Midwest D3 and NAIA schools?

What are your track times?

Where are you from?

I think Taylor University is the best D3 running school in Indiana. They had the best runners at the indoor meets I ran at this winter.

Also, North Central in Illinois is a D3 powerhouse.

If you're looking at running programs exclusively, take a look at d3 and naia regional results for cross country. Great Lakes and Midwest regionals will have pretty much all the midwest states between them. But there's a huge mix in terms of campus life between those schools. For instance, the Wisconsin schools are really big for most d3 schools because they are state schools, but they have really good athletics. Then , there are schools like Case Western and UChicago that are incredibly good academic schools that also have pretty good athletic programs also. Then there's North Central who is an running powerhouse, hard to argue there is better than that in d3. Then there's a handle of religious-based schools like Wheaton and Calvin, will be very different in terms of the people and campus life at a school like that. Pretty much any d3 college coach would invite you to join the team with that pr. Some would be really really excited to have you, others might just be interested in the potential upside. Academically, most would be interested in you, but not all. There's almost no way you could into UChicago for example, but thats an outlier. You could get some academic scholarship money at almost every d3 school in the midwest.

I don't know too much about naia schools though. My interpretation is that they will throw a small amount of athletic scholarship money at pretty much anyone to lure them to campus. Don't get pulled into the belief that a $2k a year athletic scholarship makes an naia school worth it. But that said, they are still normal schools. There just happen to be fewer options there I think. If you have any specific questions on some of the schools, there is probably someone on here that knows something about the school or program.

Junior year babayyy wrote:

Im looking to run in college after high school. I’m not great but not bad either. My 5k PR is 16:08. What are some of the best D3 and NAIA schools in the Midwest? Academics are solid 4.0 gpa 28 ACT.

Bellevue University is starting a cross country program in the Fall.

What are your interests and goals for your education? That's your priority. Choose from a pool of schools that fit with what you want to do with your studies. Of those check out the programs that have a decent running program. Then you might need to narrow down further based on finances--what kind of aid do they offer and can you and your family afford it without going $150,000 to $200,000 in the hole, because even with substantial merit and need based scholarships, some of those schools will set you back that much.