<p>I've searched the threads, but can't find an answer to this question.</p>
<p>My son's only in his second season running and he's on the bubble as a DI recruit. Kind of depends on his junior year outdoor times. He's made huge progress in XC and is on track to be around 16:15 +/- 5K at year end NXN regional meet.</p>
<p>My question is, if he's not a bone fide recruit, will his athletic accomplishments give him an edge in better schools that have weaker DI programs (some of the 'lesser Ivys' with respect to track)? And/or DIII programs for excellent schools (I'm thinking Hopkins, Chicago, Carnegie Mellon, etc.)?</p>
<p>He's got great grades, ECs, etc. I think he could get into a very competitive school without his track. Just wondering that will a coach put in a word w/o extending a scholorship? </p>
<p>Heck, I don't even know if these schools extend scholorships. I know Ivy's don't have athletic scholorships and I don't know if a Hopkins even gives consideration, let alone scholorships, to athletes.</p>
<p>Pulliamjs, welcome to the forum. Coach support through admissions, whether it’s NLI (D1), Likely Letter (ivy), or slots(D3), seems to be a go/no-go thing. If the coach of that particular school feels you can successfully compete (score points) and have the grades to get in - you may get support. But, there really isn’t much meaningful support for the kid who is a great student but not quite there athletically.</p>
<p>But 16:15 is very good. XC times are a little tricky to evaluate objectively because of the differences in courses. If he’s going sub-9:50 3200m in outdoor, combined with great academics - I think JHU, Chicago and Carnegie Mellon would really like to hear from him. They are all D3, as you know, so no athletic scholarships. And each D3 school is different as far as athlete support. Some can give firm support in the form of slots, others just cross their fingers with admissions.</p>