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

Not that I doubt that running is important to you. But it sounds like you could definitely run for other schools and maybe even get a scholarship, yet you are going to Stanford and risk not making a team. That seems to betray that running for a team is important but its not THAT important. Furthermore, you say your goal in HS was to beat the PRs of those who preceded you. Was it not to win races? Thats what Team T&F is all about. I don't mean to critical in anyway. It just strikes me that the possible options for you are petty in their differences. Train hard and try to walk on at Stanford. If you make the team, great. If you don't...well..Just keep running. Set goals for times you want to achieve and try to attain them and enter yourself in some road races.Also, joining a team is can be immensely important experience. Learning to work with others to achieve a higher goal was a very rewarding experience for me. But I had played team sports for many years by the time I graduated from High School. I didn't see what new great experience being part of a team at the college level would do. It was different people at maybe a higher level. Although I was in a unique situation where I had been part of a dominant HS tennis team that was actually better than the college team I would have played for. But it was still the same old, same old and would have taken time away from exploring other new horizons. It sounds suspiciously like you want to be part of a T&F team to have a social identity. But I have a hunch that when you leave home and get to college, new avenues will present themselves and you will find that you can pursue those while still taking a half an hour or hour each day to fulfill the importance of running. And keep on doing that for the next 40 years or longer.

Regardless of motivation, I think you lose nothing my emailing/calling up the coach and talking to him about walking on. You can always decide after hearing much more about the program/experiencing it yourself next year if you want to be on the team.

(and it does sound like running is something you truly want to do; people are silly)

Out of curiosity, what are your PRs? You mentioned them being close to walk-on standards.

Also, is Stanford Early Admission non-binding?

P.S. I am a high school girl (junior), and I'm excited for this spring, when I start emailing coaches. My advice (for what it's worth- nothing) is to go for it, you know what you want to do/whats best for you more than a bunch of crotchety posters on letsrun. You don't have to justify yourself to them.

Fill out a recruiting form from the website, email the coach (whichever one is in charge of recruiting), explain your circumstances, and call them too to show commitment.

You seem to know what you want/how to go about everything though.

(Not sure why I'm posting)

Congratulations!

I was in a very similar situation coming into Stanford. Peter Tegen was about to begin his last year of coaching. I wrote him an email asking if he would take me on, and he signed me up for the Stanford XC invitational unattached as a "time trial" of sorts. I was about 1:15 slower than any of the other incoming freshmen at 8k, but I was allowed to run with the team on recovery/training run days. Towards the end of the year I decided I would study physics; ultimately, my academic interests trumped my running ambitions.

There are two things to take away from this experience:

1) You have nothing to lose. At the very least, you will quickly find a group of great friends with similar interests. I still hang out with the guys on the team regularly.

2) Keep your mind open. Track practice every day for 4 hours might not be what you want in a couple of years.

Hope this helps.

OH MY GOD!!!! wrote:

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

This has given me incentive to work REALLY hard to MAYBE get a chance to walk on to the team...

Do NOT listen to any of the haters here.

I walked on at a D1 Pac Ten school, made the team, all 4 years, had a great time.

You're young, you can handle all the requirements, time management, diet, workload, occasional loss of sleep.

We had more than a few walk-on's who made the team, and some while they didn't always get to race, went on to fine post collegiate racing careers.

lol, who are the "haters" here. I think I speak for others in this thread where something in her post just doesn't add up. I'm getting the sneaking feeling here that she just wants everybody to know that she got accepted to Stanford. Which makes sense. I don't know what it is about Stanford but it was my experience that the people who wanted to go their had to let as many people know that that was the school they wanted to go to. And if they got in, they had to be sure the whole world knew. I knew various people who went to ivy league schools including several to Harvard and I had to go out of my way to find out if they were going there. And of course many others who just went to run of the mill state universities who had no reason to talk up where they were going. But people going to Stanford? They would be sure to let me know that is where they were going. That said, I really do wish you all the best whatever happens.

Go Ahead and Go 4 It wrote:

OH MY GOD!!!! wrote:

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

This has given me incentive to work REALLY hard to MAYBE get a chance to walk on to the team...

Do NOT listen to any of the haters here.

I walked on at a D1 Pac Ten school, made the team, all 4 years, had a great time.

You're young, you can handle all the requirements, time management, diet, workload, occasional loss of sleep.

We had more than a few walk-on's who made the team, and some while they didn't always get to race, went on to fine post collegiate racing careers.

Please go for it. You only get to live once and it sounds like this is a dream of yours. If you don't at least take a chance, you will regret it.

By the way, congrats on getting in. What an accomplishment. That says a lot about you already. The coaches may give you a chance.

Best of luck to you.

I walked on at a nationally competitive D1 school - I was way too slow to help the team (probably 16:30 5k at the time), but I had a great time being with elite runners. The coaches were beyond helpful. After one year of being about 25th on the team I scrapped running and took my aerobic fitness to the lightweight crew and made varsity. I would have stayed with running had I been good enough to make a difference, but after starting in HS, being one of the slowest guys was just not that much fun. Instead I was an elite athlete, a contributor on the crew. I have since gone back to running and am almost as fast as I was then (25 years later). Point is, don't make up your mind until you get there and see what your options are. I had never seen a racing shell before I got to school, and I spent 3 1/2 years loving the sport.

I walked-on at a small Division 1 school and ran for 5 years. I would do it again in a heartbeat. My teammates were my best friends, and the entire experience was incredible. I was a mid-17s guy for 5k XC in HS and progressed to 27:00 8k XC by my final year. Some will say that is not very fast and your team must've been pretty bad...but you know what, I was able to help my team in XC sophomore-5th years (being the 2nd-5th guy).

Never received 1 cent of scholarship money from the program, and that was completely fine. I participated because I love running. You will be amazed as to what you can accomplish with hard work. I even had a lot of bumps along the way with 3 coaching changes and 18+ credits a semester (extra-accelerated DPT program - did it in 5 years total).

Plus, you will never have another opportunity to have travel, gear, meal, and hotel expenses paid in full....just for running. In my mind, I felt like a professional runner at times.

Foreman wrote:

I knew various people who went to ivy league schools including several to Harvard and I had to go out of my way to find out if they were going there.

The ones who went to Harvard were just playing hard to get. Trust me on this.

Foreman wrote:lol, who are the "haters" here.

That would be you. You've got some strange bee in your bonnet about the fact that this girl appears to have a motivational pattern that isn't identical to yours. Impossible! She must be crazy, or lying, or something...

I think I speak for others in this thread...

Don't flatter yourself.

The ones who went to Harvard were just playing hard to get. Trust me on this.

Sounds like sour grapes by a Harvard reject.

Intelligensia wrote:

Sounds like sour grapes by a Harvard reject.

LOL. I hadn't even thought that someone might interpret it that way. Actually, although I didn't apply to Harvard for undergraduate studies, I went to law school at Harvard, and was an undergraduate down the street at M.I.T., so I'm very familiar with this conversational dance. In fairness to Harvard students and graduates, it is very difficult to mention that you're a Harvard student or graduate without getting some sort of reaction and judgment -- not just about the school or your affiliation with the school, but about the fact that you even mentioned the school -- so it's generally wise to take that into account. I've never thought of Stanford as getting a similar sort of reaction, but judging from some of the comments on this thread, it obviously does.

Here are the high school PRs for one of the current Stanford female runners:

800: 2:16.18

1600: 4:55.45

3200: 10:18.29

5K XC: 17:15.00

If you are at that level, then by all means give it a shot.

Since you haven't posted your times, I suspect you're not close to this.

Or maybe I'm just entertained by this thread. I really am happy for her. And she really did just want everyone to know she got into Stanford. Which is fine with me. I never said it was wrong. It really is a great achievement.

I'm now trying to figure out what your problem is.

So what are you trying to say. A woman going to Stanford is easy to get?

You used one of their top runners... running under 10:20 in the 3200 would make you one of the best in the nation and a recruit anywhere. For the record, I have a 5:08 1600 PR.

Foreman wrote:

Not that I doubt that running is important to you. But it sounds like you could definitely run for other schools and maybe even get a scholarship, yet you are going to Stanford and risk not making a team. That seems to betray that running for a team is important but its not THAT important.

Yes, running is important but... let's just say that after you get into a school like Stanford it's a tough decision to make. It's one thing to talk of others being in that position and what you would do/wouldn't do, and a totally different thing to actually be in that position and have to weigh your options.

No, of course. He was just being dumb. As someone who isn't going to make their living off of running you have to put academics first. Plenty of D1 guys don't, and go nowhere with their running or real careers.

A big congrads to you! It's an amazing school and I hope you get a lot out of it (I was born there but not smart enough to go there).

As far as CC, go for it too! Why not?

Congrads!