopter but this process is so complex for a young person. Yes my son is a Sophomore (15)
So the invites for official visits came after camps/combines. Prior to fall Junior year?
So if I am getting this right, a timeline could look like this:
Grade 10/Summer (Dead Zone)
1st Video with baseball stats/school stats
go to combines?
Can call coaches
Grade 11 Fall
SAT/PSAT/ Coaches can Call!
Lists narrowed Finances Important/Schools $$
Fly-ins Are unofficial visits? Can see coach?
Spring/Summer Grade 11)
Update grades/test scores video update
Note improvements/baseball metrics
LORs/Coaches LORs/
Further narrow list depending on interests?
Applications need to start (Aug)
ED/EA Dates/ Scholarships deadlines
Fly-ins/ Official school visits? Non Official-School visits?
Essays
Grade 12 Fall
Examine offers/interests Offers made Coaches/Students talk
Pre-Reads
Decisions/RD Apps if still no offers?
Thanks so much for the help.
I would put your son’s NA status on his paper resume. Also many of the recruiting questionnaires ask for racial/ethnic demographic information.
Sounds like money will be an issue. D1’s and D2’s offer athletic scholarships, but it is unlikely that he will receive anything other than a partial even if he is offered. Practically speaking, he would also not have access to need based aid based on how the NCAA counts need aid against athletic scholarships. He would be available for merit. There are no athletic scholarships for D3’s or Ivies, but the Ivies and some of the wealthier D3’s have very generous need based aid. For your income level, the finances may likely work out better there than a D1 or D2. The issue on FA is how that school treats non US students for both admissions and financial aid purposes. Most schools are “need aware” for non US students for admissions, but there are some great schools that are need blind. There are some schools that are need met for internationals (meaning if you get in, they will meet 100% need as they calculate), others are not. This is something you need to research by college. For example, HYP are need blind and 100% need met. Dartmouth (I name it because of its commitment to Native Americans) is need aware for internationals but 100% need met for students.
While official visits can be offered beginning Sept 1 of junior year for D1’s and after Jan 1 of junior year for D3’s, unless your son is a true phenom, don’t expect serious interest, especially D3’s, until summer prior to senior year, with visits during that summer or early fall.
Emails will be more effective than calls, and recruits can pretty much email at anytime. During the allowed contact periods, coaches will call their top priority recruits. They often respond by personal email to any prospect that are on their larger list of possibles.
For the summer before junior year camps, it was clear that the coaches were focused on the rising seniors unless you had a kid who was hitting 90 on the radar gun or consistently hitting it over or 1 hop line drives to the wall. What it did for my son though was to get on some radar screens. He was able to talk to various coaches directly, and the ones that had any interest told him to keep them updated with video, stat’s and academics. I will say that the 2 camps we did were not cheap, about $1,000 each not counting transportation and lodgings. They were worth it because in each camp he was exposed to 60+ coaches of many schools that he was interested in. Here is the link to Headfirst https://www.headfirsthonorroll.com/headfirst-honor-roll-showcase-camps/headfirst-baseball-showcase-camps/. The immediately following Stanford camp had many of the same coaches, but I would say the level of campers was higher, with more true D1 prospects vs Headfirst which had mostly D3 level players. If money is an issue, I would pick Headfirst over Stanford. It is easier to stand out and the camp is much more concentrated (2 side by side fields). After the first day at Stanford, the kids get spread around to different Bay Area fields for games. Going to this camp summer sophomore is useful, but not totally necessary. The camps summer before senior are critical, and I would highly advise putting money away for that.
The on campus contacts with coaches for unofficial visits are governed by the contact rules, but basically after Sept 1 of junior year there are no limits to those. Remember though, you will not be reimbursed for expenses. Most D3’s do not reimburse travel expenses to and from campus even for official visits.
The serious action for most baseball players at the D3 and non-professional draftable D1 level occurs beginning summer before junior, when coaches’ lists are solidified and ranked. It will be smart ( and not just for baseball purposes) for your son to start to put together his apps summer before senior (essays, LoR’s, prepare for testing if he still needs to get his scores up). ED/EA deadlines are around Nov 1.
If your son is a top recruit, the process will be easy as academic schools will offer them right after the pre-read in most cases. He will have offers in hand in September, if not earlier. If he is further down the list, it can get very stressful as coaches begin to play musical chairs. Often the top recruits will have multiple offers so until that picture solidifies, coaches may not have room. That is when the non-committal conversations and ghosting occurs. As a parent, it is not helicoptering in my opinion to try to pin the coaches down. I do think it is necessary as you head into the fall of senior to assume your son won’t get an offer as far as admissions planning is concerned.
I had my son have all the initial contact and baseball conversations with the coaches. He drafted the emails and he went by himself on the visits. The only time I participated was when I asked about process and next steps with coaches at the camp generally. I of course had many conversations with my son about what actions he should take.
@BKSquared , This is phenomenal advice! I can’t thank you enough for this head and heart clearing post. It puts so many questions to rest as far as what to expect. I can now plan ahead with more of an idea on what to focus on. DS is 15, 5"11’, Fastball clocks at 78-80 last check, Still has a lot of growing to do but not a phenom, great in the outfield, very quick on his feet. 60 yard dash at around 8.2 (needs to get that up). RHP:Cutter, Curve, Slider, 75+, Run to 1st, 4.8 I think. Freshman GPA3.75, Sophomore GPA: 3.9 UW, top 5% of his class. Is a card-carrying NA URM. Hoping these things will help with the prereads. Strengths in sciences and maths, number one for his class at a very rigorous high school (number 7/250) in province. Plans on taking PSAT in Oct 2020, Practices PSATs around 1150 but is working on that. We will be targeting Dartmouth and Yale as they took one of our players a couple of years ago and coach thinks he may have a shot. D11 schools (NECs) maybe. Money is huge for us, also looking at schools that offer tuition waivers for NA students too. Not sure about the baseball at those schools. Getting a reasonable list together is so challenging. My son is hoping to go to the College Horizons course offered to NA Juniors that help with apps and has a great college fair of all kinds of unis that recruit Native Americans. He hoping to get some insight to the process when he’s there, if he get selected for that program. It’s great to have an idea when I need to get involved regarding pinning coaches down to know our real chances. Hubby works in US, we live near the border and 50% blood quantum says you are considered a domestic student (Jay Treaty) so hopefully the schools on the list are aware he will be considered a domestic student and FAFSA will be filled out according to US income.
So how is your son doing? Is he still in college? Did he play all the way through? How was the coaching? Staff turnover? Long bus rides throughout the season? Any issues? Where in the US did he end up, East, West, South? Did he choose a warm state as opposed to a very cold state?
DS is thinking he may want to be where it is warm? LOL
For a RHP, power D1 needs to be over 90 (Ivies can be high 80’s); D3 can sit at low 80’s (touch 85+). He needs to be faster. Hitting exit velocity for D1 90mph+, D3 85+. Here is a good reference source which was consistent with S’s experience. https://www.tpcollegeshowcase.com/evaluation-reference-information.html
Your S is in good shape on grades. For Ivies and D3’s, they like your ACT to be at least 30 (SAT high 1300’s) unless you are a phenom. 32+ is pretty safe. Schools may have different targets, but this was the general range we heard. You can also calculate his Academic Index and reference that against college target ranges. Google “academic index” and you will see all sorts of articles and online calculators.
Dartmouth has a special NA conference I believe, which I would assume includes helping with travel expenses for families that need help. https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/visit/visitation-programs/indigenous-fly-program
Applying as a US person will make financial aid much easier.
S ended up turning down all the baseball offers and applied and got into Yale early action. He plays Club baseball and has a great time with that. D was a 4 year starter at a NESCAC in softball. Her brother was the beneficiary of everything we learned from her experience. Yes, long bus rides, but it was great for her. Her best friends were on the team and it made her time manage better. In fact she got better grades in-season than off-season.
Warm weather is good, but there are more academic D3’s up north. I am sure though that there are good ones done south and some excellent ones in California.
Best of luck!
Yale and Dartmouth will award money based on need only. You either get it or you don’t based on the FAFSA and the CSS. Is he a registered tribe member? I know that some schools do not recognize the Canadian tribes (or at least give a preference or money).
Weather is a big deal in a sport like baseball. My daughter went to school in Florida and all the teams go to Florida for tourneys and to get the season going, for their spring breaks (which seem to be later in March or April - her school was done May 4-5, so their spring break is always March 1). This as mattered as my daughter wasn’t traveling during finals or missing classes for weekends away. In her 4 years in school, I think she only missed 4-5 Fridays, and for most of those she had no classes anyway.
You may want to look at some of the California schools - the Claremont schools, USC, U of San Diego. He may be able to combine merit with athletic aid at the D1 schools.
I can’t contribute much on the baseball front. But one thing I’d add is that if you think he’ll be at the Ivy level, I’d keep several or even most of the schools in the mix early on. Not only is there a lot of shuffling going on (within the same recruiting pool) but most of the Ivies will match FA if you can demonstrate recruiting interest from another Ivy. So it’s really worth keeping at least one of HYP in the mix. At your income level you’ll probably get great aid at any of them but there might be differences in loans or something like that. For D3s you might look at the Claremont schools, Carleton, and similar in addition to NESCACs.
@BKSquared Thank you for the links, I will look those up! Also great update on your son. Sometimes I think we should just focus on the schools he likes, get the academic prereads and maybe just try to 'Walk-on" but that is very risky! The recruiting side of things is so dicey. Have just gotten of the Native American email list at Dartmouth, expressing an interest in the fly-in program. Just did the EFC for Ivies and it’s pretty good, if those calculators are anything to go by. Will look up D3 baseball conferences to see what is there and see where he could fit in.
@twoinanddone Yes, he is a member of our tribe, with status, rights and everything. Past the baseball love, is a love for environmental sciences and law. So finding a school with that fit too, is to be considered. I hear the Ivies play fall and spring ball, is this true? It would be great to just have one season of play during the year. His ECs are with salmon protections and conservation parks near our home.
@politeperson, we will be keeping HYP in the mix, all of those schools have great support for Native Americans at their schools. Son will be happy to be with some NAs to partner with in ECs once baseball season is done. Beginning to look at what scholarships are available through diversity and such. Haven’t considered the Claremont schools at all. Spring break is soon, will go over them with DS and see what he likes. Are they strong in sciences?
Thanks everyone for all the input. I raise my hands to you for getting through all of this with your sanity intact and still have the heart to support people like us newbies to the whole game.
It is very hard to assess based on a five minute post. You may want to try a local showcase, to try to assess skills on a comparative basis. I would say that certain skills can be improved. I assume that he is on a solid lifting program. That could help the pitching speed. Although control also is important, for D3s as a general matter, RHPs should be pitching in at 85. The time for the 60 does not look speedy. A shade over 7 is okay, but most coaches would prefer a sub-7 60. Keep him going and let the process lead the way.
You may want to keep an eye on High School Baseball on the Web, which has informative message boards that focus on baseball recruiting. You can learn a lot there.
I also would encourage trying the ACT, particularly if he can get through the SAT practice sessions with extra time. Some of the prep companies offer a free practice test assessment with half of the morning taking the SAT model and the other half taking the ACT. You might try that.
Most, if not all, D1 schools have fall and spring baseball, although the fall season is mostly for the coaches to see what they have got. The spring season is what counts. Most D1 (and many D3) programs also strongly encourage their players to play in the summer.
All Ivies and most selective D3’s don’t give merit. They just give need based aid, although some of them are very generous. Starting this year, if your household income is below $75k (with typical assets), parent contribution will be $0 at Yale. https://admissions.yale.edu/affordability-basics Aid is 100% grant. Aid at H and P are also 100% grant. You will need to look at each college you are interested in to see of merit aid is available
The advantage of being recruited is if you get full support from the coach with a positive AO preread, your son will be virtually assured of admissions. The downside is many schools will require the recruit to apply ED as a condition for their support (SCEA for HYP). He is in a different pool than the other applicants. If his ACT is a 30 and he is recruited, he will be admitted where very few non-recruits will have that score in the Ivies or highly selective D3’s.
If your son is not recruited or chooses not to accept an offer (of support), he will be competing with the general pool. Then that 30 probably means he won’t get in to that school where he would get in as a recruit. As a NA, he will have a good hook, but it is not as sure of a thing as being a recruited athlete. It’s an interesting analysis to go through and will be dependent on if and where he is recruited, what the strength of his academics are relative to the targeted schools’ general population and which schools your son likes the best (then throw in FA). Right now the possibilities are mind numbing, but the picture actually begins to clarify by summer of Junior year as the factors just mentioned solidify.
@gointhruaphase So, at his age, 15, do you think he should be at higher baseball metrics? He is on a lifting/workout program with his coach but we were thinking to maybe up the ante a bit and go with a local trainer/friend who would demand more of him. I figured he would have this whole year to work to get those numbers up. Thanks for the tip about High school Baseball on the web, we have nothing that compares here in Canada. We were just talking about the Act. DS says he that type of exam fits him better, whatever that means, but we’ll give it a go! Thanks.
@BKSquared We definitely fall in the sub 75K income bracket, so that is great news but he needs to step up his metrics for sure. It is nice to know the numbers to shoot for, I wish I knew this earlier but we have time to improve. I was hoping for maybe 5-8 schools to narrow down to, then see the interest of coaches and away we go, I was very naive! I was torn because someone said that it is better to cast a wide net in regards to recruiting. Thank God for this sub! I’d be trying to swim upstream without a paddle! He’s meeting with his GC regarding IB work and combining his baseball schedule too.
I didn’t know about the summer ball schedule, where should he go for that? back here in Canada or where he will end up at school? Have to think about that.
He wants to be sure he has the courses he needs for the science degree. Do you know if athletes get early class selections? I heard it can be brutal. He wants to grad in 4 years but I heard that it is hard to do due to making sure you get your classes at the right time. I think a semester college calendar is better (?) His course selections are:
Grade 11/12
IB French
IB Chemistry SL
IB English HL
IB Physics HL
IB Math HL
IB History SL
TOK
EE
Concert Band11/12 Plays the Euphonium (6 years)
Highest Honors in Freshman Math
Duke of Edinburgh (Bronze Award) Silver is a work in progress.
Makes Headmaster’s List each semester
Football 7 years, Made All- Star Province StarBowl for 16U this year. Best Lineman 2019
Regional Premiere’s Award winner for Indigenous Excellence In Youth Sport.
Selected to the 2020 NAIG (The North American Indigenous Games) Team BC Baseball team (July)
CABA WS 2019 second place (Mid West Tourney)
Made Team BC 14U Little League Nationals 2018
Plus other community awards and involvement.
A motivated kid with a great sense of humour. Hoping for the best and thank you all for the input!
It sounds like your son is quite accomplished. You should be proud.
Baseball wise, it is tough to say, especially if he is still growing. Some of the programs in the states (particularly in the south) are highly focused on skill development. The kids play all year round with a lot of professional guidance. Lifting wise, we found the assistant trainer at a local D1 university to be the best, especially because he knew the protocol for the sport. You want a trainer that knows what he or she is doing, makes it fun, and thereby gets better results. If it is right before the season starts as it is here, you might want to focus on a pitching coach who could tweak mechanics and raise velocity. Obviously, all of this depends how much he is pitching now, because the last thing you want to do is wear out his arm at 15.
I fall into the wide net point of view. The reason being, when you start the recruiting process, folks tend to fall in love with what they think a school is and what they think their kid reasonably can achieve. Yet those same schools may have no need for a RHP, wont give sufficient aid, maybe you hate the coach or there is just no fit. Athletics - maybe rightly so - gets pushed to the wayside. When you approach a lot of schools with athletic tapes and academic stats, you will get a preliminary sense of whether there is a fit, and that may be somewhere that you and your son hadn’t dreamed of. The process is organic, and often at the end, you find your place. In my view, now is the time for expansive exploration. You have plenty of time to narrow.
I second the Dartmouth suggestion of @BKSquared, with its Native program. I also agree, however, that Dartmouth baseball is at a pretty high level.
As I suggested upthread, if you have the budget, I’d send him to Headfirst this summer. There will be 60 plus coaches of the type of schools you seem to be shooting for. As a sophomore, 78-80 will get put him on radar screens, but won’t blow anyone away. His speed is slow for the outfield and they definitely time the kids. What is great about Headfirst is that you are seen by every coach. They divide the coaches between 2 fields. Some watch from behind the plate, others coach the teams that are playing. The way the scrimmages are set up, every kid gets equal time on the field at their positions and at bats. Kids that pitch and play field positions have a rubric on batters faced, innings in position and at bats. The way they control the scrimmages is every half inning ends based on batters faced, not outs, and each batter starts with a 1-1 count. They track AB’s and the kids go through a set rotation that carries through the scrimmages. It’s a very fair system.
FWIW, my kid was at the same velocity sophomore year, but he was only 5’6" and young for his grade. A lot of coaches talked to him and wanted him to update them during the year. The next summer he had grown to 5’10 and his velocity was up to 85. He also hit very well. 85 was still too low to be recruited by Ivies, but he got multiple D3 offers.
In terms of increasing velocity, while overall fitness and a good weight training program is necessary, velocity is a question of the physics of leverage and force transfer. It is about how efficiently you can transfer force from your legs through your torso into a whipping action through your arm. Our experience was that a good pitching coach was key to setting up our son with optimal mechanics.
D was a STEM major and had no real issue getting her classes and graduating on time. Her coaches definitely gave her some room in terms of making it to practice and her prof’s also worked with her. She is now working at a premier research lab, and I think being a varsity athlete was a plus. D1’s, even Ivies, may be tougher. But you can go on roster pages and see what the kids are majoring in.
@BKSquared , once again, you have given us a lot to think about and plan for. I also think going to Headfirst is a great investment; the link and the blog info is worth its weight in gold! Seeing the NCAA calendar for contact etc makes waay more sense. We can color code our own calendars now! It is so important to be mentally prepared for such an event but he’s up for it. We are working on a new recruiting video for spring season with the new numbers so we will have that ready in May to inform targeted coaches of our attendance.
The school year ends in June 23rd in Canada ,so the dates are tight with the combine (June 24, 25) Fly from CA to Georgia for CH program (June 27-July3) then to Spokane July 4th to join his team at a tourney. Then NAIG the week after, the mind boggles…It may well be to do the West 3 Later in the summer and have a family vacation while we are at it! Hopefully the Coronavirus will have calmed down by then. We will also have more time to prepare and do more homework on the schools. Don’t want to screw up coaches’ names with schools and vice versa! This would be good exposure for my younger two sons who are keen on baseball too. It would be a reality check to see where he stands in that crowd and who, if anyone, is interested in talking to him and plan accordingly.
So your son played club baseball, so much less stress. We’ll see where he lands. There are so many ducks to get in a row and in different ponds too. These last few days of great insider info has greatly helped us get down to brass tax and look to eliminate any fluff. Many thanks to you.
@gointhruaphase Yes, a wide net and I am glad about the combine having such a plethora of coaches from various baseball programs, it actually will force us to look at the group of schools and programs gathered there, then, on my spreadsheet I can add, sort, and categorize the school based on DS academic focus, baseball program, rigour, size, vibe, baseball metrics/current rosters and then last columns will be if coaches were interested, level of contact, roster needs, Fin-aid, Diversity status, if anyone has made such a spreadsheet already something like this, please share so I won’t reinvent the wheel: or if there is an app for that. Speaking of apps, what is out there in regards to helping student athletes get organized or college apps and recruiting deadlines? Would be great if there was an app that decoded the recruiting language of the coaches, so that we don’t waste our time and energy where we are not wanted.
Am I expecting too much? LOL This site is awesome!
Thanks everyone for helping us.
Hi,
A few things, coming from a dual citizen who has gone through part of the dance you are about the begin with my 2018, and also has a 2022.
- Are you also a CAN citizen, or CAN permanent resident? I ask, because there are some very good Canadian Universities that play a good brand of baseball. Most are at the level of a D3 baseball wise in the US, some at the level of a very good D3(i.e. Mcgill, Laurier, U of T) and UBC plays NAIA, which is a higher league again.
- Your son's pitching stats will likely not get him much attention at this point. His running speed is also too slow for OF play, unless he has a truly prodigious bat. I strongly suggest that you wait until he can hit 85 mph on his FB( assuming that he is a RHP) before attending HF, assuming that you want D1's to take notice. D1's, even Ivey's, like to see RHP's get hit 90mph, and want their OF'ers to run a sub 7.0 60. They also want to see an exit velo of 90+. I understand that your son is still growing and developing, but there is a huge amount of competition for a very few spots. You have to have something that has the coaches sit up and take notice.
- Coaches will not care what race your son is. They just want the best ball player. As of now, it looks like your son is on a development track to be a D3 player.
- Admissions departments WILL care that your son is a Native American. That alone (together with a rigorous schedule and excellent results) is a far better bet than baseball to get him into an elite school in the US.
- If he wishes to play baseball in college he might look at schools such as Amherst, Swarthmore, Middlebury, etc.. they still have some VERY good players, so there is no guarantee that he will be able to play on those teams. I would also suggest he look at one of me personal favorites, Carleton(not to be confused with the Canadian University with the same name). It is a terrific school academically, a bit more laid back than the coast schools, and are always looking for good baseball players.
- Don't want to be discouraging, just wanted to be realistic. It goes without saying that a 15yo has all sorts of changes in front of him.
I thought I might add some non baseball thoughts to this thread.
Happy Mother’s Day, and it sounds like you are doing an amazing job of guiding and advising your son. He should always be thanking you in the future!
My second cousins are 50% native American and went to Dartmouth, which was founded as a land grant university and has special programs for NA’s. I think it was free to them and that was before much more generous financial aid programs became common. With your income level, many top schools would be effectively free as well.
I believe that many schools would welcome and support more NA’s. I would look specifically for those programs, or contact admissions directly. When your son takes the PSAT make sure that he checks the boxes to show his NA status, and colleges will contact you based on his scores.
As for the top NESCAC schools, which are all amazing, if you are an URM my understanding is that those athletes don’t count against the coaches slots, as they are in a different URM category, but I could be wrong. If that’ the case, you might still be able to get some support there too.
Keep encouraging your son! A great test score would make him a wonderful applicant.