I’m curious as to when recruited kids get admittance. We had a kid a few years ago who was #1 in the state in XC and was in to an Ivy by 9/1. Every other talented XC- and there have been dozens–may have gotten scholarships in D3; these are all safety/match schools.
Chances for top LACs (Swat, Williams, CMC/HM/Pomona) & RUs(Chicago, Penn, Princeton, UCs, Dartmouth)
@ilovebillyjoel Well, we’ll see - still have many more months to go before any decisions are made. Key point is whether or not Jr really wants to run in college at the Varsity level from freshman year vs starting as a walk-on or club runner, large vs. mid-sized school, geography, etc. I’ll ask S to post the results in the relevant thread. You mentioned “in to an Ivy” in Sept - do you mean signing a Letter of Intent?
The majors mentioned may not necessarily all exist at every school, and may be capacity limited at some schools. So careful checking of each school’s offerings in the majors and whether they are capacity limited needs to be done.
Also, run the net price calculator on each school’s website to see what is financially realistic.
As others have noted, this is an all reach list. He needs to find a safety that he likes (including being affordable and having the majors).
Track/XC reality: no one except a Michael Norman gets a full-ride for track. Expect maybe $10k/yr (from XC) if your son is top 10 at NXN or FLN unless your son also has the ability to score in multiple events on the track as well (then your kid might get $15k/yr). D3 schools (and the Ivies) don’t give athletic scholarships. Total track rides (which includes XC runners) is 12.9 for men – and that’s not per year, that’s total. Unlike revenue sports (football, basketball), track/XC coaches are allowed to split a single scholarship between many athletes – therefore, they do. Average runner boy (highly recruited) gets a quarter tuition ride. Walk-ons don’t exist at S, UCLA, USC, Cal. If your son hasn’t been contacted directly by the school’s coaches yet he is not being recruited. Most track/XC money is already spent on recruits by October.
Ivies don’t have “letters of intent.” They send “likely letters” to their top athletic recruits (but, only if you are in a revenue sport or they think they might not get you because you have a solid D1 offer elsewhere and you are capable of being admitted even without your sport “hook.”). Likely letters generally start being sent in October.
If an Ivy coach hasn’t asked your son to do EA, your son is not a favored recruit.
@“Reformed test prep guru” Thanks for the feedback - we’ve figured out that top 25 D1 schools are pretty much out of reach with the exception of a handful of walk-on opportunities. Looks likes S is starting to warm up to the idea of a top LAC. It’s going to be a busy fall!
My sons were both high academic achiever track/XC recruits from CA, and I ran on scholarship at a D1 back in the Stone Age. One son ran D1, the other chose a D3 over HPY because of a better academic fit (very specific major). Older son got EA at the D1 in December (after signing NLI), but he got his athletic offer in September. Younger son got EA also in December, but had LLs come in the first week of October from HPY.
The sad thing about track is that senior year times don’t count for anything in the recruiting process because the admissions process is closed out before outdoor season heats up. The only way to move up the recruiting ladder, for a senior distance runner is to have an incredible XC campaign. An excellent senior year on the track won’t change the monetary value of an offer because the scholarship money is already spent. However, there is no sit-out penalty for transfers, so if your son has a phenomenal senior season (and follows up with the same, or better, times as a frosh) he can possibly transfer to a different school, offering more running money, after freshman year and be immediately eligible.
@“Reformed test prep guru” Thanks for sharing - really valuable feedback. I recall the Stone Age as well - after a strong HS running career I wound up at a top 25 RU with a D3 program and spent my time at my fraternity enjoying intramurals ; ) It sounds like your kids are doing great so good for you and your family! Your point about the XC season is interesting - seems like most of the coaches are just interested in comparing track time due to the course and geography differences that can affect times in different parts of the country. After lots and lots of discussion it looks like S is leaning towards the D3 “student-athlete” model and is likely headed that route. Will be interesting to see if he winds up getting into some of his top-10 RU reach schools as well - wouldn’t be likely to run Varsity as a freshman so that may force some interesting decisions later this year/ early next year.
What is your son’s proposed major? Also, if you want to talk about this in a less public way, give me some way to contact you off CC. I know basically every coach worth training under (not that I can put in a word, just that I can help with finding the “better” fit if your son is more 800/1500, or more 3k-10k). I’m not comfortable discussing the coaches on a public forum. I ran with/against many of them.
As to XC, weather and terrain make XC times irrelevant from state to state, that’s why only NXN and FLN can really be used.
CA is super deep with distance/middle distance runners, but if you look at the top finishers in State track finals (800-3200) you find a ton of kids going to D3s. The money just isn’t there to even support the top 9 at D1s. Maybe it’s grades, but mostly it’s that D1 rides are scarce.
@“Reformed test prep guru” Tend to agree with you about the D1 vs. D3 talent and the #s of competitive runners. Even making it to the state meet level requires a different level of talent than in most much smaller states IMHO. There are also plenty of kids with D1 times that prefer the D3 student-athlete model vs. the athlete-student model of a larger D1 program. I think CC only allows direct PMs after the 15th post and this is my 15th post - would love to pick your brain about various options next week. S is completing his first official visit this weekend with 4 more to go in the next month. Will reach out via PM with contact info. Thanks again!
I’m also new to posting to (but not reading) CC. My boys are done with this whole college (and college running) thing. I felt obligated to make my first post after I saw some wildly erroneous, and bad, advice given to a student in a “chance me” thread that one of my friends alerted me to.
And the results are in! Accepted to UC Berkeley (Regents Scholar), UCSD (Regents Scholar), UCLA, Cal Poly Slo (Cal Poly Scholar), CSULB, Emory, RPI, Waitlisted at UChicago, Wash U St. Louis, Rose-Hulman, CO School of Mines. Will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall! The in-state tuition and Regents Scholarship was a winning combination!