Fast American Girls- Why choose NC State over Ivy or Stanford?

Rich smart entitled, three pillars to get into Stanford. They are ranked in that order, but you need all of them anyways. Not every runner can fit in.

My sister went to Penn. During intra-city (Temple and others) basketball games they'd chant about how others would be working for them.

of course, they didn't like it as much when it was reversed during their rivalry game (Princeton) but could tolerate it

Hahaha . People are so wrapped up on winning titles. They don’t think about the rest of their lives. Yes, people can be successful without a certain degree, but the percentages are overwhelmingly higher if you go to an Ivy League or Stanford. Stop this nonsense about you can be successful wherever you go because Bill Gates did it

This comes down to American parenting. Everyone wants to chase a title and send their kid to some travel soccer leagues so they can get to that mountain top when they live in a lower middle income neighborhood stretched out on credit debt and they’re only gonna further perpetuate that cycle by teaching their kids the same path.

Have fun being a middle manager at enterprise Rent-A-Car, or living at home with your parents posting about your college Disorders, online crying about it on Tik Tok trying to get followers to remember because you have no income stream to be relevant again

Harvard has a mediocre running program? Huh. 2x NCAA men’s champion and members of both the male and female team in the Paris Olympics.

"You all care too much about winning athletic titles and too little about attending an elite school," says internet rando who has never done either.

Nice try to avert the point. These girls could go to academic schools that likely will enhance their earning potential and at the least get them into virtually any field of work they wish to pursue. Instead they chase a trophy that will be hung in the gym trophy case. I’d love to get a poll of the ivy league runners - all of them - from the past 20 years and see where they are now vs the runners who attended NC state. This isn’t to diminish the big win- it’s just to point out that somewhere, someone, was advising this kid and being short sited on the long term benefit for their future

The OP has a very outmoded view of things. The local Ivy in my neck of the woods is mostly foreign students paying full tuition and that is the main reason they are there. College kids in the states are migrating south with the economies.

Anyway seeing NCSt win again was the only refreshing thing about this ncaa championship.

Harvard has won zero NCAA team titles. Sure they get a couple of elite runners who sign up to run with them because they are Harvard but they are not known for outstanding development for runners. A lot of runners want the team camaraderie that comes from training with a group of elite runners and competing for team championships. Life is short and winning team titles with a group you can be friends for life is a great incentive.

for many of these girls (and guys!), running is the most important thing to them right now, and as long as the school of choice has a program that can lead them to whatever career they have in mind, it's good enough. Many of these kids have no clue what they want to be someday. But they know they want to see how good they can get as a runner.

If an ivy degree is supposed to be their destiny, they can save it for grad school. choosing the best possible environment for running is an important decision too. Networking, positive self-image. etc etc etc. the KTs of the world have made the right decisions for themselves.

Easy access to PEDs from Research Triangle Park?

Northwestern was ranked 11 and finished 18.

"Boulder also not much going on, had a great coach."

.....What are you even talking about? What exactly are you looking for? Boulder is roundly amazing, especially those an athlete, and also college aged people, would be interested in.

As someone in NC State's math program, I will say their academics are indeed crushing, I had to give up competitively running because of the time commitment.

I chose Washington because at the time I was choosing between medicine and engineering/software. I also lived in the area so naturally was looking at the best local school. UW is frequently ranked as the top medical school in the country and UW software is top 5, and Seattle in general is a great place to be for software. I'd also considered doing some kind of bioengineering hybrid (didn't really exist back then) and Seattle was also a great place for that with lots of startups in the area in the 90s.

Going Ivy League wouldn't have gotten me anything better other than a fancy degree on the wall, something you can do as a grad student if necessary.

Washington is not so easy to get a roster spot these days but in my time I was a recruited walk-on with a 4:20 mile. Tuition was $2000 a quarter back then and my rent was $450 a month (most people were paying $250 so I had a 'luxury' studio, the main benefit was it was about 100m from the Burke Gilman Trail). I left school with a good degree and zero debt, and landed a great job out of college that paid much more than most Ivy League grads get (that was pure luck/connections I had through my father's work).

I do understand why people want to go to top schools; a valedictorian from my HS went to Stanford and ended up becoming a billionaire because of the combination of his intelligence and the connections he made. But most ordinary people can come out just fine with a degree from a less prestigious university.

NC State is under-recognized by many for the strength of it's academics. I realize that the US News & World Report rankings may not be the most respected ranking out there, but they have NC State as the #64 ranked U.S. University. For comparison to other top running schools, University of Colorado Boulder is #97, BYU #110, Oregon #110, Alabama #169, Oklahoma State #198, West Virginia #222, Northern Arizona #242, New Mexico #242.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities?myCollege=national-universities&_sort=myCollege&_sortDirection=asc

Why is this Stanford fan poster constantly attacking NC State for its academics? If we are talking about women's cross country, which it seems this Stanford fan poster is focused on, and you look at the current top ~10-12 women's cross country programs, NC State is among the better schools for academics - better than BYU, Oregon and Colorado and significantly better than Oklahoma State, Alabama, Northern Arizona, and New Mexico. Only Stanford, Florida, and Notre Dame are ranked higher academically.

Stanford poster guy should be bashing BYU, Oregon, New Mexico, and NAU for their academics. Not NC State.

Nah, you only need one to get in. I didn't have rich or entitled.

They are allowed to eat hot dogs and chill

1. Ivy League doesn’t fully support athletics. Sports are an add on and facilities are sub par.

2. Stanford: elite in every way but perhaps too elite for some students who may feel unworthy of the academics. Some of the smartest people in the world are classmates. Pressure is real. Not for everyone.

3. Notre Dame: elite athletically and deceptively hard academically like other Catholic schools. Realistically, probably not much easier than Stanford.

4. NC State: the best team spirit and coaching. The best athletic development but the most competitive athletically. Mediocre academic reputation at best and much less academic pressure. Ideal fit for those who want to be stretched athletically but not academically.

5. BYU: fringe school only for those that can tolerate the culture. Stronger academically than people realize.

6. Florida, Oregon, New Mexico: Florida is ranked relatively high but none of these school place any demands on students academically. Are foreign recruits that are non native speakers stressed academically?

7. UNC, Wake Forest: strong but reasonable academics that might be the sweet spot for many.

That said, the allure of NC State is pretty clear. By far the best program if academics are secondary.