<p>My daughter will be running cross country and track for MIT next year as part of the class of 2013. MIT was her first choice both academically and for running, which she really wanted to continue in college.</p>
<p>She filled out the recruiting form in May of her Junior Year and got a call from the MIT coach in September. He was very interested in her because of her great SATs and GPA as well as her running PRs. He called her almost weekly over the fall. He put together a ranked list of ten female track athletes and gave it to the admissions department. That was all that he could do. Academic standards are not lowered for athletes. I know of someone ranked nationally as a runner who will probably go to Princeton for the class of 2014 and will probably be accepted with slightly lower SAT scores, class rank and GPA (because the coach told him so). Most of the Ivies will do that, but not MIT.</p>
<p>Since MIT was my daugher’s first choice, she applied early action and was offered admission. The coach called her that night and told her that 4 of the top 5 got in early. He didn’t think that the person who didn’t get in would get in during regular decision because her other credentials weren’t high enough.</p>
<p>I believe that running is what got my daughter accepted to MIT. Since many of the students who apply have great SAT, SAT II, GPAs and class rank, something must be used as the “tie breaker” . MIT says that they are building a class rather than putting a bunch of individuals together. Being exceptional at anything MIT needs will probably get you in, but being an athlete could help more only because there are so many teams to fill. There are only so many orchestra positions, but many, many athletic positions.</p>
<p>The Amherst coach told my daughter that if she wanted to go there that she was “in”. One of the students told her that he had 2 positions that he could fill and it appears that she could have taken one of them.</p>
<p>Great post! Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>AMWMIT79, Would you mind giving me a sense of your daughter’s times? I also run track and cross country and am also considering applying to MIT. I’m curious as to what range of times the coach would find interesting. The best data point for me would be a 5k time, but any longer distance time (including, say, 1600m) would also be useful.</p>
<p>Are you male or female? </p>
<p>My daughter never ran a 5K on a track, but did 18:43 on the California State Cross Country 5K Course. Her PRs in Track were 5:12 for 1600 and 11:16 for 3200. I think that the kids coming in range from 18:37 to 19:43 for a Cross Country 5K and up to 5:25 for 1600.</p>
<p>Good times from guys are probably 4:30ish for 1600, 9:40ish for 3200, and around 15:45-16:00 for a XC 5K. </p>
<p>Remember this is not Division I. Also, the best way to find out if the coach is interested is to fill out the recruiting form or email him.</p>
<p>AMW, Thanks so much for your response. I’m female, and it looks like I’m going to have to emphasize another angle. 
I’m pretty new to distance running (played soccer most of my life and then ran some shorter events in track), but my best (and only) cross country 5k time (w/ moderate-ish hills) was 19:52 and my best 1600m time (in a couple of attempts) was 5:41. I have been training a lot recently, so maybe I’ll do better in the upcoming season, but based on my conversations with girls who have been running XC a lot longer than I have, most seem to plateau pretty quickly in the activity.</p>
<p>You people and your amazing cross-country times. >_<</p>
<p>(I was a cross-country runner all four years of high school (and did 5K road races for two and a half years before that), generally considered the hardest worker on the team, and I would have KILLED for STMoore’s times, to say nothing of those of AMWMIT79’s daughter.)</p>
<p>For MIT admissions purposes, think of being good enough at a varsity sport to be “recruited” as a GOOD extracurricular. It is not a special category, a class of its own. But it’s the sort of high-quality icing on the cake that can make the difference if admissions officers are trying to choose one to admit from a group of several.</p>
<p>For those who aren’t quite at that level, keep in mind that in addition to the fact that you can join many varsity teams without ever having done the sport before, there are tons of club sports (some of which are tops in their own right, like Sport Tae Kwon Do, which is a national powerhouse despite being “only” a club sport) and intramural sports. MIT sports culture is very, very participatory. I highly recommend participating in a sport of some sort as an undergrad, at least for a while.</p>
<p>You should contact the coach because those times are very good for someone who just started running. Running is something that is built up slowly. With the right training you could probably be very good.</p>
<p>monstor only feels that way since he aspires to be recruited…</p>