<p>Haverford would be great. Haverford has an academic atmosphere that is as rigorous, serious, and stimulating as one will find anywhere. It’s also supportive of its athletes.</p>
<p>Unless you are recruited for a scholarship for basketball you won’t be playing basketball at Villanova, Holy Cross, or Davidson or any of the Ivy league colleges.</p>
<p>Do you want to play baseball in college or just want the school to have a decent team to watch? Even though none are big time programs, most still recruit.</p>
<p>As for basketball, only Villanova and Georgetown qualify as big time, though Penn and Princeton makes some NCAA noise once in a while.</p>
<p>Football? They’re all Div 1-AA or lower; the games are fun, but depending on the school, they are little more than a study break.</p>
Ivy League schools are D1 programs in baseball, and strong D1 baseball programs at that. With that said, NW and Duke are probably more difficult to get into for baseball because each school: 1) Provides athletic scholarships, and 2) Dramatically lowers academic requirements for athletes.</p>
<p>Regarding ability - top of the list for D3 (will get a lot of playing time and play multiple positions) yet has some interest from some D1 schools (mainly ones where academics matter). It’s like searching for colleges. The academic D1’s would be my reach schools in baseball and I’d have to work hard for playing time.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m not good enough for Rice and Duke, etc. </p>
<p>Would be my luck - most interested schools are MIT and Swarthmore. Probably b/c of my grades. UPenn too, but it’s in such a bad area so may not follow up with that. </p>
<p>I may just not play. I’m from the mid atlantic and going up to Colby or Middlebury isn’t appealing. I’m just weighing my options. I might have more fun going to a big sports school and playing club sports. But, I don’t want to regret anything. I do love to play sports, and I’d never get into MIT, Swarthmore, Haverford, Penn, Brown, etc if it weren’t for sports so I am giving up the opportunity. But, I’d also have to work so much harder b/c I know I’d be at the bottom of the academic pool. (Guess there are no easy majors at MIT??? ha)</p>
You can’t expect scouts to just find a player. A player has to be active and attend showcases/contact coaches in order to have any team on his list.</p>
<p>OP, it definitely sounds like MIT and Swarthmore aren’t right for you. Even for recruited athletes, I would venture that each school is intended for mostly hardcore students able to withstand a tremendous workload.</p>
<p>I’d look towards the Ivies more, possibly Brown/Dartmouth, because the most important thing is getting in, period. D3 schools are pretty tight with admissions requirements for athletes whereas Ivies can considerably lower those requirements. Plus Brown/Dartmouth have reputations for being somewhat laid-back and probably more lenient towards student-athletes in terms of rigor.</p>
<p>One of these days, someone will explain to me why a lack of competition between students means rigor is sacrificed. The fact that the connection between competition, and perhaps to a greater extent, type-A overachieving personalities, and rigor exists is demonstrative of an education system gone-awry, teaching students the wrong ideas from day one.</p>
<p>I’d look at Ivies. They’re D-1 and give actual admissions help to athletes. Be wary of LACs like Williams. They recruit a lot of people, many of whom waste their ED and don’t get accepted. Princeton looks like the best choice for you.</p>