My son is going on his first College visit (unofficial) this weekend. He is a junior and this College is one of his top five, they have made him a verbal offer.

We (my wife and I) will not be attending with him this weekend. What advice do you guys have for him as to… questions he should ask, what he should be looking for, etc etc.

cheesethrower, Welcome to HSBBW!

Here is a link to one of the previous threads:

Recruit questions

Good Luck and enjoy the ride.

Since you are not going on the visit with him there are some behind the scenes investigations you can do as a parent. Roster reading will familiarize you with how the staff recruits. Go to the baseball website of the college. Look @ this years roster- go into archives and look @ previous rosters. Did recruits tend to stick around to graduate? If not, were they drafted? Are there parents of players on the current team you could talk to? When my son was looking we attended a game and I happened to talk to some team moms in the ladies room. They were very willing to share info with me and were very honest and welcoming when I said my son was considering their college. If you hear negative things remember to consider the source and perhaps take it with a grain of salt until further checking.

Specific college facts: listed on main web page for school you can find the link to the "common data set". This will give you great info about the academics. It typically lists the average gpa of incoming freshman, what percentile they ranked in high school, graduation rates, etc. This helps you determine where your son may fall academically at that school.

Fit can't be over-emphasized. Academically and athletically. The more research you do ahead of time the fewer surprises you may find once your son is enrolled.

As it turns out (so far), the mom's in the ladies room were very truthful as we have found out with son playing at that college last year. They couldn't say enough great things about the school and coaching staff and luckily we have found it all to be true.

Good luck and keep us posted.