Academics are an incredibly important piece of the college baseball search. Your chances of on and off-field success skyrocket when you go to a program with an academic culture and the academic support to meet your needs. We discuss the importance of academic culture and support in KPB Podcast Episode 26 with Christine Ho, a learning specialist coordinator at UC Berkeley. We also recently finished updating an article series on college baseball academics. The article series takes a deep dive into the things a high school player can do during recruitment and at school to improve their chances of academic success in college. This article series has academic information that every high school ballplayer wanting to play in college should read and understand, and makes a special effort to provide relevant information for those with learning disabilities or challenges. If the holidays interrupted your normal reading of KPB articles or you simply didn’t read it, we wanted to give you one more chance to read the article series. Below, we link to each of the 4 articles and provide a short overview of the contents. Our suggestion would be to start with Part 1 and read them all in order, regardless of whether you have an EID or not. Academic planning is a big part of recruiting success, so make sure you include it as you search for your fit!
College Baseball Academics Part 1: An Overview
As with any introductory article, we provide a general overview of the common academic support services available to student-athletes and discuss a broad view of the academic side of playing baseball in college.
College Baseball Academics Part 2: The NCAA and Learning Disabilities Defined
In this article, we discuss the way the NCAA defines learning disabilities and other academic challenges (they use an umbrella term called “education-impacting disabilities” or “EID”) and begin to look at strategies for success if you have an EID.
College Baseball Academics Part 3: Navigating the Recruiting Process Successfully with an EID
In this article, we broaden the discussion of how EID’s affect recruits as they navigate the recruiting process. Specifically, we make suggestions for steps that recruits with EID’s should take to get the academic (and athletic) support they need to be successful once on campus. We also discuss the importance of sharing documentation with the appropriate disability services resource center.
College Baseball Academics Part 4: Effectively Transitioning to College and Having Academic Success with an EID
In the final installment, we discuss how collegiate-student athletes with EID’s can best take advantage of the academic support available to them on campus and make sure they are receiving the accommodations and support they need. This articles is all about how to succeed as a collegiate student-athlete with an education-impacting disability.
