not to drift too far off topic but, we are talking about essentially a club sport at a prestige university like Stanford… so, here goes… Kate Courtney is a talented and remarkably down to earth young woman I have had the pleasure to meet a few times over the last 3 or so years. Right now, she is one of the top female mountain bike racers in the world and is vying for a slot on the US Olympic team. She raced on the Cardinal club team as a freshman (national champ 2013) and sophomore national champ 2014.and she only rode a few races because of scheduling conflicts with her new sponsor Specialized. https://www.usacycling.org/2014/collegiate-mtb-nationals
a link to the 2013 and 2014 results.
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/kate-courtney-xc-mtb-next
and a link to a recent interview where she talks about what it takes and the compromises she’s made.
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2014/05/14/the-most-accomplished-stanford-athlete-youve-never-heard-of/
and one from the Stanford paper.
Because she competes at the level she does, Stanford makes room for her… Giving her lots of flexibility to pursue her goals of being an Olympic champion by racing in Europe on a Wednesday. They do the same for Katie Ledecky, another elite athlete in an individual sport currently at Stanford. I don’t think you’d find similar latitude at UNR or UC Davis. So, if your goal is to compete at the next level - choose a school that will work with you as your career gains momentum. If you just want to have fun - that’s not a consideration.