Thank you all so much for the detailed responses. It’s really helpful to hear all of your experiences, especially those of you with kids who do track and/or xc. We’re still debating how best to handle this all, but your advice and experiences help a lot.
My daughter is an athlete at a D3 school (not an LAC) and just completed her freshman year as an engineering major. She could have done her sport at a lower level D1 or D2 school, but she really did not want the D1 type of commitment. More importantly, there wasn’t a good match for her among these D1/D2 schools (considering both academics and size). We were not eligible for financial aid, so we were chasing merit money.
She looked at a range of D3 schools. All good schools academically, only one I would consider “prestigious”. One of the schools seemed very serious about athletics, one was very light about athletics, most were in the middle. At most of the schools, the coaches always stressed the importance of academics. Their first question was “what classes are you planning to take senior year”. There was, in general, an appreciation for the fact that kids were there to get an education first.
At her school, she is booked for 20 hours a week of practice. There was no practice finals week. Afternoon practices are held in two sessions, so students have some flexibility as far as which session works for their schedule any given day. There were also 2 morning practices, and a Saturday practice unless there was a competition scheduled. Weight work is extra time and “voluntary”, and for most of the first semester, she could not fit it in on top of her heavy course load. She had some difficult weeks balancing everything, but ended up doing well. The season is long. Captain’s practices start towards the end of August, and the season ends mid-February. Next year, she will have a better idea of how to plan her classes with her season, or at least know what to expect.
The very big plus side for her is she had a built-in family from day 1. She can be shy, and tends to have a small circle of close friends. So, being part of a team was very helpful to her. The team is supportive of each other, not just in their sport but also academically. They seem to all be smart, hardworking students. She joined a sorority, participated in some community service events, and joined a professional organization. So, for her, it worked.
She would say she gains a lot from her sport. She likes the structure, and it seems those who are on her team are like-minded. She definitely sacrifices free time - I’m sure there are other things she would like to do that she can’t. On the flip side, she knows she can walk away at any time. Some only participate the first two years. She will do it until she doesn’t want to do it anymore.
Ask questions of the coach and do overnights if you can. Have fun and good luck with your search!
^^This description is very similar to my daughter’s life (different sport), except daughter plays D2 (also could have gone lower D1 or mid D3 -top D3 teams are very good and take just as much time as D1 or D2). The only difference is the weight room and conditioning is not optional, and there are not two practices to choose from (I like that option!). Daughter is also in engineering, also in a sorority, also in a professional fraternity.
If my daughter wasn’t on a team, she’d still work out 2 hours a day, although she’d do what she likes and not what the coach wants her to do. She also loves the structure of her day. Maybe it’s the engineer in them?
D played a team sport at a Patriot League school - LAC. There is never an off season, as mentioned up stream. D3 kids have basically a casual summer program and the sport season - the rest of the year is off (for her sport, at least). She loved her choice and D1, but know it is like having two full-time jobs. Off season was much harder - no games, morning and afternoon workouts most days, not allowed to join a sorority, no drinking 48 hours before a game or 24 hours before practice. The school and league emphasize academics but the coach really only gets paid to win. All the kids were very smart so the coach and support staff didn’t have to do anything extra to make sure they made high marks - they went up an over NCAA workout rules, while staying “legal.” Again, it was a particular grind in the off season. She chose this school over Ivy for the athletic scholarship. Like you, we did not qualify for need based aid and couldn’t swing $60,000 per - other kids to fund. She started as an engineering major but only lasted a semester (labs kill) - changed to math/econ. Her highest GPA was always during the season. She’s a structure freak as well.
Side note - D was fortunate to start every game for all 4 years. There were kids from each class that never played. The commitment of time, sweat, and opportunities lost seemed excruciating if you also never see the field…find a place you will play, run. Example: Her HS teammate went to ACC school as a HS All American and never played. I think she would have been happier at HYP playing all 4 years - but no money.
D3 does offer a better social, study, sport balance, but no athletic money. You’ll have to drop down for merit if that’s the right spot for her. Best of luck!
D is running for a smaller D1 university, at a private school that would be a stretch financially and is probably a little bit of a stretch for her academically. We hoped that Track would get her into a school that maybe she would not have otherwise and that was the case as her test scores were very average. If she could have improved a little further she could have gotten significant athletic scholarship $s into a couple of top 20 academic schools that would have never been a remote possibliity without T&F. So athletics can no doubt open some doors - maybe this is more likely at the D1 level but as others have reported also can impact admissions at other levels.
My D is a sprinter and hurdler and I am sometimes amazed at how little time Track takes of her week. She has daily workouts, weights, therapy, massage, etc but it doesn’t consume all her time. She still has too much time for a social life and studies have gone well for a “not so great” student. The distance runners on her team spend a fair amount more time geting in their workouts and runs, its just the nature of the sport. So distance running is more time comsuming. But she needs to be committed to running, being a college athlete isn’t a walk in the park.
T&F is interesting at the college level. You can show up at a meet (especially indoor) and have every range of schools there competing - from P5 schools to D2, D3, JuCo and NAIA schools all at the same meet. So any kid that has a chip on their shoulder about not being recruited by a certain school will probably get to compete against the athletes at the same school.
Good luck!
I agree with the playing time issue. My daughter went to a new program and I warned her that could mean losing a lot of games but would probably mean a smaller team and more playing time. I’ve been surprised that they are actually pretty good and have a winning record. She has started every game, and has played almost every minute of every game because the team just doesn’t have that many warm bodies (and a few of the players are just not that good).
She has a few friends who committed to top schools with highly ranked teams when they were just sophomores in high school. One played in 2 of 18 games this year, the other in 6 of 19. Not started, just played, probably not more than 5-10 minutes total. For the year. They are sophomores, and there are freshmen on those teams starting in and playing every game. That’s a lot of bench warming. These girls played on the state high school championship teams and won a lot of awards. I know one was an Academic All American.
Try to find the right academic and right athletic program. We very much appreciate the opportunity (and money) athletics gave my daughter. She loves her school, loves the team (most of the time), and is happy with her choice.
Great point lubbub – except for national meet qualifying stds. for the different divisions and conference meets, there is very little difference between the competition available at D1 vs. a D3 for track & xc. You will see schools from all divisions at the same meets and the clock/tape measure doesn’t care what school you are from.
Also in track it is very clear cut as to who the best performers are and most teams will take a smaller number to away meets. At my son’s school only top two in each event will ever fly to meets, even though the roster is 4-5 deep in some events. So in track, the difference is travel vs. playing time. If you look at the schedule of most schools you will see multiple events for each weekend and the squads are split by performance marks. Better performers go to bigger meets.
Good point about participating. My daughter wanted to be in the top half of her team so she knew she would be a contributor. She did not want to be struggling at the bottom. The point was to enjoy being part of a team and have a sense of satisfaction that the hard work resulted in scoring points for the team. Her season was challenging, but would have been more difficult if she didn’t feel like she was a significant contributor.
Her choice of school was based on the school itself, sport second. I reminded her often she is one injury away from never doing her sport again, so she better like the school.
I was just reminded of when daughter showed me her schedule for next year is to consider the travel schedule when figuring ‘time’. The first year I think my daughter had 5 travel trips where long days on a bus and an overnight were required. The schedule wasn’t good and I think they went 3 weekends in a row to places 10+ hours by bus, so were taking off on Fridays (missed classes), returning at midnight on Sat or on Sun. By the end of the season they were exhausted. This year the coach got a lot smarter and only one weekend trip, Thurs-Mon over Easter weekend, and they flew. All other games were either at home or in the conference, where the farthest school is 3 hours away.
Next year, one weekend trip again(two games), early in the season. All other games at home or 1 hour away! It makes a huge difference. Playing at home all the time is the benefit of going to school in Florida where the season can start in February. Come on down you schools from New Hampshire! Leave your boots and bring your swimsuits.
The schedule is not something the athlete can control, but you can get a good idea of how much travel is going to be involved by looking at past schedules. It doesn’t hurt that our coach has two toddlers at home so doesn’t want to travel either. Home sweet home.