<p>Could anyone please comment on the safety of the University of Chicago neighborhood? I've yet to visit the school.Amazingly their xc and track teams are pretty good.The school is world class,yet I've heard it's bordered on three sides by high crime areas,not conducive to enjoyable training runs.Honestly,how safe is the place for a girl distance runner? Thanks.</p>
<p>S was recruited by Chicago for running and admitted EA. He was VERY impressed by the coach and the program, but wound up at his ED school, Penn (another one without great neighborhoods for training). The Chicago coach was quite convincing that there were lots of places (besides the lakefront path) for safe training runs. The kids train together a lot, of course. Obviously, it isn't Williams, but the neighborhoods around UChicago have vastly improved since my days there (with the dinosaurs as training partners). If your D is really interested, she should contact some current female runners and talk to them about this.</p>
<p>Agree with MomofWildChild - Talk to girls and coaches and take a visit there if you really get serious. I remember running from Penn campus to Fairmount Park during a grad school course I took there and it was nice once you got to the park - I'm sure they have this stuff figured out at UC. UC is a great school and they have good teams for DIII. My D visited both Providence and Portland and one reason she was more interested in the latter was simply the setting of the campus - She did an 8 mile run with some team members and just enjoyed the setting. My D, though, will probably end up at Willamette as the combination of good DIII school, very good track program, and really getting along with the girls during an overnight will be hard to beat. We have looked at a lot of schools, but it seems like sooner or later, there is one that just feels right. Where to run is one consideration, but it is probably a lot easier to figure out when you are on the team than just running as an individual.</p>
<p>My son's former girlfriend ran track for Penn all four years. She was the team's captain in her senior year and qualified for the NCAA regional championship. She worked hard in both track and academics, earning Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year and was a Rhodes Scholar finalist. She is attending Harvard Medical School now. In her case, it is possible to have plenty of time to devote to academics and her sports as well.</p>
<p>Since this thread was started by Alumother, Ashley Higginson, one of New Jersey's top runners will be attending Princeton. I guess that means she must have a "likely letter" from Princeton since they don't sign letters of intent. </p>
<p>
[quote]
...Colts Neck's Ashley Higginson will attend Princeton University.</p>
<p>....Higginson, who also contemplated Villanova, Georgetown and Duke, did not sign a National Letter of Intent because Ivy League schools do not award athletic scholarships.</p>
<p>Her interest in the Tigers began when she attended cross country camps at Princeton. Of course, the fact that she can go away to school but not too far away doesn't hurt either.</p>
<p>"It's going to be nice to be close to home and run a lot of meets near home," Higginson said. "Academically, Princeton is amazing, but right now I'm just glad I decided and I can get back to focusing on running."</p>
<p>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I hope Miss Ashley has it in a firm writing from Admissions! I know of several Princeton running recruits in the last few years who did NOT get admitted even though they thought they were in for sure!</p>
<p>To echo MOWC, I know of a boy who was recruited to cox crew at both H and P and did NOT get admitted.</p>
<p>A 4:12 mile will be a significant admissions help virtually anywhere. Title IX, the lack of popularity of the sport, and the influx of foreign athletes have made the scholarship field limited, and while a 4:12 mile will get you a scholarship somewhere, I have made my views fairly clear on the negatives of athletic scholarships and would advise approaching university as any other student - that is - refrain from the scholarship route. This is difficult given the financial pressures but there is only one time to build human capital like there is in college and I would not recommend the pressures of sport detract from that. Keep in mind that our two gold medal winners in the marathon - Shorter and Benoit - went to Yale and Bowdoin (although Joan did go to NC State and then transferred), respectively, and the avoidance of the three season, churn you into the ground Division 1 experience to my mind had something to do with this. Men mature from a running perspective later than females - and typically only start to gain strength (from a runner's perspective about age 20). You will likely know if you can or want to make running a career, so to speak, at that time (Todd Williams, a 4:12 miler in high school, and one of our few sub 28 minute 10k runners, figured it out about then). But focus on academics first.</p>
<p>Well, nothing on this thread in a long time. Just thought I'd share my daughter chose Wheaton College in Norton, MA - very good academics, very high quality track program, and throw in $12.5K in merit aid and it turned out to be a pretty good deal. When it came down to it, I think she just liked the small school atmosphere and doesn't want the pressure of having to run Division I and maybe be a marginal runner.</p>
<p>Ahh, I love this thread.</p>
<p>I hope your daughter has a great career at Wheaton. The women's XC coach was my high school track coach and the mother of one of my best girl friend's (who ended up going to Georgetown). Her son ran 9:10.xx in the mile this year at Nike Indoor Nationals (finished 4th, I believe), and he's going to Virginia next year. She's really doing an excellent job with that program and they're quite competitive on the DIII level.</p>
<p>EDIT: Oops, maybe not. I just checked the Wheaton website and it appears that Paul Carr and Kim Spence are the XC coaches now. Kim was one of our assistants in high school also, and she seemed to really know her stuff even though she was quite young.</p>
<p>Hey, E, welcome back! Congrats on the Wheaton selection, corunnerdad. Let us know how things go there. My Ivy runner son continues to be injured (knee surgery this Friday) and is considering transferring colleges- perhaps to a DIII program.</p>
<p>MOW -- Will he conisider a NESCAC school? My S has been very happy running DIII and is feeling that he made the right choice to not attempt DI.</p>
<p>Hi guys! The girl I started this thread about, my best friend's daughter, has continued her prowess in track. She is doing extremely well in the hurdles here in CA. So, as the people here have told me, I advised my friend to have her D contact coaches, as she is now in the second half of her junior year in college. So far, everyone she has emailed has responded immediately saying they are very interested in her times. They have also said they can't talk to her until next year....</p>
<p>She is also a straight A, all honors student. SATs may very well be lower than the grades would indicate - say 650s etc. So it will be very interesting to me, who never had an athlete like this in my house, to see how this works out. Frankly, I just want to help her wind up some place where she is happy.</p>
<p>In any case, I've also told her mother to let her know that even this level of interest may well mean less than it seems to.</p>
<p>Just checking in to the track crew with an update:)</p>
<p>So another update.</p>
<p>As I said she sent out notes to coaches and has gotten a lot of responses. Top Ivies are talking to her. She has been invited to a recruiting weekend of some sort put on by one of them. Does this mean she is officially "being recruited"?</p>
<p>Also she will take the SATI for the first time in October. Does this complicate things? Her SATIIs are coming in with 2 low 700s and 1 high 600s. Her grades have remained absolutely straight A's, hardest courses.</p>
<p>I think this is a girl who could do really well as an athlete at a top academic school, so, just relying on the great minds of this board to help her out...</p>
<p>If they have made phone calls to her home after 1 July, she is being officially recruited. When is she doing her official visits in the fall?</p>
<p>Anecdotal: All from the same hs, 3 rising sr females, will graduate in '08. One is an nationally ranked swimmer in breast stroke, the two others did very well at state level hs competitions in track/xc and diving.</p>
<p>The calls so far: Swimmer, calls from Stanford to Harvard to UVa and every good swimming program in the country. SHE is axing the Ivies but is keeping Stanford and UVa. She is an amazing swimmer and the loveliest young lady. We are all hoping she will succeed in the next Olympic Trials.</p>
<p>Runner: calls from Tennessee, Harvard. Both parents are Crimson Alums. Smart cookie-type girl No visit offers yet.</p>
<p>Diver: In national meets, top 10 state diver, NO calls at all! Mom says there is another big nat'l meet coming up at the end of July so coaches are holding off until then. For her sake, I hope she's right!</p>
<p>Alum, I know an athlete who wa recruited by a couple of Ivies. One coach told her she had the SATs and GPA to get into HYP--so the coach didn't trust that she would stay on the team if offered admission. In other words, a low SAT may be a twisted benefit. OTOH, the athletes that I know that have been recruited by Ivies were NMF and SFs caliber.</p>
<p>Another Ivy flew her to the school in Late September with an offer of admission on the table.</p>
<p>During her visit, she discovered that she would:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Not be allowed to attend orientation</p></li>
<li><p>Would be forced to live and associate with teammates to the exclusion of other classmates. Live, eat, breathe the sport. That's the mantra.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Despite great pressure from friends and high school admin, she chose another school where she will play intramural sport. Tell your friend to do her homework!</p>
<p>The best deal i've heard of was from Stanford--a full FIVE year scholarship--which gives the athlete a year to soak up the true college experience without the sport. That's very fair--and a good thing to put inot the bargaining mix.</p>
<p>I wasn't going to post since this is off the original topic a bit, but I just noticed the date (last year!) so hope no one minds-- a question for you track parents-</p>
<p>S. was not recruited but has times good enough to make his school's Div. III team (800 and mile). Says to be competitive, he should also run cross country. Three seasons of running sounds like a lot to take on freshman year. Do you find that kids generally handle it OK?</p>
<p>Hardly any freshmen compete in the full three seasons. Most (I'm willing to bet 90% of all freshmen) redshirt at LEAST one season. </p>
<p>Then again, I don't know how DIII works, but at the biggest schools you rarely see freshmen competing in XC, Indoor, and Outdoor track.</p>
<p>Don't know if all the XC runners compete in the meets, but they are on the team and train together. I don't know what redshirt means. Do 800 and 1600m runners often run XC too?</p>
<p>Oooh. I feel like I know a movie star:). This is really exciting. I have told her mom everything I have read here, so they know calls don't mean admission etc. but it's still pretty exciting. I don't know when her visit is, fall is all her mom told me. I have known this girl since she was 18 months old and she and my son have been best friends as of their first meeting. They used to sit in the back of my car when they were still little bitties and talk about dinosaurs. Aw.</p>