Parents expecting me to obtain a full track scholarship

You will not get a full ride for track, I promise you that. Unless you are a foreign athlete, you do not get full rides.

How much have you saved?

I have saved about $8000 from summer and winter jobs. I hope to bring that closer to $12000 with graduation party bonuses.

hs kid wrote:

Here are my PRs:

800 1:56

1600 4:22

3200 9:37

They've seen me win a few local races but think the B1G universities I am interested in attending for academic reasons should be awarding me a full scholarship. Neither one of them went to college themselves and if I don't get a scholarship they expect me to work 40-hrs per week while in school to cover my tuition and room & board because they didn't save a dime for my college education and "know plenty of people who financed their own educations". Per what they reported to FAFSA, their combined incomes are $93,000 annually. I have only gotten one B+ in high school and the rest A's. ACT score was 32.

Discuss.

Those times are not bad but probably unlikely to invite a scholarship offer. Your grades are not too bad, either. Keep working hard and improving.

Perhaps you should consider QuestBridge (though your parents' income may be too high) or any other similar agency:

NikeSucks wrote:

You will not get a full ride for track, I promise you that. Unless you are a foreign athlete, you do not get full rides.

This is what I said to them and I don't know if I am physically talented enough to obtain a full scholarship. I know a 1:52/4:10 guy from HS who is only on a 50% scholarship. My parents don't understand the way it works at all.

It really depends on whether you are willing to go to a college that probably isn't as prestigious as the ones you are looking at. I had a former teammate who was offered a full ride if he broke 16:30 in xc from a small private college, which is decent but not highly selective. He didn't end up breaking 16:30 but still got a decent scholarship off of about 17 flat. Another teammate is on a full ride for running a 15:20 xc at a lower-tier d1 school. But from some of the schools I'd assume you're looking at, you might not get a dime. Show them the walk-on/scholarship times from the schools you're looking at, they'll probably get the message. A lot of schools provide them on their t&f websites.

I'd recommend either D2 or NAIA if you want to run but even then you'll be lucky to get 50% athletic but with the 32 ACT you'll end up with a nice package. Good luck!

delusional folks wrote:

I'd recommend either D2 or NAIA if you want to run but even then you'll be lucky to get 50% athletic but with the 32 ACT you'll end up with a nice package. Good luck!

Pretty much this. D2/NAIA will more than likely get you out of school with the least debt. If there's an in-state D1 school you really want to go to, the costs there probably aren't too bad and you could likely pull some academic scholarship money. Do you know what you want to study?

hs kid wrote:

Here are my PRs:

800 1:56

1600 4:22

3200 9:37

They've seen me win a few local races but think the B1G universities I am interested in attending for academic reasons should be awarding me a full scholarship. Neither one of them went to college themselves and if I don't get a scholarship they expect me to work 40-hrs per week while in school to cover my tuition and room & board because they didn't save a dime for my college education and "know plenty of people who financed their own educations". Per what they reported to FAFSA, their combined incomes are $93,000 annually. I have only gotten one B+ in high school and the rest A's. ACT score was 32.

Discuss.

Even if you improve by a lot this spring, completely forget about a full ride. Unless you are one of those few athletes blue chips athletes who can score points in multiple events as a freshman; colleges simply don't give out too many full rides anymore. With that said, your grades ACT score will be attractive to a lot of schools and might be good enough to get you some academic scholarship money. If you can get down to 1:54/4:18 combined with your academics, should get you a half ride at perhaps a mid-major.

Ok, first the bad news. As a couple others have said, forget about a full ride. Just not going to happen. Too few of them in track to begin with, and your times simply aren't at that level. The sooner you can get this through to your parents, the better off you will all be.

Now the good news, and there's plenty of it.

Your academics are excellent. Make sure you keep them that way.

You can justify some need. Your parents make decent money, but they're very clearly not rich. An annual income in the 90s ain't what it used to be.

And while your times aren't going to get you a feature story on milesplit, you are certainly a better than average competitive runner. Hopefully you haven't already been heavily trained and there's still plenty of room for growth.

So how to proceed from here:

You absolutely must cast a much wider net in your search process. I'm not saying a Big Ten school is out of the question, but honestly it's going to be tough. As has already been said, look at some D2 and NAIA schools. But that's not all. With your academics as well as your times, you should be looking at D3 schools. Tons of great colleges, many with great or good running programs, and many with more academic and need based money than they know what to do with. Another group of schools you should look at is the Ivy League. Your times are a better fit for several of them, and again, tons of academic and need based aid.

You can go to college, get a great education, run on a team in a meaningful way, and make it work financially. But you have to widen your scope dramatically. And you have a lot of work and research to get going on asap. Best of luck!

hs kid wrote:

Here are my PRs:

I have only gotten one B+ in high school and the rest A's. ACT score was 32.

Discuss.

Check out this website. With your grades and ACT you can get full tuition plus at some schools and a far amount at others.

va coach wrote:

You can go to college, get a great education, run on a team in a meaningful way, and make it work financially. But you have to widen your scope dramatically. And you have a lot of work and research to get going on asap. Best of luck!

I agree with everything posted. You are going to have to teach your parents how it works.

And, most of all, DO NOT get into meaningful debt going to college. If you leave with a degree and $10,000 in debt, then you are way ahead of most.

Cast your net wide and you can obtain it

Your ACT alone can get you an academic scholarship at a fair number of schools, not at the level of B1G schools, but still decent schools.

Take a look at VCU, not a very good team but your ACT would get you good money and your times would cover the rest most likely.

At U of Alabama, a 32 will get you full tuition, assuming you're out of state. They have a weak XC/track program, so you could probably get a little bit of money there if you sneak under 4:20.

CollegeSearch wrote:

Your ACT alone can get you an academic scholarship at a fair number of schools, not at the level of B1G schools, but still decent schools.

Take a look at VCU, not a very good team but your ACT would get you good money and your times would cover the rest most likely.

At U of Alabama, a 32 will get you full tuition, assuming you're out of state. They have a weak XC/track program, so you could probably get a little bit of money there if you sneak under 4:20.

Universities give out orders of magnitude more money in academic scholarships than in athletic scholarships. For a good student with good test scores, you will get way more for academics than athletics even if you're one of the best runners in the country.

Go on a school's website and use their financial aid calculator (they all have this) to get an estimate of what it might actually cost you. Visit the school, talk to the track coach, even if they're not actively going after you.

The big score of an athletic scholarship is more about bragging rights than about actual dollars. The actual dollars come through academic scholarships and financial aid, which are mixed together in a package.

Don't rule any school out until you actually sit down with their financial people and figure out what it will actually cost you. I'd bet you'll be surprised at how much you'll get.

Hey hs kid. Nice range and grades! Keep it up.

I was a mediocre student and runner but walked on at a private school D1 program. Eventually I was #1-2 guy on XC by 5th year...but too late ...lol. I graduated with a ton of student loans. Still worth every $.01! Got to see the country and do a semester abroad. Great friends and met lots of very interesting people.

Question is...can you use your leverage to just get into a really good school knowing that you would not get athletic scholarship? Better your long term prospects with maybe a degree from like W&M... Some of these 9:15-22 kids rise to the top of the pile by senior year in college and put the 4:05/8:50 kids to shame.

William & Mary !

CollegeSearch wrote:

Take a look at VCU, not a very good team but your ACT would get you good money and your times would cover the rest most likely.

Does VCU give XC scholarships? There team is not very good so I figured they didn't? Does any one know the answer and how many total they divide?

Same question for George Mason - VMI and other weaker D1 teams VA or NC

hs kid wrote:

Here are my PRs:

800 1:56

1600 4:22

3200 9:37

They've seen me win a few local races but think the B1G universities I am interested in attending for academic reasons should be awarding me a full scholarship. Neither one of them went to college themselves and if I don't get a scholarship they expect me to work 40-hrs per week while in school to cover my tuition and room & board because they didn't save a dime for my college education and "know plenty of people who financed their own educations". Per what they reported to FAFSA, their combined incomes are $93,000 annually. I have only gotten one B+ in high school and the rest A's. ACT score was 32.

Discuss.

Take a look at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Suck it up and take out $80-100 thousand in student loans and pay them off for the rest of your life like the rest of us.