Walk on options?

is this a want ad? a brag board?

this is so early there is no way of giving future you/her accurate advice. yes, she could run D3 at a good school with those times. yes, she could make some D1s. until you get to the end of junior year, and take the SAT, and have another year's grades, you really don't know where to set the target. that's why this feels like a disguised brag. tell me how good my kid is. or a troll/bot. as no one aims to make the bench of their team ie walkon. most gun to be the star someplace.

my suggestion would be as you do college invitationals maybe note what you like or not on the setups. maybe wander around campus and get some opinions on that. informally visit some colleges in between meets next year. think about what type of areas she likes. city, town, rural, beach, mountains, etc. think about what she thinks she's good at or might want to major in. build up a checklist of favored chaaracteristics. cross-reference that by all the schools in the areas she likes. build up a list of schools to target, and a long one. then look up their TFRRS. you keep asking us to tell you where to maybe go -- which is why i think it's bragging or lazy. do your own research. TFRRS will point out the times the kids at that school run. your kid might be the best, middle, or not up to par. but she has 2 years. which is why i say we're premature. but you could start to see what schools look like good fits, and how she compares to the teams.

letting sports tail wag the college dog risks you go to the best track program that lets you walk on for XC, who then puts her deepest spot on the bench, who then runs her one meet a year, and they don't have the major she wanted. and she hates the area. and soon enough she hates you for promoting that choice. walkon might be a great choice at a school she adores for life, location, academics, and she can run. it might be a horrible choice if she likes nothing about the place and is a weak runner for their program. and IMO ideally you want to be the scholarship star they are saving a core roster spot for, not the afterthought who begged on. you are confusing brag board with enjoying the time and playing enough on the team you have memories of what you did as opposed to a brag item of association and they subbed you in once in 4 years.

let her run the show. let her decide what matters. let her find out what fits.

i did visits, you want to know what you think of the place. i did a spreadsheet of the schools i was being recruited by or was pursuing, SAT, aid %, aid offer, did they have soccer, did they have track, scholarships vs. walkon, starter vs. bench. these days you could add in TFRRS time data. thing being, relative to that time data, your kid is going to move up. a reach now might be a fit later. that's why your whole MO here is premature. she runs 4:40 with a 1500 SAT that's one situation. she runs 4:58 with a 1000 that's another.

so just enjoy HS and occasionally do some college visiting or online research. get ideas. brainstorm. if you don't know exactly where this ends, you're better off getting ideas what she wants to get out of the process. because doing this by sports times is only part of the picture, and a moving target as she improves. any school we say now could be wrong in a year.

I wouldn’t go to Notre Dame, Georgetown, UVA, Michigan, etc. the only colleges worth attending as a top athlete are good Ivies, Stanford, Duke, and a couple top D3

people have it backwards. a walkon without a roster guarantee is in the weakest position vis a vis the admissions office. they will be expected to get in the school under their own admissions power. if you get in, come see coach, sort of thing. it is not a way to arm twist yourself in. being the weakest recruit at the best school is not helping you get admitted.

i think scholarships "can" be overrated if they are partial enough, as financial help, but they are a signal, along with offered admissions help, of how excited they are about your kid. the coaches are going to spend their "chits" on the impact recruits for next season, the people they are telling are on the team, the people who would get scholarships. if your kid is below the 25th percentile academics for admissions, and marginal on times or worse, they aren't getting the "push." the kid getting the push will be the scholarship recruit who doesn't quite have the scores but would be the fastest kid the school has seen. your virtue as a walkon is the ability to get in on your own, and then to magically improve by the time you show up to try out.

Definitely a brag, albeit indirectly. Very proud of her and what's she's done so far as an athlete and a student. What Dad wouldn't brag?

No "begging on" anywhere and no confusion on my end. Quite a few tenuous conclusions and illogical leaps in your school selection logic imo, but reasonable minds can differ. Lazy? Nah. Just getting feedback from those who have already walked this road and to this extent, insight from you and the other posters is appreciated. Her life. Her choice.

Will definitely visit schools later in the game if she still wants to compete collegiately. We've already looked at a few informally. She's 15 and a lot can change in 2 years. Main point of my refresh is that the season is in the books and to quote her generation, she "slayed."

The question for parents is do you pay $320,000 for top school, or go for free to the schools you don't like, say Michigan?

If kid will go on to grad school anyway, then the parent now has $320k for that. If not, maybe help instead with kid's first home. The cost is still real money.

Undergrad Fordham, Med School Stanford still looks pretty good when matching for residency.