My son ran a 20:42 for a 3 mile race in 2014. as a freshman and has improved significantly since then. He is a senior now. Last weekend he ran the same race and had a 15:31 and was 2nd in a field of 300. He has been making huge strides every year. He is starting to get noticed by a few college coaches. His GPA is 4.7 and 34 ACT. Is running in the Ivy League realistic? Is too late to get recruited?
No, it’s not too late as students are going in official visits now through at least November signing day and likely into winter. Key is to email, call coaches and complete recruiting questionnaires NOW!
That is a great time for your son. You said “scholarship” so just wanted to make sure you knew that Ivies only give need-based aid, but an athletic recruit is a huge admissions boost.
Ivies are Division 1 and some of their programs require very fast times so if a 15:31 isn’t quite up to their standards, there are many great colleges in Division III where that time might qualify as a recruit. U. Chicago, Amherst, Williams are all academically strong schools to look at if that time isn’t quite fast enough for an Ivy recruit. Your son should absolutely try the Ivies, but some of the Division 3 top colleges might also be in his sights.
Definitely agree on considering D3 as Carleton, Chicago, JHU and many of the NESCAC’s are great choices for top academics and athletics.
Update, ran 9-23 and ran a 15:13 on a fairly tough course. Thanks for all the advice, looking at D3 options with high academics.
@DiegoDad1, nice progress. The attached ustfccca National and Regional rankings will give you a good sense of the top xc schools in each division http://www.ustfccca.org/
Cross reference this with the top academic schools and a target list will start to come together fairly quickly.
Thank you! Very helpful!
Great improvement. What are his track times? That will be major factor in level of interest from coaches.
15:13 is a great time and will definitely interest coaches. However, I’m going to echo what @oldschooldad said–coaches will be looking for track times since it is very difficult to compare XC courses.
His track track times last year were okay, 9:40 for 3200 and 4:31 for 1600. His coach is telling him he will be running a 9:20 next Spring… That may too late to attract more coaches. He did receive am invite for an official visit from a small D1 school in the East. We are very excited about this development!
As you indicate, those track times won’t put him on top of recruiting pool but at least provide a baseline to measure his subsequent improvement. For example, if he ran those times on track last spring but is now finishing XC races ahead of kids who ran 4.20 and 9.20 that should get some attention.
Maybe also consider some smaller LACs with good running programs where the recruiting standards will be a bit easier but the academics will be just as strong as ivies and equivalents. At least one recent thread has touched on this.
Sounds like your son is having a great season. His strong academic numbers will surely help his options. Good luck!
@DiegoDad1, if it’s a Patriot League school or a Davidson or Richmond then definitely worth an OV as all great academic choices; otherwise I would focus on NESCAC and Centennial Conference for East Coast schools - BUT is starting to get late in the admission support process.
Assuming he doesn’t commit in the next month, I’d get him in the foot locker or nxr meet for your region. A high finish in either of those would get some interest, plus they’re good meets. (If you’re in CA, foot locker west is the only option). Of course, this is too late for admissions support at the schools you might be interested in. But if he ends up searching into the winter it’d be a good mark to have.
Just want to say that my S is still receiving many recruiting letters. He came home with 2 more just today. These are D3 schools. It is definitely not too late.
I volunteer annually at a Nike Regional XC event which is in mid/late Nov. and while head coaches are typically at the NCAA meets held on the same weekend, there are many team reps and asst. coaches from all divisions talking to athletes about their school and recruiting at the event. So it is definitely not too late in Oct.
And for track, while my S did not pursue any of the Ivy’s or NESCAC D1s, (they may operate on an earlier timeframe), he was not even contacted by the D1 he ended up attending until January. If they want you, coaches can get you admitted VERY late in senior year. There may not be any athletic money beyond books and fees at that point, but coaches are still recruiting for many D1 schools well into spring of senior year to try to get any non-committed late bloomers onto their roster.
First, congrats to your son. Great times and better yet really great GPA/scores.
You are not too late but definitely get moving now. My experience from my son last year was track tends to go late for most schools. Milesplit.com is really good for helping you understand the kids at the school and what they ran in high school. Also, many of the schools will have “recruiting” standards and “walk on” standards on their website. I took some of this research off the plate for my son; he came up with schools and I put the times in a spreadsheet for him. (Between XC and classes his workload last Fall with enormous.)
Have your son think through the D1 vs. D3 thing. The time commitment for D1 is significant. Your son needs to be sure he is good with that. Also, if scholarship dollars is important, Ivies only do need based aid.
My last piece of semi-unsolicited advice: make sure that he feels that if, God forbid, the running goes away, that he still likes the school. Don’t just solely pick based upon the team.
Good luck!
Thank you all for very helpful and useful information. He recently received an invitation for an official visit from a Patriot League university and a California D2 school. Both schools have high academic standards and have the Major he is interested in.
Hope it’s not Bucknell. They give 0 scholarships from what I understand.
But they do have a lot of need-based grants for XC runners, plus some academic scholarship money.
Need based aid has nothing to do with running and none of the Patriot League schools provide any merit scholarships - not certain about athletic scholarships for men’s XC or Track, but don’t think so.