Need advice athletic scholarships & early admission college

[Homeschoolmom3]

My son is only 12yrs. old but is more like a 9th grader and is moving at a fast pace and it has become hard to hold him back with his academics. If he continues he could "finish" high school 2 or 3 years early. I have talked to some colleges about him taking courses early and they are ok with it but I have to worry about him and his athletics. He dreams of playing baseball in college and I am not sure of the NCAA requirements and if he could be eligible when he turns 18 yrs. old to play for a college if he has already finished 2-3 years worth? Would this work and does anyone have any experience? Also, when trying to play sports for a high school team would I try to have him play with the kids his own age like where he would be normally grade level if he wasn't ahead? Hope this all makes since. Need some advice and peace!!!! Thanks so much!

[regentrude]

I answered you in the high school forum, but will repost here:

 

What is the hurry in graduating him early? I would solve the problem by simply using college level materials for homeschooling his high school years, if he is doing high school level work in middle school.

[Homeschoolmom3]

Any recommendations? I hate to just spin our wheels and just have him "take courses" when he could be taking the same ones in college and getting college credit and not having to double the expense. Thanks!

[regentrude]

You have lots of options.

If he does AP, a good test score can give him college credit.

Check out CLEP. Check out dual enrollment.

He could also do college level work in subjects he is not going to take in college at all. And if he does college level work in English or history, for example, his college classes will almost certainly cover different books, different content.

In math, placement in college courses is by placement test. Repeating calculus at college after an initial exposure during high school at home is actually a good thing.

 

We have decided against strong acceleration; DD will only graduate one year early. We decided that we will use high school for her to simply learn more ;-)

We are using college level textbooks for sciences, TC lectures for humanities, and are getting to multivariable calculus and possibly differential equations in math.

[JennW in SoCal]

Any recommendations? I hate to just spin our wheels and just have him "take courses" when he could be taking the same ones in college and getting college credit and not having to double the expense. Thanks!

 

I have no experience with NCAA sports. However I do have experience with an advanced student of my own and have friends with exceptionally gifted children. I'm with Regentrude here -- what is the hurry for starting college? As a homeschooler you can simply go deeper into subjects of interest and take higher level math courses. It isn't spinning your wheels at all -- it is taking advantage of your unique homeschool situation, something which admissions committees are interested in seeing. It may be that your son winds up starting college at 18 as technically a sophomore due to AP or community college or other credit, but he can still start the full college experience at a more mature age.

 

My ds, for instance, finished the bulk of his last 2 years of high school at a local community college and while he is starting this fall as a freshman, at the age of 17, some of his coursework will transfer and he is starting at a higher, non-freshman, level in some subjects. He could have transfered to a state college and continued as a sophomore/junior, but he wanted the full college experience, especially the full academic experience of a challenging liberal arts college. The time he spent in unique internships in high school along with his top grades at the community college were important factors in getting nice merit awards.

 

If your ds is a talented athlete and gifted student, he too will be wooed by colleges and offered nice scholarships. I think it is worth it to stop thinking in terms of what grade level work he is doing and think about what will feed his mind, nurture his interests and develop his skills until he is NCAA eligible. He will be a far more interesting applicant and his college options will broaden.

 

Regentude's suggestions are spot on (as usual!). I agree whole heartedly with teaching company courses and college courses that simply look interesting. My ds took a year of economics first to satisfy a social studies requirement, then took the 2nd semester because he loved it.

[Donna]

I agree with the other posters on not hurrying. You may want to read up on NCAA rules because they are very specific. Why not do community college classes as a dual enrollment student doing high school with college classes. It is much less expensive that way anyway?

 

There is so much to learn in different subjects and so many subjects he might not get to or think of looking into if he heads straight to college early. I would really consider the pluses and minuses of each option.

[Parker Martin]

Coming at it another way, as someone who has family members who had athletic scholarships to big schools, I would suggest keeping a kid who might play college sports around as long as possible, focusing heavily on character training. If a kid plays college sports, his character will be tested tremendously. Tremendously. (If I write "tremendously" a third time, will that be too weird? :tongue_smilie:)

[tarahillmom]

First of all eligibility is based on four years to play while enrolled in college. If you don't start until you are in a master's program the NCAA doesn't care. That being said, your child's physical development is important in baseball. If he graduates early and starts university then where is he playing baseball until he turns 18? The scouts are at the high school games. It is highly competitive to get these spots. Scouts will also love that he is gifted academically.

 

As a parent of an accelerated child both in academics and athletics I understand your difficulty. The great thing is he has time to concentrate on baseball. Practice, strengthening, and everything else is a huge time consuming thing. So you maybe able to adjust course load when high school baseball takes over his life. Remember that academics will always be there, but the athletic opportunities will not. So if you do some of your math and science now this will enable your child to do the AP level classes and still do his sports.

 

My other piece of advise is to talk to the university your child wants to attend. If your child does a baseball camp through the university, talk to those people. They will tell you the ins and outs right now. The NCAA has very tight guidelines about recruiting and talking with potential recruits, but talking hypothetically now with a coach may give you the insight you need. I hope this helps.

[Dmmetler]

I'd check not only with college programs but also with whatever developmental programs he'd be participating in as a baseball player pre-college, both as far as how they determine eligibility (do they use grade, age-level, or both) and how scouting happens. For some sports, almost all of this is outside the school setting anyway and cut-offs or by age, so there's really no problem with being homeschooled-and you may find that they don't CARE what level of classes he's taking.

[Barbara H]

Not to be discouraging at all, but I would go into this process with your eyes wide open. Your child may be the next basketball superstar, but I'd look carefully at the odds of successfully playing Division one. Just statistically of kids at 12 who think they will make it, it is a pretty long shot, it would be even rarer for a student to be ready to play younger than a typical player.

 

As far as the NCAA, they can be very particular. As a general rule they do accept college courses as dual enrollment courses on the child's transcript if: 1. they meet regular high school core requirements. 2. The courses are taken for a grade rather than pass fail. If you are anticipating your child will have a large number of dual enrollment credits, I would encourage you to go ahead with making contact with the NCAA to try to get some individualized answers to your questions. There are certainly ways to stretch out high school without accumulating a large number of college credits. Go deep homeschooling subjects of interest, work with mentors, get involved in research projects, audit courses, volunteer, etc.