infielddad:

With regard to the University of California schools I referred to in my post, you wrote: “….those schools are options only if you are a very top student….”

Using UC Santa Barbara as an example:

In 2007, UC Santa Barbara admitted 905 freshmen whose GPA was between 3.00 and 3.39. Of those, 364 achieved a highest SAT score between 500 and 599. I mean no disrespect to these young men and women, many of whom are right now working hard earning a degree at this very fine institution. However, these scores are not, in my mind, the scores of a very top high school student. Instead, these are scores which are attainable by most students. I urge you not to take your son or daughter out of the running for a great school based on what you have heard. Do your own research, and then you may find that, with a little motivation and some prodding, a lot is possible.

But, will they play baseball at UC Santa Barbara? This question takes me back to the Stanford camp and an opportunity we missed. Someone else brought up this point before but I think it’s worth repeating. We should have tried to get my son on the team coached by a coach from the school he is interested in attending. I am reasonably sure all it would have taken was a phone call. Instead, he was looked at by coaches from schools he has never shown interest in going to. Under the very large assumption he is eventually approached by one of those schools, what if that school did not offer the major he is interested in? Going back to the original question, I would recommend ballplayers (along with their parents) find the schools that meet both their academic and athletic needs and focus their time, effort and money in trying to get a roster spot on those.

Fuddman,
While, in general, I would like to agree with you, unless your son is a very, very top player, the idea of "picking" your coach and college, and the idea of going where you are interested...and playing, just does not work in college baseball, except for a few.
There are only certain players who will be picking their college coach and the school they attend. They will be the players at the very top end of the talent pool. For the other 90-95 or so percent, the Stanford Camp is an eye opening experience about the opportunities to play college ball around the United States.
In 1999, we thought our son was one of those top players. He certainly had the SAT's. He also had a very fine GPA, but it came from one of the most demanding college prep schools anywhere, so it wasn't a 3.75 GPA.
I completely agree with you that your child should not be taken out of the running at many schools if they have solid academics and SAT's. Everyone needs reach schools, and baseball can make some difference at many in terms of acceptance.
But, if you are a 3.00 of the type you are describing, and the staff at UCSB, or any other UC school, isn't strongly supporting your application, your chances of admission decrease. If they don't support your admission, and you still get admitted, your chances of playing decreases, or is non existent.
To take our son for example, the coaches at the Stanford Camp, other than one, apparently took the view that he was in that 90 percent pool of talent and that was especially true of the UC programs that he so desperately wanted to attend.
But one coach saw something different and he attended one of the top academic programs in the nation with one of the best baseball programs available, even though at the DIII level. At the time of the Stanford Camp, we didn't even know of the school.
By the time he graduated 4 years later, he was in the top 5% to 10% of the players available, since he did get drafted.
My view is the Stanford Camp is indeed about exposure. For the very top talents, it is about exposure to schools that want you and will do what they need to recruit you. For the balance, the 90 or so percent, it is about exposure to schools you never knew existed, that have great academics, great baseball and who can make those 4 years in college unforgettable and provide a terrific degree...and they are not UC programs that have 20 applicants for each admission slot.

Here's the deal. In my experience as the father of a DI Ivy league athlete and a DIII athlete at a small liberal arts college, it is exponentially harder to match athletic ability and academics if the student has outstanding test scores and grades, regardless of talent. If the emphasis is academics, as it should be, then mid level athleticism becomes a problem because the pool of schools that will match academically will be very small. If your focus is baseball, you will be able to play somewhere no matter your academic status and athletic ability. The most important lesson my children learned throughout the whole process was to never give up.

Lot of good points made here for the recruiting process.
There was one school recruiting and very interested in son, academic standards extrememly high, I know he wasn't being recuited for his academic and test scores (though a good student). By academic standards he could have been considered one of those "bubble" students. He also was being recruited by a few schools where admittance would have taken place without baseball. In rethinking the process (didn't have all of this info at the time), it was apparant that he needed to find a program that he fit into for academics and baseball. That left him with 3 strong choices by end of August, one withdrew their official visit and offer (yes it happens to everyone). Coaches have to recruit players as the total package (not always by academic standards or baseball standards) strongly because they have to find the balance. You can't have a team with all below average academic players yet all above average talent, or the same with above average academics and below average talent. Especailly these days with more demands of team GPA and to get to post season and have a successful season by winning more games than you lost. Most likely the best and most successful teams out there are ones that you will find every type of player mentioned above. This is why it becomes so perplexing to us, why one is recruited to one program and why another is not. We don't always understand this but players often times know why some made the team and why others did not. The coach needs to find the balance and they understand that balance more than we do. The purpose of going to school is to get your degree, and although coaches stress that importance, they often know what player will get better results on the field and which one more in tbe classroom.

If you are an extremely talented player and highly motivated and gifted student, you have choices.

Since there has been talk about Stanford academics and SAT scores I thought I would throw this link on the board. In our neck of the woods it is much more common to take the ACT rather than the SAT.

You can probably find info about any college on this link.

Stanford info

Fuddman said: In 2007, UC Santa Barbara admitted 905 freshmen whose GPA was between 3.00 and 3.39. Of those, 364 achieved a highest SAT score between 500 and 599.
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My oldest son is a SR in Economics at UCSB...no offense taken. And I'm happy to say he did much better than your posted examples in all categories.

My baseball player is a Sr at a private college

JMO

A word to the wise: my son did area code tryouts the day before shipping out to the Stanford camp and was pretty tired (particularly his arm) for much of the time he was out there. I wouldn't try that schedule again if I had a do-over.

When I agreed to sign my son up for camp, it was for the specific purpose of letting him attend a well run camp at the best university on the West Coast, and secondarily to get some baseball exposure. At the time, we didn't know where he fit from a college baseball perspective (other than had solid academics), and were pleased that a wide array of solid academic schools (D1-D3, NAIA) would attend.

My son loved staying in the dorms, and having a "college" experience. The coaches are all upbeat and positive, help the kids keep baseball in perspective, and he also came away having made a lot of new friends from around the country.

The Stanford coaches are very conscientious about delivering value to everyone, and for us the primary value was the overall experience of spending several days at a world class university, in a postive, uplifting environment.

Even though it now turns out my son is a solid D1 prospect, we didn't know it at the time we signed up, and we would do it all over again even if he wasn't a prospect. It's a great time and a great experience.