Great Academics, Fair Runner but super passionate - Who Would you suggest your kid run for in college?

I kind of think going to a 'good academic school' is overrated. I know plenty of people that go to the big P5 state schools that go on to get PhD's or go work at big companies like Microsoft, Google, etc. right out of college, or go to some of the prestigious law schools. As long as the student performs well in college at those state schools and has a good GPA, they can move on to the next part of their life just the same and be successful.

And her 18:30 is walk-on material at most D1 schools, so being a walk-on at a P5 state school is same price or cheaper as going to an Ivy league school and having a quarter to a half scholarship.

If she can put up some good marks on the track like a sub 5:00 or 4:55 1600 or gets that cross country time down a bit more next Fall she could be in a range for some potential scholarship money at a P5 school. Note when people often talk about difficulty getting scholarship, they're often talking about Men's programs. Men's team only has 12.6 scholarships per team, Women's teams have something like 17, so it's a little easier to get something.

Go to a state school and run on the club team. Some of the larger state schools have super competitive club teams.

Here in Ohio, Ohio State (sorry, THE Ohio State) University has a super competitive club team that travels around the midwest for meets.

You get the best of both worlds: get to continue running, get a good education, and pay way, way less than you would walking on at a school where you're paying full tuition.

Unless she's getting a full ride at an Ivy, Stanford, or MIT for academics, then state schools are probably the way to go.

Thank you, I actually agree people from all sorts of schools can rock it after graduating. I think there is research to back that up as well that if you take HS kids with similar GPA, SAT/ACT, and motivation, regardless of what school they go to down the road they are likely to all have similar success in the real world whether grad school or salary wise... I guess I always tell kids to use the sport to get into the best academic school they can, because that is what my old man pushed for back in the day. I got into all sorts of schools that without football I never would have gotten in plus got hooked up financially. She is in a different boat because XC/track doesn't seem to be the same kind of recruiting process.

I will get her track PRs to post as soon as possible for any feedback on what she might need to improve this coming track season.

Thanks. If anyone knows of state schools on the West Coast that have great club teams like you mention, I would love to know and then suggest she check the school out. Being a beach kid, unless she gets hooked up financially to one of the Patriot/Ivy Leagues, not sure how she will do in the cold and snow, and being so far away from home. Ultimately she may prefer to be a little closer to her mom. I know she seems to think she likes Oregon, Washington, and Colorado although she has never traveled to those places.

As far as Ohio State and other big state schools, aren't they much cheaper just for in state residents?

my older daughter is a senior this year, so we have spent a LOT of time looking at colleges.

LOTS of top tier academic schools have generous financial aid. Stanford, the Ivies etc. Might be cheaper than an out of state State school.

That said, the UC schools are very good.

I do think that who your classmates are is an important aspect of college learning, in addition to providing for some future networking.

A high and good luck to her.

Take a look at Rice University. Jim Bevan is a great coach. 18:30 and strong academics should get her a shot at the team. It is a great school that is Ivy level without the pressure cooker study or die attitude that you get on the east coast. Between academics and athletics, there is a decent chance at seeing some scholarship money.

You need someone to enlighten you. No Ivy or Stanford is going to care about an 18:30 kid. No Ivy either. My daughter got a few bites from those schools with17:40 5-K and an 4:55 mile. Stanford said walk-on at best. UCSD is the best DII school out there. If you want a full, DI is not in your future.

waytoobasic wrote:

You need someone to enlighten you. No Ivy or Stanford is going to care about an 18:30 kid. No Ivy either. My daughter got a few bites from those schools with17:40 5-K and an 4:55 mile. Stanford said walk-on at best. UCSD is the best DII school out there. If you want a full, DI is not in your future.

Lol you’re an idiot Stanford doesn’t consider walk ons. That said an 18:30 isn’t going to get her anywhere with high caliber D1 programs. Ivies, maybe a walk on status

Thank you, and good to know the academic schools have good financial aid. I don't know much about the UC schools seeing I am not a CA native.

Yes, classmates are important and so is networking. I will say being a middle class blue collar guy I did not exactly fit in at a service academy nor at a Patriot League, but most of the football, basketball, hockey, baseball, etc guys were from middle class or lower income backgrounds, so despite not fitting in with the student body, athletics made all the difference in forming lifetime friendships. Then the networking is still there even after with folks who you might not have been all that aligned with in undergrad. Being a former athlete and collegiate coach, I think the experience of being on a team in college is priceless. You go through so much more with your teammates than regular students do. It is a real initiation process at a time in our culture we do not initiate young people as we once did. Competing in college sports is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I wish more kids would take advantage of, even if its D3. The friendships and life lessons are beautiful.

Thanks for the tip on Rice, it was not on my radar but I will add it to the list to investigate.

What are her academic interests? What careers are she thinking of? A "strong academic" school might have a poor program in her field of interest. For instance, if you were in Georgia and she wanted to be an engineer I'd tell you to go to GA Tech, but if she wanted to be in Ag science I'd tell you go to UGA. Both highly ranked schools, but very different program focuses

waytoobasic, enlighten me all you want, I came on her for that reason but might not be as ignorant as you seem to suggest.

Sorry if I was not clear in the initial post in recognizing her 18:30 was not competitive for the good Ivy/Patriot League schools or Stanford. Some of the Patriot League schools aren't that fast at all, but in other threads people have said at those schools the coach has zero pull with admissions or financial aid. The reason I posted here was to get help on what schools, whether D1, D2, or D3 she would realistically get a shot at and have good academics. But I appreciate the feedback from others about not narrowing it down to ultra academic schools, and the idea of competitive club teams, etc. I am looking for any information or helpful suggestions. I also am well aware getting a full ride is not likely, again looking for suggestions on schools that between her academics and athletics, it might be more affordable.

Since your daughter has already gone through this it seems, I am all ears on your suggestions for what schools to consider based on what I have presented.

At this point in time she thinks she wants to major in psychology, and go on to be a therapist (so either MFT or PhD/PsyD). With that being said, as a junior in HS, I do not think she is real clear on what she wants to do with her future and this all could change. As a college coach I am not sure if even 50% of the kids I knew stuck with whatever major they came in thinking would fulfill their interests.

My knowledge is limited to the southeast, and I'm not sure if out of state is an option but Emory and GA State come to mind.

Emory is a very well respected private university that specializes in all kinds of medical research, CDC headquarters right next door. Would be good for her if she's thinking clinical psych or other public health fields. 18:30 on the track would have put her in the top 5 of their track team last year and they had a lot of seniors so a scholarship seems possible but she'd need it because as a private school it's pricey, plus out of state tuition. Might be worth looking into.

GA state is a large state uni also in Atlanta so still has the drawback of out of state tuition, but as a public school it'll be cheaper. 18:30 gets her top 5 again and once again it looks like they lost a few seniors and will again this year too. So $$ seems possible as well as they'll be looking to re-build. GSU isn't as "prestigious" as other colleges in the state but what it does incredibly well at is job outcomes. Their grad program has concentrations in clinical psych so that probably trickles down into undergrad so she still has research opportunities. Their undergrad also has an applied practicum option where she can do more therapy/social work she might be interested in. Based on their website looks like they have a list of non-profits and companies that accept their students.

Another school I can think of is Elon University. It's D1 a private school in NC and while lesser known still has academic prestige. They have a prestigious undergraduate fellowship program that's worth $20K/year and it might also include out of state tuition waivers. Looks like their psych program is geared to more social work/therapy fields. They had some studs running 16s and 17s last year so track scholarship might be difficult

Last but not least, University of Georgia. Great school, psych program offers a B.S. or B.A. track depending if you want to go into clinical/med field or therapy side of things. Lots of research opportunities, lots of major undergraduate scholarships. The fellowship and ramsey programs basically guarantee debt-free degree plus loads of other perks like travel. Getting track $$ is out of the question. Their scholarship money is used almost exclusively on field athletes and then they recruit in-state runners who are Georgia's HOPE scholarship program. That said, they have a thriving XC & Track club that travels to compete, a few times out of state. We had one club girl running 18:40s who got to walk on to varsity.

What state is she in and what is family income? You only said that her mother makes more than $75k but didn’t mention the father’s income.

The top schools consider both parents’ incomes when determining cost regardless of marital status. $75k is the rough number of when the cost evaporates unless you have a decent amount of assets.

hotcheetos, thanks for this!! Yes I am familiar with Emory, know some folks that went there. Top notch academics. I already requested info from them last week actually (just the basic requesting info from the school not sports stuff).

Univ of Georgia would be awesome if she could do it debt free, and run on a club team.

Thing is her 18:30 is on raw talent, so I assume if she had a good coach it would go down. Her elementary and middle schools track/XC consisted of one or two practices per week MAX, and it was not serious. A total joke. Now in high school they do not even have a track, so whether XC or track season they just jog on the streets - literally. With no rhyme or reason as far as I can tell, the kids just take off on their own and jog. As a freshman she was already the fasted kid on XC and track, and the other kids guilt tripped and peer pressured her to slow down if she did not job slow with them or else she was not a "team player", and still the last two years kids get upset because she does not stop to take walking and talking breaks, again putting a lot of peer pressure on her. It frustrates me that the XC and track is so casual. You can even show up at a track meet at this school and tell the coach you don't feel like running and just hang out, or skip practices with no consequences. Its awful. They also do not run in the off season!

The final month of the last summer we hired another HS coach who is amazing, to do some workouts with her and help give her some programming. By state law I guess she is not allowed to train with the other team, which would be great because they have some fast girls. Its quite clear in meets she has fast competition she grinds harder and gets into it...but day to day she is with a bunch of slackers and cry babies.

By the way just got her track PRs, again I am not saying they are good enough for full rides or big time D1 if anyone is thinking I am that kind of unrealistic person concerning a kids potential, I am on here to get help exploring options.

800m - 2:29

1600 - 5:31

Again, these are times she gets from a jogging program on the street because the school has no track...

New Jock and Highly Selective, her father is one of those MIA deadbeats who has never been involved in her life, and has never paid a dime of support so is totally off the radar and must work for cash because the state cannot track him down to try to get anything out of him based on tax returns. So its a single mom who makes just about $80k, so not much over $75k. Is this $75k thing a strict cut off?

She is in California.

She would go for almost no cost at the highly selective schools. Wash U, MIT, Uof Chicago, or Johns Hopkins would be good choices. Alternatively, California schools are very good.

Thanks for those tips! I already requested info from Hopkins, did not know about Washington Univ so will check it out.