High school athletes in general and baseball players are no exception, typically do not give themselves enough options. It rarely works out where you get to choose the exact school you would like to attend and then get a baseball scholarship to that school and you are all done with the process. Athletes tend to forget that their grades will play a huge roll in where they can go play! If you end up going to a Private School (which is most D2/D3 colleges), your academic scholarship will typically be worth a lot more than your athletic scholarship. Do not slack off in your early high school years because your overall GPA and your SAT/ACT test scores will play a huge factor in your options come your senior year heading into college. With this in mind, student-athletes need to make two list of schools: List A and List B
List A: is your school choices for baseball and academics combined.
List B: is your school choices for academics only.
By doing this, you will ensure that you can apply to a number of schools, get accepted and know that you have a college you would love to attend all taken care of in the winter of your senior year. This relieves a ton of stress and allows you to continue to pursue those schools on List A where you would like to play baseball. If you get a top school choice off List A...Great! You are getting everything you wanted in college with baseball and academics. However, if List A does not produce a fit from the baseball side of the process, then you have List B to fall back on. Many times player's dreams are to play at large D1 schools where they may not make it as a baseball player. In this case, smaller D2/D3/JC schools are great options to choose from. After you have done all your research, found out all your options and been accepted into several different schools, you can then make a wise decision that is best for your future as an athlete and a student.