I am a senior in HS this year. My overall unweighted GPA is 3.63, and weighted is 3.87. So throughout my high school I’ve pretty much maintained a 3.8GPA unweighted each semester with some honors/AP classes. However, during my first semester of my junior year I had a hiccup, and took AP physics which was too tough, and I got a D in that’s as well as a D in ap calc. I ended up dropping Ap physics, but got a B+ in Calc my second semester. My school is pretty competitive. I’ve gotten A’s in 80% of my other classes with occasional B’s. I also just got a 35 on the ACT. I play a sport at a high level, potentially being a walk on/lower level recruit.
Will those D’s affect my admissions chances?
Note:I might go to D3 or lower level D1 to play a sport, so obviously the academic standards might be slightly lower for me, but even with playing a sport at a college, those D’s might harm me for more selective colleges academically.
D grades do not look good… however, NCAA Division 1 schools vary all over the place in admission selectivity, from Harvard to Mississippi State. So it depends on what schools you are targeting.
First off, an unweighted 3.63 GPA is not low. It may be low for the most rejective schools in the U.S., but it would grant you an acceptance at the vast majority of the universities in the U.S. The fact that you’ve maintained that GPA while being an athlete with the potential to be recruited or walk-on to a college sport shows how much time management you had to do, and a 35 ACT shows that you’re extremely capable academically.
Is your sport a fall sport or a spring sport? I do not know much about college recruiting, but if you haven’t been contacted by coaches you should reach out to them as soon as possible to gauge their interest in continuing the conversation. If you do end up getting a coach’s support for admission (and at some of the most selective/rejective colleges, coaches may only get a couple of students they can throw their support to), then that is a huge boost to your chances of admission at most schools. If you have more questions about the recruiting process, I would ask over in Athletic Recruits - College Confidential Forums.
What schools are you considering, or do you need help developing a list? If so, ask your family what the budget is without anybody (parents or you) taking out loans. Then what is it that you’re interested in for your college experience? Size? School culture? Areas of the country? Urban/suburban/rural? Any dealbreakers? Any must-haves?
It’s XC/Track. So it’s both fall and spring. I am fast enough for D3’s and lower D1’s. However with my 2 D’s, D3 schools such as Emory, NYU, Tufts will be tougher to get in. Of course if I improve even more it could make the coach’s there push the admissions. I also might apply to D1’s such as Rice, Georgetown, etc with the hopes of getting faster by late winter in track and being a walk on with the coach pushing the admissions; but again my two D’s aren’t good.
All the schools you’re mentioning are reaches for almost everybody, simply because there are far more highly-qualified applicants than there are spots. When combined with the Ds on your report card, your likeliest way in will be as a recruit. As I said, athletic recruiting is not my area of expertise, but I don’t believe that walk-ons get coach support with the admissions office. Walk-ons get into the university on their other merits (with their sport as an EC…not as a reason for admittance). You need to reach out to the coaches to 1) see if they’re interested, and 2) get a pre-read done from the admissions office. Many coaches may do a pre-pre-read (i.e. they might be able to tell by looking at your transcript and scores if you have a chance of getting an approval in pre-reads). But I’m pretty sure time is of the essence for anything related to athletic recruiting, because most athletic recruits are told to apply ED to the school, I believe.
If you are unable to be recruited to a college’s track/xc teams, what are your plans? It’s fine to have reaches on your list (i.e. all the schools you just named), but you need to have a balanced list, including schools where you are extremely likely to be admitted, that your family can afford, and that you would be happy to attend. Barring getting a coach’s support, your odds are probably less than the overall admissions rates to the colleges you listed because there will be students with higher GPAs, similar ACT scores, who were also varsity athletes who will also not get an acceptance letter.
Shoot your shot, but make sure you have schools where you are much more likely to be accepted. If you need help thinking of any, let us know.
If you are male, you might try a school such as Vassar, at which the enhanced prospects for admission for males and athletes will both work in your favor.
Another approach may be to apply to schools at which talent/ability is marked as very important on the respective Common Data Sets, such as, say, Bowdoin.
Generally highly selective schools at which students from the top 10% of their high school classes do not compose the overwhelming majority of the student body also may represent better prospects for you (e.g., Claremont McKenna, at 61%; Bates, at 62%; and Wesleyan, at 76%).
A stats-aware school such as, for example, Boston College may accept you based on your ACT score.
Or simply include some moderately selective schools on your list, such as Richmond, Trinity (CT), Denison, Connecticut College, St. Lawrence and George Washington.
I’m not an athletic expert, but if you’re a Senior, I’d assume you’d already have been recruited.
Unless you’re in a highly rated HS that outkicks its coverage - and your guidance counselor will know that - you’re unlikely for the schools you mention - even if the D was a B.
Sure - you can apply and try but you need to have a list of matches and targets and you have neither.
So if you have Emory, maybe you have U Miami (also a reach) or an Elon (match) or U Tampa (low target/safety). NYU - maybe you have a College of Charleston or VCU. Tufts - maybe you have Syracuse, Quinnipiac, American, Denver, etc.
You need to focus on your future. You are focused on the dream, but not the reality. Add some reality - and you’ll be fine.
I personally don’t see a chance at a top tier LAC - but perhaps a school like a Wooster, Depauw or as a reach a Bucknell or Franklin & Marshall type school. But you need a safety.
The ACT is great but at most schools will not compensate for the grades which as @AustenNut says aren’t bad but are not top shelf material.
I don’t think they’re necessarily disqualifiers but your best bet is to get in touch with the coaches and discuss it with them.
Your chances are better as an athletic recruit with a coach supporting you through admissions. So starting those discussions asap is a good idea.
You’ve probably missed the prime recruiting window at schools like nescac, Ivies, etc., but there will still be coaches recruiting for track/XC into the winter and spring.
Whether a school like Georgetown is realistic athletically—even as a walk-on—depends on your PBs.
And if your discussions with coaches don’t lead anywhere even after casting a wide net, then you’ll know that applying without coach support is the likely path. That might mean applying widely and being open to walking on a D3 or less competitive D1 team. Don’t ignore D2 as there are good academic and running opportunities at that level. Club running at larger schools can be great too.
Looking at this, my first thought is that you need to think about what universities are a good fit for you from an academic point of view. The higher ranked universities tend to be be academically more demanding.
As others have mentioned, a 3.63 GPA is quite good. There should be many universities that would be a good fit. I am not sure that this makes me immediately think of NYU, Tufts, or Rice.
I also wonder about your budget, but largely because budget is often a major issue for students looking at universities.
What state are you from? Do you have in-state public universities that seem like a good fit for you? Do you have safeties already in mind?
You haven’t shared any additional information on what you want out of your college experience apart from your second post. But based off the schools you listed, I have brainstormed a list of schools that you might be interested in and how I would probably categorize them for you, assuming you do not get a coach’s support to attend. Also, this list does not take budget into account which is a HUGE factor. There are schools on this list for which I think you’d receive good merit and other schools where no merit aid is offered at all. Many families cannot pay what colleges think that families should contribute. Your family will need to run the Net Price Calculators at each school to make sure any school you consider will be affordable for your family.
Have you met with any of the coaches at the schools you are interested in submitting an application? You might want to schedule a few phone conversations and see where you will land athletically in their program. Also, are you competitive in several events?
How will you explain your D grades?
Given the last couple of years; and the struggles most students encountered, if you can articulate what happened and the steps taken to fix the issues they might overlook a couple of low grades.
If you submit an electronic recruiting form, follow up immediately with an email to the coach. You should include the progran director, head cross country coach, assistant cross country coach, and recruiting coordinator (some of these titles will overlap, or not exist). Coaches tend to check email regularly, but dont seem to pay much attention to the recruiting forms. In the email, tell them you submitted the form to the website, let them know your graduation year, grades, scores and track times. The email should have a request for an action item–most likely you want some contact with a coach to see how you fit with their recruiting needs.
You are a late to the game for many programs, but there are still fits out there for you.
Many programs will ignore you or tell you that you arent fast enough or they have their spots filled for the year. Dont let that get you down, just move on to the next program.
The good news is that you are in a sport that most schools have, and also one that tends to recruit late. The bad news is that it is already late.
The recruiting forms are fine, but I think putting together an email and athletic resume needs done, ASAP. Send that to the coaches at any school you would consider. Try to personalize the email a bit, so it isn’t obviously a blanket email. Don’t send the email to “coach” send it to “Coach Smith”, or whatever. CC the assistants, you don’t know how they divide up duties so that way your email is more likely to find its way to the right person.
Do a bit of searching on here, lots of advice for the email and resume. But primarily time is your enemy, don’t take a month to get it perfect.
Hopefully some cross country parents can chime in. All sports are slightly different. Usually you would need video, but for running I don’t know if it’s as important. Again it could be, I don’t know.
Not to be a jerk, but I don’t think you are getting in to places like Rice and walking on. I’m not sure if a coach could even get you in with a couple D’s, I’m almost positive you won’t get in on your own. For schools where you will get coach help you probably need to back down a tier, for schools you are applying without help you probably need to scale down quite a bit.
I thought track recruited late, so your timing might still be ok.
I have a few random thoughts:
-only a coach can tell you what your chances are at their school, and many schools do prereads, so you can get a little more certainty that way
-if you are a walk on by definition you don’t have coach support, so aim for schools where you would make the team.
-I have little doubt that you’ll be able to handle college work at virtually any school (MIT excepted, but at the Ivy League and the like you’dbe fine).
-d1 and d3 aren’t interchangeable. If you are aiming for a selective school, go d3, and where your times would make you one of the fastest on the team. That’s how to leverage recruiting so that it makes a difference.
Good luck! It’s a tough process, but one with a potential big payoff at the end. Reach out now to coaches where you think you’d have an impact.
Video is not needed at all for track and XC. Coaches just want to see FAT track times, unless you have strong XC performances in big invitational meets or state meets.
The timing is late. The biggest thing that coaches at most selective schools can offer is admissions help, but the amount of help a coach can get from admissions will always be limited in some manner. Coaches who can offer admission slots have a small number, and want to use them all for early admission applicants, if possible. That means most of the offers have gone out, or will go out to recruits already scheduled for visits.
Coaches in TF/XC can offer some form of admissions help (often distinguished on CC as slots or tips), scholarship money, roster slots, or tryouts. Most DI men’s programs have hard roster size limits (to comply with title 9) and limited scholarship money. DIII programs are often more flexible in roster size, but of course have no money. All of the coaches will want to bring in the best class of recruits they can with their available resources, so they think carefully about how much they can offer any given recruit. Your job is to find the program that gives you the best fit for your combination of times, grades and financial need, with the added constraint that many programs have already identified their class of 2023 recruits.
I do think that two Ds are going to be a barrier at many schools, whether for coach support as a recruited athlete or thru admissions as a regular (not recruited athlete) applicant.
Do you have at least one affordable safety school on your list?
Have you spoken with any coaches? If so, what has their feedback been on your transcript?
Track and cross country are everywhere so you’re going to need some more criteria to narrow your choices. Walking on at a meh D1 or going to a good D3 program still leaves you with a million choices, so start narrowing: what do you want to study? where do you want to study and run? Big or small, urban or rural, religious or public, and a host of other factors. There are some amazing D3 programs, so don’t assume that the quality will be bad just because there aren’t scholarships like D1 or D2. Maybe check out the national rankings and some conference meet results to see where you fit and see some school names you haven’t thought of.
One thing to think about is how much you want to compete. That is, if you don’t make it as a walk-on will you miss the sport? If you are down the depth chart and will never improve enough to be good do you still want to go through the work? Or would you prefer a lesser program where you are a big horse and people count on you? It’s a personal preference, but be sure you’re comfortable with the answer. I was a pretty average 400m guy in D3, but I liked the team aspect, I liked running as fast as I could, we threw some great parties and I still stay in touch with some of the guys. Know why you run so you know how to maximize your experience, or how much you’d like that school if your sport doesn’t work out.
But the biggest consideration is money. No matter what your parents might hint at they need to look into things a bit and then have a black and white discussion with you about resources. If you go to all the work of learning about a school and establishing a rapport with a coach and then your parents get hit with the sticker shock and nix it it’ll be a big downer. (Track and XC are not lucrative scholarships sports in D1, just 12.6/18 to split across the entire men’s/women’s T&F and XC rosters, and D3 has none whatsoever.) So get a ballpark figure from them, maybe pick a couple schools out and have them run the NPC to see what the costs are, and go from there.