A lot of college websites now have online questionnaires that ask for a lot of the information that is suggested to include in the bio page to be included with the introductory letter. Would it be beneficial to fill out a questionnare and send an introductory letter or is just filling out the questionnare sufficient for first contact?

We had absolutely no luck, whatsoever, filling out on-line questionnaires. I don't think they were ever read.

I look at it this way---

What does it take to fill out the on line questionnaire ? NADA--fill it out and then send a hard copy of your info

Also send an email to the coach that the form is coming both via computer and hard mail

The "young bucks" on the staff read the computer input -- the more time they see your name the better

GO FOR IT !!!!

TR - I guess I agree with you, BUT...our experience was:

* The introductory letter and information sheets we sent out resulted returned form letters with questionnaires to fill out. Once they saw our son play (later) they sent out the same questionnaire over-and-over as if they never looked in their files for the first one we returned. One Ivy school probably sent the same form letter 5 or 6 times, slightly modified each time to say "we saw you at <fill in event>." Never checked to see they already had the info on him.

* Some of the on-line questionnaires have a little return reciept when they are read. Not one return-receipt was ever received, meaning either it didn't work or they never read them.

Its just a matter of how you spend your time I guess. It must work sometimes but I didn't see the evidence of it.

The only thing that clearly worked was performing in an event/tournament with coaches present. I do believe there ?may? have been one exception to all of this...the school he signed with. Their follow-up correspondence leads me to believe that the initial letter got his name on a list for them to follow...but then again, we live about 15 minutes from their campus and about 2 minutes from the head coach's house. That may have made it easier for them than anything?

Our experience was different from justbaseball's and our son attended very few showcase events...).

The D3 schools that recruited my son ALL began with the online recruiting questionnaires being submitted, and led to frequent email contact with the coaches, invitations to visit the campus, and ultimately my son was admitted to several of these schools without the coach ever seeing my son play live. They often requested that a video be sent as well.

A couple of D1 schools also began that way and son got great responses from them. It's just that they didn't pursue son in the end.

...And they ended up at the same place (Cal2004's son and ours).

Just goes to show you, there's 2 ways to skin a cat!

...p.s., and they're friends too...

I guess it depends on the school and the coach. We had a funny experience with the on-line questionaire. My son had decided at the end of his junior year in high school that he didn't want to play baseball in college. He thought it would hinder his studies. The word got out pretty quick that he wasn't going to play in college. His senior season came around and I was talking to one of his teammates that was going to play college ball and asked if their team needed a catcher. He said, "I'm sure the coach would be interested in him." The next day I looked that college up on the web and saw the questionaire. I thought I would fill it out for my kid just for fun. Unbeknownst to me, I was on the wrong college's web site. I filled out the questionaire and hit send before I noticed. Within the next few weeks the coach from the wrong college had come from out of state to see my kid play and made an offer. He liked the coach so much he went there. He's about to start his third year of college baseball and he loves it.

Really, I just did it for fun. I wasn't trying to push him. I had resigned myself to the fact he wasn't going to play in college. Serendipity?

Great story Jammer.

I suspect that the smaller the school the more effective online questionaires are. The NAIA & D2 schools all asked our son to fill out the online form. No D1's even talked about online forms.

Jammer, that may be one of the funniest stories ever told here! Glad the coach didn't make the trip in vain!

I bet that online questionnaires mean more at nonD1 colleges, because there is less of a recruiting budget and therefore more reliance on these. That being said, my S got a very enthusiastic response from one excellent D1 from an online questionnaire. The calls and letters stopped the minute they saw him in a showcase But if he had impressed them, it would have been the online questionnaire that got it started.

They are pretty easy/fast to fill out, and free, so it would seem it can't hurt...

Most coaches I have spoken to like the online forms because it has the information they need or want and it shows that you found their website on their own, and have at least some interest in their school.

A lot of these forms go right to the coach or assistant, but others go to the athletic department and get delegated to the proper coach or printed out and sent to the coach. I imagine along the way that some get misplaced or lost.

I have also noticed that the better a school is athletically, the less likely you will be to find an online recruit form. This isn't by accident necessarily, as many top schools have a pretty good idea of whom they can or will recruit, and this isn't necessarily a statement for baseball alone. Some schools and coaches simply don't want 200 kids submitting an online form that probably don't have the ability to play for them.

I would fill out the form if there is one, then call or write the coach, or both and tell them you filled out the form and are interested in their school.