From a purely baseball perspective, Johns Hopkins is by far the best baseball school on your list. That doesn’t mean I agree with your premise that they could be competitive with any D1’s with any regularity, because I strongly disagree with you on that point. MIT has been successful recently and did have a very good player who was an infielder drafted this past June. I know Amherst in the NESCAC had a pitcher who throws mid 90’s also drafted this year.
@nhparent9 I’d be willing to bet that Johns Hopkins could compete with a lot of D1-II and D1-III schools… like Lafayette for example who were very bad last year in the patriot league. There are a lot of lower level D1 programs that are on par with high level D3 programs (at their best). I agree with you that winning regularly may be a stretch, but my point is that the competition is not always so far apart, especially when there are guys like you mentioned throwing mid-90’s (even though that is not the norm of course).
Again, if all the schools are academically attractive to you and the teams are too, you can start looking at the little things that will make your experience better. Weather is one. Spring in Chicago is different than spring in Baltimore. Unless the team has an indoor facility, you’ll be running in the rain and snow, making adjustments for weather cancelled games, spending a lot of time on buses. Look at the opponents and how far away the games are. Florida teams have sunshine and a lot of competition a short way away, other places require long bus trips.
Chicago and Baltimore are a lot easier to get to by air than Colby or Middlebury, so even though it is only a few times a year when you are traveling from home to school, it’s still a pain to have to travel for 8-10 hours. Will your parents be able to attend games if you go to School A over School B?
You might get more playing time on a time that isn’t high ranked, but you might want to win more so would prefer a stronger program where you have to share playing time.
Johns Hopkins is very strong, but they carry a large roster. Try to get a sense of where you will fit in. While JHU is on top of its league, I don’t think the centennial league is as good as the nescac. Hamilton, Middlebury and Colby are all nescac teams. None of them has a strong historical record of league victories, although Middlebury has a relatively new coach and it looks like they had a good last year. Colby just spent a lot of money on a turf field, which is the only one in the nescac, and is quite strong in economics. Hamilton is lovely, but I did not get the impression of strength from the coach. The historically stronger baseball teams in the nescac are Williams, Wesleyan, Tufts, and Amherst. Trinity used to be the perennial powerhouse, but not after Coach Decker left for Harvard. I don’t recall hearing anything about a strong baseball team at Bard. Vassar had new baseball facilities as of 2009 or so and its baseball coach just left for Bates. So who knows where that is going. Vassar is a lovely school, but I do not remember economics being their strongest major. I would probably take a very hard look at Chicago and JHU.
Don’t be hard on Lafayette. Historically they have been quite strong. And the patriot league provides some strong competition from Lehigh, Bucknell and Colgate.
I would use high school baseball on the web to search the teams and coaches for more detail.
These are just my personal opinions and I am sure there are many others that will disagree.
@grant1509 - throwing mid 90’s is far, far from the norm in D3. It’s an anomaly. It’s also far from the norm in D1, though obviously there are some guys in that range. I have first hand knowledge of that particular Amherst player, saw him pitch several times last year. I also saw Lafayette play multiple times (I think it was four) this past season.
@gointhruaphase - agree, and don’t forget about Holy Cross and Navy in the Patriot.
12 players from all of D3 were drafted.
In comparison the team that won the Junior College WS (Chippola) had 11 drafted last year.
@twoinanddone those are all good things that I didn’t really think about too much. Weather is definitely a consideration. I just kind of lumped them all together as having cold winters and then probably being more humid than where I live. I’ll definitely have to think about that more. Same thing with travel. Baltimore is super easy to get to from just about anywhere but especially where I live because there’s direct flights. As for playing time, that’s a good point and I was concerned about that at first. But basically every school has said I will play almost right away, whether it be as a pitcher or a catcher. Multiple schools have told me I can do both. Thank you so much for your feedback. You’ve given me plenty to think about and it will certainly help with my ultimate decision. Time to talk to my parents.
@ClarinetDad16 I would say that many people who pursue the JC route ultimately do so to get drafted. That is their ultimate goal, whereas many D3 players might not have that same goal. Also, being drafted is a lot about upside, potential, and tools. There is someone that might dominate in college as a pitcher but throw 85 and they will get drafted lower than the guy who throws 95. My point is that the peak level of play in D1 is much higher than peak D3. But the highest level of D3 is not uncompetitive.
@gointhruaphase your comment was super helpful. It’s hard for me to gather a bunch of context as I haven’t followed these teams as long but from what I’ve seen in terms of past records and how they recruit, I basically gathered a lot of that information myself. Certain schools have higher standings than others due to past success which leads to a better reputation. Makes sense. I actually spoke to the Amherst head coach and he said we’d move forward with the recruiting process, so I guess that’s another option, although less concrete than the others. It does seem like a great baseball situation.
Despite this, the JHU coach said I’d start freshman year. With that level of school both academically and athletically, that’s hard for me to pass up. What do you think? For me it really comes down to MIT, UChicago, or JHU. Vassar and Middlebury are amazing schools with beautiful campuses but I think the first three carry a certain prestige that other schools don’t.
@nhparent9 that kid must’ve been a late bloomer of some sort. Most guys like that don’t play in D3, although my personal experience is because the guys I know who do have that talent don’t have the grades. As for Lafayette, you both are right. I was being too hard. One bad season doesn’t mean they’ve always been bad. Recency bias on my part. Oops
@grant1509 Has the coach at JHU offered you one of his slots? If he has, I would seriously consider accepting it since you have narrowed your choices down to include JHU. If he did offer you a slot, and you don’t accept it, more than likely, he will give that slot to another recruit. At most schools, the odds of getting in when a coach has offered a slot are close to 100 percent. The odds of getting in otherwise are much lower.
Good luck!
You must have an arm like a crankshaft if you are considering pitching and catching. All I can think of is Nancy Reagan. Just say no. You aren’t 16 anymore. God made arms to throw only so much.
I recently met with a JHU Coach and had a tour of the athletic facilities. The one thing that stood out to me was that because they are a D1 school with lacrosse, they have D1 facilities and trainers. The also have more athletic money in the budget, so the D3 teams get to have some of the perks of D1. That was unique to me. I also definitely got the impression from this coach that academics comes first. It seemed like the coach genuinely held that philosophy. I was actually concerned because in the meeting my daughter kept stressing how important academics were to her (afterward, I reminded her that she was meeting with a coach, but hey, she is true to herself). The coach was happy to hear that academics were a priority to her. Baltimore has had a lot of negative press lately, so you might want to make sure you visit before you decide. The campus seemed very safe to me though.
Lafayette is a great school also. I have been to that school a few times and it is smaller, but really beautiful. Very nice school, but a totally different feel that JHU. The fields are also about 3 miles from campus in the “wind gap” and both times I have been at those fields, I definitely felt the wind!! It can be very cold there given it’s location, but it does offer that urban/rural feel. The city of Easton gives you an urban feel, but the overall area has lots of nature also.
@shuttlebus yes he has offered me a slot. Pre read came back positive. Essentially guaranteed admission!!
@rant1509 Did he say when you had to make a decision? As you know, admissions at some schools do not give their coaches slots, so your odds of being admitted at these schools are much less than they would be at JHU. If you decide to wait until you hear back from admissions at these other schools, the coach as JHU may have given your slot to someone else and you may find yourself rejected by both JHU and the other schools where slots are not given to the coaches.
@rofikicafe this was super helpful. I’ve never seen Lafayette except for in pictures and I’ve only been to Pennsylvania once. To me, the D-1 opportunity isn’t worth the “sacrifice” in education. Obviously Lafayette is an amazing school, but it’s really hard for me to say no to JHU, UChicago, etc. I do like the urban feel of JHU and the field is getting lights this year too. I really like it when it comes to baseball.
@shuttlebus they haven’t told me when they need a decision yet because I said I was going to do visits so I’ve probably got until the end of September/October to make a decision. You make a good point and that’s something I need to think about too. I think the risk of trying to get into MIT might not be worth passing up other offers.
@gointhruaphase I think you’re right. The funny thing is I actually am 16, so that’s why the coaches have said I can do both. They see more upside with pitching but more immediate impact with catching. I’ve talked to all the coaches and they have laid it out like this: I’d probably catch two games a week and then close out a third game or something along those lines. It’s more or less what I do in high school, albeit the games are shorter and don’t take as much of a toll I’m sure. The good news is that I’ve essentially told the coaches that if I start to do really well pitching then I’d probably stick with that because 1.) everyone needs pitching, and 2.) it’d be better on my arm than doing both.
@shuttlebus I wanted to apologize for my previous post. After looking through my emails with the coach I realize it is not necessarily a “spot” because the coaches don’t have that kind of pull, but instead the admissions basically said I would get in. Sorry for misleading you.
@grant1509 Unless something has changed within the past couple of years, the coaches at JHU do have slots to give to their top recruits, and they absolutely do have pull.
Have you asked the coaches on your list specific questions regarding your situation? For example, have you asked the coaches if they rank the list they sent to admissions, and if they do rank, where you fall on their lists? In my opinion, you need to have this information when evaluating your options and determining your odds of being accepted.