Question - Time committment for running (D3 vs. D1 vs. Ivy League D1)

Further--and I've coached at an Ivy, a Big East school, and two national-level DIII colleges--some years ago, the NCAA did a useful study that established that varsity athletes, on average, had higher GPAs than did the rest of the student body; and that their GPAs were *higher* (on average) during the semesters that their sports were in season.

For most students, being on a team is a boon to their GPAs--mostly, I think, because it forces structure and time management onto a schedule that otherwise is much less organized than a student's high school day was. The familiar "I don't know whether I should go out for the team, I'm serious about my studies" is actually a false dichotomy.

At a good academic and athletic D3 school: practice takes about 3 hours, but coaches are very lenient on people who need to leave early. When we have morning practice, I usually finish everything in about 90 minutes (just run and shower). Our easy days were usually on our own, so official practices are 5 days/week. There was a lot of travel time, but professors were always helpful in scheduling make up tests (oftentimes people would take tests at the hotel). Our women's team won multiple NCAA championships while I was there, so they were probably comparable in talent to some lesser Ivy teams. We also had runners miss meets for med school interviews and job interviews, because it was understood that academics came first.

Actually from the sounds of it, your daughter was rejected from the school I went to. Too bad, the guys team would've loved to have Ms. Flagpole Jr. attend our fine institution.

Being "worried" about the time commitment isn't accurate. Wanting to know what it is so she can make an informed decision is accurate.Like I said before, she's very serious about running, and she already puts a ton of time into it including before school weight room sessions. Also, other than a few weeks off to completely heal from a foot injury, she is running year-round now.

Ivy Input wrote:

I ran for an Ivy league school, and I'm sure the coach makes some difference, BUT if your daughter is worried about the time aspect of practice she clearly does not want to run competitively in college (at least D1). College is an entirely different game, the previous poster makes a good point about people who stopped running, it's usually because they couldn't rationalize spending 25++ hours a week on something they didn't care enough about. If you run on a college team, you run to be the best you can be, and that requires going far above and beyond any other extra curricular you could expect. If you truly want to get better, you will WANT to spend more and more time practicing, more and more time doing every little thing.

Ha! Nice try. My daughter hasn't applied anywhere yet, so no rejections; just getting ducks in a row.

Let's us Run wrote:

Actually from the sounds of it, your daughter was rejected from the school I went to. Too bad, the guys team would've loved to have Ms. Flagpole Jr. attend our fine institution.

Ah, I missed the "if" in this post. Best of luck regardless.

Thanks for the info. She is leaning toward DIII for sure, but if for some weird reason she didn't get into her top DIII choice but DID get into one of the Ivies (we will apply to several schools of course) she would have a decision to make...either go and don't run or put in all the extra time and do run for them.

Ah. Ok. I thought you were just yanking my chain. Sorry to have not considered the alternative. I will strive to be even more open minded than normal in the future.Thanks for the well wishes.

Let's us run wrote:

Ah, I missed the "if" in this post. Best of luck regardless.

Thanks for the info. She is leaning toward DIII for sure, but if for some weird reason she didn't get into her top DIII choice but DID get into one of the Ivies (we will apply to several schools of course) she would have a decision to make...either go and don't run or put in all the extra time and do run for them.