I GOT ACCEPTED TO STANFORD OMG!!!!!!!!!! Now if only I could run there....

Just because you gave up doesn't mean you have to crap on someone else and their dream.

too many bad people on this thread. I wonder if you guys act like this in real life?

i walked on at notre dame. was never the type to get recruited at a good d1 program, but ended up all-conference senior year. i certainly wasn't a star, but did pretty well for a walk on. I also graduated near the top of my class in an engineering major.

it was very hard work, and very draining both physically and emotionally at times. it sucks getting beat up on by all americans when you're just trying desperately to improve...but that's part of the process and can pay off if you stay healthy.

i would do it again in a second. it's not for everyone, but it was a great experience for me.

good luck. and make academics your top priority while at stanford. if running doesn't work out, take advantage of the other social, athletic, etc...opportunities while you have the chance.

To the OP: Give it your best shot.

I could have tried to walk on at Cornell (before Rojo's days). I would have been borderline, and maybe I would have got dumped or burned out or injured, but I didn't even try. I was tired from HS and wanted to focus on studying.

It's the biggest regret of my life. You'll never know if you don't try.

good luck if you have a hard major. uc/stan/usc/caltech profs don't care abt aths. you will be glued to studying for 5 years.

Do it. If you truly are interested, and your times truly are close to those on the team (i.e. you won't be killing yourself to keep up on training runs every day), contact the coaches as soon as you can to express your interest. Tell them you're in, tell them your times, and tell them you'd like to walk on. My guess is they'd be glad to hear from you.

Then train your ass off this year and focus on having a great track season. You may surprise yourself.

also: what ARE your times?

Not if your smart

study with others wrote:

good luck if you have a hard major. uc/stan/usc/caltech profs don't care abt aths. you will be glued to studying for 5 years.

Pics Pls.

Canuckster wrote:

I don't get what you mean: "the grueling day in, day out requirements". Do you mean training? Do you mean watching what you eat? Do you mean managing your time properly?

Because that is pretty much what most runners do. If you found it grueling I feel for you. I ran too, and I never saw it as work. And I never thought of it as an exchange for free tuition, I just loved to compete, and training was part of that. It was my favorite time of day heading to practice or meets.

That's exactly my point. I felt the same way that you apparently did. I loved it- running was my absolute passion, and I never thought of it as a job or something I didn't want to do. My point is to compare to to the OP's statement that now she is going to work REALLY hard since Stanford is such a good team and she might want to walk on. I suppose my salient point is that if it requires a conscious decision to REALLY work hard, then it's not your passion. If it isn't the OP's passion and she's borderline walk-on talent, then she might want to rethink it. I guess I never understood the mentality of trying out 'just to make the team.'

if you are parochial 4.0 it won't help at the top schools like stanf. the probs are not in the book. you can't figure out the ans by youself. you need study mates or frat buds to work out the probs. it's impossible to pass on your own. you'll be studying all hours every day meeting people for 4 or 5 years.

OH MY GOD!!!! wrote:

I got accepted to Stanford early admission today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG OMG Stacy!!!!!!!!!!! :)

like i cant believe you got into that college OMG!

its for like for really smart brainy brains right? OMG LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Only if your dumb and you are surrounded by your dumb frat buds

study with others wrote:

if you are parochial 4.0 it won't help at the top schools like stanf. the probs are not in the book. you can't figure out the ans by youself. you need study mates or frat buds to work out the probs. it's impossible to pass on your own. you'll be studying all hours every day meeting people for 4 or 5 years.

you can mem the book and get thru all 4 at san jose st or u mich (where my brother went to). but not stanf, uc, usc...

yeah they work u so hard at stanf that you literally have no time 4 typing out full words or using the shift key...

i'm not an eng or jour maj. sci majs like myself type w 2 or 3 fingers, 3 in my case.

LOL. WTF are you talking about? Whats the dream? Its obvious the dream is academic. He's basically saying, "I got into Stanford! and oh by the way now that I'm there it would be kind of cool to run for track." My whole point is that the you never have to quit and the dream can continue to go on. You don't have to be on a team and wear a uniform.

Foreman wrote:

LOL. WTF are you talking about? Whats the dream? Its obvious the dream is academic. He's basically saying, "I got into Stanford! and oh by the way now that I'm there it would be kind of cool to run for track." My whole point is that the you never have to quit and the dream can continue to go on. You don't have to be on a team and wear a uniform.

[/quote]

Exactly. The "live the dream while you're young" mantra is like a knee jerk reaction for all of the "old" people on letsrun. And that's not really suprising, given that these older people are still coming to the insanely juvenile letsrun message boards (many of them compulsively checking the boards daily).

Here's the thing- people need to distinguish between two different sentiments:

On the one hand, we have: running is my passion and I have always wanted to run in college and see how fast I can get. This attitude smacks of dedication, passion, and motivation.

On the other hand, there's the "I like running and my times are pretty good, now that I'm going to be at a top program in the country maybe I'll work extra hard now and give it a shot because it would be cool to be on the Stanford team" mentality. This attitude implies more of a hobby type of view on running. Perhaps hobby is a strong word- but certainly where running is well below her other priorities (and, rightly so).

The OP seems closer to the second scenario. Thus, I think the certain level of skepticism that has been voiced is not completely unfounded. Only she knows how serious she is about trying to compete at the next level.

Just for some clarification -

I really like running, I actually wrote one of my Stanford essays about it. I run a pretty decent amount of mileage and I would say it's one of the most important things in my life. I've wanted to run in college all along, and before I was looking at schools like Berkeley, etc. where my times would be suitable. I applied to Stanford, but did not really bank on getting in, it was more of a "what the heck, might as well" type of thing... there were a few coaches I had talked to from other schools at that point.

However, after finding out I got into Stanford, that obviously changes things a bit. I apologize for perhaps wording it wrongly in my opening post (as it seems people have taken to analyzing that a lot)... trying to walk onto Stanford is not an incentive for me working hard this season, I will make that clear... I know that Stanford is a very involved program and a time commitment, I know someone who is on the team this year and she has told me they spend hours a day with running related things. At the same time, I know it would be a great experience to be on such a great team, albeit a walk on... but it would only make me work harder. My freshmen and sophomore year of high school, we had a very good girls team and I was the #3-4 runner. It made me want to become faster than our top runners (who were seniors who run at good D1 schools now) and I worked hard to try to beat their PRs which I ended up doing this season.

At this point, I'm not completely sure where I'll go as a large number of decisions still come out in a few months. I really would like to keep running in college, so we'll see.

I'm not sure that I understand the concern. Does Stanford cut slower runners from the team?