college running questions

------- wrote:

hi im a hs jr girl and i want to run in college and i have a few questions. my times are 1600- 5:2x 3200- 11:5x 3mile- 19:0x. im in a lot better shape this season than last and definitely think i can get some good prs.

-my first question is can i even run in college?? i know i could be a walk on probably but if someone could suggest some schools my level to give me an idea (ideally they would be pretty good academically too)

-do i need to sign up for that 65$ ncaa recruiting thing?

-which should i do fill out recruiting questionares or send an email?

1. yes you can run in college. Finding where you can walk on is on you. Start emailing coaches.

2. No. I didn't and I ran 4 years in d3. I don't know if clearinghouse thing is needed in other divisions. Look it up with google.

3. Send an email. Recruiting questionaires go nowhere unless you are a top athlete.

College running was the best experience of my life. I almost went to a top academic school where I was too slow to walk on, but I'm glad I didn't. Once you get a job after school no one gives two craps about where you went to college.

is it better to email them now or should i wait until i can have a chance to get new xc pr's?

Waiting won't do much for you as XC times mean nothing. Placing in state and national meets do though, but thats late in the game. Courses vary too much and coaches can not recruit on potential. If you think place well in NXN or Footlocker that could open doors but you should let coaches know now who you are and that you are interested. First do a little work. Look at the times of thier last recruiting class and target schools in your range. You will need to do the NCAA thing but can wait until you are recruited to do so. Coaches don't find athletes there. They just vet them once interested. A coach will tell you to go through those motions if they want you. I think with the times, division 2 is the ticket. Better to make the team then walk on and possibly never get to race in my view. Best of luck!

thanks! does anyone know any schools that i could look into

------- wrote:

thanks! does anyone know any schools that i could look into

You need to get WAY more specific about what you're looking for.

Your times will get you 'recruited' by 95% of DIII programs, 75% of DIIs, and maybe 50% of DIs. If you are looking for scholarship money, assuming you can drop another 20 seconds off that 5k pr, you'll be able to get some partial scholarship money from a fair number of DIIs, and a more limited number of DIs.

How are your academics?

What are you looking to study?

What states/regions of the country are of interest to you?

What type of experience are you looking to get out of College and athletics in college? (that requires 2 separate answers)

When to get in touch with the coaches depends entirely on which schools you're looking at, which requires answering the above questions. As a general rule of thumb, better to get in touch early and then be able to update the coach with improvements than to wait for improvements that aren't guaranteed to happen and have the coach already invested elsewhere.

Think and discuss with your parents and hopefully school counselor about what you can afford and what you are looking for in a college. What kinds of career paths might you want to go down. Also think about things like location, size of school, climate, culture etc. Start getting a list of possible schools or at least an idea.

Next think about what you're looking for from running. Do you want to be a top-7 member of a good team, do you want to be the top runner, would you be happy even not making top 7 if you could race in B races and track.

Once you figure that out, look into your list above, their teams success and recent recruiting classes. Do they normally get people as fast as you, faster, slower. Try to find out their scholarship situations, coaching styles if possible.

Then start emailing coaches. Put your best PR time and some academic credential at the top of the email or subject line. If you want to go to a good academic school, having good GPA or test scores is a helpful selling point to the coach. The rest of the email should briefly sell yourself and say you're interested, ask for more info about the program.

Don't worry if you don't hear back from all of them -- they're focused on recruiting current seniors right now. Email your favorites back after cross if you had a good result to brag about, and email them all during late track season or after track with an update about your new PRs (hopefully).

Some good points mentioned here. Yes you can run in college, and most people find it to be a very rewarding and worthwhile activity. Talk to a HS academic counselor about college choices that meet your academic interests first and find out how you can fit in athletics to those choices. Talk to your HS coach about questions 2 or 3. XC courses are not always measured consistently, so you may want to wait until the season is over and you know how you placed and conference, regional, state, etc. Spring of your junior year is the the ideal time to visit schools, so your main goal is to get on college coaches radar about a recruiting visit, or if you visit on your own that you get to meet with the coach and people on the team. Good luck.

Now that is just too general with the entire US out there. Its time for you to buckle down and do a little work, not put it out to strangers who know nothing about you. First look at geography (if that is important to you) and depending on your academic strength, ranking (if that important to you). Then start looking at the rosters of schools you think you would want to attend. You can tell by the times if you will fit or it its outa your league. There are so many schools, you can make a list of 20 that meet your academic needs then narrow from there. If you really have no clue why not start with the list of D2 schools that have made the NCAAs over the last 3 years and which meet your academic and geographic preferences. Then look at their runners track times and see if it in your orbit. Again, its all about track times or placement in significant XC meets.

sorry. my academics are good, not great though, my weighted gpa will probably be around 4.0-4.2 by the end of the year. for sat probably between 1350-1450. I dont know what i want to study yet, maybe pre-med or nutrition i really don't know. regions all of the east coast and california but im not closed off to other places. experience out of college: make friends, enjoy it, i'll prob go to more school after it so have college prepare me for that, have fun. Experience out of running in college: keep getting better/see how good i can get with people training with me who can push me, i dont know what else but running is my favorite thing lol so i dont know why i wouldnt do it. Ithink thats all the questions you asked, so any suggestions now

St Olaf.

First, congratulations on getting serious about this now--a TON of athletes wait until this point in their *senior* year, and then they're scrambling!

With your current PRs you would be attractive to many of the UAA schools (aka the D3 "superconference"). You should investigate those and see whether they would be a good fit academically and culturally for you. They all definitely qualify as "pretty good academically" (!), as do the NESCAC colleges (another conference with top-level D3 competition); really a matter of feeling comfortable with the environment of each school.

Pro tip: If you are truly undecided about a major when you apply, put your major as "Undecided" on your applications. Don't feel that you're compelled to pick some major that you don't have a strong interest in. [If you put down Major X on your application, just to fill in the blank, then the admissions committees will be comparing your app to those of kids who've known they wanted that major for ten years, have worked in relevant internships, yadda, yadda.]

As others have suggested, definitely get to work--but as a junior you don't have to *rush* anything, admissionswise, at this point. Make sure to have a great fall of running and especially of academics--colleges love to see an "upward trend" in GPA in an applicant's jr/sr years of HS.

Good luck this season!