Paging @BKSquared @Mwfan1921 and @michaelcollege as all of them have experience with baseball recruiting, and two are college admissions professionals.
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Baldwin-Wallace came to mind. D3 school near Cleveland. Good for sports and respected for business. John Carroll is another close to Cleveland.
Kenyon or Denison might fit the bill but might not be under budget.
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It is getting real late for baseball recruiting for schools that your son has not yet engaged. it’s around this time that my S went on OV’s to the first week or so in Oct. If he is a RHP and throws mid 80’s (low 80’s for a LHP), maybe some coaches will take a look. S had serious interest from UChic, Grinnell, Macalester and Carleton but declined because he was more interested in the NE and Cali schools (S was a RHP in mid 80’s but was also a position player).
If he is thinking of IB or consulting, for better or worse, there are definitely feeder schools where he will have better opportunities than others. A “Main Street” job in finance/business is less prestige driven. Even if he has missed the recruited athlete window, most academic D3’s have walk-on opportunities.
FWIW, D played at a NESCAC that was smaller than her HS. She had no problems finding her tribe socially or academically. Also if you are on a sports team, the tendency is that your teammates become your social group. S on the other hand felt the D3’s were too small and opted for a D1 school where he played Club baseball. It really is a balancing act and your S and you have to anchor what is non-negotiable (cost, size, location, academics, sport) and work your way through from there.
Best of luck.
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Or Augustana in Illinois? Right across the border from Iowa. I didn’t realize there is also an Augustana in SD.
Thanks for the details you have shared.
We know some (D3) schools that “recruited” kids who weren’t even starters on their (not very competitive) high school varsity teams. One school cut a few of those kids before the season even started (after tuition was paid, of course). Some of them never got to dress, but at least they got to say they were on the team, I guess. If it’s a school they really wanted to go to, that would be fine, but I suspect it was much more of a going there to play situation. They did not have the type of stats your son did, however, so schools were more limited.
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I think even with baseball being non-negotiable, it’s still worthwhile to apply the “broken leg” test (or in your son’s case, a shoulder injury requiring surgery and PT) to any school that is going to make it to the list. Put simply– even if he’s convinced that baseball is going to be the deciding factor, many, many kids learn that the universe has other plans. He should not waste time (in my opinion) applying to a school if it will not meet his educational goals, social interests, etc. outside of his sport.
Kids get injured. Kids grow out of their passions once they’ve rebooted somewhere and get to try on different identities. Kids develop other interests and they want the freedom and the time to explore those.
It’s great he’s got such a good sense of himself, and such a strong academic record. He just needs to view his list WITHOUT his sport and see what stays and what goes.
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Augustana?
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The SD one
Yes, this one: Baseball - Augustana University Athletics
@cinnamon1212 thanks, but no easy answer IMO.
Quick thoughts -
Based upon your son’s academic accomplishments, it seems that there was at least as much focus on academics as baseball. But, if baseball is the priority now, I would probably just make a list of D3 schools with an acceptable major and email each and every coach. Maybe obvious but if you go a level down academically, you have some chance of hitting your financial need. You will find that larger D3’s with fin/accounting are few. To make matters worse, D3 recruiting is 3/4 complete right now. You may even lead with the academics with the coaches to get them more interested.
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Wisconsin-Whitewater may be one to investigate. Pretty good D3 sports, over 10,000 students, and cost of attendance just under 40k.
Yes, absolutely a thing for some colleges who depend on full pay students to “recruit” full pay athletes. It’s like the converse of using sports to get your student over the top in a high academic school, now the school is using athletics to attract full pays.
The OP’s kid has excellent academics. Most D3’s take on walk-ons because the number of supported recruits is limited. He probably has a place on a team if he is in the low 80’s, probably even in the high 70’s. Baseball teams never have enough pitchers. IMO, OP should look for academic fit first because he likely can walk on if he has had recruiting interest in some places already. The harder issue will be matching academic fit within a budget, net of FA or merit.
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Thank you for the confirmation of walking-on as a real possibility. It’s a crazy thing to say, but NMSF feels like it comes with a whole new set of expectations. And the baseball and NMSF timelines don’t align very well. What do you think of @michaelcollege’s idea of leading with academics, even at schools that aren’t highly academically rejective?
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Agree with leading with academics. Here though there is a bit of a decision tree having to do with academics, cost and opportunities.
If IB/consulting is a long term career path, there are a few highly rejective schools that are feeders (Ivies, most NESCAC’s, Swat, Claremont/McKenna/Pomona). Full pay at $360k may be worth it if the first job coming out is $125k. Probably not worth it if his interest lies elsewhere unless you feel that it is enough of a unique experience to pay for it and you can afford it.
In terms of academics. Fit in terms of majors is important. However, what many people under-value is the quality of classmates. Kids learn so much from their peers, and competition can be very beneficial. Both S and D went to highly rejective schools, and it was humbling to not be the smartest kid in the class like in HS, but for them it was motivating. So it is a bit of question of what is more suitable for your son. Some thrive being the big fish in a small pond, others need to be thrown in the deep end.
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Academics absolutely should lead the way. Would your son consider club baseball at one of the National Merit schools? Seems to be a better idea than a pay to play D3 situation.
Smaller schools may be less suitable for academic outliers than larger schools that may have a range of courses suitable for barely admitted, median, and top end students.
Of course, if the student needs large merit to afford, the student may be more likely to be an academic outlier at the top end if they get admitted with the large merit.
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OP has already said that club baseball isn’t in the cards. HOWEVER, I usually tell people that before you make that decision, go see the club baseball at a big D1 school or some of the schools you’re interested in. Big D1 club baseball is better than many D2/D3/NAIA schools.
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Club was a great option for S. He was invited to walk on for a D1, but he opted Club instead. Light practices, play/practice based on your schedule and priorities. If he had walked on, he’d be low man on depth chart. He was captain of Club his sophomore year, pitched, played SS and batted top of the order. Definitely not the same sense of team that D had with her varsity team at a NESCAC. Maybe OP shouldn’t discard this. It opens up honors programs or undergrad bschool at places like Michigan and Indiana or in-state flagship.
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Here’s a list you can cross reference baseball and majors. While you say Ohio, some W Pa schools like Allegheny are practically Ohio. There’s schools I don’t know like Alma and Augsburg to Lakeland and Simpson. Guessing many will have baseball and a major that fits.
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